Chapter VIII: Part II (3)

From the earliest times London citizens had been forbidden by their oath of freedom from taking any foreign born apprentice, and the Act of 1523 laid a similar prohibition on all aliens, so that the foreign element was slowly and surely eliminated.

The authorities of the City of London were strongly opposed to admitting any foreigners to the freedom of the City. In a letter from Thomas Berthelet to Morisine written in 1540 he writes, “My lorde mayor told me ... that but one stranger born was made freeman these 40 years. I fear the answer is somewhat feigned, for instead of one stranger made freeman this 40 years, there have been six or more. Perhaps they do it to show that they esteem not the liberty of London so light as to admit a stranger born so suddenly when the King’s natural subjects must do so long and painful a service before they can enjoy it.”

The great centre of trade during this period was St Paul’s Churchyard, and the shops there were of two kinds. There were the substantial houses round the cathedral, where the printer or stationer could carry on his business and dwell, but clustered in every direction against the very walls of the church were booths and sheds and stalls. These were simply “lock up” shops of one story, many with flat roofs for people to stand on to view processions, and were used by booksellers and such printers as had printing-offices elsewhere. In Strype’s life of Parker we have a description of a shop set up at a later date by Day the printer, “Whereupon he got framed a neat handsome shop. It was but little and low and flat-roofed, and leaded like a terrace, railed and posted, fit for men to stand upon in any triumph or show, but could not in any wise hurt and deface the same. This cost him forty or fifty pounds.”

Even the most important printers had stalls before their houses, for we read in an account of a lawsuit in 1536 resulting from an attack on some Frenchmen in Fleet Street, that one of them, endeavouring to escape, concealed himself under the King’s Printer’s (_i.e._ Berthelet’s) stall. Thomas Symonds, a stationer, who was a witness in a lawsuit in 1514, speaks of himself as standing before his stall at seven in the morning, not so very early an hour at a period when the Privy Council assembled at eight.

Though London was the head-quarters of the trade, the stationers did not confine their attention to the City, but travelled about the country attending the various fairs, where so far as we can judge from such few early accounts as are still preserved, a very considerable portion of their trade was done. Great fairs such as that of Sturbridge brought booksellers from far and near, and so great was their fame as a bookselling centre that even at the end of the seventeenth century the great London dealers sent down vast consignments of books which were sold by auction by the leading London auctioneers. All the more important stationers too paid frequent visits to the Continent and attended the great fair at Frankfurt, the principal opportunity for seeing all the latest publications and the recognised time and place for the transaction of business.

In treating of these early stationers I propose first of all to take those who lived and carried on business solely in London, and then to pass on to those who traded both in London and on the Continent. Of very many we know little but the name, and these I can but pass over, touching only on those who are known as publishers of books, or about whom we have some definite information.

The first of these is a certain John Boudins, or Baldwin as he called himself in English, who lived in the parish of St Clement’s, Eastcheap. We know of him from one book, an edition of the Sarum _Expositio Hymnorum et Sequentiarum_ which was printed for him at Paris by André Bocard in 1502, and which is apparently the first edition with the preface of Badius Ascensius. Boudins died shortly after the publication of the book, for his will dated October 11, 1501, was proved March 30, 1503. He was a native of the Low Countries.

A certain Andrew Rue, who had succeeded his brother John, who had died in 1493, was a stationer like his brother in St Paul’s Churchyard. He died in 1517 leaving legacies to relations in Frankfort and others. To Thomas Wallis, priest of St Faith’s, he leaves a bound copy of the book of sermons called _Dormi Secure_, and to David Owen of the same church a copy of Quentin’s sermons. Two of the executors of his will were John Reynes and Joyce Pelgrim, both to be noticed shortly.

Richard Nele is mentioned as a stationer in a document of 1525, when he petitioned to be transferred to the Company of Ironmongers.

John Taverner, another stationer, was paid £4 in 1521 for binding the books for use in the Chapel Royal. He died in 1531 and his will was proved in November of that year. In the year following John Sedley, Warden of the Craft of Stationers, died.

It would be useless here, as well as extremely tedious, to go on enumerating the names of stationers of whom we know so little, so I will pass on to some about whom we possess some more definite information.

Joyce Pelgrim, a native of the Low Countries, was early settled in London and in 1504 issued the first book specially printed for him, an edition of the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ printed at Paris by Jean Barbier, who had himself but lately left England. This book is only known from some fragments preserved in a binding in Lord Crawford’s library. Before 1506 he entered into partnership with Henry Jacobi, and the two, assisted with money by a wealthy merchant, William Bretton, a grocer and member of the Staple at Calais, issued several books connected with the service of the Church. The first and most important was an edition of the _Constitutiones Provinciales_ of William Lindewode, issued some time after May, 1506. It was printed at Paris by Wolfgang Hopyl in a most ornate manner and the title-page is one of the most beautiful to be found in an early book, the combination of small woodcuts, woodcut borders, printer’s devices, and red and black printing forming a most rich and harmonious whole. Two service books, a Sarum _Horae_ and a _Psalterium cum Hymnis_, followed at the beginning of 1507. In 1510 for the same patron they issued the _Pupilla Oculi_ of Joannes de Burgo and the _Speculum Spiritualium_ of Richard of Hampole printed by Hopyl, as well as another _Horae_ printed by Kerver.

