this conclusion. Although amiable in conduct granted to him by king Henry VII., about 1493, and manners; a lover of modest mirth, esteemed, which calls him "Richard Pynson, descended and even beloved, by his brethren in art, re- from the countries of Normandy." The name spected by his fellow-citizens, and distinguished does not then appear to have been first introby his monarch, he had a private woe which im- duced into England, for in the churchwarden's bittered all his cup of honour: he had a shrew books belonging to the parish of St. Margaret, for his wife. Yet, as another proof that beauty Westminster, in the year 1504, are the words, and a sweet temper are not necessarily united," Item, receuyued of Robert Pynson for four we are informed that, in painting the Virgin tapers iiiid." Anthony A. Wood also, in his Mary, he took her face for a model. His do- Athena Oxonienses, edit. by Bliss, London, 1815, mestic trials he bore with calmness for a time, vol. ii. p. 692, mentions, that one "Philip Pinbut at last he escaped, for rest from her unkind- son, an English man, studied among the Minoness, to Flanders, finding an asylum in the rites or Grey Friars, for a time at their house in house of a brother in profession and fame; but Oxon, of which order he was a learned brother." she discovered him in his quiet retreat, and pre- He was subsequently suffragan-bishop to Hadvailed upon him, by earnest promises of amend- rian de Castello, bishop of Hereford, and afterment, to return to his home. Unfortunately, wards bishop of Bath and Wells; through however, for him and for the world, her ill dis- whose endeavours, united with the interest of position returned too, triumphed over the strength king Henry VII., he was advanced by the court of his constitution, and hurried him to the grave of Rome to the archbishopric of Tuam, in Irebefore his time. He died at the age of fifty-land, December 2nd, 1503, and three days after A Latin inscription, to the following effect, was engraved on his sepulchre in the cemetery of St. John: seven. TO THE MEMORY OF ALBERT DURER. We have by this celebrated master one hundred and four engravings on copper, six on tin, a great number on wood,t and 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 sculptor, and probably an engraver. 1529. Died RICHARD PYNSON, printer, of whom we have already given some notice (see page 196 ante), and also made such extracts as may shew the nature of the works in which he was engaged. Pynson, like many of the early typographers, was a foreigner. In the chapel of the rolls is contained a patent of naturalization *Matrimony has been considered, by some writers, as condition not so well suited to the circumstances of phi. phers and men of learning. There is a little tract which professes to investigate the subject; it has for its title De Matrimonia Literati, an Calibem esse an vero nubere Cat? That is, Marriage of a Man of Letters; with an enquiry whether it is most proper for him to continue bachelor or marry?—The author alleges the great merit of the women; particularly that of Couzaga, the consort of Montefeltro duke of Urbino; a lady of such distinshed accomplishments, that Peter Bembus said, none sta stupid man would not prefer one of her conversaas to all the formal meetings and disputations of the losophers.-The wife of Berghem would never allow that excellent artist to quit his occupations, and she contrived an odd expedient to detect his indolence. The arthat worked in a room above her; ever and anon she Fosed him by thumping a long stick against the ceiling, while the obedient Berghem answered by stamping his fort, to satisfy Mrs. Berghem that he was not napping. Elan had an aversion to the marriage state.-Sigonus, a earned and well known scholar, would never marry, and alleged no inelegant reason, that "Minerva and Venus ould not live together." Mr. Ottley has been enabled to give a rich treat to hose who can feel an interest in this study, by presenting in his book, specimens of the works of this great artist, prated from the original blocks themselves! There are Boar, viz., The Last Supper; Christ before Pilate; Christ Exken down from the Cross; and The Ascension. he died of the plague. It has been supposed, Falle of Princis, of the following year, has "dwellynge withoute the Temple barre of London," which place of his residence is continued, till 1502-3. In the Imytacyon & Folowynge of Criste, finished on the 27th of June in the latter year, his house is stated to be "in Flete-strete at the sygne of the George;" and the book to have been printed "at the commaundement and instaunce of the ryght noble and excellent Prynces Margaret moder of our souerain lorde Kynge Henry the VII. and Countesse of Rychmount and Derby." But a still higher protection is to be found attached to a Salisbury Missal, printed in 1504, which has the words, "per Richardum Pynson huius artis ingeniosissimum mandato et impensa serinissimi xpristianissimiq. et omnia virtutum genere prediti regis Henrici septimi." The Pylgremage of Perfection, 1525, was Imprinted at London in Fletestrete, besyde saynt Dunstan's Churche by -printer to the Kynges noble grace;" and in an edition of the Salisbury Missal, without date, are the expressions "In parochia Sancti Dunstani (in fletestrete), iuxta ecclesiam commorantem." From these