Richard Collins, on his appointment as Clerk of the Company in 1575, records that one of his duties was to enter 'lycences for pryntinge of copies' and one section of his register is accordingly devoted to this purpose.[1] It has no general heading, but the summary accounts of the wardens up to 1596 continue to refer to the receipts as 'for licencinge of copies'.[2] The character of the individual entries between 1576 and 1586 is much as in the account books. The name of a stationer is given in the margin and is followed by some such formula as 'Receyved of him for his licence to prynte' or more briefly 'Lycenced vnto him', with the title of the book, any supplementary information which the clerk thought relevant, and a note of the payment made. Occasional alternatives are 'Allowed', 'Admitted', 'Graunted' or 'Tolerated' 'vnto him', of which the three first appear to have been regarded as especially appropriate to transfers of existing copyrights;[3] and towards the end of the period appears the more important variant 'Allowed vnto him for his copie'.[4] References to external authorizers gradually become rather more frequent, although they are still the exception and not the rule; the function is fulfilled, not only by the bishop, the archbishop, or the Council, but also upon occasion by the Lord Chancellor or the Secretary, by individual Privy Councillors, by the Lord Mayor, the Recorder or the Remembrancer of the City, and by certain masters and doctors, who may be the ministers mentioned by Felix Kingston, and who probably held regular deputations from a proper ecclesiastical authority as 'correctors' to the printers.[5] It is certain that such a post was held in 1571 by one Talbot, a servant of the Archbishop of Canterbury. On the other hand the clerk, at first tentatively and then as a matter of
- [Footnote: the archbishop, yet a mention of 'one Talbot, servant of the archbishop
of Canterbury, a corrector to the printers' in an examination relative to the Ridolfi plot (Haynes-Murdin, ii. 30) shows that he had enough work in 1571 to justify the appointment of a regular deputy.]'; 404, 'the Lord Chancellor'; 409, 'master Cotton'; 417, 'by aucthoritie from the Counsell'; 434, 435, 'pervsed by master Crowley'; 447, 'master Recorder'. For Talbot, cf. supra.]
- ↑ ii. 35, 301. Collins remained clerk to 1613, when he was succeeded by Thomas Mountfort, who became a stationer (McKerrow, 196), and is of course to be distinguished from the prebendary of Paul's and High Commissioner of a similar name, who acted as 'corrector' (cf. p. 168).
- ↑ i. 451 sqq.
- ↑ ii. 302, 359, 371, 377, 378, 414, &c.
- ↑ ii. 440, 444.
- ↑ ii. 334, 'vnder the hande of Master Recorder'; 341, 'vnder thandes of Doctour Redman and the wardens'; 342, 'master Recorder and the wardens'; 346, 'the lord maiour and the wardens'; 357, 'sub manibus comitum Leicester et Hunsdon'; 372, 'master Crowley'; 375, 'master Vaughan'; 386, 'master Secretary Wilson'; 403, 'master Thomas Norton [Remembrancer