On their own account the stationers did little, issuing in 1507 and 1508 three school books. Pelgrim, after the publication of the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ of 1504 does not seem to have issued any books on his own account, but he was always connected with William Bretton, and acted as his agent in 1514. He lived in Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of St Anne, though nothing is heard of the shop after 1506. It may be that it was one of the many swept away to make room for the new schools built by Colet, for we know that the Trinity, where Pelgrim’s partner Jacobi lived, was close by.

Henry Jacobi, probably a Frenchman, was apparently a much more important stationer than Pelgrim and some things point to his having been a citizen of London. He is first mentioned in 1504 as a stationer, and in 1505, as we learn from a note in a MS. in the British Museum, he supplied a large number of books to the King. Shortly after this he joined as a partner with Pelgrim and together they printed books for William Bretton. In 1509 he appears to have separated from his partner, for in the colophon of the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ printed by Pynson his name is found alone. In 1510 he went over to France and his name is found in the colophons of some small tracts of Savonarola, printed in Paris in 1510 and 1511 by Badius Ascensius. In 1512 he was back in London, and issued an edition of the Sarum _Diurnale_ printed for him at Paris by Hopyl. Francis Byrckman also appears to have been concerned in the publication of this book for his device is printed at the end. About this time Jacobi issued a _Legenda Francisci_ printed for him by Jean Barbier at Paris and a _Regula Benediciti_ printed by W. de Worde.

Soon after 1512 Jacobi migrated to Oxford, where he opened a shop with his old sign of the Trinity and published there an edition of the _Formalitates_ of Antonius Sirectus, printed for him in London by Wynkyn de Worde. A copy of the title-page was found by Mr Proctor in a binding in New College, Oxford, and a copy of the book itself, minus the greater part of the title, was subsequently traced in the British Museum. Jacobi did not long survive his migration to Oxford, but died there in 1514, and on the 11th December administration of his effects was granted to William Bretton through his agent Joyce Pelgrim, while his will was proved the same year in London.

The devices used by Pelgrim and Jacobi were four in number. In the books printed for W. Bretton a large block containing his coat of arms is used. After its first appearance a mistake in the heraldry was discovered and the shield was cut out and a new one inserted in the block, a very early example of what is technically known as plugging. It is curious that this device, though a private coat of arms, was afterwards copied and used as a device by the Paris printer Egidius Gourmont. The device used by Pelgrim and Jacobi together was a blank shield on a ribbon with the motto “Nosce teipsum” with their initials and marks on either side. Jacobi used in the Sirectus a representation of the Trinity with his mark and name in full below on a ribbon. In the books printed for them by Hopyl another device of the Trinity is found.

The bindings produced by the Trinity stationers were of two classes. The folio books were tooled with small dies, the smaller books stamped with panel stamps. Several copies of the _Lyndewode_ of 1506 are in existence tooled with identical dies, and one of these copies is lined with unused sheets of the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ printed for Pelgrim in 1504. The panel stamps all appear to have belonged to Henry Jacobi, for at present none have been found with Pelgrim’s mark. Like many other stationers of the time he used the two panels, having on one side a shield bearing the arms of France and England and supported by a dragon and greyhound and on the other the Tudor rose between two scrolls, supported by angels and containing these verses,

Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno
Eternum florens, regia sceptra feret.

Of these he had three series. In the first his initials and mark are quite plain and simple, just as we find them printed on the title-page of the _Lyndewode_. In the second series the ornament was a little more profuse and the mark and initials are omitted under the rose, leaving the space blank. In the last series the ornamentation is more complicated and the initials and mark are so much elaborated that the I of Iacobi looks almost like an A. In conjunction with the second series of panels a square die containing the figure of a dragon is found which had belonged to Caxton and must have been obtained from W. de Worde. Two other panels which belonged to Jacobi are much more foreign in appearance. On one is a figure of Christ seated on a tomb surrounded by the emblems of the Passion, on the other Our Lady of Pity. Round both runs a legend, and at the end of the second the binder’s initials, H.I., occur joined by a knot.

The example of this binding in the Bodleian, very much rubbed and worn, is on some small tracts by Savonarola, two of which were printed for Jacobi in 1510. The binding has on the end fly-leaf an inscription saying that the book was bought by John Yonge, “Aconensis,” in 1510, and this must be after September 10 of that year, when Yonge was appointed Master of St Thomas of Acres. If Jacobi really was in Paris in 1510 and 1511, this book must have been bound there, and perhaps these two small panels were cut abroad for the purpose of stamping these small volumes for which his other panels would have been too large.

Though Jacobi died in 1514 and Pelgrim is not mentioned after this date, the business at the sign of the Trinity still continued. This we know from a unique but unfortunately imperfect book in the Bodleian. It is called “_Donate and accidence for children enprynted at Parys. Anno Domini 1515._” The imprint on the title states that it was to be sold at Paris at the sign of the Striped Ass by Philippus de Couvelance and in St Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of St Katherine or the Trinity. The last leaf which might have contained a colophon is wanting. This Philip de Couvelance was apparently the son of Jean de Cowlance, whose device was the striped ass (asinus riguatus) and who was the same person as Joannes Confluentinus or Jean de Coblentz, whose name occurs frequently in the prefaces of early books.

