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Essential Math for Data Science
Take Control of Your Data with Fundamental Linear
Algebra, Probability, and Statistics

With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—the
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advantage of these technologies long before the official release of these
titles.

Thomas Nield
Essential Math for Data Science
by Thomas Nield
Copyright © 2022 Thomas Nield. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North,
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978-1-098-10293-7
[LSI]
Preface

In the past 10 years or so, there has been a growing interest in applying
math and statistics to our everyday work and lives. Why is that? Does it
have to do with the accelerated interest in “data science” which Harvard
Business Review called “the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century”. Or is it the
promise of machine learning and “artificial intelligence” changing our
lives? Is it because news headlines are inundated with studies, polls, and
research findings, but unsure how to scrutinize such claims? Or is it the
promise of “self-driving” cars and robots automating jobs in the near future
?
I will make the argument that the disciplines of math and statistics have
captured mainstream interest because of the growing availability of data,
and we need math, statistics, and machine learning to make sense of it. Yes,
we do have scientific tools, machine learning, and other automations that
call to us like sirens. We are to blindly trust these “black boxes,” devices
and softwares we do not understand but we use them anyway.
While it is easy to believe computers are smarter than us (and this idea is
frequently marketed), the reality cannot be more the opposite. This
disconnect can be precarious on so many levels. Do you really want an
“algorithm” or “AI” performing criminal sentencing or driving a vehicle,
but nobody including the developer can explain why it came to a specific
decision? Explainability is the next frontier of statistical computing and AI.
This can only begin when we open up the “black box” and uncover the
math.
You may also ask how can a developer not know how their own algorithm
works? We will talk about that in the second half of the book when we
discuss machine learning techniques, and emphasize why we need to
understand the math behind the black boxes we build.
To another point, the reason data is being collected on a massive scale is
largely due to connected devices and their presence in our everyday lives.
We no longer solely use the internet on a desktop or laptop computer. We
now take it with us in our smart phones, cars, and household devices. This
has subtly enabled a transition over the past two decades. Data has now
evolved from an operational tool to something that is collected and
analyzed for less defined objectives. A smartwatch is constantly collecting
data on our heart rate, breathing, walking distance, and other markers. Then
it uploads that data to a cloud to be analyzed alongside other users. Our
driving habits are being collected by computerized cars, and being used by
manufacturers to collect data and enable “self-driving” vehicles. Even
“smart toothbrushes” are finding their way into drug stores, which track
brushing habits and store that data in a cloud. Whether smart toothbrush
data is useful and essential is another discussion!
All of this data collection is permeating every corner of our lives. It can be
overwhelming, and a whole book can be written on privacy concerns and
ethics. But this availability of data also creates opportunities to leverage
math and statistics in new ways, and create more exposure outside
academic environments. We can learn more about the human experience,
improve product design and application, and optimize commercial
strategies. If you understand the ideas presented in this book, you will be
able to unlock the value held in our data-hording infrastructure. This does
not imply that data and statistical tools are a silver bullet to solve all the
world’s problems, but it has given us new tools that we can use. Sometimes
it is just as valuable to recognize certain data projects as rabbit holes, and
realize efforts are better spent elsewhere.
This growing availability of data has made way for “data science” and
“machine learning” to become demanded professions. We define essential
math as an exposure to probability, linear algebra, statistics, and machine
learning. If you are seeking a career in data science, machine learning, or
engineering, these topics are necessary. I will throw in just enough college
math, calculus, and statistics necessary to better understand what goes in the
“black box” libraries you will encounter.
With this book, I aim to give readers an exposure to different mathematical,
statistical, and machine learning areas that will be applicable to real-world
problems. The first four chapters cover foundational math concepts
including practical calculus, probability, linear algebra, and statistics. The
last three chapters will segue into machine learning. The ultimate purpose
of teaching machine learning is to integrate everything we learn, and
demonstrate practical insights in using machine learning and statistical
libraries beyond a “black box” understanding.
The only tool that is needed to follow examples is a Windows/Mac/Linux
computer and a Python 3 environment of your choice. The primary Python
libraries we will need are numpy, scipy, sympy, and sklearn. If you
are unfamiliar with Python, it is a friendly and easy-to-use programming
language with massive learning resources behind it. Here are some I
recommend:

Data Science from Scratch 2nd Edition (O’Reilly) by Joel Grus -

The second chapter of this book has the best crash course in
Python I have encountered. Even if you have never written code
before, Joel does a fantastic job getting you up and running with
Python effectively in the shortest time possible. It is also a great
book to have on your shelf and to apply your mathematical
knowledge!
Python for the Busy Java Developer (Apress) by Deepak Sarda - If
you are a software engineer coming from a statically-typed, object-
oriented programming background, this is the book to grab. As
someone who started programming with Java, I have a deep
appreciation how Deepak shares Python features and relates them
to Java developers. If you have done .NET, C++, or other C-like
languages you will probably learn Python effectively from this
book as well.

This book will not make you an expert or give you PhD knowledge. I do
my best to avoid mathematical expressions full of Greek symbols, and
instead strive to use plain English in its place. But, what this book will do is
make you more comfortable talking about math and statistics, giving you
essential knowledge to navigate these areas successfully. I believe the
widest path to success is not having deep, specialized knowledge in one
topic, but instead having exposure and practical knowledge across several
topics. That is the goal of this book, and you will learn just enough to be
dangerous and ask those once elusive critical questions.
So let’s get started!
Chapter 1. Basic Math and
Calculus Review

A NOTE FOR EARLY RELEASE READERS

With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—the
author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can take
advantage of these technologies long before the official release of these
titles.
This will be the 1st chapter of the final book.
If you have comments about how we might improve the content and/or
examples in this book, or if you notice missing material within this
chapter, please reach out to the author at [email protected].

We will kick off the first chapter covering what numbers are and how
variables and functions work on a Cartesian system. We will then cover
exponents and logarithms. After that we will learn the two basic operations
of calculus: derivatives and integrals.
Before we dive into the applied areas of essential math such as probability,
linear algebra, statistics, and machine learning, we should probably review
a few basic math and calculus concepts. Before you drop this book and run
screaming, do not worry! I will present how to calculate slopes and areas
for a function in a way you were probably not taught in college. We got
Python on our side, not a pencil and paper.
I will make these topics as tight and practical as possible, focusing only on
what will help us in later chapters and fall under the “essential math”
umbrella.
 THIS IS NOT A FULL MATH CRASH COURSE!
This is by no means a comprehensive review of high school and college math. If you
want that, a great book to check out is No Bullshit Guide to Math and Physics by Ivan
Savov. The first few chapters contain the best crash course on high school and college
math I have ever seen. The book Mathematics 1001 by Dr. Richard Elwes has some
great content as well, and in bite-sized explanations.

Number Theory
What are numbers? I promise to not be too philosophical in this book, but
are numbers not a construct we have defined? Why do we have the digits 0
through 9, and not have more digits than that? Why do we have fractions
and decimals and not just whole numbers? This area of math where we
muse about numbers and why we designed them a certain way is known as
number theory.
Number theory goes all the way back to ancient times, where
mathematicians study different number systems and why we have accepted
them the way we do today. Here are different number systems that you may
recognize:
Natural Numbers
These are the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… and so on. Only positive numbers
are included here, and are the earliest known system. Natural numbers
are so ancient cavemen scratched tally marks on bones and cave walls
to keep records.

Whole Numbers
Adding to natural numbers, the concept of “0” was later accepted and
we call these “whole numbers.” The Babylonians also developed the
useful idea for place-holding notation for empty “columns” on numbers
greater than 9, such as “10”, “1000”, or “1090.” Those zeros indicate no
value occupying that column.
Integers
Integers include positive and negative whole numbers as well as 0. We
may take them for granted, but ancient mathematicians were deeply
distrusting of the idea of negative numbers. But when you subtract 5
from 3, you get -2. This is useful especially when it comes to finances
where we measure profits and losses. In 628 AD, an Indian
mathematician named Brahmagupta showed why negative numbers
were necessary for arithmetic to progress, and therefore integers became
accepted.

