Typography and Bibliography. 



17 



worthy do6lor may have been, it is evident that our Book of St. 

 Albans could never have been aught but an alien on his book-fhelves. 



The works printed by William Caxton were almoft without 

 exception in the Englifh tongue, while the contemporary preffes of 

 Oxford, St. Albans, and Machlinia were nearly all in Latin. Of the 

 eight books at prefent known to have been printed at St. Albans, the 

 only two in Englifh were the " Fru6lus Temporum " and the work 

 under review. The " Fruftus " or St. Albans' Chronicle is the fame 

 as that printed two years previoufly by Caxton, with the addition of 

 certain ecclefiaftical events and Papal chronology, probably added by 

 the printer himfelf to pleafe the monks. 



The Book of St. Albans' and the St. Albans' Chronicle make a 

 clafs of themfelves ; but as it is impoffible to underftand their pofition 

 without a glance at the other works from the fame prefs, we will give 

 a tabulated defcription of the whole eight. 



BOOKS PRINTED AT ST. ALBANS IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



But who was the printer ? What was his name ? Was he affociated 

 with the great Abbey ? and is there any internal or external evidence in 

 his works to conne6l him with any other printer or any other town ? 



The only notice we have of the printer is an accidental one by 

 Wynken de Worde, who, in reprinting the St. Albans' Chronicle, fays 



