Part 4

Leonard Greene, admitted a member of the Stationers' Company in 1606, had been appointed by grace of 31 October, 1622. He had a shop "at the south side of the steple" of Great St Mary's and was in partnership with Thomas and John Buck; thus on the title-page of Pietro Sarpi's _History of Italy under Paul_, translated into Latin by W. Bedell (1626), the three names appear together.

Thomas Buck of Jesus, afterwards Fellow of St Catharine's College and Esquire Bedell, was one of the most distinguished Cambridge printers of the seventeenth century. He had many partners, with most of whom he quarrelled, and he produced many fine books.

Charles I had come to the throne a few months before Buck's appointment and on the occasion of the new king's proclamation loyal Cambridge had spent 9_s_ 4_d_ for "a gallon of sacke and 2 gallons of Clarrett," 5_s_ "for sugercakes" and 6_s_ "for a bone fier that night." Immediately after his accession Charles issued a`proclamation "to inhibit the sale of Latin books reprinted beyond the seas, having been first printed in Oxford or Cambridge"--a further illustration of the evils which arose out of the laxity of copyright. But a document of much greater importance in the history of Cambridge printing was the charter granted to the university in 1628: the King, in an attempt to settle the controversy once and for all, ratified the grant made by Henry VIII and declared that the university stationers and printers might print and sell any books which he or his two predecessors had licensed any person or body of persons to sell; and, further, that they might print and sell all books which had been, or should be, allowed by the Chancellor, "any letters patent, or any prohibition, restraint, clause, or article, in any letters patent whatsoever, notwithstanding."

In spite of this, we find an order of the Privy Council in 1629 recognising the right of the university to print bibles which should contain the liturgy and the psalms, but not to print "these alone without the bibles"; further, the university's output of Lily's _Grammar_ was limited to 3000 copies a year and a few years later the university appears to have surrendered its right to print bibles, almanacks, and Lily's _Grammar_ for three years in lieu of an annual payment from the London Stationers.

Meanwhile, Thomas Buck was vigorously extending the activities of the Cambridge Press. His first partner was Leonard Greene with whom in 1625 he bought the whole of Cantrell Legge's printing-house from Legge's executrix[37]; Greene's complaints throw an interesting light on the difficulties of co-operation between the Cambridge scholar and the London man of business:

That whereas L. Gr. beinge acquainted with the matter of bookes and printinge by reason of his trade therein for the space of thirtie yeeres almost, and Mr Bucke being unexperienced, haveing lead a students life, the said L. Gr. did hide nothing and conceale nothing from the said Mr Bucke nor spare any paines (although to the hindrance of his owne busines divers from this) whereby the common benefite of the presse might be furthered.

That for divers copies the sole printinge whereof the said L. Gr. might have had for his owne profite as he is of the Company of Stationers of London, he hath ever brought to this presse, notwithstandinge he hath but a third part therein (and some of them and the best were his before ever Mr Bucke came into the place), and besides the charge of printinge at Cambridge is deerer then at London.

One of Greene's further complaints was that Buck deserted the old printing-house in Regent Walk ("which Thomas and Legatt had successivelie all their time hired") and took instead a lease of "the Angell," an inn which faced Market Hill on the site now occupied by Messrs Macintosh[38].

For all the time (Greene complained) since the presse went to the Angell his [Thomas Buck's] behaviour was to me not as to a Partner but as to a stranger or servant; when ever we came to debate any matter betweene us if I did not yeeld to him he would put me off in this manner that I came to trouble him; whereas the business concerned me as well as himselfe....

Now last of all he hired a house soe farre from me as possiblie I could not be there in partnership with him.... Beinge thus wearied with uncertainties and havinge noe bonds either for partinge or continueinge whereby I might either get or save, I thought it the safer of two evills to chuse the lesse, although with great losse for the time past and hope for time to come, besides the partinge with the deerest favour of the Universitie priviledge, which I never would have doone till my death, had it not beene for the danger I was in for debt.

Finally, Greene claims "a part in the profite of the presse for the time accordinge to rate knowne by workmen for 1275 Remes printed"[39] as well as his "third part in the Bishops booke, in Almanacks, schoole bookes etc."

How far Greene was able to substantiate his claim before the university is not recorded; he died in October, 1630.

Thomas Buck's other partner was his brother John, appointed in 1625. Though he, like all Thomas's colleagues, afterwards found cause of dispute with him, it is interesting to note how, on Leonard Greene's death, the brothers quickly co-operated to secure the vacant office of printer for another member of the family. The following letter[40] was written by John to Thomas on 24 October, 1630:

Brother Thomas,

I pray returne with all speede to Cambridge. Leonard Greene is dead, there's a patent void and within 14 dayes a third man must be chosen. I pray be not dissartoned att it. For I have the Vice-Chancellor and ten Heads and Presidents sure to us, and they have all (I humbly thank you) promised me faithfully to prick whomsoever you and I shall desire; I think my brother ffrancis would be a fitt man to commend unto you; but if you know it to bring in Mr Barker[41] would prove more advantagious to us, I desire you to intreat him to come downe with you, or any other in London whom you best like of. This in hast. I remitt you to God and rest,

Your very loving brother, John Buck.

