A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



which he printed nearly eighty books, some 

 of which passed through more than one large 

 edition. William Blades his biographer sums 

 up his character as that of a pious, diligent, 

 and educated man, who without aiming very 

 high led the life of an honest and useful 

 merchant. 



Caxton's successor was Wynkyn de Worde, 

 who came to England with him, as a youth, 

 and continued as his workman and chief 

 assistant. He remained at Westminster after 

 his master's death and finished the Canterbury 

 Tales and Hilton's Seale of Perfection, which 

 had been begun by Caxton. In 1496 he 

 removed to the sign of the ' Sun ' in Fleet 

 Street, and printed as many as 488 books 

 between 1493 and 1534. He was, like 

 Caxton, a man of learning, and introduced 

 many improvements in the art of printing as 

 practised in England. He founded his own 

 types, which were of beautiful design, and his 

 books are noted for the excellence of their 

 press-work. He was the first printer who 

 introduced the Roman letter into England, 

 and made use of it to distinguish anything 

 remarkable. 



Richard Pynson, like Wynkyn de Worde, 

 was a workman or ' servant ' of Caxton, and 

 afterwards set up a press of his own at Temple 

 Bar. He was King's Printer to Henry VIII, 

 from whom he received a grant of ^4 annu- 

 ally during life. In this grant, which is dated 

 27 September 1515, he is styled 'Richard 

 Pynson, Esquire, our Printer.' Pynson used 

 this title of ' Esquire ' in the colophon of his 

 Statuta, etc. His known productions number 

 210, and his types are clear and good; but 

 his press work is hardly equal to that of De 

 Worde. His first dated book was Diues and 

 Pauper, printed in 1493, and he continued to 

 print until 1529 or 1531. In his later books 

 he describes himself as living at the sign of 

 the ' George,' in Fleet Street, beside the 

 church. 



One other early printer contributes to the 

 fame of Westminster as the cradle of the 

 English press. Julian Notary is believed by 

 Ames to have printed in France before he 

 came to this country. His name is associated 

 with that of John Barbier as printer of the 

 Salisbury Missal which Ames believed to have 

 been printed on the Continent. His first 

 residence in England, as stated on the colo- 

 phons of his earliest books, was in King Street, 

 Westminster, but about 1503 he removed to 

 a house with the sign of the ' Three Kings,' in 

 the parish of St. Clement Danes, without 

 Temple Bar. In 1 5 1 5 the colophon to The 

 Cronycle of England shows that he had re- 

 moved to a house with the same sign in 



St. Paul's Churchyard, at the west door of the 

 Cathedral, by the Bishop of London's Palace. 

 He is known to have printed twenty-three books, 

 the earliest of which is dated 20 December 

 1498, and thelatest 1520. Notary used two de- 

 vices, which also appear upon his bindings, and 

 will be described in the following section of 

 this article. 



London printing soon left its first home. 

 Caxton's successors migrated to Fleet Street, 

 and the entire body of printers with hardly an 

 exception set up their presses within the City, 

 where the trade remained almost exclusively 

 for over two centuries. Professor Arber's list 

 of London printers for the year 1556 reveals 

 the curious fact that of the 32 booksellers and 

 printers then living in London no less than 

 15 lived in St. Paul's Churchyard, 5 others in 

 close proximity, 8 in Fleet Street, 2 in Lom- 

 bard Street, i in Aldersgate, and another in a 

 locality unknown. 



As a result of an examination of London 

 printed books from the time of Caxton to the 

 year 1556 it appears probable that only three 

 presses existed during that period outside the 

 City of London besides those of Caxton and 

 his immediate successors. 1 The three printers 

 were William Follingham or Follington, who 

 printed for Richard Banks in 1544 at Holy 

 Well in Shoreditch ; Hill, who printed be- 

 tween 1548 and 1553 at St. John's Street, 

 Clerkenwell ; and Robert Wyer, 1527-50, 

 whose press was ' in the byshop of Norwytche 

 rentes, besyde charyng crosse.' 



Wyer was one of the most prolific of the 

 English printers of the 1 6th century. Many 

 of his books are without date, and of a fugi- 

 tive and popular character. His printing for 

 the most part is exceedingly poor, but some 

 of his books in 'foreign secretary Gothic' and 

 ' large lower case Gothic ' types are very well 

 executed. 



The printing trade was kept under strict 

 control by the state, a control exercised chiefly 

 through the Archbishop of Canterbury and 

 the Stationers' Company. This company 

 made an order on 9 May 1615 limiting the 

 number of presses in the City of London to 

 nineteen. Similar, but for the most part inef- 

 fectual, attempts were made from time to time 

 to stop the natural growth of the art of printing. 

 In a list of printers in England who in 1649-- 

 50 entered into recognizances not to print sedi- 

 tious books, among sixty-seven names, only one 

 Middlesex printer is found William Bentley 

 of Finsbury. 5 In 1666, the year of the Great 



1 C. Welch, Literary Associations of St. Paul's 

 (1891), 77 etseq. 



' Bibliografhica, ii, 225. 



198 