Birckman perhaps may have had something to do with the sign of the Trinity, for he seems to have been in partnership with Jacobi in 1512 and used the device of the Trinity on some of the service books of English use which he issued. However by 1518 the shop was in the occupation of Henry Pepwell, who has been noticed before.

The sign of the “striped ass” commemorates the exhibition of a zebra, the first seen in France, which was shown at the Saint-Germain fair towards the close of the fifteenth century.

John Reynes, in many ways the best known of these early stationers, was a native of Wageningen in Gueldres and took out letters of denization on June 7, 1510. Though described in the Subsidy rolls of 1523 as a stationer, he appears to have undertaken other kinds of business, for in 1524 we find him supplying cloth and cotton at the funeral of Sir Thomas Lovell. In 1527 he began his business as publisher by issuing a magnificent edition of Higden’s _Polycronicon_, printed for him at Southwark by Peter Treveris, which is remarkable for the excellence of the illustrations. Very fortunately too his mark is engraved at the foot of the title-page and thus gives us the only clue by which we can identify his large series of stamped bindings. In this same year, Reynes in partnership with W. de Worde and Ludovicus Suethon, which name is I believe a misspelling for Sutton, commissioned a magnificent edition of the Sarum _Gradual_, which was printed for them at Paris by Nicolas Prevost, and of which the fine copy, formerly Gough’s, is in the Bodleian. In 1530 another service book was printed for him abroad, an edition of the _Psalterium cum Hymnis_ for the use of Sarum and York. Ten years later he issued an _Introductorie for to lerne to rede Frenche_ written by Giles Duwes, sometime librarian to Henry VIII, and Tutor of the French language to the Princess Mary. The latest book which Reynes issued was a Sarum _Processional_ which was printed for him at Antwerp by the widow of Christopher van Ruremond.

Reynes was certainly in his time the most important stationer of foreign birth settled in England, and his goods valued in 1523 at £40. 3_s._ 4_d._ had risen in 1541 and 1544 to £100. The only other foreigner of like importance was Arnold Birckman, who, however, was not settled in this country, but only paid it passing visits and carried on business by an agent.

Reynes’s chief fame now, however, rests on his bindings, which are the most frequently found and best known amongst all the early English series. The commonest are those ornamented with a broad roll containing his mark and figures of a hound, a falcon, and a bee, with sprays of foliage and flowers. He had also several series of panels. One pair is particularly good. The first represents the baptism of Christ, who stands in the stream while St John, kneeling, pours the water on His head. The other is a spirited picture of St George and the dragon fighting within an enclosure, round which run various animals and huntsmen. Below are the initials I. R. joined by a knot which must stand for John Reynes, as I have found these two panels used in conjunction with his roll on a binding in the library of St John’s College, Oxford.

A more ambitious panel contains what is called the “Arma Redemptoris Mundi,” the emblems of the Passion displayed heraldically upon a shield with two unicorns as supporters, and two small shields with Reynes’s mark and initials. The companion panel is divided into two parts, one containing the shield with the arms of England and France supported by the dragon and greyhound, the other the Tudor rose with the scrolls bearing the usual verses and supported by angels. These contain, besides Reynes’s initials and mark, a shield with the arms of the City of London, so that when these were cut he was probably a freeman.

The last pair, which are late in style and were probably only made for him near the end of his career, contain busts of warriors in medallions between renaissance pillars, connected by ornamental arches, and the whole enclosed within an ornamental border. In the centre between the medallions is the binder’s mark.

Reynes died at the beginning of 1544 and his will, made April 8th, 1542, was proved on February 26th. It is a long document and contains many points of interest. His two apprentices, Thomas Holwarde and Edward Sutton, are to receive on coming out of their apprenticeship one hundred shillingsworth of books to be valued according to the way that Arnold and John Birckman sell them to the booksellers. Edward Wright and Robert Holder, his assistants, are left ten pounds in books on condition that they work for Lucy Reynes, the widow, for two years and assist her to realise the stock. Money is left to the poor and for a breakfast to the stationers who come to the funeral, and the residue to the widow Lucy Reynes. It is clear from the fact that Reynes had English apprentices, and from the way he speaks of the stationers, that he had been made a freeman and member of the Company in spite of his foreign birth.

Lucy Reynes did not long survive her husband, for her will, dated April 28, 1548, was proved October 25, 1549. She, like her husband, requested to be buried in the Pardon Churchyard near St Paul’s.

Another stationer and binder whose work can fortunately be identified is Thomas Symonds, a stationer of St Paul’s Churchyard. His name first occurs in 1514 when he was a witness in a lawsuit quoted by Foxe in his _Book of Martyrs_. He was employed by the officials of London Bridge, and in their accounts for 1525-6 is the entry “paid to Thomas Symonds for binding in boards 17 quires in parchment containing 17 accounts of the bridge works, 6_s._” This original binding is still preserved and is ornamented with a broad roll containing the binder’s mark, a castle and portcullis, a fleur-de-lys, a unicorn, a rose, a pomegranate and the royal arms.

