CAXTON—WYNKYN DE WORDE—JULIAN NOTARY.

The history of the Introduction of Printing into England is comparatively clear and straightforward; for we have neither the difficulties of conflicting accounts, as in the case of Germany and the Low Countries, nor troublesome manuscript references which cannot be adequately explained, as in the case of France. Previous to 1477, when Caxton introduced the art in a perfect state, nothing had been produced in England but a few single sheet prints, such as the Images of Pity, of which there are copies in the British Museum and the Bodleian, and the cut of the Lion, the device of Bishop Gray (1454-1479), in Ely Cathedral.

There was no block-printing (for the verses on the seven virtues in the British Museum, and formerly in the Weigel Collection, are comparatively late), and with the one exception of the false date of 1468 in the first Oxford book, which we shall treat of later, there is nothing to confuse us in forming an absolutely clear idea of the introduction of the art into England, and its subsequent growth.

William Caxton, our first printer, was born, as he himself tells us, ‘in the Weald of Kent,’ but unfortunately he has given us no clue to the date; probably it was about 1420; and in 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a mercer of the city of London, who was Lord Mayor in 1439-40. His business necessitated his residence abroad, and he doubtless left England shortly after his apprenticeship, for in 1469 he tells us that he had been ‘thirty years for the most part in the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zetland.’ In 1453 he visited England, and was admitted to the Livery of the Mercers’ Company. About 1468 he was acting as governor to the ‘English Nation residing abroad,’ or ‘Merchant Adventurers’ at Bruges. After some six or seven years in this position, he entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. The greater leisure which this appointment afforded him was employed in literary pursuits. In March 1469 he commenced a translation of the Recueil des Histoires de Troyes, by Raoul le FÈvre, but it was not finished till 19th September 1471, when Caxton was staying at Cologne.

This visit to Cologne marks an interesting period in Caxton’s career, for it is most probable that it was there he learnt to print. Wynkyn de Worde tells us that the first book printed by Caxton was the BartholomÆus de proprietatibus rerum, and that it was printed at Cologne. It has been the general custom of writers to condemn this story as impossible, perhaps without sufficiently examining the facts.

W. de Worde says in his preface to the English edition—

Now, there is a Latin edition, evidently printed at Cologne about the time that Caxton was there, in a type almost identical with that of N. Gotz or the printer of the Augustinus de fide; and it was in conjunction with a very similar type, in 1476, that the ‘gros bÂtarde’ type, which is so intimately connected with Caxton, first appeared. Though Caxton worked in partnership with Colard Mansion about 1475-77, he had probably learnt something of the art before; and, taking into consideration his journey to Cologne, the statement of Wynkyn de Worde, and the typographical connexion between the BartholomÆus and Caxton’s books, we may safely say that the story cannot be put aside as without foundation. It is not, of course, suggested that Caxton printed the book by himself, but only that he assisted in its production. He was learning the art of printing in the office where this book was being prepared, and his practical knowledge was acquired by assisting to print it.

Another Cologne book which may have been printed for Caxton, or produced through his means, is the first edition of the Breviary according to the use of Sarum. Unfortunately we only know of its existence through a few leaves in the libraries at Oxford, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Paris, and have therefore no means of knowing by whom it was printed, or whether it had any colophon at all. It is a quarto, printed in two columns, and with thirty-one lines to the column. Such a book would hardly have been printed without the help of an English stationer,—and who more likely than Caxton?

In 1477 an eventful change took place in Caxton’s career. ‘On June 21, 1476, was fought the bloody battle of Morat between the Duke of Burgundy and the Swiss, which resulted in the ruin of the Burgundian power. In the following January, the Duke, while engaged in a murderous battle at Nanci, was overpowered and fell, covered with wounds, stubbornly fighting to the last. Caxton’s mistress was now no longer the ruling power at the court of Bruges. The young daughter of the late Duke succeeded as the reigning sovereign, and the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy resigned her position at court, retiring into comparative privacy on a handsome jointure. Caxton’s services as secretary would now be no longer required by the Duchess in her altered position.’[31]

Early, therefore, in 1477, Caxton returned to England, and set up his press in the Almonry at Westminster. On 18th November of the same year he finished printing the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophers, the first book printed in England. Copies of this book vary, some being without the imprint. This was followed by an edition of the Sarum Ordinale, known now only from fragments, and the curious little ‘cedula’ relating to it, advertising the ‘pyes of two or three commemorations.’