extracts, it is ascertained that Pynson lived in two, if not in three different residences; since, as the parish of St. Clement reaches to the western side of TempleBar, he could not be dwelling near St. Dunstan's church at the time when he was situated without the boundary. It is supposed that in 1508, when William Faques either died or resigned his office of king's printer, Pynson first properly assumed this title in his colophons; and that the royal patronage which he had previously received, must have been confined to certain books only. In December 1508, in the colophon to the Peregrinatio Humani Generis, he styles himself, "Prynter vnto the Kyngis noble grace," and in Alexander Barclay's translation of Sallust's Chronicle, no date, there is added to the above, "with priuylege vnto hym graunted by our sayd sourayne lorde the kynge." made a Cobbler a Mariner, he made him a Printer. Formerly this Scoundrel did profess himself a Bookseller, as well skilled as if he had started forth from Utopia; he knows well that he is free who pretendeth to books, although it be nothing more; notwithstanding he is a Buffoon who hath dared to engage in it, his reverend care for the Laws of England should knowingly and truly have imprinted them all. Whether the words which I give be profitable, or whether they be faithful he can tell, and do thou in reading Lyttleton excuse his care and diligence in that place where thou dost see it. Farewell;" Redman took but little notice of all this, but in April 1527, he removed into St. Clement's parish, to the sign of the George, the very house which Pynson had quitted; and in the same year, in an edition of Magna Charta, Pynson again attacked him in a similar manner. In 1532, Redman seemed to have occupied his antagonist's residence next to St. Dunstan's church, as his direction expresses; and Herbert supposes that Pynson thus effected a reconciliation with Redman, by retiring from business, and making over his whole stock to him. The last books printed by Pynson, are supposed to have been bishop Longland's Convocation Ser mon, and the Missal of the Holy Ghost, both in octavo, 1531; but in the date of the former, Herbert supposes that there is an error, and that MDXXXI has been placed for MDXXIX. The colophons of some of Pynson's books shew that he was employed by some of considerable importance as well as the royal family, for in that to the Promptuarius Pueororum, 1499, he says, "Imprinted by the excellent Richard Pynson, at the charges of those virtuous men Frederick and Peter Egmont, after Easter," &c. In an edition of the Old Tenures, he mentions, that it was printed at "the instaunce of my maistres of the company of Stronde Inne with oute templ barre off London;" and in The Myrrour of Good Maners, no date, he says "whiche boke 1 About 1525, Robert Redman assumed and haue pryntyd at the instance and request of the altered one of the best devices of Richard Pyn- ryght noble Rychard Yerle of Kent." As i son, and also interfered in one department of 1529, Thomas Berthelet had a patent for the printing, (the law,) which the latter considered, office of king's printer, and in a book of tha from the royal protection already mentioned, as year he assumed the title, it has thence beer being peculiarly his own. At the end of an concluded that Pynson died about the sam edition of Lytylton Tenures newly and moost time; but, if the above-mentioned books be r truly correctyed and amended, October 12th, ceived as evidence, this supposition is certainl 1525, Pynson placed the affair before the public erroneous. Lord Coleraine, in his manuscrip in a Latin letter, of which the following is a concerning Tottenham, preserved in the Bo translation:-"Richard Pynson, the Royal Prin- leian library at Oxford, states that in the 11 ter, Salutation to the Reader. Behold I now of Henry VIII., 1519, the manor-house of T give to thee, Candid Reader, a Lyttleton cor- tenham with the adjoining fields, (then the pr rected (not deceitfully,) of the errors which oc-perty of sir William Compton), were leased f curred in him; I have been careful that not my printing only should be amended, but also that with a more elegant type it should go forth to the day that which hath escaped from the hands of Robert Redman, but truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest out of a thousand men, is not easily understood. Truly I wonder now at last that he hath confessed it his own typography, unless it chanced, that even as the Devil | forty-one years to one Richard Pynson, gen but whether this were the typographer is c tainly doubtful. Mr. Rowe Mores, in his v curious work on English Founders and For deries, speaks well both of Pynson and his tyr He states that in 1496, this printer was possES of a double pica, and great and long primers, clear and good, with a rude Eng. english, a english, and a long primer roman. In 1499, had an english, and a pica roman, of a thick appearance, but a letter which stood well in line. He had also a better fount of great primer English, with which he printed in 1498; Pynson was the first typographer who introduced the roman letter into this country. As the authenticity of the portrait of William Caxton has already been noticed, so it should be observed, that there is no better proof than that of time and popular acceptation