Lewis Sutton was apparently a very important stationer, and must I think be identified with the Ludovicus Suethon who in partnership with John Reynes and W. de Worde commissioned the great Sarum _Gradual_ printed for them at Paris by Prevost in 1527. In foreign printed books mistakes in names are not uncommon, and the rare Christian name Lewis combined with two such similar sounding names as Suethon and Sutton, renders the suggestion probable. In 1526 he and Henry Pepwell were the two wardens of the Company of Stationers, which shows that he must have held a high position in the trade. In 1534-5 he was defendant along with Richard Draper, warden of the Goldsmiths, in an action brought by John Gough and John Rastell the printer concerning the latter’s printing-office. A later notice of him occurs in the letters and papers of Henry VIII under the date of August 12, 1539. “Receipt by Lewys Sutton, bookbinder of London, of 5 marks from William Hatton of Haldenby for lands in Northamptonshire sold to him.” The will of a Lewis Sutton described as belonging to the parish of St Michael le Querne, London, and dated 1541, is amongst those preserved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and is probably that of the stationer. There was another Sutton named Nicholas who was a stationer in London and died shortly before 1531, who lived in St Paul’s Churchyard and was probably related to the stationers named Toy.

A stamped binding is known having upon it the initials N. S. followed by a tun, apparently a rebus on the name N. Sutton, and may very likely be his work.

Another person who ought to be mentioned, though neither printer nor stationer, is William Marshall, quoted by many writers as both. He was strongly interested in the Reformation, and spent both time and money in procuring the printing of books in support of the movement. He was a friend of Cromwell, who assisted him with money, and there are in the State papers many interesting letters from the one to the other relating to the publication of such works as the _Gift of Constantine_ printed by Godfray, and _Erasmus on the Creed_ by Redman, issued in 1534; _De veteri et novo Deo_, printed by Byddell, and the _Defence of Peace_ by Wyer, both of 1535. Of this latter book he sent twenty-four copies to the monks of the Charterhouse, which they, under the order of their superior, returned, with the exception of one copy which they burnt. Two books, his _Pictures and Ymages_ and _The Chrysten Bysshop and Counterfayte Bysshop_, were apparently printed by Gough, though according to Herbert the latter book has a distinct colophon “Emprynted by Wyllyam Marshall.” The most beautiful book printed for him was the reformed _Prymer_ of 1535, the work of John Byddell. It is much superior to the usual work of the time, and at least three copies are known printed upon vellum. Like William Bretton, Marshall has printed at the end of some of the books he had commissioned a large woodcut representing his coat of arms.

John Growte, stationer and bookbinder, lived in the Blackfriars next the church door. In 1532 and 1533 he commissioned the widow of Thielman Kerver to print for him two editions of the Sarum _Horae_, which were followed by another in 1534. Growte is identical with the mythical Rouen stationer Jean Groyat, an error which has arisen through the misreading of a colophon. An edition of the _Horae_ was printed in 1536 at Rouen “per Nicolaum le Roux pro Johanne groyat et Johanne marchant in parochia sancti Macuti ad signum duarum unicornium manente.” A hasty glance has assured someone that Groyat and Marchant were partners living at the sign of the two unicorns, overlooking the fact that the last word used in the colophon “manente” must apply to Marchant alone. Groyat may very well be the proper spelling of Growte’s name, for he was a foreigner, as we know from his being entered in the Returns of Aliens.

During the period of which we are now treating the presses of Paris and Rouen were actively at work producing books intended for the London market. At Paris, Hopyl, Kerver, Petit, Chevallon, Hardouyn, Prevost, Pigouchet, Higman, Rembolt, in fact all the best known printers and stationers were thus employed. At Rouen we find Morin, Caillard, Olivier, Violette, Bernard, Cousin, Richard, and others, and when we consider that many printed twenty or thirty different editions, we can arrive at some idea of the magnitude of the trade. The most important of the Paris printers was Hopyl; his _Lyndewode_, his Sarum _Missals_, and above all his _Antiphoner_, are splendid specimens of work which no English printer of the time could have attempted to rival. Prevost among other books is represented by a magnificent _Gradual_. Chevallon issued the great Sarum _Breviary_ of 1531. Pigouchet and Kerver continued the work they had done so well in the previous century, and issued many editions of the Sarum _Horae_, while Higman and Rembolt printed _Missals_.

Among the Rouen printers Martin Morin undoubtedly took the leading position for beautiful work. He and Olivier produced a large number of Sarum _Missals_ remarkable for their fine printing. With regard to these missals there is one point to which I should like to draw attention. Both Morin and Olivier possessed a very large initial M for the title Missale, round the middle stroke of which their name is engraved, Morin or Holivier. Now these letters being practically indestructible, passed to their successors and were still used. This at any rate in the case of Olivier has given rise to considerable confusion, for he is quoted as the printer of books, as for instance the York _Missal_ of 1530, which were issued long after he was dead. Among other printers and stationers connected with the English trade may be mentioned Macé, Bernard, Cousin, Violette, and Caillard.

Almost the entire French output consisted of liturgical books. Verard however issued three--well, British--books, for two were in Scottish, and we have it on Pynson’s authority that no one could understand them. The third was Barclay’s translation of Gringore’s _Castle of Labour_, printed when Barclay was himself in Paris about 1503.