The productiveness of Caxton’s press in its earliest years was most remarkable, for we know of at least thirty books printed within the first three years. A good many of these, however, were very small, the little tracts of Chaucer and Lydgate containing but a few leaves each. These were the ‘small storyes and pamfletes’ with which, according to Robert Copland, Caxton began his career as printer. On the other hand, we have the History of Jason (150 leaves), The Canterbury Tales (374 leaves), Chaucer’s Boethius (94 leaves), the Rhetorica Nova of Laur: Gulielmus de Saona (124 leaves), the Cordyal (78 leaves), the second edition of the Dictes or Sayengis (76 leaves), and the Chronicles of England (182 leaves).

The starting of Lettou’s press in London, in 1480, may probably account for some of the changes introduced by Caxton in that year. His first indulgence, printed this year in the large type, was at once thrown into the shade by the editions of the same indulgence issued by Lettou in his small neat letter, which was much better adapted for such work. Lettou also in this year used signatures, Caxton doing the same. The competition caused Caxton to make his fount of small type, and to introduce many other improvements. It was about this time that he introduced woodcuts into his books; and the first book in which we find then is the Mirrour of the World. The cuts in this volume may be divided into two sets, those given for the first time by Caxton, and those copied from his predecessors. The first are ordinary woodcuts, the second what we should call diagrams. The woodcuts are of the poorest design and coarsest execution. Several are of a master with four or five pupils, others of single figures engaged in scientific pursuits. The diagrams are more or less carefully copied from the MSS.: they are numbered in the table of contents as being eight in part I., nine in part II., and ten [X. being misprinted for IX.] in part III. Of the eight belonging to part I., Nos. 2 and 3 are put to their wrong chapters, and consequently No. 4 is omitted altogether. The diagrams to part II. are wrongly drawn, and in some cases misplaced. The nine diagrams to part III. are the most correct. Some writers have contended that the cuts in Caxton’s books are from metal and not from wood-blocks; but some of them which are found in use at a considerably later date show marks of worm holes; a conclusive proof of the material being wood.

To the year 1480 we can ascribe seven books, almost all in the new type, No. 4. These are the French and English phrase-book, Lidgate’s Curia SapientiÆ, the Chronicles of England, and the Description of Britain; and three liturgical books, the De Visitatione B.M.V., the Psalterium, and a HorÆ ad usum Sarum, the two latter printed in type 3. Of the HorÆ, but a few leaves are known, which formed part of the wonderful find of fragments in the binding of a copy of the Boethius at St. Albans Grammar School. This volume was found by Mr. Blades in 1858, and from the covers were taken no less than fifty-six half sheets of printed paper, proving the existence of three works from Caxton’s press quite unknown before, the HorÆ above mentioned, the Ordinale, and an indulgence of Pope Sixtus IV.

About 1481 appeared the first English edition of Reynard the Fox; and in that year two other books, both dated, Tully of Old Age, and the Siege of Jerusalem.

These were followed by the Polycronicon, the Chronicles of England (edit. 2), Burgh’s Cato, and the second edition of the Game of the Chesse, which is illustrated with woodcuts, the first edition having none. There are altogether sixteen different woodcuts used in the volume, and eight occur twice.

Between 1483 and the end of 1485, Caxton was at his very busiest, issuing in that time about twenty-two books; and amongst them are some of the most important. There are the Pilgrimage of the Soul, the Festial and Quattuor Sermones, the Sex EpistolÆ, of which the unique copy is now in the British Museum; the Lyfe of Our Lady, the second edition of the Canterbury Tales (the first with woodcuts), Chaucer’s Troilus and Cresida and Hous of Fame, the Confessio Amantis, the Knight of the Tower, and Æsop’s Fables. This book, which appeared 26th March 1484, has a full page frontispiece and no less than 185 woodcuts, the work of two, if not three, different cutters. They are of the very poorest execution, and not original in design, being more or less carefully copied from a foreign edition. The whole of the earlier part of 1485 must have been expended upon the production of the Golden Legend, the largest book which issued from Caxton’s press. It contains 449 leaves, and is printed on a much larger sheet than was generally used by Caxton for folios, the full sheet measuring as much as 24 inches by 16 inches. It has, as illustrations, a large cut for the frontispiece, representing heaven, and two series of eighteen large and fifty-two small cuts, the large series including one of the device of the Earl of Arundel, to whom the book is dedicated. Most copies of the Golden Legend now in existence are made up partly of this and partly of the second edition. As far as can be judged, the distinguishing mark is the type of the headlines, which in the first edition are in type 3, and in the second edition in type 5. No copy is known made up entirely of one edition.