Francis Buck was accordingly elected in 1630, but seems to have taken no active share in the printing business. When he resigned two years later he claimed nothing for his patent and afterwards declared:

I only did beare the name of it to do them [Thomas and John] a pleasure or benefitt; and likewise when I did give it over to Mr Daniel I thought it would be a benefitt to my brothers.

From this it seems clear that the appointment of Roger Daniel as printer on 24 July, 1632 (three days after the resignation of Francis) was in accordance with the plans of the brothers Buck[42].

Another family arrangement, made earlier (31 May) in the same year, was one by which John Buck demised the "benefitt of his patent of Printer to the Universitie for the terme of vii yeares to Thomas Buck, he paieing yearely the summe of lviˡͥ for the same and John Buck should exercise his brother Thomas Buck's place of Bedell during the said terme."[43]

With two bedellships and two printer's patents in the family, Thomas evidently felt it better that each brother should specialise in one department.

By his first agreement with Thomas Buck Daniel promised to take

that Capitall messuage and tenement called the Augustine Fryers wherein the said Thomas Buck now dwelleth together with the printing house and all other houses yards orchards closes wayes and all other easements and commodities thereunto belonging. Except ... all that chamber over the parlor commonly called the great chamber together with the green chamber and cole house thereunto adjoyning, as also two studies in the correcting roome[44].

This paragraph has a special interest in that it describes the only one of the early printing-houses of which a pictorial record has been preserved. The sketch here shewn is described by Cole as

The West Prospect of what remains of the Priory of St Austin in Cambridge, late the Dwelling House of Mr Buck, and now the House belonging to the Curator of the Botanic Garden. It was taken Jan. 19, 1770 by Mr Tyson, Fellow of Benet College, from a Chamber Window in that College, and just opposite to it. It is drawn rather too short at the North end[45].

The building was "just behind the East End of St Benedict's Church and Corpus Christi College."

The inventory of the goods, of which Daniel was to enjoy the free use, shows something of a seventeenth century printer's stock-in-trade:

Six printing presses, five copper plates, six bankes, seven great stones, one muller, thirteen frames to set cases on, all the poles for drying of bookes ... twelve candlesticks for the presses, two frames to put cases in, six and fifty paire and an halfe of cases for letters made of mettle and one case for wooden letters, five and twenty chases, twenty gallies, fifty paper and letter bords, two tressell tables, four tables with drawers, two troughs of lead and all the shelves and formes of deal in the wool-house.

Daniel, on his part, agreed to pay an annual rent of £190, to employ but three presses at a time, and to use paper, ink, and letter "very commendable and good so as the University may receive credit and honour thereby."

Like others, Daniel quickly found cause of complaint against Thomas Buck. By the second deed of partnership (1633) he was to receive one-third of the profits, but in the next year protested that Buck had insisted upon impossible conditions.

One of the features of Thomas Buck's career is his close association with the London Stationers. Thus in 1631 he entered into a contract with Edmund Weaver to supply him with certain quantities of books and almanacks for three years. By this agreement Buck tied himself to print only for the Stationers for this period, Weaver "sending paper and paieing London price for the printinge," and Buck being allowed to retain as many books and almanacks as were required for sale in Cambridge. The following summary shows the type of school book most in demand and the number of books supplied during the three years:

Aessop's Fables 12,000 Virgills 3,000 Mantuans 6,000 Castalians Dialogues 4,250 Apthonius 2,000 Pueriles Sententiae 18,000 " Confabulationes 6,000 Ludovic vir. Dialog. 3,000 Epitome Colloquiorum Ovid, Epistles 3,000 Stuvenius Epist. 3,000 Ovid, Tristia 3,000 Corderius 3,000 Almanacks 1,560

For Buck's business the arrangement was no doubt a profitable one, but the Cambridge stationers complained that, when they wanted school books printed at the Press, either they could not have them "because alreadie they were sent up to London," or else they were obliged to pay the high prices demanded by the London Stationers[46].

At the time of the agreement with Weaver, Daniel had evidently been acting for Buck in London, but after three years' experience of partnership with Buck he had begun to look at the matter in a new light.

In 1635 he presented a petition to the Vice-Chancellor in which Buck is attacked as a grasping monopolist:

At yᵉ petitioner's first entrance to be printer to the University, Mr Thomas Buck tyed him by covenants and bonds of a thousand pounds to performe and keep such Covenants as he had formerly made with the Stationers of London ... it will appeare that the University Presse is servant to the said Stationers and the University and commonwealth deprived of that benefit which is intended by our Priviledge....

