[be ■)
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SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
346
this conclumon. Although amiable in conduct and mannen ; a lorer of modest mirth, esteemed, and even beloved, by his brethren in art, re- spected by his fellow-citizenB, and distin^ished by his monarch, he had a priTate woe which im- bittered all his cnp of honour : he had a shrew for his wife.* Yet, as another proof that beau^r and a sweet temper are not necessarily united, we are informed that, in paintine the Virpn Mary, he took her face for a moael. His do- mestic trials he bore with calmness for a time, but at last he escaped, for rest from her unkind- Bess, to Flanders, finding an asylum in the bouse of a brother in profession and fame ; but she discovered him in his quiet retreat, and pre- vailed upon him, by earnest promises of amend- ment, to return to his home. Unfortunately, however, f« him and for the world, her ill dis- posilion returned too, triumphed over the strength of his constitution, and hurried him to the grave before his time. He died at the age of fifty- •even. A Latin inscriptiodt to the following effect, was engraved on his sepulchre in the cemetery of St. John : —
TO THE MEMORY OF ALBERT DDRER.
AU. THAT WAS MORTAL OF ALBERT DURER 18
PLACED IN THIS TOMB. MDXXVIII.
We have by this celebrated master one hun- dred and four engravings on copper, six on tin, a great number on wood,t ana six etchings. His wife, whose maiden name was Agnes Frey, is supposed by some to have executed several small pieces, representing the miracles of Christ ; but this is merely conjecture. His son, Albert, was a sealptor, and probably an engraver.
1629. Diiti Richard Pynson, printer, of whom we have already given some notice (see page 196 anu), and also made such extracts as may shew the nature of the works in which he was engaged. Pynson, like many of the early trpographers, was a foreigner. In the chapel of ^e rolls is contained a patent of naturalization
• ISaMiwnr bu been consldeicd, by lome writer*. •• a condition not ao well suited to the drcnmataaees of |dii- looophcn and men of learninir- There it a little tract whicb profeaaes to Investigate the snbleet ; it baa for iti title Dt M^MmoKia LtleraM, an CxUAnt ute oa Mra miten eenwiaf ' That la, Mairiace of a Man of Letters ) with an enqiiirr whether it is moat proper for him to continne B '■"'*-«' or marry?— Hie anuior alleges the great merit ofaome womeni paitlenlarlythatof Coozaga, theconaott or Montefeltro doke of Urbinot a lady of toch disUn- gidahel accompUshmenta, that Peter Bembos tald, none but a atiqiid man would not prefer one of her convena- Uons to all the formal meeUngi and dispntationa of the phnosopbers.— Tbe wife of Bergbem would never allow tkat excelleat artiat to qnit hia occnpationa, and she con- tiired an odd expedient to detect lite indolence. The ar. tiat wnfced in a room above beri ever and anon the raued Urn by tbnmping a long stick against the ceillnK. -wUle the obedient Berghem answered by atampinfc hia toot, to saUsly Mrs. Berghem that he was not napping.— JEUan had an aversion to the marriage state. — Sigoooa, a learned and well known scholar, would never marry, and aDend no inelegant reason, that " Minerva and Venni could not live together."
t Mr. Ottley baa been enabled to give a rldi treat to Ummc who can fieel an interest in this study, by presenting in Ui book, specimens of the works of tliia great artist, printed fmm Ihe original Uoekt Utemielea I There are fooT, viz., TAelMt Sapper; CJkrist before Pilate I Ckritt takm iown/rom Ou Cnmi and The Atcentim.
granted to him by k!n^ Henry VII., about 14tW, which calls him " Richard Pynson, descended from the countries of Normandy." The name does not then appear to have been first intro- duced into England, for in the churchwarden's books belonging to the parish of St. Margaret, WestmiBster, in the year 1504, are the words, "Item, receuyued of Robert Pynson for four tapers iiiid." Anthony A. Wood also, in his Atheiue Oxmtienia, edit, by Bliss, London, 1815, vol. ii. p. 892, mentions, that one " Philip Pin- son, an English man, studied among the Mino- rites or Grey Frian, for a time at their house in Oxon, of which order he was a learned brother." He was subsequently suffraf^-bishop to Had- rian de Castello, bishop of Hereford, and after- wards bishop of BaUi and Wells; through whose endeavours, united with the interest of king Henry VII., he was advanced by the court of Rome to the archbishopric of Tuam, in Ire- land, December 2nd, 1603, and three days after he died of the plague. It has been snpnosed, from an equivocal note inserted in Palmer's General History of Printing, that Richard Pyn- son, or Wynkyn de Worde, was the son-in-law of William Caxton; but the preference has rather been assigned to the latter, since in all his devices Caxton's mono^am appears most prominently conjoined with De Worde's, while those of Pynson are composed of his own initials only. That Pynson might have been either an apprentice or workman of Caxton's is scarcely to De doubted; since in The Prohemye, to his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Talei, printed without date, he says, " whiche boke diligently ouirsen 8c dnely examined by the polliticke reason and ouersight of my worshipful master William Caxton accordinge to the intente and effect of the seid Geoffw Chaucer, and by a copy of the seid master Cfaxton purpos to im- prent by the grace ayde and support of almyghty god. Whom J humbly besecne. that he of his
rte and habnndant graxie will so dispose that may it fynisshe to his plesure laude and glorye." It has also been considered, that Richard Pynson was probably a more ancient printer than Wynkyn ae Worae, on account of the rudeness of type which is shewn in his edition of Diuet and Pauper, 5th July 1493; and in the book of Canterbury Talet, without date, when contrasted with the typographical excellence of Wynkyn de Worde. The rea- dence of Pynson was in Fleet-street, close to that of De Woide, whom it has been sup- posed he invited from Westminster, to dwell near him. Psalmanazar has also intimated, that the two typographers lived in the closest faipiliarity and niendship with each other, but by their publishing different editions of the same book, almost at the same period, it would appear more as if they had been the supporters of two rival presses. The first book of Pynson's which is known with a date, states in the colophon, that it was printed " the y day Juyl. the yere of onre lord god. m.cccc.lxxxxiii. — ^by me Richarde Pynson at the Temple-barre of london." The
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