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
To this work succeeded, in 1543, the _Homilies_ of Saint Chrysostom, of
which John Cheke, Professor in Greek at Cambridge University, was
editor. The whole of the first part of the work, with the exception of
the dedication, was in Greek letter, making thirty lines to the quarto
page. The second part, which had a separate title-page, was printed with
the Italic, and the supplementary parts with the Roman types. Some very
fine pictorial initial letters were used throughout the work, and the
larger form of the apple-tree device occurs on the last leaf, with a
Greek and Latin motto.
A very rare specimen of Wolfe's work in 1543 is Robert Recorde's _The
groūd of artes teachyng the worke and practise of Arithmetike moch
necessary for all states of men_, a small octavo printed in black
letter, but of no particular merit. In the same type and form he issued
in the following year a tract entitled _The late expedicion in
Scotlande_, etc. Chrysostom's _De Providentia Dei_ and _Laudatio Pacis_
were printed in the Roman and Italic founts during 1545 and 1546, and
are the only record we have left of Wolfe's work as a printer during
those years. In 1547 he was appointed the king's printer in Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew, and was granted an annuity of twenty-six shillings
and eightpence during his life (Pat. Rol. 19 April 1547).
In 1553 trouble arose between Wolfe and Day as to their respective
rights of printing Edward the Sixth's catechism. The matter was settled
by Wolfe having the privilege for printing the Latin version, and Day
that in English, but neither party reaped much benefit, as upon the
king's death the book was called in, having only been in circulation a
few months. During Mary's reign the only important work that seems to
have come from Wolfe's press was Recorde's _Castle of Knowledge_, a
folio, with an elaborately designed title-page, and a dedication to
Cardinal Pole. In 1560 Wolfe became Master of the Company of Stationers,
a position to which he was elected on three subsequent occasions, in
1564, 1567, and 1572. His patents were renewed to him under Elizabeth,
and he came in for his share of the patronage of Matthew Parker, whose
edition of Jewel's _Apologia_ he printed in quarto form in 1562. In 1563
appeared from his press the _Commonplaces of Scripture_, by Wolfgang
Musculus, a folio, chiefly notable for a very fine pictorial initial
'I,' measuring nearly 3-1/2 inches square, and representing the
Creation, which had obviously formed part of the opening chapter of
Genesis in some early edition of the Bible. It was certainly used again
in the 1577 edition of Holinshed's _Chronicle_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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