Besides these a few grammatical tracts were issued, Violette issued an English Donatus and Jacques Cousin a Stanbridge at Rouen.

The series of beautiful liturgical books which came from the presses of Paris and Rouen afford us information also about many visiting foreign stationers. The _Missal_ issued in 1500 by Jean du Pré, but generally ascribed through a misreading of the colophon to 1502, speaks of several new prayers just brought over from England by Jean Antoine the stationer. A Terence of 1504, of which the only copy known is in the University Library (picked up from a small old-book shop in Liverpool), and a Sarum _Breviary_ of 1507 were printed for several stationers living in London, one of whom was a certain Michael Morin, no doubt a relative of the famous Rouen printer Martin Morin. Another stationer whose name is found in the Terence is John Brachius, but his name occurs nowhere else, and I have not been able to find out anything about him. Guillaume Candos, at whose cost a Sarum _Missal_ was printed in 1509 by Pierre Violette, was apparently in England for a time. Another Sarum _Missal_ quoted by Herbert, of which I can trace no copy, was printed for W. de Worde and Michael de Paule, both living in London. Jean Richard of Rouen, who printed so many fine Sarum service books, also came over and was one of the parties in a lawsuit in England at the beginning of the century. From another lawsuit we find that Frederick Egmont, an important stationer of London in the fifteenth century, was still in England, after 1500. I think it will be found, as more documents come to light, that all the principal foreign stationers paid visits to this country or kept agents in London. In very many foreign printed service books we find the expression “to be bought of the booksellers in Paul’s Churchyard.” I do not know whether that is the equivalent of the modern “to be obtained of all booksellers” or whether it only refers to a small clique of foreign stationers.

Of all the foreign stationers who traded in this country none was more important than Francis Regnault. He was the son of an earlier Francis Regnault, and when a young man started as a stationer in London towards the end of the fifteenth century. Though he returned to Paris about 1496 he still continued to keep a shop in London and probably paid frequent visits to this country. When on the death of his father, about 1518, he succeeded to the great printing business, his English sympathies at once showed themselves, and from that time onward he poured out a continuous flood of books for the English market. Between the years 1519 and 1535 by far the larger portion of the service books produced for England came from his presses. The Act of 1534, and perhaps other causes, seem to have hampered his business to a serious degree and in 1536 he addressed a letter to Cromwell on the subject. The writer states that he lived in London forty years ago and since returned to Paris and continued his trade as bookseller in London, and likewise printed missals, breviaries, and Hours of the use of Sarum and other books. That he has entertained at his house in Paris honourable people of London and other towns of England. He understands that the English booksellers wish to prevent him printing such books and to confiscate what he has already printed, though he has never been forbidden to do so, but his books well received. He asks permission to continue to sell the said “usaiges” and other books in London and the neighbourhood, and asks Cromwell to speak on his behalf to the King, the chancellor and others. He adds that if any faults have been found in his books he will amend them. Considering the date of this letter, it seems much more probable that his troubles were caused not so much by the jealousy of the English booksellers as by the falling off in the demand for the class of books he produced.

Besides printing on his own account, Regnault printed also for English printers. In 1534 he printed for Berthelet the _Interpretatio Psalmorum Omnium_ of Joannes Campensis, and in 1538 an edition of the English _New Testament_ for Grafton and Whitchurch, edited by Coverdale, and intended to supersede the incorrect version printed shortly before at Southwark by James Nicholson.

One of the latest important undertakings on which Regnault was engaged was a folio edition of the English Bible printed for Grafton and Whitchurch and overseen by Coverdale. The work was progressing favourably when pressure was brought to bear upon the French authorities, and the press, type, and the sheets already printed were seized, most of the printed matter being burnt. By the influence of Cromwell the type seems to have been recovered and conveyed to London, where the work was finished in 1539. The usual account speaks of the printers and presses being brought over as well, but that must, I think, be a little poetical exaggeration, for the presses of England were surely by that time adequate for such work.

In the library of St John’s College, Cambridge, is the unique copy on vellum which was printed specially for Cromwell. The titles, woodcuts, and all the initials throughout the volume are beautifully illuminated.

Regnault again attempted to obtain some favour for his books in England, and a letter was written to Cromwell by Coverdale and Grafton on his behalf. Speaking of him they write, “Whereas of long tyme he hath bene an occupier into England more than xl yere, he hath allwayes provyded soche bookes for England as they moost occupied, so that he hath a great nombre at this present in his handes as Prymers in Englishe, Missoles with other soche like: wherof now (by the company of the Booksellers in London) he is utterly forbydden to make sale to the utter undoying of the man. Wherfore most humbly we beseke your lordshippe to be gracious and favourable unto him, that he may have lycence to sell those which he hath done allready, so that hereafter he prynte no moo in the english tong, onlesse he have an english man that is lerned to be his corrector.”

From the concluding sentence it would appear that a special attack had been made on these foreign printed service books because of their incorrect printing, and everyone who has examined the very numerous editions of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_ printed abroad must admit that any complaints were fully justified. The booksellers evidently succeeded in their opposition, for no more Paris printed service books came to this country until the reign of Mary.