Rational Numbers
Any number that you can express as a fraction, such as , is a rational
2

number. This includes all finite decimals and integers since they can be
expressed as fractions too, such as687

100
= 6. 87 and
2

1
= 2 respectively.

They are called rational because they are ratios. Rational numbers were
quickly deemed necessary bececause because time, resources, and other
quantities could not always be measured in discrete units. Milk does not
always come in gallons. We may have to measure it as parts of a gallon.
If I run for 12 minutes, I cannot be forced to measure in whole miles
when in actuality I ran 9

10
of a mile.

Irrational Numbers
Irrational numbers cannot be expressed as a fraction. This includes the
famous Pi π, square roots of certain numbers like √2, and Euler’s
number e which we will learn about later. These numbers have an
infinite number of decimal digits, such as
π = 3. 141592653589793238462. . .

There is an interesting history behind irrational numbers. The Greek

mathematician Pythagoras believed all numbers are rational. He
believed this so fervently, he made a religion that prayed to the number
10. "Bless us, divine number, thou who generated gods and men!" he
and his followers would pray (why “10” was so special, I do not know).
 There is a legend that one of his followers Hippasusus proved not all
numbers are rational simply by demonstrating the square root of 2. This
severely messed with Pythagoras’ belief system, and he responded by
drowning Hippasus out at sea.
Regardless, we now know not all numbers are rational.

Real Numbers
Real numbers include rational as well as irrational numbers. In
practicality, when you are doing any data science work you can treat
any decimals you work with as real numbers.

Complex and Imaginary Numbers

You encounter this number type when you take the square root of a
negative number. While imaginary and complex numbers have
relevance in certain types of problems, we will mostly steer clear from
them for our purposes

In data science, you will find most (if not all) your work will be using
natural numbers, integers, and real numbers. Imaginary numbers may be
encountered in more advanced use cases such as matrix decomposition,
which we will touch on in Chapter 4.

COMPLEX AND IMAGINARY NUMBERS

If you do want to learn about imaginary numbers, there is a great playlist Imaginary
Numbers are Real on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/T647CGsuOVU.

Order of Operations
Hopefully you are familiar with order of operations which is the order you
solve each part of a mathematical expression. As a brief refresher, recall
you evaluate components in parantheses, followed by exponents, then
multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. You can remember the
order of operations by the mnemonic device PEMDAS (Please Excuse My
Dear Aunt Sally) which corresponds to the ordering paranthesis, exponents,
multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.
Take for example this expression:
2
(3 + 2)
2* − 4
5

First we evaluate the paranetheses (3 + 2) which evaluates to 5.

2
(5)
2* − 4
5

Next we solve the exponent, which we can see is squaring that 5 we just
summed. That is 25.

25
2* − 4
5

Next up we have multiplication and division. The ordering of these two is

swappable since division is also multiplication (using fractions). Let’s go
ahead and multiply the 2 with the , yielding
25

5
50

50
− 4
5

Next we will perform the division, dividing 50 by 5 which will yield 10.

10 − 4

And finally we perform any addition and subtraction. Of course, 10 − 4 is

going to give us 6.
10 − 4 = 6

Sure enough, if we were to express this in Python we would print a value of

6.0 as shown in Example 1-1.
Example 1-1. Solving an expression in Python
my_value = 2 * (3 + 2)**2 / 5 - 4

print(my_value) # prints 6.0

This may be elementary to you, but it is still criticial nonetheless. In code,

even if you get the correct result without them, it is a good practice to
liberally use paranthesis in complex expressions so you establish control of
the evaluation order.
Here I group up the fractional part of my expression in paranthesis, helping
to set it apart from the rest of the expression in Example 1-2.
Example 1-2. Making use of paranthesis for clarity in Python
my_value = 2 * ((3 + 2)**2 / 5) - 4

print(my_value) # prints 6.0

While both examples are technically correct, the latter one is more clear to
us easily confused humans. If you or someone else makes changes to your
code, the paranthesis provide an easy reference of operation order as you
make changes. This provides a line of defense against code changes to
prevent bugs as well.

Variables
If you have done some scripting with Python or another programming
language, you have an idea what a variable is. In mathematics, a variable is
a named placeholder for an unspecified or unknown number.
You may have a variable x representing any real number, and you can
multiply that variable without declaring what it is. In Example 1-3 we take
a variable input x from a user, and multiply it by 3.
Example 1-3. A variable in Python that is then multiplied
x = int(input("Please input a number\n"))

product = 3 * x
print(product)

There are some standard variable names for certain variable types. If these
variable names and concepts are unfamiliar, no worries! But the rest of you
readers might recognize we use theta θ to denote angles and beta β for a
parameter in a linear regression. Greek symbols make awkward variable
names in Python, so we would likely name these variables theta and
beta in Python as shown in Example 1-4.
Example 1-4. Greek variable names in Python
beta = 1.75
theta = 30.0

Note also that variable names can be subscripted so that several instances of
a variable name can be used. For practical purposes, just treat these as
separate variables. If you encounter variables x1, x2, and x3, just treat them
as three separate variables as shown in Example 1-5.
Example 1-5. Expressing subscripted variables in Python
x1 = 3 # or x_1 = 3
x2 = 10 # or x_2 = 10
x3 = 44 # or x_3 = 44

Functions
Functions are expressions that define relationships between two or more
variables. More specifically, a function takes input variables (also called
domain variables or independent variables), plugs them into an
expression, and then results in an output variable (also called dependent
variable).
Take this simple linear function y = 2x + 1. For any given x value, we
solve the expression with that x to find y. When x = 1, then y = 3. When x =
2, y = 5. When x = 3, y = 7 and so on as shown in Table 1-1.

y = 2x + 1
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
up in a volume with several other tracts, among them being Caxton’s
Festum transfigurationis Jesu Christi. It was for a while in the
Congregational Library in London but was eventually sold to the
British Museum. Three printed leaves from the beginning of the
poem amongst the fragments in the Bodleian are all that remain of
the Life of St Margaret. The Lidgate’s Churl and Birde after passing
through the sales of Willett, the Marquis of Blandford, Sir F. Freeling
and B. H. Bright, passed with the Grenville Library into the British
Museum.
Two editions of Mirk’s Liber Festivalis, each known from a single
copy, one in the Pepysian Library, the other in the University Library,
belong probably to this time. The various changes in the book are
interesting to trace. In the earliest editions there are no references
to, or additional chapters for, the new feasts which were then
coming into use; then come editions with the extra feasts printed
together at the end as a kind of supplement to the book, and finally
we get the editions with these extra feasts put into their proper
places in the body of the book. The edition in the Pepysian Library is
without these extra feasts, while that in the University Library has
them as a supplement of ten leaves at the end. In the next edition,
which was printed about the end of 1493 by W. de Worde, the feasts
have been incorporated into their proper places.
In 1494 Pynson reverted to his earlier types and issued a translation
by Lidgate from Boccaccio called the Falle of Princes, remarkable for
its charming woodcuts. In this book, for the first time, Pynson used
his second device, a large woodcut containing his initials on a black
shield with a helmet above on which is perched a small bird. This I
imagine is meant for a finch, a punning allusion to his name, since
pynson is the Norman name for a finch. Round the whole is a border
of flowering branches, in which are birds and grotesque beasts. This
device supplies us later with a most useful date test, for the edge
split in 1496 and the piece broke off entirely towards the end of
1497. After 1498 the use of this device was discontinued but it was
not destroyed, and it made a solitary reappearance, in a sadly
mutilated state in an edition of a grammar of Whitinton in 1515.
Probably in this year (1494) Pynson issued his edition of the
Speculum vitae Christi, of which an almost perfect copy is in King’s
library. It is illustrated with a large number of neat woodcuts, which
are copied more or less from Caxton’s illustrations to the same book,
though they are by no means identical with them, as has been often
stated. As a general rule Pynson’s cuts are of very much better
execution and design than either Caxton’s or De Worde’s, and
though not in all cases good, as for instance in the Canterbury Tales,
yet they never sink to the very bad drawing and engraving so often
found in the works of the other two printers.
An edition of the Hecyra of Terence bears the date January 20,
1495, but no other dated book of this year is known, and 1496 was
hardly better, having only the two grammars, the Liber
Synonymorum and Liber Equivocorum, the latter usually wrongly
attributed to Joannes de Garlandia; but many undated books of very
considerable interest appeared about this time. Two of these, the
Epitaph of Jasper, Duke of Bedford, and the Foundation of Our
Lady’s Chapel at Walsingham are to be found in the Pepysian Library.
Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, and half-brother of Henry VI, died on
December 21, 1495, and the book must have been printed early in
1496. It is ostensibly written by one Smarte, the keeper of the
hawks to the Duke, and begins as follows:—

Rydynge al alone with sorrowe sore encombred

In a frosty fornone, faste by Severnes syde
The wordil beholdynge, whereat much I wondred
To se the see and sonne to kepe both tyme and tyde.
The ayre ouer my hede so wonderfully to glyde
And how Saturne by circumference borne is aboute
Whiche thynges to beholde, clerely me notyfyde
One verray god to be, therin to haue no dowte.

