FAMOUS ENGLISH PRINTERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5143, 17 September 1877, Page 3

FAMOUS ENGLISH PRINTERS.

(From the Globe.). The better title would be “Famous Printers of English,” for many of Oaxton’a successors were foreigners. And, perhaps, this may account for Caxton’s own persistency iu announcing his nationality. He learned his art abroad, and when he died it was chiefly foreign craftsmen who took it up and perpetuated it. And thus we get German, Norman, and Belgian names on the title-pages of the old volumes. In these early books the printer comes before us as an artist, and not as a craftsman. His work is often more interesting than his author. He became, iu effect, a patron of literature. He had to make a good and wiso selection, for the printing of a volume was no trifling investment. Thus printer and author go side by side, as publisher and author have gone iu later days. Caxton and Chaucer are associated as indissolubly as Scott and Constable, or Byron and Murray. Most of these old books were what we should call standard, and many of them wore law books. Thus, William of Machlinia is chiefly known as the printer of the first edition of “Littleton’s Tenures.” It is a small folio volume, printed in a coarse Gothic letter, without a date, but issued from their office, known to have been near All Hallows Church. But the most eminent of Caxton's successors was Wynkyu de Worde. He was probably an apprentice, certainly an assistant, of our English printer, worked with him at Westminster, and issued books frem the same office after his death. Like Caxton, he was a master in his craft, and introduced many improvements in the new invention. His works aro admirable for their neatness and elegance. He designed and cut his own punches, sinking them into matrices and casting his own letters. Ho was a man of enterprise as well as of taste and education. The catalogue of his issues is known to have included at least 508 examples, of which the most notable is tho “ Polychronicon.” As we have seen, William de Machlinia publishing the first edition of a law, book, still quoted in our Courts, so Wynkyn do Worde is associated with a school-book of which all scholars and students have at least heard. This is tho famous “ Lilye’s Grammar.” There is now no extant copy of the work with the printer’s name to it, but a contemporary work of Whittington was repeatedly printed by him. Indeed, most of his- books are what we should call educational. Books were then printed for for scholars, not for the circulating library, and De Worde's catalogue is largely made of “Acoidences,” “Lucidaiies,” “Orchards of Words” —a phrase somewhat analo-

gous to tho Latin aulhologia —and “ Promptuaries for. Little Children.” i A' contemporary of Do Worde, and a fellow workman with him In Caxtou's office, was Richard Pyiison, a Norman by birth, and the introducer of that useful series of works which form tho basis of subsequent “ Vear Books,” as they wero called by him, and still retain his title. Hero, again, wo, find education to be the chief motive of issue. The first treatise on arithmetic published in this country was printed by Pyusou—tho date 1522, the title “Libri 4 do arto supputamli," and tho author one of tho first mathematicians of tho age, Tonstall, Bishop of London. Pynson styled himself “ King's Printer” on Iris title-pages, but (.hough his successor held a patent, it is not believed that any previous right of that kind had been given by tho Crown. The new art was, howover, not to ho confined to the capital. The men of letters in those days were the bishops and ecclesiastics, and soon all the great cities set up their printing offices and published their issues. But it is notable how the master printer was generally a foreigner. One of tire most eminent of them was Peter de Triers, a native of the town now generally known as TrSves, who started his office at the south side of tho Thames, whore he published Latin works of Cato and Erasmus. Prom this time presses began to be freely set up. The Universities—Canterbury, Norwich, Tavistock —became groat centres of this Idud of trade, and it is recorded that in 1538, when Cardinal Wolsey visited his native town, he commemorated the visit by establishing a printing office at Ipswich. . Scotland soon followed in the wake of England, and Ireland came last. Ireland was in fact the last European country—unless we can call Russia a European country in the 16th century—which received tho art of printing. A volume of the Book of Common Prayer printed in Dublin so late as 1551, is the first Irish book, and this was followed by a liturgy for the use of the Scotsh Highlanders printed in the Irish character. The interest of these publications has been chiefly their antiquity. They are curious and archaeological. Clearness and beauty of type came afterwards. In that department our printers have certainly been surpassed by foreigners—Aldus, Elzevir, and even DidOfc being superior. One of our greatest names is John Baskervilie, whose publications are still occasionally to be picked up cheap on.the London bookstalls. He was no tradesman in his craft, but spared neither pains nor money to make his work worthy of his name. Printing with him was in fact what Walter Shandy would have called his hobby-horse. Ha is said to have spent £6OO before he could get a single letter which came up to his own standard of excellence, and he had invested thousands in the business before he could make it pay. In fact, with him it was not a business, but an art., He did not adopt it to make, but to spend money already made. His issues have very much the same kind of excellence as compared with contemporary and subsequent prints that Josiah Wedgwood’s plates and vasts : have with reference to their modern rivals. He saw to everything himself. . He manufactured ids own printing ink, presses, moulds. Though he was a wealthy man he was not ashamed of the trade which he had adopted. In fact, it was not a trade for him* but an occupation. On the panels of his carriage he had caused to be painted a series of the different processes in printing. His chief excellence was in the construction of his italic letters. They are thought by judges to stand unrivalled for freedom and symmetry. Many of his books were printed from silver types, and thus gained a delicacy which makes the paper appear almost like vellum. We shall scarcely again have such a printer. The man was an eccentric ; found his reward not in what he made by his books, but in what he made them. He died in the beginning of this century, and ordered that he should be buried in his own garden, and his dying wish was respected. Since his day science has been busy in invention and its application to art, but his work holds its place still. We have had'greater printers, but we have scarcely had better printed books.