For the latter part of 1485 we have three dated books, the Morte d’Arthur (31st July), the only perfect copy of which is now, unfortunately, in America; the Life of Charles the Great (1st December), the only existing copy of which is in the British Museum; and The Knight Paris and the Fair Vienne (19th December), of which again the only known copy is in the British Museum.

In 1487, Caxton tried a new venture, and had printed for him at Paris, by George Maynyal, an edition of the Sarum Missal. Only one copy is known, slightly imperfect, which is in private hands. In this book, for the first time, Caxton used his well-known device, probably for the purpose of emphasising what might easily have been overlooked,—that the book was printed at his expense. So much has been written on Caxton’s device, and such extraordinary theories made about its hidden meanings, that it may be as well to point out that it consists simply of his mark standing between his initials, with a certain amount of unmeaning ornament. It was probably cut in England, being coarsely executed, while those used in France at the same time are well cut and artistic. About 1487-88 we find two more books ornamented with woodcuts, the Royal Book and the Speculum Vite Christi. The Speculum contains a number of well-executed cuts, the Royal Book only seven, six of which had appeared in the Speculum.

About 1488 a second edition of the Golden Legend was issued, almost exactly the same as the first, but with the life of St. Erasmus added, so that this edition does not end, like the first, with a blank leaf. At the time of Caxton’s death, he seems to have had a large stock of this book still on his hands, for he left fifteen copies to the Church of St. Margaret, and a large number of copies to his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Gerard Croppe, a tailor in Westminster. It is hard to understand how, with this large stock still for sale, Wynkyn de Worde could afford to print a new edition in 1493 and another in 1498; for even at the latter date copies of Caxton’s edition were, as we happen to know, still to be obtained.

To about this time may be ascribed the curious Image of Pity in the University Library, Cambridge. It is not printed on a separate piece of paper, but is a sort of proof struck off on the blank last page of a book with which the indulgence has nothing to do. The book is a copy of the Colloquium peccatoris et Crucifixi J. C., printed at Antwerp by Mathias van der Goes about 1487, which must have been accidentally lying near when the printer wanted something to take an impression upon.[32]

In 1489, Caxton printed two editions of an indulgence of great typographical interest. This indulgence was first noticed by Dr. Cotton, who mentions it in his Typographical Gazetteer under Oxford, supposing it to have been printed at that place. Bradshaw, on seeing a photograph of it, at once conjectured from the form and appearance of the type that it was printed by Caxton, though Blades refused to accept it as a product of his press without further proof, and it was never admitted into any of his books on Caxton. The same type was afterwards found by Bradshaw used for sidenotes in the 1494 edition of the Speculum Vite Christi, printed by W. de Worde, and the type being in his possession at that date, could have belonged in 1489 to no one but Caxton.

In a list of Caxton’s types this type would be known as type 7.

In addition to these two indulgences, a number of books may be assigned to this year. The Fayttes of Arms is dated; but besides this there are the Statutes of Henry VII., the Governayle of Health, the Four Sons of Aymon, Blanchardyn and Eglantyne, Directorium Sacerdotum, second edition, the third edition of the Dictes or Sayengis, the Doctrinal of Sapience, and an Image of Pity printed on one leaf. The second edition of Reynard the Fox, known only from the copy preserved in the Pepysian Library, may also be assigned to this year. With the exception of the Eneydos, the remainder of Caxton’s books are of a religious or liturgical character. Amongst them we must class an edition probably of the HorÆ ad usum Sarum not mentioned by Blades; for though no copy or even fragment is now known, it is certain that such a book was printed. A set-off from a page of it was discovered by Bradshaw on a waste sheet of the Fifteen Oes. All that could be certainly distinguished was that it was printed in type 5, that there were twenty-two lines to a page, and that each page was surrounded by a border.