The end runs:—

Kynges prynces moste souerayne of renoune

Remembre oure maister that gone is byfore
This worlde is casual, nowe up nowe downe
 Wherfore do for your silfe, I can say no more
Honor tibi Deus, gloria et laus
Qd’ Smerte maister de ses ouzeaus.

This poem has been attributed to Skelton, though I do not know for
what reason. On the title-page is a special cut, not used elsewhere,
of Smarte kneeling, with his hawk on his wrist, and presenting with
his other hand a book to a person standing. The Foundation of Our
Lady’s Chapel at Walsingham is a small tract relating to the priory of
the Augustinian canons of St Mary, once one of the most important
places of pilgrimage in England, and which was described by
Erasmus. The first leaf, which would have contained the title, is
wanting, but the text begins on the second:—

Of this chapell se here the fundacyon

Bylded the yere of crystes incarnacyon
A thousande complete, sixty and one
The tyme of Sent Edward kyng of this region.

About this time appeared the first English edition of Mandeviles

Travels, the only edition, I think, issued without illustrations, and a
little reprint of Caxton’s Art and Craft to Know Well to Die, of which
the only known copy, formerly Ratcliffe’s, is in the Hunterian
Museum at Glasgow.
Another poetical tract is the Life of Petronylla, beginning:—

The parfite lyfe to put in remembraunce

Of a virgyn moost gracious and entere
Which in all vertu had souereyn suffysaunce
Called Petronylla petyrs doughter dere.

This little tract consists of four leaves, and though only three copies
are known at present it is probable that more are in existence, for
the book seems to occur in all the sales of large libraries which have
occurred within the last hundred years.
About 1496 Henry Quentell, a Cologne printer, had issued the first
edition of the Expositio Hymnorum et Sequentiarum, according to
the use of Sarum, but it was found that several hymns and
sequences were omitted, so Pynson issued two supplements, one of
sixteen leaves to the hymns, another of six to the sequences.
Another rather quaint book issued about this time is a kind of
vocabulary or phrase book in English and French. “Here is a good
book to lerne to speak french, Vecy ung bon liure a apprendre a
parler fraunchoys.” The book contains also specimens of letters in
French relating to trade, in fact it was evidently intended as a
manual for people who had business relations with France.
Two more editions of the Nova Festa, the Festum transfigurationis
and the Festum nominis Jesu were issued about this time. The only
copies known of these two books are in a private library in
Somerset, and I have not yet had an opportunity of examining them.
In 1497, or perhaps slightly earlier, Pynson began to use his third
device, made probably to take the place of the second which had
split, and taking warning from it he had the new one cut in metal.
The device consists of the shield and monogram supported by a man
and a woman, with the helmet and bird above. The border, which is
cut on a separate piece, contains birds and foliage, with the Virgin
and Child and a saint in the bottom corners. In the lowest part of
the frame a piece in the form of a ribbon has been cut out for the
insertion of type. In consequence of the weakness of that particular
place the small piece of border below the ribbon began to be pushed
inwards, and by 1499 there was a distinct indentation in the border.
This got deeper and deeper year by year, until the piece broke off
entirely in 1513. The first dated book in which it occurs is the 1497
edition of Alcock’s Mons perfectionis, but it occurs in several of the
undated books that can be placed about 1496.
Between 1495 and the end of 1497 Pynson issued the plays of
Terence, the first classic (with the exception of an Oxford edition of
the Pro Milone, which is known from a few leaves) that had been
printed in England. The six plays were evidently issued separately
and not as a volume, for they differ considerably typographically.
There is some difficulty, too, in determining in what order they were
issued.
In 1498 there are seven dated books, one of them being the sermon
of Bishop Alcock called Gallicantus, and he is so pleased with jesting
on his name that he prefaces the text of his sermon with a little
black picture of a cockerel, which he also used as a device. Another
edition of the Doctrinale of Alexander the Grammarian was issued
this year, but I have not yet seen the book, as the only copy known
belongs to Lord Beauchamp.
In 1499 a very interesting book was printed by Pynson. This was the
Promptorius Puerorum, a Latin-English dictionary ascribed to a monk
of Lynn. The imprint tells us that the book was printed for Frederick
Egmondt and Peter post pascha. Frederick Egmondt was an
important stationer, and no doubt Peter post pascha was a stationer
also, though what name in the vernacular can be represented by
post pascha remains an unsolved riddle. Mr Albert Way, in his edition
of the Promptorium parvulorum, applies a curious amount of
misplaced ingenuity to the question of the identity of these two
stationers. “We find about the time in question,” he says, speaking of
the name Egmondt, “a distinguished person of that family, possibly
the patron of Pynson, Frederic, son of William IV, Count of Egmond.
In 1472 he received from his uncle, the Duke of Gueldres, the
lordship of Buren; he was named governor of Utrecht by the
Archduke Maximilian in 1492; two years later Buren was raised to a
count in reward of his services. There was a Peter, an illegitimate
brother of his father, who might have been living at that time; what
was his surname does not appear.” Another book printed about this
year was the Elegantiarum viginti praecepta, a book which I am fond
of for a peculiar reason. I found once a leaf of it in the Signet
Library, Edinburgh, and, not knowing that any copy was in existence,
set to work to reconstruct the book from the leaf. I counted the
lines, and comparing with foreign editions, conjectured the size and
structure of the book, and knowing how Pynson would make a title-
page with a woodcut, and the woodcut he would probably use, I
made up a description of the book, taking the title from an early
bibliography. At last I heard of a perfect copy in a private library
which the owner was kind enough to allow me to examine. When
the book arrived I found I had not only got the collation right, but by
a lucky inspiration had selected the correct woodcut for the title-
page. As it happens I might have spared myself the trouble, for I
found afterwards a fairly accurate collation of the book in an
authority I had not consulted.
A curious prognostication for 1499 is in the Bodleian. It is addressed
to Henry VII, and was drawn out by a William Parron, who lived at
Piacenza and called himself doctor of medicine and professor of
astrology. Another prognostication for 1502, by the same author,
was printed by Pynson, and some fragments are in the library of
Westminster Abbey. He also wrote an astrological work on Henry,
Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII, in 1502, of which there are
manuscripts in the British Museum and Bibliothèque Nationale, but it
does not seem ever to have been printed.
The Missal which Pynson printed in 1500 is perhaps the finest book
printed in the fifteenth century in England. It was produced at the
expense of Cardinal Morton, whose arms appear at the beginning,
and Pynson has introduced into the borders and initials a rebus on
the name consisting of the letters Mor surmounting a barrel or tun.
Five copies of this book are known, three being on vellum. One of
the latter copies, slightly imperfect, is in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge. In the copy at Manchester all the references to St
Thomas and his service, which had been scraped out and erased
according to the command of Henry VIII, have been entirely filled in
by some pious seventeenth century owner in gold.
In the imprint, after setting forth that the book was printed at the
command of Cardinal Morton, Pynson adds the date, January 10,
1500. Now, as Cardinal Morton died on September 15, 1500, I think
we have here a strong piece of evidence that Pynson, like De Worde,
began his year on January 1. For if he had begun it on March 25,
then January 10, 1500, would be after the Cardinal was dead, and
Pynson would surely have spoken of him as lately dead, or in some
way alluded to the loss of his patron.
The Book of Cookery, belonging to the Marquis of Bath, was also
printed this year. It begins: “Here beginneth a noble boke of festes
royalle and cokery, a boke for a pryncis housholde or any other
estates, and the makynge therof accordynge as ye shall fynde more
playnly within this boke.” Then follows an account of certain great
banquets, the feast at the coronation of Henry V; “the earle of
Warwick’s feast to the king, the feast of my lorde chancellor
archbishop of York at his stallacion in York,” and so on. After the
account of the feasts comes the more practical Calendar of Cookery.
Two editions of the Informatio Puerorum, a small grammatical work
founded upon the Donatus, were issued about this time. In the
colophon of one it is stated that the book was printed for George
Chasteleyn and John Bars. I have found no reference anywhere to
John Bars, but George Chasteleyn was an Oxford bookseller, carrying
on business at the Sign of St John the evangelist in that city. It was
for him also that in 1506 Pynson printed an edition of the Principia of
Peregrinus de Lugo. About this time there was no press in Oxford, so
that books for use in the schools had to be printed in London.
In a scrap-book in the British Museum are some leaves of an edition
of the romance of Guy of Warwick which may be ascribed to Pynson,
and they are printed in a curious mixture of his early types. These
leaves were discovered in 1860 in the binding of a copy of
Maydeston’s Directorium Sacerdotum, printed by Pynson in 1501,
and an account of them was sent by their discoverer, who signs
himself E. F. B., to Notes and Queries. Now, of this edition of the
Directorium, only two copies are known, one in the British Museum
and one in Ripon Cathedral, and I should very much like to know
from which copy these leaves were obtained.
During all the period from 1490 to 1500 Pynson was busy issuing
editions of law-books, more than a quarter of his productions being
of this class, and it is probable that a considerable number more
printed in the fifteenth century may yet be discovered. They are not
of a nature to attract much interest, and are generally very badly
catalogued, or catalogued in collections and not separately, and in
one great English library at least they have no more detailed press
mark than Law Room, so it is needless to say I have not yet
examined such books as they may have in that library.
Though he did not print so many books as De Worde in the fifteenth
century, nevertheless Pynson was evidently a more enterprising and
careful printer. He had seven distinct founts of type, all of which
were made for him and not inherited from other printers, and the
works he produced were of a much more scholarly nature, though
this becomes more apparent in his work during the sixteenth
century. His patrons were often learned and distinguished men, for
whom he produced such splendid work as the Morton Missal, and he
became later the recognised king’s printer. In the fifteenth century
he printed altogether eighty-eight books known to us.
Pynson, like De Worde, very considerately moved to a new address
at the end of the century; previous to 1501 he was in St Clement’s
parish, outside Temple Bar, which was the limit, I think, of the
parish, but afterwards moved inside Temple Bar, where he carried on
business at the Sign of the George. The colophon to the Book of
Cookery, printed in 1500, says, “Imprinted without Temple Bar”; the
colophon to the Directorium Sacerdotum of 1501 says, “intra barram
novi templi,” so that the date is pretty accurately fixed.
 LECTURE III.
THE STATIONERS.

