420 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



each month is duly giyen. Some few Celtic saints — St. Brigid, St. 

 Patiicji, St. Petroc, St. David — are commemorated, but they are very 

 few indeed. Then comes the Psalter, followed by the Canticles from 

 the Old and IS'ew Testament, and the Te Deum, where a rubric ia 

 added, stating that this hymn was said by some to have been composed 

 by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine at the baptism of St. Augustine ;■ 

 but that this was a mistake, as it really was composed by St. Mcetus, 

 of Treves, as Cassiodorus declares in his work about the Institution of 

 Holy Scriptiire.^ This statement gives us a glimpse of the condition 

 of historic knowledge at that time, as Cassiodorus lived a clear hundred 

 years before St. Nicetus, so that he must have been a prophet to 

 be able to tell what Nicetus would compose a hundred years after 

 Cassiodorus had died. However interesting the book may be on 

 these questions, they have more attraction for a Historical Society than 

 for such a body as ours devoted to literary subjects from an antiquarian 

 point of view. Looking at the Psaltery from that standpoint, the most 

 curious topic is its printer, Richard Pynson.^ He was, as I have said, 

 the earliest printer in the city of London, as printing was first establislied 

 by Caxton in Westminster, where Caxton was succeeded by his son- 

 in-law, Wynken de "Worde. 



Richard Pynson and Do "Worde were fellow apprentices to Caxton 

 and great friends all through life. Pynson established his printing 

 press at Temple Bar, where he printed his first work in 1493, under 

 the title of "The Dialogue of Dives and Lazarus upon the Ten 

 Commandments," which ought to be very useful and edifying reading 

 for the wealthier members of this Academy, though we can scarcely 

 be quite certain about the authenticity of the reports.^ Three years 

 later he printed there the first classical work published in England, 



1 Cf. the article on St. Nicetus (3) 25th Archbishop of Treves in the Diet, of 

 Christ. Biog. iv. 38. 



^ AU hooks dealing with the history of printing, such as Palmer, Mattaire, Cotton, 

 Humphreys, Blades, are full of Pynson ; cf. the article on him in the Dictionary 

 of National Biograplnj. 



2 Pynson also printed the "Ship of Fools," in which the first fool was the 

 " Book Fool " or Bibliomaniac, who is thus represented : — 



" I am the first fool of the whole navy, 

 To keep the pompe, the helme, and eke the sayle. 

 And this is my minde, and this one pleasure have I 

 Of books to have great plenty and aparyle, 

 Yet take no wisdom by them, nor yet avayle." 



He has them only for show and for their fine bindings. 