The Fifteen Oes itself is a most interesting book. It was printed originally, no doubt, as an extra part for an edition of the HorÆ ad usum Sarum now entirely lost. It contains a beautifully executed woodcut of the crucifixion,—one of a series of five which occur complete in a HorÆ printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, and it is also the only existing book from this press which has borders to the pages. Caxton printed altogether about one hundred books, using in them altogether eight types. Blades gives ninety-nine books printed by Caxton, two of which were certainly printed by his associate in Bruges after Caxton had left for England. On the other hand, he does not mention the newly-discovered Grammar, the two editions of the Indulgence of 1489, a second edition of the Lyf of our Lady, known from a fragment in the Bodleian, and one or two other indulgences. One or two books which Blades includes were printed undoubtedly by De Worde, such as the Book of Courtesye (which, indeed, contains his small device), The Chastysing of God’s Children, and the Treatise of Love. The genuine Caxtons catalogued by Blades number ninety-four.

As regards types, Blades gives six of Caxton’s, and a seventh which he conjectures only to have been used by Wynkyn de Worde, though in this he was mistaken, for it occurs in books printed while Caxton was alive. Again, the type of the 1489 Indulgence which he does not mention, was conclusively proved by Bradshaw to be one of Caxton’s types. This type should be considered as type 7, and the former type, which does not appear until 1490-91, as type 8. The woodcut initials which occur in the Chastysing of God’s Children were not used till after Caxton’s death.

But while we venerate Caxton as our first printer, we must not overlook the claims which he has upon us as a translator and editor. Wonderful as his diligence in press-work may appear, it is still more wonderful to consider how much literary work he found time to do in the intervals of his business. He was the editor of all the books which he printed, and he himself translated no less than twenty-two, including that great undertaking the Golden Legend. Even on his deathbed he was still at work, as we learn from the colophon of the Vitas Patrum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495: ‘Thus endyth the moost vertuouse hystorye of the deuoute and right renowned lyves of holy faders lyvynge in deserte, worthy of remembraunce to all wel dysposed persones, which hath ben translated oute of Frenche into Englysshe by William Caxton of Westmynstre late deed and fynysshed at the laste daye of hys lyff.’

On Caxton’s death, in 1491, his materials passed into the hands of Wynkyn de Worde, his assistant, who continued to print in the same house at Westminster. Up to 1493 he continued to use Caxton’s type, with the addition of some woodcut initials obtained from Godfried van Os, from whom he also obtained a complete set of type, which was not used till 1496, and then only for printing one book.

W. de Worde, though he must have lived for some time previously in England, only took out letters of denization in 1496. The grant is dated 20th April to ‘Winando de Worde, de ducatu Lothoringie oriundo, impressori librorum.’

The earliest books which he printed have no name, and are all in Caxton’s type, Nos. 6 and 4*, but with some additional types which distinguish his works from Caxton’s.

From the time of Caxton’s death, in 1491, to the time when his own name first appears in an imprint, Wynkyn de Worde printed five books. They are the Chastysing of God’s Children, the Treatise of Love, and the Book of Courtesye, all printed in type 6; and the Golden Legend and the Life of St. Catherine, printed in a modification of type 4*, a type which is used in no other books. The Chastysing is interesting as having a title-page, the first in any book from this office; while in the Book of Courtesye we find the device of W. de Worde used for the first time.

In 1493 we find for the first time a book containing De Worde’s name. This is the Liber Festivalis, probably printed towards the end of the year, for the Quattuor Sermones, generally issued with it, is dated 1494. The next book to appear was Walter Hylton’s Scala Perfectionis; and in the same year was issued a reprint of Bonaventura’s Speculum Vite Christi, a book of very great interest, for the sidenotes are printed with the type which Caxton used for his Indulgence of 1489, and which was used for no other book than this. To this year 1494 we may ascribe a beautiful edition of the Sarum HorÆ, adorned with woodcuts and borders, nearly all of which were inherited from Caxton. The type which De Worde used for these books seems to have come into Caxton’s hands from France, during the last year of his life, and resembles closely certain founts which belonged to the Paris printers P. Levet and Higman, if indeed it is not the same. After 1494, De Worde discarded it, using it only occasionally for headings or titles. Blades wrongly says that the use of this type separates the early W. de Worde books from the Caxton’s; but Caxton certainly possessed and used it. The distinctive mark of the early Wynkyn de Worde books is the use of the initials obtained from G. van Os. Bradshaw, speaking of these, says, ‘Indeed, the woodcut initials are what specially serve at once to distinguish W. de Worde’s earliest from Caxton’s latest books.’