He perceiving that I was able to goe on with yᵉ printing Psalmes without his helpe, and that I was forward and willing to print other bookes which would more honour the Universitie Presse then those schoole books which he had agreed to print for yᵉ Londoners....

He is continually defaming chyding and brawling with your petitioner, often fighting with, beating, threatning and vexing your petitioners servants, so your petitioner and they are weary of their lives[47].

Daniel then proceeds to show that it will be more honourable for the university, more beneficial to scholars, and more agreeable to the charter to have two or three printing-houses instead of one:

For so the books printed in the University shall not be monopolised but freely vented.

The parting of the Printers will beget in them a laudable emulation which of them shall deserve best....

Whereas it is a common complaint that when schollars have taken great paines in writing usefull bookes, they cannot get them printed but at their own great charges. It is probable that there will be cause of the like complaint here in Cambridge, if there be but one printing house, which likewise will be taken away, for it is likely if one Printer will not, another will[48].

The result of this petition is not recorded; but it certainly did not lead to the dissolution of the partnership, for in 1639 we find an elaborate agreement[49] between Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel on the one side and six London stationers (Robert Mead, John Parker, Miles Flesher[50], Robert Young, Edward Brewster, John Legate[51]) relating to the sale of bibles, service books, singing psalms, grammars and other school books. The large stock of these books printed at Cambridge was bought by the London syndicate, who guaranteed to leave sufficient copies in Cambridge to supply the needs of the university, whilst Buck and Daniel undertook not to print further copies of the books for the space of ten years without the consent of the Stationers.

From the preamble of this agreement it also appears that John Buck had assigned his rights as printer to Roger Daniel.

* * * * *

However difficult, not to say tyrannical, Thomas Buck's dealings with his various partners, and however questionable some of his dealings with the Stationers may have been, his name stands high in the annals of Cambridge typography. The first Cambridge edition of the Authorised Version was printed by him in 1629, a fine book with an elaborately engraved title-page. In the next year two quarto editions were produced, and these were followed by several other editions during the next ten years. Buck and Daniel were so well satisfied with their folio of 1638 ("perhaps the finest bible ever printed at Cambridge") that they posted a notice on the door of Great St Mary's Church challenging scholars to find a mistake in it, and offering a free bible to anyone who should do so.

"The _Bible_," says a document of about 1655, "was never better printed than by Mr _Buck_ and Mr _Daniel_."[52]

It was about this time, too, that the encouragement of the study of Arabic in the university began. In 1626 Archbishop Usher had endeavoured to obtain from Leyden matrices of Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Samaritan letters for the use of the University Press, but was forestalled by the Elzevirs[53].

Thomas Adams (afterwards Sir Thomas Adams, Bart., Lord Mayor of London) had in 1632founded a professorship of Arabic and some years later (probably in 1645) the Senate decreed, that having established a press and such other apparatus as should be required, they should devote their attention to the production of books in Arabic, in order that the fruits of the Adams benefaction should be handed down to posterity and diffused throughout the world[54]. There is, however, no record of Arabic printing at Cambridge until a much later date[55].

Buck was a scholar as well as a printer[56]; the edition of _Poetae Graeci Minores_ printed by him in 1635, which has a title-page engraved by William Marshall, was described, though with some exaggeration, as "the most elegant book of the Cantabrigian press delivered to the public"; Mede's _Clavis Apocalyptica_ (second edition, 1632) is also notable for its fine Hebrew type.

Apart from the typographical interest of the work of Thomas Buck and his partners, there are some famous names amongst the authors whose works they printed. Those of Giles and Phineas Fletcher, the two brothers who "head the line of poets who were divines of the English church," are prominent in the list. The former's _Christ's Victorie_ was reprinted in 1632 and 1640 and under the name of Phineas (who, like his brother, had contributed to _Sorrowes Joy_ in 1603) we find _Locustae, vel pietas jesuitica_ (1627), the poem which is said to have contributed to the inspiration of _Paradise Lost_; and, in 1633, _Sylva Poetica_, _The Purple Island_, and _Elisa or An Elegie Upon the Unripe Decease of Sir Antonie Irby_.

A more famous work of the period is that of George Herbert, Public Orator from 1619 to 1627, during which time, according to Walton, he managed the office "with as becoming and grave a gaiety, as any had ever before or since his time; for he had acquired great learning, and was blessed with a high fancy, a civil and sharp wit, and with a natural elegance, both in his behaviour, his tongue, and his pen." From his deathbed he sent a manuscript to "his dear brother Ferrar," describing it as "a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master; in whose service I have now found perfect freedom."

This was the manuscript of _The Temple_, published in 1633, and reprinted many times in the following ten years.

Another of the 'sacred poets' whose works were printed at Cambridge at this time is Richard Crashaw (_Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber_, 1634).

