OXFORD AND ST. ALBAN’S.

As early as 1664, when Richard Atkyns issued his Original and Growth of Printing, the assertion was put forward that printing in England was first practised at Oxford. ‘A book came into my hands,’ says Atkyns, ‘printed at Oxon, Anno Dom. 1468, which was three years before any of the recited Authours would allow it to be in England.’

The book here referred to is the celebrated Exposicio sancti Jeronimi in simbolum apostolorum, written by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia; and in the colophon it is clearly stated that the book was printed in 1468. ‘Impressa Oxonie et finita anno domini.M. cccc. lxviij xvij. die decembris.’

Many writers have argued for and against the authenticity of the date; and though some are still found who believe in its correctness, it is generally allowed to be a misprint for 1478. In the first place, the book has printed signatures, which have not been found in any book before 1472. Again, copies of this book have been found bound up in the original binding with books of 1478, In the library of All Souls College, Oxford, is a copy bound up with one of the 1479 books, and though the present binding is modern, they were originally bound together; and we find a set-off from the damp ink of the second volume on the last leaf of the first. A copy in another Oxford library, bound up with the 1479 books, has been marked for or by the binder with consecutive signatures all through the several tracts. Instances of misprinted dates are far from rare. The Mataratius de componendis versibus, printed at Venice by Ratdolt, is dated 1468 instead of 1478, and was on that account sometimes put forward as a proof of early printing there. Spain, too, claimed printing for the same year on account of a misprinted ‘1468’ in a grammar printed at Barcelona. A Vocabularius rerum, printed by John Keller at Augsburg, has the same misprint of 1468. However, the surest test of the date of a book is to place it alongside others from the same press, and compare the workmanship. In this case the book falls naturally into its place at the head of the Oxford list in 1478, taking just the small precedence of the two books of 1479, which the slightly lesser excellence of its workmanship warrants. A break of eleven years between two books which are in every way so closely allied would be almost impossible, and quite unsupported by other instances. Accepting 1478 as the correct date, it is clear that Oxford lost no time in employing the new art, for Caxton had only commenced at Westminster the year before.

The first three books, the Exposicio of 1478 before mentioned, and the Ægidius de originali peccato, and Textus ethicorum Aristotelis per Leonardum Aretinum translatus, both of 1470, form a group of themselves. They are printed in a type either brought from Cologne or directly copied from Cologne work, and strongly resembling that used by Gerard ten Raem de Berka or Guldenschaff. None have a printer’s name, but they are ascribed to Theodore Rood of Cologne, the printer of the other early Oxford books.

The earliest of these three, the Exposicio, is a small quarto of forty-two leaves, with twenty-five lines to the page, and the other two are generally similar in type and form. There are, however, one or two differences to be noted in it. The edges on the right-hand margin are often uneven, the letters Q, H, g are often wrongly used, the text begins on A1 instead of on the second leaf, and it was printed one page at a time. These faults were all rectified in the two later books, which leave little to be desired in the way of execution.

The next dated book appeared in 1481, and it has the advantage of a full colophon giving the name of the printer. It is a Latin commentary on the De Anim of Aristotle, by Alexander de Hales; a folio of 240 leaves, printed in type which had not been used before,—a curious, narrow, upright Gothic, not unlike in general appearance some of the founts used at Zwoll, or by Ther Hoernen at Cologne. A copy of this book was bought in the year that it was published for the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, where it still remains, for the sum of thirty-three shillings and fourpence. In 1482 was issued a Commentary on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, by John Lattebury, a folio of 292 leaves. This is one of the least rare of the early Oxford books, and three copies of it are known printed upon vellum. The most interesting of these is in the library of All Souls College, Oxford. It is a beautiful copy in the original Oxford binding, and the various quires are signed by the proof-readers. Shortly after the issue of the Lattebury, the press acquired an extremely beautiful woodcut border, and the copies still remaining in stock of the Lattebury and the Alexander de Hales were rendered more attractive by having this border printed round the first page of text, and at the beginning of some of the divisions. In this second issue of the two books, some sheets also appear to have been reprinted.

With these two books may be classed two others, in both cases known only from fragments, an edition of Cicero pro Milone and a Latin Grammar. The Cicero pro Milone is a quarto, and would have contained about thirty leaves. At present only eight leaves are known; four in the Bodleian, and four in Merton College Library. This was the first edition of a classic printed in England. Of the Latin Grammar only two leaves are known, which are in the British Museum.

The third and last group contains eight books, of which only one contains a printer’s name. This is found in the colophon to the Phalaris of 1485, a curious production in verse running as follows:—

From this we learn that Rood had taken as his partner one Thomas Hunt, an Englishman, who had been established as a stationer in Oxford as early as 1473. He was probably associated with Rood in the production of all the books in the last group, and his influence may be perhaps traced in the new founts of type used in them, which are much more English in appearance than any which had been used at this press before.

