Part 4

So far as regards Caxton’s device, it is easier to name the books in which it appeared than to explain its exact meaning. The late William Blades accepts the common interpretation of “W. C. 74.” Some bibliographers argue that the date refers to the introduction of printing in England, and quote the colophon of the first edition of the “Chess” book in support of this theory. But the date of this work refers to the translation and not to the printing, which was executed at Bruges, probably in 1476. Caxton did not settle at Westminster until late in that year, and possibly not until 1477. In all probability the date, supposing it to be such, and assuming that it is an abbreviation of 1474, refers to some landmark in our printer’s career. Professor J. P. A. Madden, in his “Lettres d’un Bibliophile,” expresses it as his opinion that the two small letters outside the “W. 74 C” are an abbreviation of the words “Sancta Colonia,” an indication that a notable event in the life of Caxton occurred in 1474 at Cologne. Ames, Herbert, and others have copied a device which Caxton never used: it is much smaller than the genuine one (which, in other respects, it closely resembles) which we reproduce from Berjeau. The opinion that the interlacement is a trade mark is, Mr. Blades points out in his exhaustive “Life,” much strengthened by the discovery of its original use. In 1487, Caxton, wishing to print a Sarum Missal, and not having the types proper for the purpose, sent to Paris, where the book was printed for him by G. Maynyal, who in the colophon states distinctly that he printed it at the expense of William Caxton of London. When the printed sheets reached Westminster, Caxton, wishing to make it quite plain that he was the publisher, engraved his design and printed it on the last page, which happened to be blank. Mr. Blades gives 1487 as the year in which this Missal (of which only one copy is known) was printed, but Mr. Bradshaw puts it at 1489. The former enumerates twelve books printed by Caxton in which his device occurs--all ranging from the aforesaid Missal to the year 1491, the date of his death.

[Illustration: WILLIAM CAXTON.]

[Illustration: THE ST. ALBANS PRINTER.]

Wynkyn de Worde, a native of Lorraine, who was with Caxton at Bruges or Cologne, carried on the business of his master at Westminster until 1499, when he removed to the sign of the Golden Sun, Fleet Street, London. He had nine Marks, the earliest of which is often described as one of Caxton’s, from the genuine example of which, as we have already stated, it differs in being smaller, with a different border, and in having a flourish inserted above and below the letters. The second is an elongated variation of No. 1, with the name Wynkyn de Worde on a narrow white space beneath the device. The next four devices are more or less elaborations upon that of which we give a reproduction; the seventh is the Sagittarius device in black with white characters: between the sagittarii is seen the sun and flaming stars, and below the initials “W C” in Roman letters, with the name Wynkyn de Worde at the foot; the eighth is a picturesque Mark copied from one belonging to Froben, with the omission of part of the background; it consists of a semicircular arch, supported by short-wreathed pillars, with foliated capitals, plinths and bases: on the top of each is a boy habited like a soldier, with a spear and shield bending forwards; a large cartouche German shield is supported by three boys. The ninth Mark of this printer was a large and handsome one, being a royal and heraldic device which Wynkyn de Worde used as a frontispiece to the Acts of Parliament, in the form of an upright parallelogram which encloses a species of arched panel or doorway, formed of three lines, imitating clustered columns and Gothic mouldings, and two large square shields, that on the left charged with three fleurs-de-lys for France, and the other bearing France and England quarterly, each of which is surmounted by a crown. For a very minute description of these Marks, and their variations, the reader is referred to Johnson’s “Typographia,” and Bigmore and Wyman’s “Bibliography of Printing,” the former of whom enumerates 410 books which issued from this press.

[Illustration: WYNKYN DE WORDE.

wynkyn de worde W C]

[Illustration: R. PYNSON.

Rychard Pynson]

[Illustration: R. PYNSON.