In speaking of the history of the printed book in the fifteenth

century I have so far dealt only with the printers of London and
Westminster; to-day I propose to touch on the books printed abroad
for the English market and the stationers who sold them. In the
early days the different businesses of a publisher, a bookseller, and a
bookbinder were often carried on by one man, who was called a
stationer. He bought books wholesale, sometimes having whole
editions specially printed for him, he bound them, and then sold
them like an ordinary bookseller. He also probably in England, as
was certainly done on the Continent, sent round vans full of books to
the various provincial towns, timing his arrival as far as possible to
coincide with the local fairs.
A considerable number of the books printed abroad for sale in
England have no connexion with any particular stationer, but were
probably brought over by an agent of the printer and sold in lots to
different stationers.
The earliest book printed abroad definitely for sale in England is the
edition of the Sarum Breviary printed at Cologne about 1475. Of this
book nothing is left but a few leaves, and the imprint, if it possessed
one, is not known. Only one other book is known printed in the
same type, an edition of the Homilies, but it, unfortunately, has no
imprint, so that we have no clue as to who may have been the
printer. I cannot help thinking that perhaps Caxton may have had
something to do with having this book printed, commissioning it
either on his own account or for some friend in England, for it is
unlikely that a printer in so distant a town would have issued such a
book on his own account, and the probable date of its printing
coincides more or less with Caxton’s departure for England.
In 1483 a book was printed at Venice for sale in England, curiously
enough another edition of the Sarum Breviary. The copy in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, the only one known, is a very beautiful book,
printed on vellum and quite perfect. There is a rather painful history
attached to it. In 1715 this unique book came to the University
Library, Cambridge, as part of the library of Bishop Moore which was
presented to the University by George I. In the latter half of the
eighteenth century it appears to have been purloined along with a
great many other rarities by a certain Dr Combe. It then found its
way into the collection of Count Justin MacCarthy, who formed the
largest library of books printed on vellum ever brought together by a
private collector (he had over 600 of such books), and at his sale in
1815 it was purchased for the Paris Library for fifty-one francs. The
printer of the book, Reginaldus de Novimagio, does not appear to
have had any connexion with England, nor does the imprint mention
for whom the book was produced. It is curious that he should have
been chosen as the printer of this Breviary, for it seems to have
been the only liturgical work he issued, and nothing among his other
productions has any connexion with England. Of course English
people passed through Venice in large quantities as it was the
starting-point for pilgrims to the Holy Land, and many ecclesiastics
of high position went on this journey, so that perhaps one of these
travellers, seeing the beautiful work done at Venice, and knowing
that no printer at home was equal to the task of producing such a
book in a fitting manner, commissioned the printing of the Breviary.
It is sad to think that so beautiful a book has been lost to England
through the dishonesty of a reader in the Library. We can only regret
that the negotiations between the Duke of Devonshire and the
representatives of Count MacCarthy for the purchase of the library
en bloc fell through, and that the Duke and Lord Spencer, who both
bought considerably at the sale, did not secure it, for then at any
rate it might have been in England, though not in its proper place.
In the year 1484 some important Acts were passed relating to the
trading of foreigners in this country. The ninth chapter ends:
“Provided always that this act or any parcel thereof, or any other act
made, or to be made in this said parliament, shall not extend, or be
in prejudice, disturbance, damage, or impediment, to any artificer, or
merchant stranger, of what nation or country he be, or shall be of,
for bringing into this realm, or selling by retail, or otherwise, any
books written or printed, or for inhabiting within this said realm for
the same intent, or any scrivener, alluminor, binder or printer of such
books, which he hath, or shall have to sell by way of merchandise,
or for their dwelling within this said realm, for the exercise of the
said occupations; this act or any part thereof notwithstanding.”
This Act it will be seen, which was not repealed until 1534, gave
absolute liberty to foreign printers and stationers to trade and reside
in England. That it succeeded in its object of encouraging the
immigration of stationers and craftsmen and the importation of
books, is clear from the words of the Act of 1534: “Whereas by the
provision of a Statute made in the firste yere of the reygne of Kynge
Richarde the thirde, it was provided in the same acte that all
strangers repayryng into this realme might lawfully bring into the
saide realme printed and written bokes to sell at their libertie and
pleasure. By force of which provision there hath comen into this
realme sithen the makynge of the same, a marvellous number of
printed bookes and dayly doth. And the cause of the making of the
same provision semeth to be, for that there were but few bookes
and fewe printers within this realme at that time, whiche could well
exercise and occupie the said science and crafte of printynge.
Nevertheless, sithen the making of the saide provision, many of this
realme being the Kinges naturall subjectes, have given them so
diligently to lerne and exercise the saide craft of printing that at this
day there be within this realme a great number of connyng and
experte in the said science or crafte of printing, as able to exercise
the saide crafte in all pointes as any stranger in any other realme or
country.”
Though the preamble of this Act speaks only of printing, it was
mainly directed against the foreign bookbinders and stationers. By it
it was forbidden to import any foreign printed books ready bound,
and no one was to buy from any foreigner residing in England any
books except “by engrosse,” that is, wholesale. This you will see
completely stopped the trade of the foreign binder in the English
market, and absolutely did away with the foreign stationer in
England. One effect of the Act is apparent in the extraordinary
number of letters of denisation taken out at that date. In 1582
Christopher Barker wrote: “In the time of King Henry VIII there were
but few printers and those of good credit and competent wealth, at
whiche time and before there was another sort of men, that were
writers, lymners of bookes and dyverse thinges for the Churche and
other uses called stacioners; which have and partly to this day do
use to buy their bookes in grosse of the said printers, to bynde them
up and sell them in their shops, whereby they well mayntayned their
families.”
The fifty years then between 1484 and 1534 are the really
interesting years in the history of the English book trade, when it
was free and unprotected, but though we have a fair amount of
information about the latter half of this time, the earlier half is
almost destitute of any kind of records. The books of the original
company of stationers in London have all disappeared, and we are
dependent mostly on incidental references in deeds, in wills, or other
legal documents.
Two years before the Act was passed, namely in 1482, we know of
two foreign booksellers who had come to London, Henry
Frankenberg and Bernard van Stondo, who rented an alley in St
Clement’s Lane called St Mark’s Alley. From their names they would
appear to have come from the Low Countries, but we know nothing
about them or their business beyond the fact that Frankenberg
commissioned his fellow-countryman, William de Machlinia, who was
printing in London, to print for him an edition of the Speculum
Christiani, about which I spoke in my last lecture. Their names in the
deed and Frankenberg’s name in a colophon are the only clues we
have to the existence of two probably important booksellers. So also
in the very year of the Act we find foreign dealers in books trading in
Oxford with the resident university stationer. In 1485 Peter Actors, a
native of Savoy trading in London, was appointed by Henry VII,
Stationer to the King.
About 1486 at Louvain, Egidius vander Heerstraten printed an
edition of the Regulae Grammaticales of Nicolas Perott, which
contains a great number of passages in English. These are very
curious, and seem to have been translated by one not very
conversant with the language. Here is a passage which refers to the
