258
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
was quite finished Tindall was betrayed, and in the end suffered martyrdom.
1534. Died Theodore Martens an eminent printer, who introduced the art into Alost about 1472. Martens continued the printing business for nearly sixty years at Alost, Louvain, and Antwerp. He was an author as well as a printer, but he IS more renowned for the many beautiful editions of other men's works which issued from his press. He was highly esteemed by the learned men of the period in which he lived; Santander is loud and long in his praise, and he enjoyed the friendship of Erasmus, who lodged in his house. His device was the double anchor. Martens was born at Alost, in the year 1464.
16.34. Died, Wynkyn de Worde, the first assistant and successor of Caxton, (see page 195 ante.) Throughout the whole range of our ancient typographers, there is scarcely one whose memory beams with greater efi'ulgence than that of Wynkyn de Worde : he gained this high distinc- tion not only from the number of his publica- tions, but also from the typographical excellence which they exhibit. By an examination of the patent in the chapel of the rolls, it will appear that W. de Worde was born in the dukedom of Lorraine : he became a denizen of England in the year 1496. It has been conjectured, that he was an assistant, or workman, with William Caxton, during his residence at Bmges, or Cologne : be this as it may, there is no doubt of his having been a servant to our first tvpographer, and remaining in that capacity till his death. From this period he most successfully practised the art of printing on his own account; and continued to print in his master's house. Mr. Dibdin imagines, that the interval between the death of his master, and the appearance of his first publication, was principally occupied in re- arrangements, and in procuring n«ll types. In the colophon to Hilton's Ladder of Perfection,
Srinted in 1494, Wynkyn de Worde notices the eath of his master, Caxton; and in the second verse he mentions the patronage which he him- self had obtained from Margjiret Beaufort, countess of Richmond, only daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and mother of king Henry VII.
"Tbishenenlfboke^ mora precyoiu thmn goale^
Wu late ifnet, wjth great bamrlyte. For godly plesor thereon to betaolde.
Unto the right noble Maigaret u ye aee^ The Kyngcs moder, of excellent bounte,
Hory the Seuentb, that Jha bym pzeserae, lUs myghty piyncesse hath cammanded me
Temiirynt uis boke, her gnoe for to deseme."
In the following year, Wynkyn de Worde
$roduced from his press the Vitas Patrum, the
- olychronicon, and, most probable, Barlholo-
nueut de Proprietatibiu Rentm; as they are all printed with the same types, and under the same patron, namely, Robert Thomey, mercer. The colophon of the Cojutitutiones Prouintialet Ec- cletie Anglicana, 1496, shews that Wynkyn de Worde was at that period still living at West- minster, in Caxton's house; as was uso the case when be printed Withai't Short Dictionary, the
Accidence, the ChorU and the Byrdt, and the DoctrynaUe of Dethe; all of which have a similar notice in their colophons. In this office he appears to have continued until the year 1499, and soon after he removed to the " sign of the Golden Sun, in the parish of St. Bride, in the Fletestrete, London;" the neighbourhood of which he appears never to have left, as in his will he directs his body to be buried in the paro- chial church of St. Bride, Fleet-street, before the high altar of St. Katharine. He was also s considerable benefactor to that parish, as he bequeathed to the church, £ 36 in money, to be laid out in lands, tmd with the rents thereof, an obit, or funeral service, was to be said for his soul, on the dayof his death, for ever. It is supposed that Wynkyn de Worde died in the year 1634; although the colophon to his edition of Eiop is dated 1535, yet the circumstance ad- duced by Mr. Dibdin, of his will having been proved in January 19th in that year, is almost a sufficient evidence that it must be a typographical error.
Whether he was married or not, or had rela- tions that came over with him, does not appear by his will; yet we find in the churchwarden's accounts for St. Margaret's Westminster, an en- trv made in the year 1498. ** Item, for the knell of Elizabeth de Worde vi pence. Item, foi iii torches, with the grate belle for, v. iiii." Again, in the year 1600, "Item, for theknelleof Iimane de Worde, with the grete belle, vi pence."
According to the custom of his time, this emi- nent typographer was a stationer, since, he calls himself in his will, ** citizen and stationer of London;" yet Stow is certainly in an error when he states that Wynkyn de Worde was one of the corporation, since the stationer's charter was not granted until 1555-6, and he had then been deceased about twenty years. Herbert endea- vours to obviate this anachronism, by adducing a receipt given by the stationer's collectors in 1554, and by this he supposes they might have been qualified to act as an associated bbdy, pre- vious to their receiving an act of incorporation. The name of Wynkyn de Worde also appears on the books of the leatherseller's company, in the reign of Henry VIII. and he was one of the brotherhood ol our lady's assumption, which, probably, was a fratemity belonging to St. Bridget's^hurch, as Stow relates that such as- sociations " were numberless" in " most churches and chapels." The same laborious antiquary supposes that de Worde was a native of HoUana.
Herbert remarks of him, that "although he, was the immediate successor of Caxton, yet he' improved the art to a very great degree of per- fection; cutting a new set of punches, which he sunk into matrices, and cast the several sorts of printing letter which he made use of himself; and Safie of them have been in use to this day, beiiMBt so true, and standing so well in line, as not to be excelled by any : and of these he had also a larger variety of sorts and sizes than h||^ predecessors." It has been supposed by some authors, that Wynkyn de Worae was the
VjOOQ IC