In 1495 we have three dated books, the Vitas Patrum, which Caxton was engaged in translating up to the day of his death; Higden’s Polycronicon, the first English book containing musical notes, and the Directorium Sacerdotum. Besides these, a fair number of undated books may be ascribed to this year or the year after. The most important is the BartholomÆus, De Proprietatibus Rerum. Apart from its ordinary interest, it is considered to be the first book printed on paper made in England.

In 1496 appeared the curious reprint of the Book of St. Albans. It seems never to have been noticed that this book is entirely printed with the type which was obtained from Godfried van Os about the time of his removal to Copenhagen. Besides the Book of St. Albans, it has an extra chapter on fishing with an angle, the first treatise on the subject in English. An edition of the Dives and Pauper, with a handsome title-page, was issued this year, as well as a number of smaller books of considerable interest, as the Constitutions of Lyndewode, the Meditacions of St. Bernard, and the Festial and Quattuor Sermones. Among the dated books of 1497 are the Chronicles of England, an edition copied from the one printed at St. Albans; and it is from the colophon to this edition that we learn that the printer at St. Albans was ‘sometyme scole mayster’ there.

In 1498 three large and important books were printed; of these the first was an edition of the Golden Legend, of which only one perfect copy is known, in the Spencer Collection; the next, a second edition of the Morte d’Arthur, the first illustrated with woodcuts. The only known copy of this book, wanting ten leaves, is also in the Spencer Library. The third book was an edition of the Canterbury Tales. In 1499 a large number of books were printed, the most curious being an edition of Mandeville’s Travels, illustrated profusely with woodcuts of the wonders seen by the traveller, who got as far as the walls of Paradise, but did not look in. Of this book two copies, both imperfect, are known. A Book of Good Manners and a Psalterium, both known from single copies, were also printed in this year. An Ortus Vocabulorum, printed in 1500, is the last book which was issued by De Worde at Westminster. Altogether, from 1491 to the time he left Caxton’s old house at Westminster, W. de Worde printed about a hundred books, certainly not less; and he also had a few books printed for him, and at his expense, by other printers.

In a very large number of De Worde’s early books he inserted the cut of the crucifixion, which is first found in Caxton’s XV Oes. In 1499 the block split at the time when they were printing an edition of the Mirror of Consolation, sometime after the 10th July, so that all the books which contain the cut in its injured state must be later than 10th July 1499.

The year 1500 gives us an excellent date-mark for W. de Worde’s books, for in that year he moved from Westminster ‘in Caxton’s house,’ to London, in Fleet Street, at the sign of the Sun. Upon moving he seems to have destroyed or disposed of a good deal of printing material. Some of his woodcuts passed to Julian Notary, who was also at that time a printer in Westminster. One of his marks and some of his type disappear entirely at this time. The type which he had used in the majority of the books printed in the last few years of the fifteenth century we find in use up to 1508 or 1509, when it disappears from London to reappear at York; but his capitals and marks had changed. From 1504 onward he used in the majority of his books the well-known square device in three divisions, having in the upper part the sun and moon and a number of stars, In the centre the W. and C. and Caxton’s mark; below this the ‘Sagittarius’ shooting an arrow at a dog. It has not hitherto been noticed that of this device there are three varieties, identical to a superficial view, yet quite distinct and definitely marking certain periods. The first variety in use from 1505 to 1518 has in the upper part eleven stars to the left of the sun and nine to the right, while the white circular inlets at the ends of the W. are almost closed. The second variety used from 1519 to the middle of 1528 has the same number of stars, but the circular inlets at the ends of the letters are more open. The last variety has ten stars to the left of the sun and ten to the right. It was used from 1528 to the time of De Worde’s death. In the colophons of some of his early books De Worde mentions that he had another shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard, with the sign of Our Lady of Pity.