R Richard Pynson]

Among the 200 odd books which Richard Pynson printed between 1493 and 1527, we find six Marks (besides variants), of which five are very similar, and of these we give two examples, the smaller being one of the earliest, in which it will be noticed that the drawing is much inferior to the larger example; the sixth Mark is a singular one, consisting of a large upright parallelogram surrounded by a single stout line, within which are the scroll, supporters, shield and cypher, crest, helmet and mantling, and the Virgin and St. Catherine, and in many other

## particulars differing from the other five examples. Robert Redman, who,

after quarrelling with Richard Pynson, and apparently succeeding him in business, employed a device almost identical with that which Pynson most frequently used, and to which therefore we need not further refer. In chronological sequence the next English printer who employed a device is Julian Notary, who was printing books for about twenty years subsequent to 1498, first at Westminster, then near Temple Bar, and finally in St. Paul’s Churchyard. He had two devices (of which there are a very few variations), of which we give the more important. The other has only one stout black line, and not two, and it has also the Latinized form of the name--Julianus Notarius. About two dozen different works of this printer are known to bibliographers. In connection with Notary, we may here conveniently refer to an interesting, but admittedly inconclusive article which appears in _The Library_, i., pp. 102-5, by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, in which that able bibliographer publishes the discovery of two books which would point to the existence of an unrecorded English printer of the fifteenth century. One of these has the title of “Questiones Alberti de modis significandi,” and the other, of which only a fragment is known to exist, is a Sarum “Horæ,” which is dated 1497. In the colophons of neither does the name of the printer transpire, but his Mark is given in both--in the former book in black, and in the latter in red. This mark is identical with Notary’s, with this important exception, that, whereas in Notary’s device his name occurs in the lower half of the device, in these the lower half is occupied by the initials I. H., and the upper half by the initials I N B, the I N being in the form of a monogram, and not distinct. In 1498 this same block was used on the title-page of the Sarum “Missal,” printed by Notary, who altered it to suit his own requirements. We cannot follow Mr. Gordon Duff in his conjectures as to the probability of who this unknown printer may have been, but the matter is one of great bibliographical interest. William Faques, who was the King’s Printer, and who is known to have issued seven books between 1499 and 1508, had only one Mark, which is totally different from those of any of his predecessors, as may be seen from the example given on page 16, where will also be found references to the sources of the scriptural quotations on the white and black triangles.

[Illustration: JULIAN NOTARY.

I N Iulyan Notary]

The extreme rarity of this printer’s books will be best understood when it is stated that there are only two examples in the British Museum; one of these is a “Psalter,” 1504. With W. Faques we exhaust the fifteenth century printers who employed marks to distinguish the productions of their presses.

[Illustration: R. FAWKES.

R F Richard Fakes]

Notwithstanding the similarity in their surnames it is not at all certain that Richard Fawkes (1509-1530), who also appears as Faukes, Fakes, and Faques, was related to the last-mentioned printer. His books are now of excessive rarity. The unicorn (regardant on either side of the device) appears for the first time in an English mark. Henry Pepwell (1505-1539), of the Holy Trinity in St. Paul’s Churchyard, was a bookseller rather than a printer, and all his earlier books were printed in Paris; his Mark, in which occurs the heraldic device representing the Trinity, was suggested by the sign of his shop. The most important example of the thirty books which issued from the little-known press of Peter Treveris, who was apparently putting forth books from 1514 to 1535, is “The Grete herball whiche geveth parfyt knowlege and und[er]standing of all maner of herbes,” etc., 1526, a finely printed folio (“at the signe of the Wodows”), of which a second edition appeared in 1529. The earlier edition contains, on the recto of the sixth leaf, a full-page woodcut of the human skeleton, with anatomical explanations, whilst the last leaf contains a full-page woodcut of the printer’s Mark, with the imprint at the foot. Herbert supposes that the sign of the “Wodows,” mentioned by Treveris in the colophon, might possibly be put for wode hommes or wild men, and alludes to the supporters used in the device. Treveris printed for several booksellers, notably John Reyves, of St. Paul’s Churchyard, and for Lawrence Andrewe, of Fleet Street. In this printer’s Mark, and in fact nearly every other sixteenth century example, there is a very evident French influence, whilst many of the examples are the most transparent imitations of Marks used by foreign printers. Of the three used by John Scott or Skot, who was printing books from about 1521 to 1537, two were mere copies of the Marks used by Denis Roce of Paris. We give an illustration of one example; the second is of the same design, but with a very rich stellated background, and the motto, “A l’aventure, tout vient a point qui peut attendre.” His own device was an exceedingly simple long strip, with the letters Iohn Skot in antique Roman characters. An example of the last mark will be found in “The Golden Letanye in Englysshe,” printed by Skot in “Fauster Land, in Saynt Leonardes parysshe”; but examples of this press are excessively rare, only one, “Thystory of Jacob and his XII Sones,” fourteen leaves, in verse, and printed about 1525, being in the British Museum, and another tract, “The Rosary,” 1537, being in the Althorp Library now transferred to Manchester.