fifteenth century substitute for compulsory football: “who someuer
of my discipulis goyeth awey fyrst from the gammyng wt owt my
licence i shal smyte his hande wyt a rode. And yf he do the samyn
thyng twyss i shall also beet hym wyt a leyshe.” In another place,
having translated the Latin phrase, “Quintilianus est eloquens sed
nihil ad Ciceronem,” “Quintilian is a wel spoken man but nothyng to
Tully,” he adds another and more personal example: “Helia Perott is
fayr but nothing to Penelope.”
I am not sure whether we ought to consider this book as one printed
for the purpose of exportation to England, or whether it was not
rather intended for the use of English students at the foreign
universities. This is made more probable from the fact that in a few
cases we have words translated into Dutch prefaced by “as we say.”
I have seen it stated that a similar edition was printed by the same
printer with explanations in French, but I have not been able to
verify the existence of any copy.
About 1486, too, was issued the first edition of the Sarum Missal,
printed, it is supposed, at Basle by Wenssler, though some doubts
have been raised as to whether it was really printed at Basle on
account of the appearance of the music type. It is a very handsome
folio volume of 278 leaves, printed in a large Gothic type in red and
black. The printer has not attempted to print the English portions of
the wedding service, but has left blank spaces where they occur, so
that they might be written in by hand. The first few editions of the
Sarum Missal are all similar in this respect, but it is curious that
Caxton, who had an edition specially printed for him, should not
have supplied the printer with correct copies for these small portions
of the service.
In the next few years a few grammatical books were issued, printed
as a rule in the Low Countries. In 1486 Gerard Leeu printed the
Vulgaria Terentii, a series of Latin sentences with translations into
English, an edition reprinted from the Oxford one of a year or two
earlier. This book is sometimes found printed as a supplement to the
Grammar by John Anwykyll, and of this Grammar there are two
foreign editions, one printed by Paffroed at Deventer in 1489, and
another rather later by Henry Quentell at Cologne. The Grammar
does not contain an author’s name, but in the prefatory verses
written by Petrus Carmelianus he is referred to as Joannes. There
are also verses written to William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester,
and founder of Magdalen College, Oxford, congratulating him on
having persuaded this Joannes to edit the Grammar. The book is
supposed to have been intended for the use of the Magdalen College
School, in which the two grammarians John Anwykyll and John
Stanbridge were masters, and is supposed to have been the work of
Anwykyll. The two earliest editions were printed at Oxford, but by
1486 the Oxford Press had stopped work and the two succeeding
editions were printed abroad.
The Liber Equivocorum and Liber Synonymorum, the former wrongly
attributed to Joannes de Garlandia were also printed in the Low
Countries, the first at Deventer by Paffroed, the second at Antwerp
by Thierry Martens in 1493. The Liber Synonymorum has the
commentary of Galfridus Anglicus. A copy of this book sold in the
Ratcliffe sale in the last century was described as having been
printed at Antwerp in 1492, but this must have been, I suppose, a
misprint for 1493.
Three more books printed in the Low Countries I ought to mention
before turning to France. One is an edition of Clement Maydeston’s
Directorium Sacerdotum, printed by Gerard Leeu in 1488, of which
there is a copy in the Cambridge University Library.
Another is an edition of the Sarum Horae, also printed by Leeu,
which I am afraid has to be spoken of at present as a lost book. The
only fragment known, an unused half sheet containing eight leaves,
had been used to line the binding of a copy of the Scriptores rei
rusticae printed at Reggio in 1496, in Brasenose College library;
Bradshaw saw the fragment and took down a description of it, but
on its return to Oxford it was mislaid and is not to be found.
The third book is another edition of the Sarum Breviary, printed at
Louvain in 1499 by Thierry Martens. The only copy known is in the
Musée Plantin at Antwerp. Leaving the Low Countries for a time we
will turn to France.
The Missal printed for Caxton in 1487 I have already described in an
earlier lecture, so I can pass on to the edition which succeeded it,
that printed by Martin Morin, the celebrated printer of Rouen in
1492. This Morin was by far the most important of the Norman
stationers and printers, and he appears to have excelled in the
printing of service books, for he was employed by printers and
publishers from all parts to print the service books for the special
uses of the towns where they resided.
For England he printed altogether six service books in the fifteenth
century. Three Missals, two Breviaries, and a Liber Festivalis, and of
these the Missal of 1492 is the earliest. The two copies known of this
book, both slightly imperfect, are in the British Museum and the
Bodleian. It contains, like the earlier edition printed for Caxton, two
full-page engravings before the Canon of the Mass, not one only, as
is more generally the case.
The two later Missals which he issued, one without date but about
1495 and another dated 1497, appear to have been mixed up by all
writers. The undated edition appears the rarest, for the only copy
which I have noted is in the British Museum. Of the dated edition I
have notes of five; one at Windsor in the Royal library, one in St
Catharine’s College, one at Chatsworth, one in the Aberdeen
University Library, and the fifth at Kinnaird Castle. I owe my
knowledge of the existence of this last copy to almost the last book
in which one would seek for bibliographical information, that handy
work of reference Who’s Who. Both editions are very handsome
books, remarkable for their fine titles and initial letters.
Of the two Breviaries which Morin printed the earliest is dated 1496,
and the only copy known is in the University Library at Edinburgh, to
which it was bequeathed in 1577 by Clement Litill, who left a
number of valuable books to that library, of which he was practically
the founder. It is a magnificent folio volume of 437 leaves, and
contains a fairly full imprint, which after a deal of very grandiloquent
language tells us that the book was printed at the cost of Jean
Richard, “by the industry of that man skilled in printing, Mr Martin
Morin, a not unworthy citizen of that great city Rouen.” Morin’s
colophons I may note rarely err on the side of modesty. The Jean
Richard mentioned was a stationer of Rouen, and one who appears
to have had considerable dealings with England. I do not think he
was a printer, as is often stated, and he describes himself as a dealer
in books, not a printer, using sometimes the word merchant of books
and sometimes the word stationer.
It was for him that Morin printed in 1499 an edition of Mirk’s Liber
Festivalis and Quattuor Sermones, a copy of which is in the Sandars
collection in the University Library. For him also, in 1500, a Sarum
Manual was printed by Petrus Olivier and Joannes de Lorraine, of
which there is a copy in the Bodleian, and during the early years of
the sixteenth century a considerable number of service books for the
English market were printed at his expense.
The names of a number of early stationers who probably traded
between Rouen and England are to be found in the imprints of the
early Sarum Missals, for as the printing of them entailed a good deal
of expense a number of booksellers would combine to pay for the
edition. Rouen seems to have been, amongst all the towns of
France, the most connected with England as regards the book trade.
It was there many of our printers, as well as the first Scottish
printers, learned their art or obtained their materials, while
stationers from that town crossed over and sold their books in this
country.
We know that Ingelbert Haghe, the publisher of the Hereford
Breviary of 1505, came over himself and sold books at Hereford and
in the country round. On the fly-leaf of a Bible formerly in the library
of Gloucester Cathedral is a Latin inscription which runs: “I gave to
the Hereford bookseller called Ingelbert for this and the six other
volumes of the Bible 43 shillings and fourpence, which I bought at
Ludlow the year of our Lord’s incarnation 1510, about the day of the
Lichfield fair.” Whether the Bible is still in the Gloucester Cathedral
library I do not know, but the fly-leaves which once belonged to it
are in a bundle of scraps in the Bodleian.
Another Rouen printer issued in 1495 an edition of the Liber
Festivalis. His name was James Ravynell, and this is the only book
that he is known to have printed. It is an exact copy of the edition
