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
The books printed by these two Cambridge printers show that they had a
good variety of Roman and Italic, very regularly cast, besides some neat
ornaments and initials. Whether these founts belonged to the
University, or to Thomas in the first place, is not clear. Nor do these
books bear out the Bishop of London's statement as to Thomas being
ignorant of printing; on the contrary, the presswork was such as could
only have been done by a skilled workman.
In addition to the foregoing, there were several secret presses at work
in various parts of the country during the second half of the century.
The Cartwright controversy, which began in 1572 with the publication of
a tract entitled _An Admonition to the Parliament_, was carried out by
means of a secret press at which John Stroud is believed to have worked,
and had as assistants two men named Lacy and Asplyn. The Stationers'
Company employed Toy and Day to hunt it out, with the result that it was
seized at Hempstead, probably Hemel Hempstead, Herts, or Hempstead near
Saffron Walden, Essex. The type was handed over to Bynneman, who used it
in printing an answer to Cartwright's book. It was in consequence of his
action in this matter that John Day was in danger of being killed by
Asplyn.
A few years later books by Jesuit authors were printed from a secret
press which, from some notes written by F. Parsons in 1598, and now
preserved in the library of Stonyhurst College, we know began work at
Greenstreet House, East Ham, but was afterwards removed to Stonor Park.
The overseer of this press was Stephen Brinckley, who had several men
under him, and the most noted book issued from it was Campion's
_Rationes Decem_, with the colophon, 'Cosmopoli 1581.'
Finally, there was the Marprelate press, of which Robert Waldegrave was
the chief printer. He was the son of a Worcestershire yeoman, and put
himself apprentice to William Griffith, from the 24th June 1568, for
eight years. He was therefore out of his time in 1576, and in 1578 there
is entered to him a book entitled _A Castell for the Soul_. His
subsequent publications were of the same character, including, in 1581,
_The Confession and Declaration of John Knox_, _The Confession of the
Protestants of Scotland_, and a sermon of Luther's. It was not, however,
until the 7th April 1588 that he got into trouble. In that year he
printed a tract of John Udall's, entitled _The State of the Church of
England_. His press was seized and his type defaced, but he succeeded in
carrying off some of it to the house of a Mrs. Crane at East Molesey,
where he printed another of Udall's tracts, and the first of the
Marprelate series: _O read over D. John Bridges for it is a worthye
work. Printed oversea in Europe within two furlongs of a Bounsing
Priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, gentleman_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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