Printing was practised at Oxford within a year of the introduction of the art into England. Setting aside the legend of Corsellis and the “1468” _Exposicio Simboli_, we find that a printer, presumably Theodoric Rood, from Cologne, was settled here in 1478, and issued three works anonymously from his press during that and the following year. Between 1480 and 1483, Rood printed eight works bearing his own name, and in 1485 and 1486, in partnership with an Englishman named Thomas Hunte, he produced six more. Whether the first Oxford printer made his own type or procured it from abroad, we have no information, but the distinctly Cologne character of the two earliest founts favours the supposition that, like Caxton, he brought at any rate his first types with him from the Continent. The vague reference which Rood and Hunte make to their labours at the end of the _Phalaridis Epistolæ_ in 1485,[230] does not throw much light on the question, although the boast of an independent discovery of the art of printing there recorded may possibly mean that towards the close of their career they had arrived at a knowledge of the mystery of making their own types. Without attempting a detailed examination of the seventeen works of the {138} first Oxford printers, we observe that during the eight years in which they practised their art, they made use of seven different kinds of type, which arrange themselves chronologically as follows[231] : +───────+───────────────────────────────────+───────+──────────────────────+ │ KNOWN │ │ │ │ │ DATE. │ TITLE. │ TYPE. │ GROUP. │ +───────+───────────────────────────────────+───────+──────────────────────+ │“1468”†│_Exposicio Symboli_ │ a │ Group I, “1468”-1479.│ │ 1479 │_Aristotelis Ethica_ │ a │ (No printer’s name.) │ │ 1479 │_Ægidius de peccato originali_ │ a │ │ +───────+───────────────────────────────────+───────+──────────────────────+ │ ... │_Cicero pro Milone_ │ b │ │ │ ... │_Latin Grammar in English_ │ b │ Group II, 1481–82. │ │ 1481 │_Alexander de Ales. Expositio │ │ (Theodoric Rood.) │ │ │ de Animâ._ Two Editions │ b,c │ │ │ 1482 │_Lattebury. Morales._ Two editions │ b,c │ │ +───────+───────────────────────────────────+───────+──────────────────────+ │ ... │_Hampole. Explanationes_ │ d,e │ │ │ ... │_Swyneshed. Insolubilia_ │ d,e │ │ │ ... │_Anwykyll. Compendium._ 1st edition│d[e?]f │ │ │ ... │_Anwykyll. Compendium._ 2nd edition│ d,f │ Group III, 1483–86. │ │ ... │_Lyndewode. Constitutiones_ │c,d,e,f│ (Rood and Hunte.) │