Early Printed BooksDuff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
History
Early Printed Books
Duff, E. Gordon (Edward Gordon)
Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents
How late he continued to carry on business it is not possible to find
out, as none of his books are dated. The Bull of Innocent VIII.,
relating to the marriage of Henry VII., which he printed, cannot
have been issued till after 2nd March 1486; and the occurrence of a
title-page in one of his books points to a still later date, for we
know of no other book having a title-page printed in England before
1491-92.
Machlinia’s use of signatures and initial directors seems to have been
entirely arbitrary, and it is impossible to arrange the books in any
certain order from their typographical peculiarities.
In the ‘Flete-brigge’ type there are nine books. Two works of Albertus
Magnus, the _Liber aggregationis_ and the _De secretis mulierum_;[34]
a _Horæ ad usum Sarum_, known only from fragments rescued from old
bindings; the _Revelation of St. Nicholas to a monk of Evesham_, of
which the two known copies show curious instances of wrong imposition.
There are, besides, three law-books and a school-book, the _Vulgaria
Terencii_. Of the _Horæ ad usum Sarum_ twenty leaves are known, all
printed on vellum. In size it might be called a 16mo, and was made up
in gatherings of eight leaves, each gathering containing two sheets of
vellum. These gatherings were folded in a peculiar way. As an ordinary
rule, when we find a quire of eight leaves formed of two sheets, leaves
1, 2, 7, 8 were printed on one sheet, leaves 3, 4, 5, 6 on the other.
But Machlinia adopted a different plan, and printed leaves 1, 4, 5,
8 on the one sheet, leaves 2, 3, 6, 7 on the other. It is impossible
to say whether there were any cuts in the volume; there are none in
the remaining fragments, but at the beginning of certain portions a
woodcut border was used, which surrounded the whole page. This border
was afterwards used by Pynson. A curious thing to be noticed about the
type in which these books are printed, is its very strong resemblance
to some of the founts of type used about the same period in Spain.
[34] The copy of this book in the University Library, Cambridge,
wanting all signature _c_, but in fine condition, and uncut, has on
the first blank leaf some early writing which refers to the year 1485,
showing probably that the book was not printed after that date.
[Illustration: PAGE OF THE SARUM HORÆ.
(_Printed by Machlinia._)]
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