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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1649. William Tilly resided in St. Anne and Agnes parish, in Aldersgate-street, where he printed the New Tettament, in quarto.
1,^49. The Buble, that is to aax/, all the Holy Script lire, in which are conteyned the Olde and Neu-e Tettamente, truly and purely translated into Englysh, and nowe lately with great industry and diligence recognised, fmprynted at London, by John Daye, dwelling at Aldersgate, and Wil- liam Seres, dwelling in Peter ColUdge. mdxlix. Folio. This is the first edition of Edmunde Beckc's Bible, who has subscribed his name to the dedication to Edward VI. from which the following curious passage is taken : " Let this book be a perpetual president and a patron of all law and lawyers ; a jewel of joy for all that by your grace's commission are constituted and placed in office or authority. Then will they of good will and not for love of lucre, or great iees, execute their office. Then will the minister of justice hear the small as well as the great; the cause of the orphan, the widow, and the poor, should come before them. Then should the ovciloug and great travail, the immoderate ex- penses and costes which the poor man daily sustaiucth in his endless suits, pierce and move their stony hearts with pity and compassion. Then should neither God's cause, nor tte poor man's matter, have so many put offs, so many put by's and delays. Then, if there were any bribery, or bolstering bearing of naughty matters it should shortly appear. Then your grace's chancellors, judges, and justices, and such as intermeddle with the lucrous law, would dispatch more matters in one term than they have hitherto done in a dozen."
In 1549, the third year of Edward VI. a pro- clamation was issued, printed by Grafton, for abolishing and putting away divers books and imai^es, which passed into an act of parliament, in the following words : —
" Whereas the king's most excellent majesty hath of late set forth, and established, by au- thority of parliament, an uniform, quiet, and godly order of common and open prayer, in a book intituled. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies after the Church of Eng- land, to be used and observed in the said Church of England, agreeable to the order of the Primi- tive Church, much more comfortable unto his loving subjects than other diversity of service, as hereto fore of long time hath been used, being in the said book ordained, nothing to be read but the pure word of God, or which is evidently grounded therenn, ^c." It then proceeds to order the abolishing of all other religious books, as they tend to superstition and idolatrv; and com- mands all persons to deface and destroy images of all kinds that were erected for religious wor- ship, under a penalty for any to prevent the same. In this proclamation are the following clauses : "Provided always that this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to any image or picture, set, or engraven upon any tomb in any church, chapel,or church-yard, only
for a monument of any dead saint" It was also enacted, that the people might still keep the primers set forth by the late king Henry VIII. provided they erased the sentences of invocation, and names of popish saints. This act was repealed by queen Mary, but king James I. re-estab- lished it. The first impression of the Liturgy, ^ after the use of the church of England," was published by Grafton and Wliitchurch, under royal authority, folio. There are copies bearing the dates of May, June, December, and other months in the same year ; and there are occasional variations in such copies, which cannot at present be accounted for. The names of the above printers are inserted separately, it being pre- sumed that each shared the expense and profit of the work. At the end is printed this : — " The king's majestic, by the advice of his most dere uncle the lord protector, and other his highness counsaill, straightly chargeth and commandeth, that no manner of persone sell thispresent book, unbound, above the price of two snillynges and two pence, and the same bounde in paste or in hordes, in. calves lether, not above the price of four shillynges the piece. God save the kyng."
John Oswen, who had removed from Ipswicb to Worcester, printed in 1549, the text of the Common Prayer, as extant in Grafton and Whit- church, rather omitting and abrid^ng than sub- stituting alterations. An order affixes the price of the work, (as printed at the end of it) at ii shillinges and two pence y piece, unbounde. And the same bounde in paste, or in boards, not above the price of three shillynges and eyght pence the piece : the printing is of dismal execution.
Grafton's impression was sold at the same price as Oswen 's, when unbound; but, bounde in paste or boordes,* couered with calues leather, not above the price of iiii shillynges the piece.
The compilers of the Common Prayer Book were: — Drs. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury ; Goodrick, bishop of Ely; Skip, bishop of Here- ford; Thirlby, bishop of Westminster; Day, bishop of Chichester; Holbeck, bishop of Lin- coln ; Ridley, bishop of Rochester ; May, dean of St. Paul's; Taylor, dean of Lincoln; Heyns, dean of Exeter; Redman, dean of Westminster; Cox, almoner to king Edward VI.; Robinson, archdeacon of Leicester.
In consequence of the above act of Edward, for destroying books, the libraries of Westminster and Oxford were ordered to be ransacked, and purged of " all hooks called Antiphoneis, Mis- sales, Grailes, Processionals, Manuals, Legends, Pies, Portuasses, Primers in Latine and English, Couchers, Journals, Ordinals, or other books or writings whatsoever, heretofore used for the ser- vice of the church, written or printed in the Eng- lishe or Latine tongue, other than sett forth by the king's majesty — for the first offence, 10s.; second, four pounds; and third, imprisonment
- The most ancient mode of binding books «<■ in thin
wooden boards, many are still remaining in that material. Folds of paper were afterwards pasted together for covers, and this substance, thongh so ditflcrent from the former, proaerved the name of boards, being called pasteboards.
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