A solitary fragment, rescued like so many others from the binding of a book and now preserved in the Bodleian, is the only record we possess of the presence in England, nominally at any rate, of one of the most important Paris booksellers of the sixteenth century. The fragment consists of the first and last leaves of a little tract of four leaves entitled, “_Psalterium beate marie virginis cum articulis incarnationis passionis et resurrexionis domini nostri iesu xpi nuper editum_.” Of the liturgical interest of the fragment this is not the place to speak; our interest lies in the colophon, which runs “Imprynted at London in Flete aley the .xxi. daye of October by Simon Voter.” This, I take it, can refer to no one but the celebrated printer of that name, but whether the colophon exactly means all that it states is another matter. It would seem unlikely that so important a man should come to London to print so small a tract, and besides it has no appearance of English work. Like many others, he had probably an agent of his own in London and printing the tract in Paris sent it to London for sale. The type in which it is printed, a neat black letter, is what may be called a stock type, that is, it was made by a man who made type-founding his business and supplied various printers. On the title-page is a woodcut of the Assumption of the Virgin which I have seen in no other book, but which I hope may some day be the means of settling the real printer.

While speaking of these French stationers and their work, there is one book which though without name of printer or place was printed in English and intended for the English market and should certainly not be passed over, especially as it is in some ways the most remarkable book of the period. It is entitled _The Passion of our Lord Jesu Christ with the Contemplations_, and was translated from the French in 1508 and printed about the same time. The language is peculiar and uncouth and mixed up with foreign expressions. The book is a very large quarto equal in size to the ordinary small folio of the time, printed in double columns. But the extraordinary point about the book is the illustrations, large full-page woodcuts some twenty in number and obviously and unmistakeably German. The style of woodcutting, the dresses, the high-gabled houses, the storks nesting on the chimney-tops are all distinctive. This last gave the immediate suggestion of Strasburg and a very little search showed that the illustrations were almost exact copies of a series engraved by Urs Graf and first published in a volume entitled _Passio Jesu Christi_ printed in 1506 by Knoblouch at Strasburg.

One of these cuts, the Crucifixion, occurs in the York _Manual_ printed ostensibly by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509 for John Gachet and James Ferrebouc. Although the colophon of the book states emphatically twice over that it was printed in London for De Worde I have always thought it was printed abroad, not only because of this woodcut, but because the type both of text and music is not De Worde’s and because the device used in it is one only found in his foreign printed books and therefore presumably kept abroad.

Much seems to point to Paris as the place of production of both books, and a further piece of evidence exists in the fact that these cuts are found in an edition of _Les Exposicions des epistres et evangiles_ printed for Verard in 1511-12. I wrote on the subject of the English book to M. Delisle, who very kindly made some enquiries at the Bibliothèque Nationale, but at present no French original can be traced nor could the Keeper of the Prints throw any further light on the history of the cuts. The translation would appear to have been done in England as it was done at the command of Henry VII. The only perfect copy known is in the Bodleian, but there are fragments in bindings in several libraries, among others Westminster Abbey and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

While a serious blow was struck at the French book trade by the Act of 1534, which attacked the supply, Henry VIII himself did it much more serious damage by destroying the demand. Almost the whole of the trade done by the French booksellers consisted in the production and supply of service books; and the great change which was taking place in the services was gradually tending to do away with their use. After this time we find no more editions of the old _Breviary_ or the _Missal_ produced at all, except for a short time in Mary’s reign, and these two books had been mainly produced in France. The _Horae_ or _Primer_ still continued in use, but its character was so much changed and so much English introduced into it that it was as well produced in England. By this time too the taste for the elaborate borders and illustrations and sumptuous printing which marked the earlier work seems to have disappeared, so that as a general rule the editions sent over from abroad were as inartistic and badly printed as our own.

The competition of the Low Countries must also have had something to do with the decay of French trade, for the Antwerp stationers boasted they could undersell anyone, and certainly such later service books as were printed abroad were printed at Antwerp.

Be the explanation what it may, the fact is clear that the date which saw the passing of the Act of 1534 concerning books, saw the end of French book production for the English market.

LECTURE VIII.

THE STATIONERS FROM ANTWERP AND THE BOOKBINDERS.

Though in regard to books printed for the English market France is most important in numerical strength, it ranks far below the Low Countries in point of interest. The productions of Paris and Rouen consisted almost entirely of liturgical books and a few dictionaries and grammars. From Antwerp on the other hand from the time of Gerard Leeu in the fifteenth century onwards there was an almost unbroken output of books in the English language. Leeu began with reprints of some of Caxton’s books, Adrian van Berghen, the printer of _Arnold’s Chronicle_, followed, then came Jan van Doesborch with his many curious little English books, and then, most interesting of all, the various editions of the English _Testament_ and the multitude of controversial works caused by the religious dissensions in England.

