Within the period I have chosen, printing was exercised in ten towns, and the presses fall roughly into three groups. The first contains Oxford, St Alban’s, and York, the second Oxford’s revived press, Cambridge, Tavistock, Abingdon, and the second St Alban’s press, and the last group Ipswich, Worcester, and Canterbury. Besides these there are one or two towns which, while not having presses of their own, had books specially printed for sale in them, as for example Hereford and Exeter, where the resident stationer commissioned books from foreign printers. And lastly, there must be noticed the places which have been claimed as possessing a press on account of false or misleading imprints, such as Winchester and Greenwich. The first book issued from the Oxford press, the _Expositio in symbolum apostolorum_, a treatise by Tyrannius Rufinus on the Apostles’ Creed, was finished on the 17th of December 1478. By an error of the printer an x was omitted from the figures forming the date in the colophon, and thus the year was printed as m.cccc.lxviii. [1468] in place of m.cccc.lxxviii. [1478], and round this false date a wonderful legendary story was woven some two hundred and fifty years ago. In 1664 a certain Richard Atkyns published a tract, entitled _The Original and growth of Printing_, written to prove that printing was a prerogative of the Crown. To strengthen his case he quoted this Oxford book, produced, as he claimed, much earlier than anything by Caxton, and also told a wonderful story of the introduction of printing into England, said to have been derived from a manuscript in the archives at Lambeth Palace. According to this account, Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, having heard of the invention of printing at Haarlem, where John Gutenberg was then at work (a strange fact which might simplify the researches on early printing!), persuaded Henry VI. to endeavour to introduce the art into England. For this purpose, Robert Turner, an officer of the Robes, taking Caxton as an assistant, set out for Haarlem, where, after infinite trouble and considerable bribery, a workman named Frederick Corsellis was persuaded to return with them to England. On his arrival he was sent under a strong guard to Oxford, and there set up his press, under the protection of the King.