for the head engraved for Richard Pynson. In reality, it represents John Gorræus, junior, who lived at the court of Louis XIII. to whom he was physician in ordinary; and it occurs on the back of a Latin address to marshal Montmorenci, composed by him. The original is, a fine spirited wood engraving, about six inches in height; and was discovered by Francis Douce, Esq. The above is the principal device of Richard Pynson, though in general, they were six in amber. He had also several loose engraved order pieces, for the formation of compartments and title-pages; or for the enlarging of some other device, on some of which his cypher appears in miniature. Of these compartments, one consisted of naked boys in procession to the left, ying one upon the shoulders of four others; other had a procession to the right, in which two of the boys were riding in panniers on an phant, the nearest of which was crowned. A third had two boys holding a festoon; and all these were bottom pieces. A fourth compartment contained the history of Mutius and Por He probably had likewise a kind of smp for the covers of books; since in Herbert's description of the Imitacyon, &c. of Christ, 1503, and Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. ii. ge 423, he says, "a copy of this book was canously bound, with the king at length, the printer's mark, and other figures stampt on the over." Again, in Herbert's notice of the Abbrementum Statutorum, 1499, he states that "the ing at length, and Pynson's mark, R. P. were stamped on the cover of the book." Pynson, like Wynkyn de Worde, affixed to several of his books, especially to his statutes and law publications, various engravings of the royal arms, apporters, badges, &c. as well to indicate his ng the king's printer, as to denote those volumes which more immediately related to the history and constitution of England. 244. 1529. The first patent of king's printer which has been found, is that granted to Thomas Berthelet, by Henry VIII., in this year. But before this time, Richard Pynson, in 1503, had styled himself "printer unto the king's noble grace;" and in 1508, we find William Faques, in like manner, taking the Latin title of regis impressor (the king's printer). It may be regarded as almost certain, that at this time the appointment of king's printer did not convey any exclusive privileges, but was merely an honorary distinction, implying that the individual possessing it was peculiarly patronized by his majesty, and perhaps was regularly employed to do the printing work of the crown. It was, in fact, an appointment very nearly of the same nature with those held at present by any of the royal tradesmen. Wynkyn de Worde, before Pynson, called himself printer to the lady Margaret (Henry VII.'s mother), but it will scarcely be pretended that that princess, by such an appointment, could confer upon him any exclusive privileges. At the very time that Pynson called himself printer to the king, the acts of parliament were printed not only at his press, but also at those of Wynkyn de Worde, and of Julian Notary. And this view is fully confirmed by the terms of the patent granted to Berthelet, in which there is not a word about the exclusive right of printing anything whatever. The king assumed the right of controlling the exercise of the art of printing, not merely in regard to certain classes, but in regard to all classes of books. He licensed at his pleasure one man to print, and refused that liberty to another; he permitted the printing of one book, and prohibited that of another. The royal prerogative, in fact, as to this matter, was held to be unlimited and omnipotent. Every thing testifies the supremacy actually exercised by the royal prerogative. No book, in the first place, could be printed at all until it was licensed; and secondly, the king assumed the power of granting a right of exclusive printing and exclusive selling to whom he pleased in regard to all books whatsoever.-We shall enumerate the patents and privileges as they were granted to certain persons for printing or vending any kind of books. Thomas Berthelet lived at the sign of Lucretia Romana, in Fleet-street; and it is singular to remark that the king's printer, (from Pynson in 1500) to the present time, have all resided in the parish of St. Bride, which seems to have been the Alma Mater of our profession, upon its first introduction into the metropolis. The total number of those carrying on printing in this parish almost defies enumeration; certainly eclipses, in comparison, that of any other parish or circle of similar extent in England, or perhaps the world. 