A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 | Page 9

his Early English Printing, on the other hand, he writes: 'There are very strong reasons for believing that he [Lettou] is the same person as the Johannes Bremer, alias Bulle, who is mentioned by Hain as having printed two books at Rome in 1478 and 1479. The type which this printer used is identical (with the exception of one of the capital letters) with that used in the books printed by John Lettou in London.'
A few years later Lettou was joined by William de Machlinia. They were chiefly associated in printing law-books, but whether they had any patent from the king cannot be discovered. Only one of the five books they are known to have printed, the Tenores Novelli, has any colophon, and none of them has any date. The address they gave was 'juxta ecclesiam omnium sanctorum,' but as there were several churches so dedicated, the locality cannot be fixed.
We next find Machlinia working alone, but out of the twenty-two books or editions that have been traced to his press, only four contain his name, and none have a date. All we can say is that he printed from two addresses, 'in Holborn,' and 'By Flete-brigge.' Mr. Duff inclines to the opinion that the 'Flete-brigge' is the earlier, but it seems almost hopeless to attempt to place these books in any chronological order from their typographical peculiarities.
In the Fleet-Bridge type are two books by Albertus Magnus, the Liber aggregationis and the De Secretis Mulierum. The type is of a black letter character, not unlike that in which the Nova Statuta were printed, and is distinguishable by the peculiar shape of the capital M. In the same type we find the Revelation of St. Nicholas to a Monk of Evesham, a reprint of the Tenores Novelli, and some fragments of a Sarum Hor? found in old bindings; a woodcut border was used in some parts of it. Besides these Machlinia printed an edition of the Vulgaria Terentii.
A larger number of books is found in the Holborn types, the most important being the Chronicles of England, of which only one perfect copy is known.
The Speculum Christiani is interesting as containing specimens of early poetry, and The Treatise on the Pestilence, of Kamitus or Canutus, bishop of Aarhus, ran to three editions, one of which contains a title-page, and was therefore presumably printed late in Machlinia's career, i.e. about 1490.
In addition to these, there were three law-books, the Statutes of Richard III., and several theological and scholastic works. One of the founts of type used by Machlinia is of peculiar interest, by reason of its close resemblance to Caxton's type No. 2*, and its still greater similarity to the type used by Jean Brito of Bruges.
Machlinia's business seems to have been taken over by Richard Pynson. There is no direct evidence of this, but like Machlinia he took up the business of printing law-books (being the first printer in this country to receive a royal patent); he is found using a woodcut border used in Machlinia's Hor?; and, in addition to this, waste from Machlinia books has been found in Pynson bindings.
Richard Pynson was a native of Normandy. He had business relations with Le Talleur, a printer of Rouen. His methods also were those of Rouen, rather than of any English master. Wherever he came from, Richard Pynson was the finest printer this country had yet seen, and no one, until the appearance of John Day, approached him in excellence of work.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Pynson's Mark.]
The earliest examples of his press appear to be a fragment of a Donatus in the Bodleian and the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. The type he used for these was a bold, unevenly cast fount of black letter, somewhat resembling that used by Machlinia at Fleet Bridge. The Chaucer, however, contained a second fount of small sloping Gothic.
The first book of Pynson found with a date is a Doctrinale, printed in November 1492, now in the John Rylands Library. This was followed by the Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, printed in 1493 with a new type, distinguishable by the sharp angular finish to the letter 'h.' Several quartos without date were printed in the same type.
From this time till 1500, the majority of his books were printed in the small type of the Chaucer.
Another printer who worked at this time was Julian Notary. He was associated in the production of books with Jean Barbier, and another whose initials, J. H., are believed to be those of J. Huvin, a printer of Paris. They established themselves in London at the sign of St. Thomas the Apostle, and their most important book was the Questiones Alberti de modis significandi, which they followed up in 1497 with an octavo edition of the Hor? ad usum Sarum. In 1498 Barbier and Notary