[Illustration: PETER TREVERIS.

P T PETRVS TREVERIS]

[Illustration: JOHN SCOTT.

I S IOHN SCOTT]

[Illustration: ROBERT COPLAND.

¶ Melius est nomen bonum q[uam] diuitie mnlte. Prou. xxu. R ROBERT COPLAND]

Robert Copland, who was a beneficiaire and pupil of Wynkyn de Worde, was a translator as well as a printer and stationer, and his shop was at the sign of the Rose Garland in Fleet Street. Although he carried on business from 1515 to about 1548, only a few of his books are now known, none of which appear to be in the British Museum. The majority were purely ephemeral. The most interesting phase of this printer’s career occurs in connection with one or two books printed by Wynkyn de Worde, notably “The Assembly of Foules,” 1530, at the end of which is “Lenvoy of Robert Copland boke prynter,” one of the three verses running thus:

“Layde upon shelfe, in leues all torne With Letters, dymme, almost defaced cleane Thy hyllynge rote, with wormes all to worne Thou lay, that pyte it was to sene Bounde with olde quayres, for ages all hoorse and grene Thy mater endormed, for lacke of thy presence But nowe arte losed, go shewe forth thy sentence.”

The three Marks of Copland make allusion to the roses which appeared as a sign to his shop. The most elaborate design is an upright parallelogram within which appears a flourishing tree springing out of the earth, and supporting a shield suspended from its branches by a belt and surrounded by a wreath of roses; on the left-hand side is a hind regardant collared with a ducal coronet standing as a supporter, and on the right is a hart in a similar position and with the same decorations; there are four scrolls surrounding the centre-piece, on the top one is “Melius est,” on the right-hand one “nomen bonum,” on the bottom one “q diuitie,” and on the left-hand one “multe. Prou. xxii,” _i.e._ “A good name is better than much riches.” The second device, of which we also give an example, is self-explanatory, and is perhaps the more original. It has also an additional interest from the fact that it was used by William Copland, 1549-1561, who was probably a son of Robert, and who simply altered the mark to the extent of substituting his own Christian name for that of Robert in the scroll at the bottom of the device. Over sixty books by this printer are described by bibliographers, and many of them are in the British Museum. Robert Wyer, whose shop was at the sign of St. John the Evangelist, in St. Martin’s parish, in the rents of the Bishop of Norwich, near Charing Cross, was another printer whose works were more remarkable for their number than for their typographic excellence. His earliest dated work is the “Expositiones Terminarum Legum Anglorum,” 1527, and his latest “A Dyalogue Defensyue for Women,” 1542, but as to nearly sixty others of his works no date is attached, he may have commenced earlier than the first date and continued after the second. The marks of Wyer consisted of two or three representations of St. John the Divine writing, attended by an eagle holding the inkhorn; he is seated on a rock in the middle of the sea intended to represent the Isle of Patmos. Laurens, or Lawrence, Andrewe, by Ames stated to be a native of Calais, printed a few books during the third decade of the sixteenth century, and resided near the eastern end of Fleet Street at the sign of the Golden Cross. His Mark consisted of a shield which is contained within a very rudely cut parallelogram; the escutcheon is supported by a wreath beneath an ornamental arch, and between two curved pillars designed in the early Italian style, with a background formed of coarse horizontal lines. Three of his books are in the British Museum. The Museum possesses only one book with the imprint of Andrew Hester, who was a bookseller of the “White Horse,” St. Paul’s Church Yard, and this is an edition of Coverdale’s Bible, “newly oversene and correcte,” which appears to have been printed for him by Froschover, of Zurich, 1550. Among English Marks of the period, Hester’s possesses the merit of being original.