Wynkyn de Worde was essentially a popular printer, and he issued innumerable small tracts; short romances in prose and verse, books of riddles, books on carving and manners at table, almanacs, sermons, grammars, and such like. Many of these books were translations from the French, and were made by Robert Copland, who was one of De Werde’s apprentices. The later books of De Worde are often puzzling. He seems to have employed John Scot to print for him, and many books which have only De Worde’s name are in Scot’s type. One book is particularly curious. It is an edition of The Mirror of Golde for the Sinful Soul, 29th March 1522. Some copies have a colophon, ‘Imprinted at London withoute Newgate, in Saint Pulker’s Parysche, by John Scot.’ Other copies have the first sheet and the last leaf reset, while the colophon runs, ‘Imprinted at London in Fletestrete, at the sygne of the Sone, by Wynkyn de Worde.’

De Worde died at the end of 1534. His will is dated 5th June 1534, and it was proved 19th January 1535. His executors were John Bedill, who succeeded him in business, and James Gaver, probably a bookbinder, and one of the numerous family of that name who exercised their craft in the Low Countries. In the forty years that he printed, Wynkyn de Worde produced over six hundred books, that is, more than fifteen a year, a much higher average than any other early English printer attained.

About the year 1496 three printers started in partnership at the sign of St. Thomas the Apostle in London. They were Julian Notary, Jean Barbier, and a third whose name is not known, but whose initials were I. H., and who may perhaps have been Jean Huvin. The first book which they printed was the Questiones Alberti de modis significandi, a quarto of sixty leaves, printed in a clear, handsome black letter. At the end of the book is a printer’s mark, with the initials of the printers, but there is no colophon to tell us either their names or the date of printing. In 1497 they issued an edition of the HorÆ ad usum Sarum, printed, as we learn from the colophon, for Wynkyn de Worde. The same printer’s mark is in this book, but again we have no information about the names of the printers. In 1498 the firm had changed,—I. H. had left, and the two remaining printers, Notary and Barbier, had moved to Westminster, perhaps in order to be nearer the printer for whom they worked. In this year they printed an edition of the Sarum Missal for Wynkyn de Worde, and after this Jean Barbier returns to France, leaving Notary at Westminster by himself. There he continued to print up to some time before 1503, and in that year we find him living ‘without Temple Bar, in St. Clement’s Parish, at the sign of the Three Kings.’ Before moving, he had printed, besides the books mentioned above, a Festial and Quattuor Sermones in 1499, a HorÆ ad usum Sarum in 1500, and the Chaucer’s Complaint of Mars and Venus, without date. About this time he obtained some woodcuts from Wynkyn de Worde, and we find them used in the first book he printed at his new address, the Golden Legend of 1503[4], and in it also are to be found some very curious metal cuts in the ‘maniÈre criblÉe.’ An undated Sarum HorÆ, in which the calendar begins with 1503, should most probably be put before the Golden Legend. From 1504 to 1510 Notary printed about thirteen books, and in that latter year (as we learn from the imprint of the Expositio Hymnorum) he had, besides his shop without Temple Bar, another in St. Paul’s Churchyard, of which the sign was also the Three Kings.

Between 1510 and 1515, Notary issued no dated book, but in the latter year appeared the Chronicles of England, and in the year following two Grammars of Whittington. The old printing-office ‘Extra Temple Bar’ seems to have been given up, for at this time Notary was printing in Paul’s Churchyard, at the sign of St. Mark. After 1518 there is another interval of three years without a dated book; but between 1518 and 1520 several were issued from the sign of the Three Kings in Paul’s Churchyard, and after that Notary printed no more. His movements from place to place are difficult to understand. In 1497 he is in London at the sign of St. Thomas Apostle, in 1498 at Westminster in King Street. About 1502-3, he moves to a house outside Temple Bar, the one probably that Pynson had just vacated. In 1510, while still printing at the same place, he had a shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of the Three Kings. In 1515 he is at the sign of St. Mark in Paul’s Churchyard, in 1518 again at the Three Kings. It seems probable that some of his productions must have entirely disappeared, otherwise it is hard to account for the number of blank years.

The latest writer on Julian Notary conjectures that the sign of St. Mark and the sign of the Three Kings were attached to the same house; that Julian Notary, on moving to Paul’s Churchyard, went to a house with the sign of St. Mark, and after printing under that sign for two years, altered it, for commercial reasons, to his old emblem of the Three Kings. This is ingenious, but impossible, for the writer has ignored the fact that Notary had a shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard at the Three Kings five years before we hear of the one with the sign of St. Mark.