1529. Louis de Berquin, a gentleman of Artois, who was probably attached to the reformed opinions, presumed to avow himself by his conversation and writings the defender of Erasmus, and brave in his behalf the fury of the Sorbonne. Such was the fury of the Parisian divines, (who had published a Censura, about 1526, upon va vulgar tong; and more over, that wryttyn and enteryd of record in the rollys in the latyn tong, because that every man generally, and indifferently, myght haue the knolege thereof, as apperyth by a statute made in the xxxxvi yere of E. iii. c. vltimo; wherfore, as I suppose, for these causis before rehersyd, which was intendyd for a ryght good purpose." rious passages of Erasmus's New Testament,) that the matters of the law, and accions betwen that not even the royal protection of Francis I., partes shuld be pledyd, shewyd and defendyd, though powerfully exerted in the favour of Ber-answerd, debatyd and juggyd in the English quin, was sufficient to shield him from their vengeance; and this unfortunate man was, after a tedious process, condemned to expiate his offence in the flames; and was actually burned at Paris in this year. Noel Bedier, who affected the name of Beda after the venerable Bede, was syndic of the Sorbonne at this period. He was a fierce fanatical pedant, and an incessant disputant; always on the look out for heresy, and for some new victim to persecute; and such was his hatred to heterodoxy that he would have burned every individual whom the Sorbonne condemned. 1530. The first abridgement of the English Statutes, printed in English, was done by John Rastell. The preface to this work details the arguments which caused the old Norman French | to give place to the English language, in enacting the laws of this country. It is on this account an interesting relic; and we therefore give the following extracts from Luckombe:"Because that the lawys of this realme of England, as well the statutes as other juge mentys and decreys, be made and wrytyn most commynly in the Frenche tongue, dyuerse men thereof muse, and have oftimis communycacion and argument consyderyng, that in reason euery law wherto any people shuld be boundyn, ought and shulde be wryttyn in such manere and so opynly publishyd and declaryd, that the people myght sone, wythout gret dyffyculte, have the knoulege of the seyd laws. But the verey cause why the seyd laws of Englond were writin in the French tonge, shuld seme to be this: furst, yt ys not unknowyn, that when Wyllyam, duke of Normandy, came in to thys land, and slew kyng Herrold, and conqueryd the hole realme, there was a grete nomber of people, as well gentylmen as other, that cam wyth hym, whych understode not the vulgar tong, that was at that tyme vsyd in this realme, but onely the French tong: and also, because the seyd kyng, and other grete wyse men of hys counsel, perseyuyd and suposyd that the vulgar tong, which was then usyd in this realme was, in a manere, but homely and rude, nor had not so grete copy and haboundaunce of wordys as the Frenche tong than had, nor that vulgare tong was not of yt selff suffycyent to expown and tu declare the matter of such lawys and ordenauncis, as they had determynid to be made for the good governaunce of the people so effectually, and so substancyally, as they cowd indyte them in the French tong, therefore they orderid, wrot, and indytyd the seyd lawys, that they made, in the French tong. And forthermore, long after the commyng off kyng Wylyam conquerour, because that the vse of the French tong in this realme began to mynysh, and be cause that dyuers people that inhabityd wythin this realme, wich could nother speke the vulgare tonge of thys realme, nother the French tong; therefore the wys men of this realme causyd to be ordyryd, "Thoughe the statutys, made as well in the tyme of the seyde kyng Henry the VII., as in the tyme of our souerein lorde, that now ys, be sufficyently indytid and writyn in our Englysh tong, yet to them that be desirous shortly to knowe the effect of them, they be now more tedyouse to rede, than though the mater and effect of them were compendyously abbreuiat: wherefore now, as farr as my symple wytt and small lernynge wyll extende, I haue here takyn upon me to abbregg the effect of them more shortly in this lyttyll book, besechyng all them, to whome the syght here of shall come, to accept hyt in gree; and though they shall fortune to fynde any thynge mysreportyd, or omytted by my neglygens, elis by neglygens of the prynters, that yt wolde lyke them to pardon me, and to consyder my good wyl, which haue intendid ty for a comyn welth, for the causis and consideracyons before rehersyde; and also, that yt fortune them to be in dout in any poynt thereof, yet, yf it please them, they may resorte to the hole statute, whereof thys book is but a bregement, and in manere but a kalender. And forthermore I wyll aduertyse every mon, that shall fortune to haue any matter in ure, to resorte to some man, that ys lernyd in the laws of thys realme, to haue his councel in such poyntis, which he thinkith doubtfull concernyng these seid statutis, by the knolege wherof, and by the dylygent obseruyng of the same, he may the better do hys dewte to hys prynce and souerine, and also lyf in tranquilite and pease wyth his neyghbour, accordyng to the pleasure and commandment of all mighti God, to whom be eternal laud and glori. Amen." 1530, Nov. 30. Died CARDINAL WOLSEY, the celebrated minister of Henry VIII. Thoma Wolsey was the son of a butcher at Ipswich born in 1471, and educated at Magdalen College Oxford. He was a youth of great parts; and making considerable proficiency in learning, b became tutor to the sons of Grey, marquis Dorset, who gave him the rectory of Lymingto in Hampshire, and opened the way for him court. Prompted by ambition, he sought a obtained promotion and favour under Hen VII., who sent him on an embassy to the en peror, and, on his return, made him dean Lincoln. Henry VIII. gave him the living Torrington, in Devonshire; and afterwards a