printed by W. de Worde in 1493 and ’94, and the type used in it has
a very clean and new appearance. At the end is a device with the
initials P. R., which looks as though it might have been made for
another member of the family, though we know of no other printer
of the name. The fact that he uses the English form of the Christian
name in the imprint, “By me, James Ravynell,” looks as if he was an
Englishman who had migrated to Rouen.
The device consists of the initials P. R. on a shield suspended by a
belt from a tree and supported by two muzzled bears. Below the
shield two birds hold up a wreath. Round the whole runs the text:
“Junior fui etenim senui et non vidi justum derelictum nec semen
ejus querens panem.” The name Ravynell is a curious one, and may
be a corrupted spelling of a commoner name, though it is still borne
by some families of Huguenot descent.
Another mysterious book, which from its type may very well have
been printed at Rouen, is an edition of the little grammar called
Parvula. It consists only of four leaves, and the only copy known is
at Manchester. The book ends: “Here endeth a treatise called
parvula, for the instruction of children. Emprentyd by me Nicole
Marcant.” In the exasperating way common to some printers both
the date and place of printing are omitted. As to the date I am
inclined to put it before 1500, but the place is more difficult to settle.
Nicole Marcant is an unknown printer, but may very well be a
member of one of the numerous families of Marchand or Mercator,
for there were several printers of that name, though none so far as I
know named Nicholas.
If we except the Missal printed for Caxton in 1487 it was not until
1494 that the Paris printers began to work for the English market,
and the books they produced were almost all liturgical. The only
exceptions are three editions of grammatical works, two of the Liber
Equivocorum wrongly ascribed to Joannes de Garlandia, and one of
the Liber Synonymorum, the first two printed by Baligault and the
last by Hopyl.
The first liturgical book was an edition of the Sarum Breviary, printed
in 1494 by Pierre Levet. For a long time only one copy was known,
that in the library at Trinity College, Dublin, but not long ago the
University Library was fortunate enough to secure a second
example, a very beautiful copy in its old binding.
In one thing the Paris printers excelled all others, and that was in
the production of books of Hours. These were turned out in the last
few years of the century by hundreds of thousands, and though they
are now of very common occurrence and very often of little interest,
they are still much sought after by certain classes of collectors,
especially those who like what they call pretty books. Of course,
when these books were printed for the use of out of the way places
they have often great liturgical interest, and being printed no doubt
in small quantities are very rare. The English service books having
been relentlessly destroyed at the Reformation are very rare indeed.
Altogether in the fifteenth century twenty-seven editions of the
Sarum Horae were printed, fifteen in England, one at Antwerp, one
at Venice, and ten in Paris. Nine English editions were printed before
one was issued at Paris, but these latter when once they got a
footing in England easily defied competition. The changes in the text
of these books during the last ten years of the century are very
curious and interesting. The Horae was not a service book proper,
but a manual of private devotion, and so long as it contained certain
fixed and definite parts additional prayers could be added at will.
Consequently the editions vary greatly, and each publisher seems to
have aimed at inserting new and popular prayers, and by 1500 the
book had increased to almost double the bulk of its forerunner of ten
years earlier.
In speaking of these books there is one point on which a word of
warning may be said. And that is about dating editions which have
no date in the imprint. All such are usually put down to 1488, which
is the first date printed in the calendar of moveable feasts. As this
calendar was made out for a nineteen year cycle running on to 1508
it was naturally not reprinted for many years, and therefore is no
test for dating the printing of the book. The ten editions printed at
Paris are the work of about five printers, of whom the most
important was Felix Baligault.
The study of these French books of Hours is not an easy one, as
there is so much confusion between printers and publishers. In some
cases I am afraid the publishers used the words “printed by” in a
quite unwarrantable manner, and claimed to have produced books
which they had done nothing more than pay for. Then again quite
half the editions produced for sale in England are without any
imprint, so that we are left to conjecture who was the printer from
the type or cuts used in the books. To further bewilder us, sets of
cuts passed from printer to printer, and are very untrustworthy
guides in assigning books. If one printer issued a Horae with a fine
set of cuts they were promptly copied by his rivals, who in their turn
sold their old sets to less wealthy printers, in fact some sets of cuts
change hands almost every year.
These books are all got up in the same style, the text surrounded on
every page by deep borders containing figures of saints and martyrs
or pictures from the Dance of Death.
One unique edition, printed by Jean Poitevin about 1498, was picked
up lately in Ireland and bought by the librarian of Trinity College,
Dublin, for a small sum.
A service book of great interest is the first edition of the Sarum
Manual, of which the only known copy is in the library at Caius
College. It bears on its first leaf a Latin inscription stating that it was
given to the College of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary at
Cambridge by Humphrey de la Poole, son of the Duke of Suffolk, for
the use of the college, in September, 1498. The book is a folio of
164 leaves, beautifully printed in red and black by Berthold Rembolt
of Paris. It has no date, but the Greek in the printer’s device reads
ΧΕΡΕΘΗΚΙ, and must therefore be after 1496, when it read
ΧΕΡΕΘΙΚΗ, and as the book was presented in 1498 we may fairly
safely fix the date of printing about the beginning of 1498.
Unfortunately the last leaf is missing, which may have contained an
imprint giving the exact date and stating for whom the book was
printed.
The last service book to be noticed is a Sarum Missal printed by Jean
du Pré at Paris in 1500. Unfortunately all the copies of this book are
imperfect, though from the three copies known an exact collation
can be made. Another Missal was printed at Paris in the same year
by Higman and Hopyl for two unknown persons, I.B. and G.H.
All these service books though most interesting liturgically are
almost the most uninteresting class of book to the bibliographer.
They were issued by well-known printers, and are hardly different
from the great mass of foreign service books. From them early in the
sixteenth century, however, we derive a good deal of information
about the stationers, especially as regards the provincial presses; for
in the case of a town like York hardly anything seems to have been
printed beyond liturgical books.
So far the books we have been speaking of have been for the most
part in Latin, with some sentences here and there in English,
printed, of course, for the English market, but not of much interest
from the point of view of literature. But we now come to another
small group of English books, printed entirely in English, of very
much greater interest.
In 1492 and 1493, when, just after the death of Caxton, the English
press was almost at a standstill, Gerard Leeu of Antwerp printed four
English books of considerable interest. Three of them were reprints
of books already printed by Caxton, Lefevre’s History of Jason, the
History of Paris and Vienne, and the Chronicles of England. The
fourth book was The Dialogue or Communyng between the Wise
King Solomon and Marcolphus. Of this there does not seem to have
been any other English edition, though many Latin ones were
printed in the fifteenth century, and it is possible, though hardly
probable, that Caxton might have printed an edition which has
entirely disappeared.
Lefevre’s History of Jason is a small folio of ninety-eight leaves,
illustrated with a number of half-page cuts clearly made to illustrate
the book in which they first appear. They were used in several
editions of the Jason in different languages, the earliest in Dutch
having been printed by Bellaert at Haarlem about 1485. There are
copies of the English edition at Trinity College, Dublin, and in the
library at Chatsworth, and a third copy, slightly imperfect, is in the
University Library.
The History of Paris and Vienne, which was printed exactly three
weeks after the History of Jason, is a still rarer book, only one copy