Of Gerard Leeu, “an exceedingly pleasant person” as Erasmus called him, and his English books, I gave some account in an earlier Lecture; so I must begin the account of the sixteenth century with Adrian van Berghen, Adryan of Barrowe as he calls himself in his English imprints. He apparently began to print about the close of the fifteenth century, living in a shop with the sign of the Great Golden Mortar in the Market; in 1507 he had moved to the Corn Market behind the Town Hall, and at a later date he settled in a house by the Cammerpoort Bridge with the sign of the Golden Missal. In 1535 like many another stationer he got into trouble in religious matters and was accused of keeping and selling Lutheran books, of which a number had been found in his house. In vain he protested that he knew nothing about them and that they had been secretly put there by some enemy, for after a lengthy trial he was found guilty and on January 3, 1536, was sentenced to leave the state of Antwerp within three days, and perform a pilgrimage to, of all places in the world, Nicosia in Cyprus. Nothing further is known of him. But Adrian of Barrowe will ever be had in grateful remembrance as the printer of _Arnold’s Chronicle_, for in this he first published to the world the beautiful ballad of the “Nut-browne Maid.”

A description of _Arnold’s Chronicle_ is a difficult matter to undertake. It was one of the books which served as weapons to the late Professor Chandler in his campaign against the subject catalogue of the Bodleian. It contains a list of the London sheriffs, and a guide to writing business letters, a list of the London churches, recipes for making ink, and a variety of other miscellaneous information. And in the middle, apropos of nothing, “The Nut-browne Maid.” Chronicle is a misleading title, for the work is really a commonplace book and a very interesting one. Fortunately this and the later edition printed about 1520 by Peter Treveris are fairly common books and available in a considerable number of libraries. There is a copy in the Parker collection in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, interesting to the typographer from an accidental cause. The printer when inking the forme accidentally pulled out a type which has fallen sideways upon the top of the rest and impressed on the page an exact full-length image of itself. From the few early examples of such faults as are known it has been possible to obtain a good deal of information as to the sizes and shapes of early types.

Adrian van Berghen printed also an English _Almanack_ for 1529 and an edition of Holt’s _Lac Puerorum_. This latter is known only from fragments, and some of these have a curious connexion with Cambridge. Among a parcel of unidentified fragments in the Bodleian I came across some pieces of this book which had at one time formed the pad or boards of a binding. From the well indented marks on the paper it was easy to identify the panel which had been stamped upon the binding as the picture of St Nicholas raising the three children, with the name underneath, Nicolas Spiernick, used by Nicolas Speryng, the Cambridge stationer. But the interesting point about the fragments was that on one of them was written the name of N. Speyrinck, thus connecting the Spiernick of the binding with the name as used at Cambridge, Speryng. It is perhaps not strictly right to have included Adrian van Berghen, since he had not so far as we know any personal connexion with England; but the interest of one at least of the English books which he printed must serve as an excuse.

The next printer to be considered is Francis Birckman, the first of the numerous bookselling family of that name, and himself a very important stationer. He was a native of Cologne, who had his headquarters at Antwerp while he carried on business in several other towns, and a great part of his trade was with England. Panzer in his _Annales Typographici_ does not mention him before the year 1513, but at an earlier date he was issuing books for the English market and had a shop in St Paul’s Churchyard. He is first mentioned in 1504, when in partnership with a certain Gerard Cluen of Amersfoordt in Utrecht he issued a Sarum _Missal_. Beyond the mention of his name in this one book we know nothing of Gerard Cluen, but I think we may take for granted that he was a relation of Birckman’s wife, Gertrude van Amersfoordt. Of the _Missal_ but two copies are known, one in Trinity College, Dublin, and the other, recently acquired, in the British Museum. Between 1504 and 1510 Birckman’s name is not found, but after that date he issued books continuously until about 1528. The history of the Birckman family is very confused, but I cannot help thinking that there were two branches both using the same Christian names. It seems impossible otherwise to account for the large number of books printed in various places almost at the same time, unless they were merely commissioned and Birckman’s name put in the imprint. The Birckmans were certainly always travelling about; at a little later date I find one of them within three months at Antwerp, Cologne, London, Oxford, and Cambridge. It is interesting to notice that he had combined his business in Oxford with a visit to young Christopher Froschover, nephew of the printer of the first English Bible of 1535, who was then an undergraduate there.

All the authorities I have been able to consult are unanimous in disagreeing on the history of the family of Birckman, but fortunately at the moment we are only concerned with two, Francis the elder and younger. The elder, whose place of business was in St Paul’s Churchyard, must have been an important and rich man and seems to have spared no expense in ornamenting his books. As an example I may mention the great Sarum _Antiphoner_ in two folio volumes, of which there is a copy in the Cambridge University Library. The fine title-pages were not the stock-in-trade of the printer Hopyl, but were specially engraved for Birckman, whose mark occurs in them. His Missals also were profusely illustrated, which was not the general rule with such service books.