pointed him register of the garter and canon Windsor. He next obtained the deanery York; and, attending the king to Tournay France, in 1513, was made bishop of that ci honours fell upon him in a degree equal to his ambition. "He was rapacious," says Sir James Mackintosh; "but it was in order to be prodigal in his household, in his dress, in his retinue, in his palaces, and, it must be added, in justice to him, in the magnificence of his literary and religious foundations. The circumstances of his time were propitious to his passion of acquiring money. The pope, the emperor, the kings of France and Spain, desirous of his sovereign's alliance, outbade each other at the sales of a minister's influence; which change of circumstances, and inconsistency of connection, rendered, during that period, more frequent than in most other times. His preferment was too enormous and too rapid to be forgiven by an envious world." prived of his ecclesiastical and temporal wealth, and only suffered to remain at Esher, in Surry, a country house of his bishopric of Winchester. Such was the state of this discarded minister, that the king left him without provisions for his table, or furniture for his apartments. In Feb. 1530, Wolsey was pardoned, and restored to his see of Winchester, and to the abbey of St. Albans, with a grant of £6,000, and of all other rents not parcel of the archbishopric of York. Even that great diocese was afterwards restored. He arrived at Cawood castle in September, 1530, where he employed himself in magnificent preparations for his installation on the archiepiscopal throne; but at that moment his final ruin seems to have been resolved upon, and the earl of Northumberland was chosen to apprehend In 1514 he was advanced to the bishopric of him for high treason. Wolsey at first refused to Lincoln; and the same year he was made arch- comply with the requisition, as being a cardinal; ishop of York. In 1515 he succeeded arch- but finding the earl bent on performing his comhishop Warham in the office of lord chancellor: mission, he complied, and set out by easy jourthe king obtained for him the same year a neys to London, to appear as a criminal, where cardinalship; and, in 1519, he was made the he had acted as a king. He was carried first to pope's legate in England, with the extraordinary lord Shrewsbury's castle at Sheffield, where he power of suspending the laws and canons of the was compelled by sickness to rest, and afterwards church. He made every possible effort to ob- to the abbey of Leicester, where he died at the in the triple crown of his holiness the pope; age of fifty-nine. His dying words were most and was near succeeding, but for the prepon- memorable, and highly instructive to all classes derating influence of the emperor, Charles V. of hypocritical professors of religion-"If I had Wolsey's "passion for shows and festivities-served God as diligently as I have done the king, et an uncommon infirmity in men intoxicated by sudden wealth-perhaps served him with a ester, whose ruling folly long seemed to be of the same harmless and ridiculous nature. He encouraged and cultivated the learning of his and his conversations with Henry, on the xtrines of their great master Aquinas, are Presented as one of his means of pleasing a march so various in his capricious tastes. He as considered as learned; his manners had acired the polish of the society to which he was ased; his elocution was fluent and agreeable; air and gesture were not without dignity. He was careful, as well as magnificent, in aparel. As he was chiefly occupied in enriching aggrandizing himself, or in displaying his aith objects which are to be promoted either by foreign connections or by favour at court-it mpossible to what share of the merit or demeof internal legislation ought to be allotted to -" As his revenues were immense, his pride ostentation were carried to the greatest ht: for he had five hundred servants: among W were nine or ten lords, fifteen knights, and rtr esquires. Wolsey's administration continued, seemingly with unabated sway, till 1527, when those who re opposed to him in the council, together with opposition to Henry's divorce from queen Catherine, soon worked his downfall. Crimes are easily found out against a favourite in disgrace, and his enemies did not fail to blacken is good deeds, or to increase the catalogue of his s. On the 17th of October, 1529, he was deprived of the great seal, which was given to Sir Thomas More. He was soon afterwards de he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. This is the just reward that I must receive for the pains I have taken to do him service, not regarding my service to God!" Shakspeare so correctly draws the character of this great churchman; and paints his virtues and his vices so impressively, in the following lines, that we cannot refrain from quoting them : He was a man Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking His promises were, as he then was, mighty; * * * * Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue. Wolsey founded Christchurch college in Oxford, and intended to call it Cardinal college; and also to enrich its library with copies of all manuscripts that were in the Vatican at Rome. Upon his fall, which happened before he had finished his scheme, the king seized all the reve |