One of the earliest of the books of this last group is the Latin Grammar by John Anwykyll, with the Vulgaria Terencii. Of the first part, the Grammar, which contained about 128 leaves, only one imperfect copy, now in the Bodleian, is known. Of the other part, the Vulgaria, at least four copies are known, and an inscription on the copy belonging to the Bodleian gives us a clue to the date. On its first leaf is written the following inscription:—‘1483. Frater Johannes Grene emit hunc librum Oxonie de elemosinis amicorum suorum’—Brother John Grene bought this book at Oxford with the gifts of his friends. 1483 is, then, the latest date to which we can ascribe the printing of the book; and this fits it into its place, after the books of 1481 and 1482 printed in the earlier type.

After the Anwykyll comes a book by Richard Rolle of Hampole, Explanationes super lectiones beati Job, a quarto of sixty-four leaves, of which all the three known copies are in the University Library, Cambridge. With this may be classed a unique book in the British Museum, a sermon of Augustine, Excitatio ad elemosinam faciendam, a quarto of eight leaves. This book, bound with five other rare tracts, was lot 4912 in the Colbert sale, and brought the large price of 1 livre, 10 sous, about half-a-crown in our money. Another quarto, similar to the last two, follows, a collection of treatises on logical subjects, usually associated with the name of Roger Swyneshede, who was most probably the author of one only out of the nineteen different parts. It is a quarto of 164 leaves, and the only perfect copy known is in the library of New College, Oxford; another copy, slightly imperfect, being in the library of Merton College.

Next in our conjectural arrangement comes the Lyndewode, Super constitutiones provinciales, a large folio of 366 leaves. This is the first edition of the celebrated commentary of William Lyndewode, and of the Provincial Constitutions of England. On the verso of the first leaf is a woodcut, the first occurring in an Oxford book.

Ascribed to the year 1485 are the Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus and the Latin translation of the Epistles of Phalaris, whose colophon has been already noticed.

The Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus is known only from two leaves in the library of St. John’s College, Cambridge. These leaves are used as end papers in the binding of a book; and a volume in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, bound in identically the same manner, has also as end papers two leaves of an Oxford printed book. That these two books must have been bound by the same man, almost at the same time, is shown from the fact that in both we find used vellum leaves from one and the same manuscript along with the refuse Oxford leaves.

The Latin translation of the Epistles of Phalaris, by Franciscus Aretinus, is in many ways the most interesting of this last group of Oxford books, containing as it does a very full colophon. It was printed, so the colophon tells us, in the 297th Olympiad, which those who write on the subject say was the year 1485. It is a quarto of eighty-eight leaves, and a very fine perfect copy is in the library of Wadham College, Oxford; two other copies are known, belonging to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the Spencer Library.

The last book issued by the Oxford press was the Liber Festialis, a book of sermons for the holy days, by John Mirk. Several imperfect copies of this book are known, the most complete being in the library of Lambeth Palace. It is a folio of 174 leaves, and contains a series of eleven large cuts and five small ones. This series of large cuts (together with the cut of an author at work on his book, which occurs in the Lyndewode, and which is clearly one of the set), were not cut for the Festial, but appear to have been prepared for some edition of the Golden Legend. It was to have been a large folio book, for when we find the cuts used in the Festial, they have been cut at one end to allow them to fit the smaller sized sheet.

The Festial is dated 1486, but has no printer’s name. After this we know of no other book produced in Oxford during the fifteenth century, and we have no information to account for the cessation of the press. It is possible, however, that Rood left Oxford and returned to Cologne. Panzer (vol. iv. p. 274) mentions two books, Questiones Aristotelis de generatione et corruptione and Tres libri de anima Aristotelis, printed at Cologne by a printer named Theodoricus in 1485 and 1486. In the library at Munich is a copy of the first book, and a facsimile of a page was published lately in Burger’s Monumenta GermaniÆ et ItaliÆ Typographica.

Now the type in which this book is printed bears the very strongest resemblance in many respects to that used by Rood at Oxford in 1481 and 1482, and the similarity of the names makes it possible, if not probable, that Rood was the printer. The Questiones Aristotelis de generatione et corruptione was finished at Cologne, ‘anno incarnationis dominice 1485 in vigilia S, AndreÆ apostoli per Theodoricum impressorem colonie infra sedecim domos.’[33]

The vigil of St. Andrew was the 29th of November, so that Rood had not much time to move from Oxford and start his new office between the date of the publication of the Phalaris, 1485, and the 29th of November of the same year.

Ennen and Madden consider that this Theodoricus was a certain Theodoric de Berse, whose name occurs in a list of printers and stationers of Cologne in 1501.