being known, which is in the library at Trinity College, Dublin. It, like
the Jason, is illustrated with a series of half-page wood engravings,
which Mr Conway, in his History of the Woodcutters of the
Netherlands, conjectures to have been originally used in an edition
printed by Bellaert at Haarlem, which has now entirely disappeared,
and then to have passed from his possession into the hands of
Gerard Leeu. It is a small folio of forty leaves, and the copy at Dublin
is bound up with the Jason and the Chronicles.
The next book to be noticed, the Dialogue or Communyng between
the Wise King Solomon and Marcolphus, is very interesting, being
the only English edition of this version of a widespread and popular
story. It tells how Solomon, seated on his throne, is confronted by
Marcolphus, a misshapen rustic who answers with a certain coarse
wit the questions put to him by the king. Later on the king visits
Marcolphus, who in his turn comes to reside at court, but his
behaviour there is so insolent that the king can hardly put up with it.
After a series of escapades Marcolphus is banished from the court,
and finally sentenced to be hanged. He is allowed as a favour to
choose his own tree, and consequently he wanders with his guards
through the Vale of Josaphath to Jericho, over Jordan, through
Arabia and the wilderness to the Red Sea, but “never more could
Marcolf find a tree that he wold choose to hang on.” The curious
result of this is that he went home and lived happily ever afterwards.
The book itself has only one illustration, which is used twice, on the
recto and verso of the title-page, representing Marcolphus and his
wife Polycana standing before Solomon, who is seated upon his
throne. This cut found its way over to England, and was used by
several successive printers for editions of Howleglas.
The only copy known of Solomon and Marcolphus is in the Bodleian,
and was in a volume of tracts bequeathed with his library by Thomas
Tanner, Bishop of St Asaph. The volume contained originally five
separate pieces. Two by Wynkyn de Worde, the Three Kings of
Coleyne and the Meditations of St Bernard, two by Caxton, the
Governayle of Health and the Ars moriendi, and the Solomon and
Marcolphus. I am sorry to say that the two Caxtons have been cut
out of the volume and bound separately.
The last of the four books to be noticed is the edition of the
Chronicles of England. While the Chronicles were being printed
Gerard Leeu died, or perhaps it would be more correct to say was
murdered. One of his workmen named Henric van Symmen, who
was also a type engraver, struck work and determined to set up in
business on his own account. This led to a quarrel, and blows
succeeded words. The workman, it appears, in the course of the
quarrel struck Leeu a blow on the head, and this proved so serious
that he lay very ill for three days and then died. The workman was
promptly secured and brought up for trial for the killing of his
master, but it was probably considered that he had received a
certain amount of provocation, and his punishment took the form of
a fine. He was sentenced to pay into the Duke of Burgundy’s
exchequer the sum of forty guelden. Gerard Leeu seems to have
been a good master and a kindly man if we may judge from the
colophon put to the Chronicles: “Enprentyd In the Duchye of
Braband in the towne of Andewarpe In the yere of our lord
M.cccc.xciii. By maister Gerard de Leew a man of grete wysedom in
all maner of kunnyng: whych nowe is come from lyfe unto the deth,
which is grete harme for many a poure man. On whos sowle god
almyghty for hys hygh grace haue mercy. Amen.”
The book contains no illustrations beyond a woodcut of the arms of
England on the title-page.
Leeu seems to have intended to print more English books, for the
type in which all but the Chronicles are printed was a special fount
cut in imitation of English type, with a curious lower-case d for use
when that letter occurred at the end of a word. His death, so soon
after the cutting of the type, put an end to all such plans. The
custom, however, of printing English books at Antwerp revived at the
very beginning of the sixteenth century, for Adrian van Berghen
printed an edition of Holt’s Lac Puerorum, and John of Doesborch
issued a whole series of English popular books, some of them
remarkably curious.
Among the stationers who came to England from abroad the most
important was certainly Frederick Egmont. He was probably a
Frenchman, but his printing was mainly done in Venice, and he
seems to have been the agent of the Venetian printer Johannes
Hertzog de Landoia. From this Venetian press came a large number
of service books for English use, editions of the Breviary and Missal.
The Sarum Horae on the other hand is only represented by one
edition, issued about 1494, of which only a few leaves are known.
Egmont during his earliest years as a stationer was connected with
no press except that of Hertzog, and we do not know of any books
by this printer produced for any other English stationer, so that as
regards liturgical books for English use known to us only from
fragments we are justified, I think, in attributing to Egmont as
stationer such as we can determine from their type to have been
printed by Hertzog.
The first book in which his name occurs is an edition of the Breviary
according to the use of York, of which the only known copy is in the
Bodleian, having been originally in the great liturgical collection of
Richard Gough. It is a small thick octavo of 462 leaves, and was
issued in May, 1493. Two if not three editions of the Sarum Breviary
in octavo were printed about this same time, but we know of their
existence only from fragments discovered in bindings. Fragments of
one edition are in a binding in the library of St John’s College,
Cambridge, of another in a binding at Lambeth, while some leaves of
probably a third edition are in the library of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford.
In 1494 Egmont had commissioned Hertzog to print for him two
editions of the Sarum Missal, one in folio, the other in octavo. The
folio edition is of great rarity, but there is a beautiful though slightly
imperfect copy in the Sandars collection in the University Library.
The title-page is wanting and also the leaf containing the engraving
of the Crucifixion which should precede the Canon of the Mass. In
the imprint we are told that the book was finished on the 1st of
September, 1494, by John Hertzog de Landoia for Fredericus de
Egmont and Gerardus Barrevelt. This Gerardus Barrevelt was clearly
a partner of Egmont’s as their initials occur together in the device on
the title-page. This device is remarkable for the delicacy of its
execution. It consists of a circle divided by a perpendicular line
produced beyond the top of the circle, the projection being crossed
by two bars. In the left-hand half of the circle are the initials and
mark of Egmont, in the right those of Barrevelt. The whole is
enclosed in a square frame, and the background contains sprays of
leaves. It so resembles in style and appearance the mark used by
the printer John Hertzog that we may be pretty certain it was cut
under his supervision at Venice.
The octavo Missal of 1494, a much commoner book than the last,
was issued in December. On the last leaf is Hertzog’s mark and the
words, “Fredericus egmont me fieri fecit.” There is no mention of
Barrevelt, and the double device does not occur in the book, which
makes it appear as though this edition was printed for Egmont
alone. Both these editions of the Missal contain exquisitely designed
woodcut initials, the most graceful to be found in any early book.
In the Bodleian there is a copy of the “Pars estivalis” of the Sarum
Breviary printed at Venice in 1495, which contains again the device
of Egmont and Barrevelt, though the imprint mentions Egmont’s
name only. After 1495 we hear nothing more of Egmont until 1499,
when he seems to have got rid of his former partner Barrevelt and
joined with a man named Peter post pascha, and these two
commissioned Pynson to print them an edition of the Promptorium
Puerorum. After 1499 Egmont disappeared for a long time; we know
of him working as a bookbinder, and it is probable that he stayed on
for some time in England, for he is mentioned as a witness in a law-
suit in London in 1502. When he does reappear it is in Paris, where
he had some books printed for him about 1517-1520.
It is very disappointing that we have practically no information about
Frederick Egmont, for it is clear from the number of books that he
had printed for him in Venice that he must have been a stationer of
very considerable importance. The colophons of his books give,
beyond his mere name, no information whatever about him: we do
not even know in what part of London or under what sign he lived.
The stationers seem always to have settled in St Paul’s Churchyard,
and I cannot help thinking that part of that district may have been