Francis Birckman was dead before the year 1531, as we learn from the sentence delivered in a lawsuit on April 4, 1531, and registered in the sentence book of the Alderman’s Court at Antwerp. A certain John Silverlink had delivered to Birckman a large consignment, over 700 copies, of English New Testaments, for which he was to be paid £28. 17_s._ 3_d._ and had only received £3. 7_s._ 3_d._ The action was brought by the plaintiff against the guardians of Birckman’s children to recover the remainder, which was ordered to be paid minus a sum advanced by Francis Birckman to John van Remonde. His last book appears to have been dated 1529. In 1530 an edition of the Sarum _Processional_, printed at Paris by Prevost, was published in London with the following colophon, “Venundatur Londonii in edibus junioris Francisci Byrckman apud cimiterium divi Pauli.” This Francis was no doubt a son of the earlier Francis, for though his device is different his mark is the same. The device in the _Processional_ is the Hen with her Chickens, no doubt referring to the sign of the Birckmans at Cologne and Antwerp of the Fat Hen. This is the only book which I can trace as having been sold in England by the younger Francis Birckman, who probably returned abroad. He does not appear to have printed much, for the business was mainly carried on by Arnold. At a little later date there were certainly two Arnold Birckmans flourishing, one who dealt principally in London, and who had a brother there also in business named John. The other Arnold whose headquarters were at Cologne was dead before 1541, in which year a work of Rupertus, _De victoria verbi Dei_ was printed at Louvain for the widow of Arnold Birckman.

John and Arnold were certainly very important stationers in London. John Reynes was the only foreigner who surpassed them in wealth, and when his stock was valued at £100, each of theirs was valued at 100 marks, that is, £66. 13_s._ 4_d._ They appear to have acted as foreign agents for many of the London booksellers and to have travelled a great deal from place to place. They did not however always bear the best of characters, for Johann Ulmer writes to Bullinger, “The Byrckmans are careless and by no means to be depended upon, therefore beware”; and in another letter he complains, “The book has not yet reached me, the Byrckmans are not at all to be trusted.” Erasmus was even more abusive on the subject.

Jan van Doesborch, a printer of Antwerp who commenced business some time shortly before 1508, carried on the tradition of printing English books. Of some thirty-two books which he issued more than half are in English and many of them of a very curious nature. He appears to have inherited the business of Roland van den Dorp and his widow, and to have taken on their premises with the sign of the Iron Balance near the Cammerpoort. He is entered in the books of the St Lucas Gilde in 1508, the date of his first dated book, as an illuminator, and this taste is shown in the lavish, if careless, way in which he illustrated his books. Probably the first book he issued was the _Fifteen Tokens_, a little tract describing the signs coming before the Judgement and which he had himself translated from the Dutch. This was followed by three grammars, one of which, Holt’s _Lac Puerorum_, has but lately been discovered and is in a private collection. Then come an edition of _Robin Hood_, known from an imperfect copy in Edinburgh, and a fragment of _Eurialus and Lucrece_ also at Edinburgh. To the year 1518 may be ascribed the _Life of Virgilius_ and a dated book of that year, beginning “This mater treateth of a merchauntes wife that afterwarde went lyke a man and becam a great lorde and was called Frederyke of Jennen.” Then we have the _History of Mary of Nemmegen_, an edition of _Tyl Howleglas_, and the story of the _Parson of Kalenborowe_. A last book worthy of mention is one beginning “Of the newe landes and of ye people found by the messengers of the kynge of portyngale named Emanuel.” Though naturally a much spoken of book as being about the earliest of English books relating to America, really only one leaf of the book is devoted to that subject.

Who the translator of these various books may have been is uncertain. Two were definitely stated to have been done by Lawrence Andrewe, the London printer, and Douce without any apparent reason suggested that others might be the work of Richard Arnold. I think that perhaps several were translated by Andrewe. In some verses appended to his translation of the _Book of Dystyllacyon_ he writes,

After sondry volumes that I dyd deuyse
As tryfels of myrthe, which were laudable
Now mynded agayn, my pene to exercyse
In other maters to the reder more profitable
And thus abydynge pacyently, for a time seasonable
My mynde longe vexing with ymaginacyons
That my work before shold apere more comendable
Now have I performed a boke of dystyllacyons.

The “sundry trifles of mirth” might well be such books as _Frederick of Jennen_, _The Life of Virgilius_, or _The Parson of Kalenborowe_. The only two books to which he put his name as translator, _The wonderful shape and nature that our Saviour Christ Jesu hath created in beasts, serpents, fowles_, etc., and the _Valuation of gold and silver_, hardly come under the head of “trifles of mirth.”

No doubt this large production of English books must have entailed frequent visits to England and a shop or agent there, but the only clue we have to John of Doesborch’s residence in this country is afforded by the entry in the lists made for the subsidy of 1523, “De Johanne van Dwysborow, extraneo, pro xls per annum ijs.,” and he is entered in the parish of St Martin in the Fields.

I now come to two printers of Antwerp, in many ways the most interesting of all, but of whom little is known and less has been written. These are Christopher and Hans van Ruremond or Rémonde, who were concerned very specially with the printing and dispersal of the first English New Testaments. Whether or not these two men were related is not very clear, but from the way they were connected in business it seems very probable. Christopher, the more important of the two, was known also as Christopher van Endhoven, which is the name used on his device and under which he is entered in 1524 in the registers of the St Lucas Gilde at Antwerp. Many have thought that Christopher van Ruremond and Christopher van Endhoven were two persons, but as all the books in the two names have the same type and woodcuts, and as in three cases at least we find the device of Christopher van Endhoven and the name of Christopher van Ruremond together, we may take them to be the same. Besides if they were different persons it would be a very marvellous coincidence that they should die on the same date, and their widows simultaneously begin to carry on their businesses.