It is impossible with our present knowledge to say any more on the question; but if Rood did return to Cologne, the Festial must have been printed by Hunt alone. With it the fifteenth century printing at Oxford suddenly ceased, after a fairly prosperous career of eight years, during which at least fifteen books were issued.

From 1486 onward we have no further record of printing there till the year 1517. In the meanwhile the stationers supplied such books as were required; and to some of them we find incidental references, both in accounts and in the colophons of books printed for them.

In 1506, Pynson printed an edition of the Principia of Peregrinus de Lugo, at the expense of Georgius Castellanus, who was living at the sign of St. John the Evangelist. Between 1512 and 1514, Henry Jacobi, a London stationer, moved to Oxford, and started business at the sign of the Trinity, the sign which he had used when in London. He died at Oxford in 1514. In 1517 the new press was started by John Scolar, who lived ‘in viculo diui Joannis baptiste.’ The first book he issued was a commentary by Walter Burley on apart of Aristotle, and this was followed in the next year by another book by the same author, De materia et forma. In 1518 were also issued the Questiones super libros ethicorum, by John Dedicus [15 May], the Compendium questionum de luce et lumine [5 June], and Robert Whitinton’s De heteroclitis nominibus [27 June]. To the same year may be assigned a Prognostication by Jasper Laet, of which there is a copy in the Cambridge University Library. In 1519 there is only one book, printed by a new man, for Scolar has disappeared. It is the Compotus manualis ad usum Oxoniensium, printed by Charles Kyrfoth, who lived like Scolar ‘in vico diui Joannis baptiste,’ and perhaps succeeded the latter in business. From this time forward no books were printed in Oxford till 1585, when the University Press was started by Joseph Barnes, and commenced its career by issuing the Speculum moralium quÆstionum of John Case.

One more early Oxford stationer must be mentioned as connected with printing, and this is John Dorne or Thorne, who was in business about 1520, and whose most interesting Day-book was edited some years ago by Mr. Falconer Madan for the Oxford Historical Society. He was originally a stationer, and perhaps printer, at Brunswick. A small educational work, the Opusculum insolubilium secundum usum insignis scole paruisi in alma universitate Oxonie, printed by Treveris, was to be sold ‘apud I. T.’ These initials stand probably for John Thorne, and we find the book mentioned in his accounts.

ST. ALBAN’S.

The schoolmaster printer of St. Alban’s has left us no information as to his life, or even told us his name, and we should know nothing whatever about him had not W. de Worde referred to him as ‘sometime schoolmaster of St. Albans.’

The press was probably started in 1479; for though the earliest dated book is dated 1480, an edition from this press of Augustini Dacti elegancie, in quarto, is evidently earlier, being printed throughout in one type, the first of those used by this printer. Of this book one copy only is known, in the University Library, Cambridge.

In 1480 the schoolmaster printer issued the Rhetorica Nova of Laurentius de Saona, a book which Caxton was printing about the same time, and very soon after it the Questiones Alberti de modo significandi. These were followed by three more works in Latin, the Questiones super Physica Aristotelis of Joannes Canonicus, the Exempla SacrÆ ScripturÆ, and Antonius AndreÆ super Logica Aristotelis. The remaining two books from this press, in contrast to those that had preceded them, are of a popular character. These are the Chronicles of England, and the treatise on hawking, hunting, and coat armour, commonly known as the Book of St. Alban’s.

All the eight St. Alban’s books are of the greatest rarity. More than half are known only from single copies; of some, not a single perfect copy remains.

The very scholastic nature of the majority of the books from this press renders it more or less uninteresting; but the two latest works, the Chronicles and the Book of St. Alban’s, appeal more to popular taste. Editions of the Chronicles were issued by every English printer, and there is nothing in this particular one to merit special remark. The Book of St. Alban’s, on the other hand, is a book of very particular interest. It consists of three parts; the first is devoted to hawking, the second to hunting, and the third to coat armours or heraldry. Naturally enough it was a popular book—so popular that no perfect copy now exists. It also possesses the distinction of being the first English book which contains specimens of printing in colour; for the coats-of-arms at the end are for the most part printed in their correct colour. Later in the century, in 1496, W. de Worde issued another edition of this book, adding to it a chapter on ‘Fishing with an angle.’

In these eight St. Alban’s books we find four different types used. The first is a small, clear-cut, distinctive type, but is only used for the text of one book and the signatures of others. Type No. 2, which is used for the text of the two English and one of the Latin books, is a larger ragged type, with a strong superficial resemblance to Caxton’s. Type No. 3, which is used in four Latin books, is a smaller type, full of abbreviations and contractions; while the last type is one which had belonged to Caxton (his type 3), but which he gave up using about 1484. This use of Caxton’s type has led some people to imagine that there was a close connection between the Westminster and St. Alban’s press; and a writer in the AthenÆum went so far as to propound a theory that Caxton’s unsigned books were really printed at St. Alban’s.