“in the liberties,” as it was called, of some church. Though the Act of
Richard allowed foreigners to come over and trade, yet I do not
suppose his Act could override the rights of the trade guilds. It
certainly did not in York, for there a stationer must be a freeman by
right or by purchase before he could carry on certain businesses,
that of a stationer amongst the number, within the city. There were,
however, certain liberties where an alien could live and trade; and
we find at York that their earliest stationer, Gerard Wanseford, does
not appear in the city register. Having taken up his abode within the
liberty of St Peter, he was privileged to carry on business there
without being a freeman of the city.
In the same way in London, I suppose, the various trades had their
rights and could prevent foreigners from competing, except they
resided within the liberties. Of course there was a Stationers’
Company in London in the fifteenth century, though unfortunately
most of the records relating to it have disappeared, and it would
protect its own members. We see in the early bindings how
ostentatiously the binders who were freemen decorated their
bindings with the arms of London, and there is no doubt that as far
as trading in the City was concerned the foreigner was considerably
handicapped in comparison with the freeman.
We know from the few early documents remaining that the London
Company of Stationers was a powerful and important body, and the
members of it must certainly have enjoyed certain privileges.
Nicholas Lecomte was another stationer who appears to have been
settled in England by 1494, in which year, so far as I know, his first
dated book appears. M. Madden, a French writer on early printing, in
the fifth volume of his Lettres d’une Bibliographe, speaks of Hopyl
having printed a book for Lecomte in 1493. Several times in writing
to him I asked for some information about this book, its
whereabouts or its name even, but though he sent always
voluminous replies to my letters, he never would touch on this
particular point. I think, therefore, we may consider that this 1493
book never existed, and take the 1494 book as the first. This was an
edition of the Liber Synonymorum, printed by Hopyl, of which there
are copies in the University Library, the British Museum, and the
Bodleian.
In the imprint Lecomte is described as living in London by St Paul’s
Churchyard at the sign of St Nicholas. His device depicts St Nicholas
restoring to life the three children who had been killed and pickled, a
favourite subject of the early bookbinders.
I think it is worth noting here, that so far as I can discover the sign
of a house was not in any way permanent, but could apparently be
changed at will. I noticed this in reading through a catalogue or
précis of some thousands of deeds relating to property in London at
this time and a little earlier. We find endless notices of houses with
changed signs, “the tenement now called the Rose, formerly the
Lion,” the “house called the Bull, formerly called the Rose,” and so
on. Naturally if a house got celebrated for any reason it would be
politic to keep the sign, but there seems to have been no compulsion
to do so.
In 1495 an edition of Mirk’s Liber Festivalis and Quattuor Sermones
was printed by Hopyl for Lecomte. This contains Lecomte’s device at
the end of the Liber Festivalis and a curious device at the end of the
Quattuor Sermones, used sometimes by Hopyl, but which does not
bear on its face any appearance of having been made for him.
At the time when this book was printed Hopyl had in his office as
press corrector an Edinburgh man called David Lauxius, the earliest
Scotchman we know of employed in a printing-office. He afterwards
became a schoolmaster at Arras, and appears to have been a man of
considerable ability, and a friend of the celebrated Parisian printer
and editor, Badius Ascensius, who addresses to him some of the
prefatory letters in his grammars. What Scotch name is represented
by the Latin Lauxius no one has yet been able to determine.
The last book printed for Lecomte was printed at Paris by Jean
Jehannot, and is an edition of the Sarum Horae. It is a book of very
great rarity, but there are two copies in Cambridge, one in Trinity
College, and the other in the Sandars collection in the University
Library, the latter containing a small supplement not found in the
other copies, and which was not originally intended to form part of
the book, since the prayers in it are not referred to in the list of
contents. The imprint is curious; it states that the edition has been
revised and corrected in the celebrated University of Paris, and
printed for Nicolas Lecomte of that University, settled for the time
being in England as a merchant of books. I do not know whether
this means merely that he was educated at the University or
whether he was one of the privileged stationers attached to it,
though in the latter case he would hardly have come to settle in
England. Like Frederick Egmont, Lecomte was also a bookbinder.
Before the end of the century another stationer was settled in
England whose name we know, John Boudins. We know of only one
book printed for him, an edition of the Expositio Hymnorum et
Sequentiarum of Salisbury use, which was printed at the beginning
of 1502 by Bocard of Paris. Boudins was probably then an old man,
for his will is dated the 11th of October, 1501, and it was proved on
the 30th of March, 1503. He lived in the parish of St Clement’s,
Eastcheap, and was apparently a naturalised Fleming, and an
immigrant from Antwerp.
A great difficulty in the way of tracing these stationers, especially
those from the Low Countries, is the very sparing use they made of
their proper surnames. In legal documents such as wills or letters of
denization the formal name would be given, whereas in ordinary
parlance and in the imprints of books they would be spoken of by a
kind of nickname taken from the town from which they came, like
William de Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, and so on. So that we
should probably find, if we had more information on the subject,
that in many cases two men who are treated as different may turn
out to be only one man under two names. The number of stationers
that existed at this time in England was probably very large, and it is
sad to think that our information on the subject is so meagre. Of
course unless the stationer was wealthy enough or in a good way of
business he would not be able to commission whole editions of
books from a foreign printer, and therefore he would not have his
name in the imprint. Then again the greater part of a stationer’s
stock would consist of foreign books which were not necessarily
printed for England. For information of this class we can only look to
manuscript sources, accounts kept by the bookseller, lists of
imported books, and so on.
There exists, for instance, a list of books for sale at Oxford in 1483
by Thomas Hunte, which has been edited by Mr Madan for the
Oxford Historical Society. At the head of the list is the following
sentence in Latin: “Here follows the inventory of the books which I,
Thomas Hunte, stationer of the University of Oxford, have received
from Master Peter Actors and John of Aix-la-Chapelle to sell, with the
price of each book, and I promise faithfully to return the books or
the money according to the price written below as it appears in the
following list.” The two men mentioned were travelling stationers
from London, supplying so much stock to the bookseller on a system
of sale or return.
A document such as the Day-book of John Dorne, the journal or
account-book of an Oxford bookseller in 1520, which was edited by
Mr Madan for the Oxford Historical Society, and about which Henry
Bradshaw wrote his Half-century of Notes, the last piece of work
which he finished, is a find of the utmost importance in our subject,
and it is perhaps not too much to expect that more documents of
this kind may be forthcoming. In the account-book we notice that
after the 21st of May up to the 3rd of August there is an entire
blank, and Dorne begins his account-book again “post recessum
meum de ultra mare.” I think we should be safe in concluding that
these months were spent abroad on business and in the purchase of
books.
Sometimes such information is found amongst the waste leaves used
to make boards for bindings. The University Librarian read a note
before the Antiquarian Society here giving an account of a letter on
business matters written from a foreign printer to John Siberch, the
first printer in Cambridge, which was found among other waste
matter used to make the boards of a binding now in Westminster
Abbey Library, and letters of bookbinders have been found in the
same way.
We have not, unfortunately, any book however meagre on this
subject which might serve as a basis on which to build up
information. Isolated facts turn up occasionally here or there, but