A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 — John Shaqi
A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898Plomer, Henry R. (Henry Robert)
History
A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898
Plomer, Henry R. (Henry Robert)
England -- Imprints; Printing -- England -- History
About 1483 Rood took as a partner Thomas Hunt, a stationer of Oxford,
and together they issued John Anwykyll's Latin Grammar, together with
the _Vulgaria Terencii_, Richard Rolle of Hampole's _Explanationes super
lectiones beati Job_, a sermon of Augustine's, of which the only known
copy is in the British Museum, a collection of treatises upon logic, one
of which is by Roger Swyneshede, the first edition of _Lyndewode's
Provincial Constitutions_ (a large folio of 366 leaves with a woodcut,
the earliest example found in any Oxford book), and the _Epistles of
Phalaris_, with a lengthy colophon in Latin verse. The last book to
appear from the press was the _Liber Festivalis_ by John Mirk, a folio
of 174 leaves, containing eleven large woodcuts and five smaller ones,
apparently meant for an edition of the _Golden Legend_, as they were cut
down to fit the _Festial_. After the appearance of this book, printing
at Oxford suddenly ceased, and it has been surmised that Theodoric Rood
returned to Cologne. Altogether the Oxford press lasted for eight years,
and fifteen books remain to testify to its activity. In these, three
founts of type were used, the first two having all the characteristics
of the Cologne printers, while the third shows the influence of Rood's
residence in England. A full account of these will be found in Mr.
Falconer Madan's admirable work _The Early Oxford Press_.
The St. Albans Press started in 1479. Only eight books are known with
this imprint, not all of them perfect, none give the name of the
printer, and only one has a device. Most of them are scholastic books,
printed for the use of the Grammar School. These included the _Augustini
Dati elegancie_, a quarto, dated 1480, the _Rhetorica Nova_, which
Caxton was printing at Westminster at the same time, and Antonius Andreæ
_super Logica Aristotelis_. But in addition to these, two other notable
works came from this press, the _Chronicles of England_ and the _Book of
St. Albans_.
Out of the four types which are found in these books, two at least were
Caxton's type No. 2 and type No. 3. There was plainly some connection
between the two offices, and as it was a frequent custom for monasteries
to subsidize printers to print their service books, it seems possible
that Caxton may have had some hand in establishing this press, and that
it was for St. Albans Abbey that he cast type No. 3, which (putting
aside its subordinate employment for headlines) we find used exclusively
for service books.
Three years after Caxton had settled at Westminster, viz. in 1480, an
_Indulgence_ was issued by John Kendale, asking for aid against the
Turks. Caxton printed some copies of this, and others are found in a
small neat type, and are ascribed to the press of John Lettou. _Lettou_
is an old form of Lithuania, but whether John Lettou came from Lithuania
is not known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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