Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
[51] This and the _Dives and Pauper_ of 1493 (which, until the
discovery of the _Doctrinale_, was reckoned Pynson's first dated
book) and several other of his earliest editions were published
partly at the expense of a merchant named John Rushe, who took six
hundred copies of the _Dives_ and the _Boccaccio_ at 4s. apiece. See
_Two Lawsuits of Richard Pynson_, by H. R. Plomer, in _The Library_,
second series, Vol. X.
[52] See _The Library_, second series, Vol. VIII, pp. 298 _sqq._
[53] In _The Library_, second series, Vol. IX, pp. 257-81.
[54] "The Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders of Westminster and
London, 1476-1535" (last paragraph).
CHAPTER XIII
ENGLISH BOOKS PRINTED ELSEWHERE THAN AT LONDON
[Illustration: XXVIII. COLOGNE, PRINTER UNCERTAIN, 1525
TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT, FIRST PAGE OF TEXT]
During the fifteenth century presses were set up in more than fifty
places in Germany, in more than seventy in Italy, in nearly forty in
France, in more than twenty in the Netherlands, in twenty-four in Spain,
in only three (counting London and Westminster as one) in England. In
London and Westminster over 330 books are known to have been printed; in
Oxford and St. Albans only twenty-five. The reason for this paucity of
provincial printing in England must be found by the social historian.
The beginning of the sixteenth century brought no change in the facts.
For thirty years from March, 1487, there was no printing-press at
Oxford. In December, 1517, a Latin commentary on the Posterior Analytics
of Aristotle appeared with the imprint "Academia Oxonie," and in four
subsequent books, printed in 1518, the printer of this gave his name as
Johannes Scolar. A fragment of a sixth book has lately been found at the
British Museum. In 1519 Scolar's place was taken by Carolus Kyrforth,
who printed a _Compotus_, or small arithmetic book. A prognostication by
Jaspar Laet may have been printed apparently either by Scolar or
Kyrforth. After the appearance of these eight books there was no more
printing at Oxford until a press was started there in 1585 by Joseph
Barnes, under the auspices of the University. The last book of the
Schoolmaster-printer appeared at St. Albans in 1486, and after this
there was no more printing there until 1534. In that year, at the
request of Abbot Catton, a printer named John Hertfort, or Herford,
printed there _The glorious lyfe and passion of seint Albon_. Robert
Catton was succeeded as abbot by Richard Stevenage, and in the years
1536-8 three religious books were printed for him by Hertfort, who also
printed an Arithmetic and two other books on his own account, making
seven books in all. Then, in October, 1539, John Hertfort fell under
suspicion of having printed a "little book of detestable heresies,"[55]
and the Abbot had to send him to London. The abbey itself was suppressed
by the King the same year, and Hertfort, deprived of his patron, had no
inducement to return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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