[Illustration: ROBERT COPLAND.

R C Robert Coplande.]

[Illustration: ROBERT WYER.

ROBERT WYER]

[Illustration: ANDREW HESTER.

S E AH R]

[Illustration: THOMAS BERTHELET.

LVCRECIA ROMANA THOMAS BERTHELETVS]

One of the most prolific of the printers of the first half of the sixteenth century was Thomas Berthelet, who succeeded Pynson in the office of King’s Printer, at a salary of £4 yearly, and who (or his immediate successors, for he died at the end of 1555) issued books from 1528 to 1568, of which nearly 150 are known to bibliographers, sixty being in the British Museum. His shop was at the sign of the “Lucretia Romana,” a charming engraving--the most carefully executed of its kind used in this country up to that time--of which, with his own name on a scroll, he used as a Mark. Several of his books were printed in Paris. He issued a large number of works in classical literature, and among the more notable of his publications were Chaloner’s translation of Erasmus’s “Praise of Folly,” 1549, Gower’s “De Confessione Amantis,” and the “Institution of a Christen Man,” with a woodcut border to the title by Holbein. John Byddell, otherwise Salisbury, 1533-44, was another printer whose Mark was derived from the sign of the shop in which he carried on business, namely, “Our Lady of Pity,” next Fleet Bridge, but he afterwards removed to the Sun near the Conduit, which was probably the old residence of Wynkyn de Worde, for whom he was an executor. The Lady of Pity is personified as an angel with outstretched wings, holding two elegant horns or torches, the left of which is pouring out a kind of stream terminating in drops, and is marked on the side with the word “Gratia”; that on the right contains fire and is lettered “Charitas”: the lower ends of these horns are rested by the angel upon two rude heater shields, on the left of which is inscribed “Johan Byddell, Printer,” and on the other is a mark which includes the printer’s initials; round the head of the figure are the words, “Virtus beatos efficit.” This is merely a copy of one of the Marks used by J. Sacon, a Lyonese printer, 1498-1522. Byddell’s books were distinctly in keeping with the seriousness of his sign, and among others we find such titles as “News out of Hell,” 1536, “Olde God and the Newe,” 1534, “Common Places of Scripture,” 1538, etc., besides two “Primers.” Thomas Vautrollier, who printed books at Edinburgh and London from about 1566 to 1605, had four Marks, in all of which an anchor is suspended from the clouds, and two leafy boughs twined, with the motto “Anchora Spei,” and with a framework which is identical with that of Guarinus, of Basle. Vautrollier was a native of France; nearly all his books were in Latin. In 1584 he printed an edition of Giordano Bruno’s “Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante,” with a dedication to Sir Philip Sidney, and for which he had to flee the country, for the imprint, “Stampato in Parigi,” was an obvious and unsuccessful attempt to hoodwink the authorities. In the following year he printed at Edinburgh “A Declaration of the Kings Majesties intention and meaning toward the lait Actis of Parliament.” J. Norton, 1593-1610, also used the same Mark.

[Illustration: JOHN BYDDELL.

I B ¶ IOHAN BYDDELL.]

[Illustration: THOMAS VAUTROLLIER.

ANCHORA SPEI.]