John Donne is represented by a volume of _Six Sermons upon severall occasions, preached before the King, and elsewhere_, posthumously published in 1634; and Thomas Fuller, that loyal son and historian of the university, by _The Historie of the Holie Warre_ (1639).

But the most famous name of all is that of John Milton, for at Cambridge was printed the first edition of _Lycidas_. It was included in the _Obsequies to the memorie of Mr Edward King_ (1638)[57] and the University Library copy contains corrections in Milton's own hand.

These few titles, selected from the long list of Cambridge books of this period, are themselves a justification of Bowes's conclusion that "the press was in a condition of great activity during the period that Buck was connected with it."

Buck, moreover, was active in university and college affairs as well as at the Press; he was Esquire Bedell from 1624 to 1670[58] and was a benefactor both to Jesus and St Catharine's Colleges[59].

Roger Daniel, as has been seen above, represented the business side of the partnership and kept a bookshop in London. Thus on the title-page of a bible of 1638 we read: "to be sold by Roger Daniel at the Angell in Lumber Street, London." Though Buck retained his interest in the Press until 1668, Daniel's name appears by itself on title-pages printed between 1640 and 1650.

Among the authors may be noted the names of some of the Cambridge Platonists: Henry More's _Ψυχωδία Platonica_ was printed in 1642, his _Democritus Platonissans_ in 1646 and his _Philosophicall Poems_ (second edition) in 1647; Ralph Cudworth's _Sermon before the House of Commons_ was printed in the same year.

Thomas Fuller's most popular work, _The Holy State_, appeared in 1642--a small folio with an engraved title-page on which the portrait of Charles I is characteristically flanked by the emblematic figures of Truth and Justice. A second edition of the book appeared in 1648. Other noteworthy books are the _Sermons_ of Lancelot Andrewes (1641), the second edition of Francis Quarles's _Emblemes_ (1643), Bede's _Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum Libri V_ (1643) and William Harvey's _Exercitatio Anatomica de Circulatione Sanguinis_ (1649). A less important medical tract is _Warme Beere_ (1641), a treatise in which are expounded "many reasons that Beere so qualified is farre more wholesome then that which is drunke cold." In 1645 Daniel printed _Tachygraphy_, a work which claimed to be "the most exact and compendious methode of short and swift writing that hath ever yet been published by any." It was compiled by Thomas Shelton, "Authour and Professour of the said Art," and a special interest is attached to the book in that the principles of shorthand expounded in it were those adopted by Pepys in the writing of his _Diary_.

It was, however, the printing of political tracts that brought Daniel's name into greatest prominence. In 1642, "by his Majesties speciall command," he printed _His Majesties answer to the Declaration of both Houses of Parliament, Concerning the Commission of Array_ and on 23 August of the same year he was summoned to appear before the House of Commons, which enjoined him "not to print anything concerning the Proceedings of Parliament, without the Consent or Order of one or both Houses of Parliament." A few months later the House of Commons again took offence at a book printed at Cambridge (_The Resolving of Conscience_, by Henry Fern); this time Daniel was arrested, but was subsequently released on bail, after Dr Holdsworth, the Vice-Chancellor, had been specially summoned to the House of Commons, under the escort of Captain Cromwell.

By an ordinance of 1649 Parliament recognised the universities (together with London, York, and Finsbury) as privileged printing-places; Daniel's printing patent, however, was cancelled, on the ground of neglect, in 1650.

He continued to print books in London after that date, but the petition for his restoration to the position of university printer in 1660 does not seem to have borne fruit.

IV

PRINTERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND RESTORATION

The printer who succeeded Roger Daniel, John Legate the younger, has already been mentioned in connection with the agreement of 1639 between Buck and the Stationers. Admitted freeman of the Stationers' Company in 1619, he took over several of the books printed by his father, including Thomas's _Dictionary_. For many years before his appointment he had described himself as printer to the university and shortly after the grace for his election (5 July, 1650) he and William Graves, another Cambridge stationer, "entered into recognisances with two sureties of £300 each not to print any seditious or unlicensed books, pamphlets, or pictures, nor suffer their presses to be used for that purpose"--a pledge similar to that given by the brothers Buck in the previous year.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Legate's short tenure of the office of printer is the fact that Thomas Buck, without resigning his patent, made an agreement with him and Octavian Pulleyn by which he undertook to hand over his printing rights to the Stationers' Company of London:

The said Mr Buck shall surcease to print in Cambridge, and soe long as he shall forbeare to exercise his printing place there, that the said Companie of Stationers ... shall pay unto the said Mr Buck the summe of twenty pounds per Annum....

Neither the said Thomas Buck nor his brother John Buck shall resyne their ... Patents for the Printers place, without the consent of the aforesaid John Legate ... soe as the said Mr Legate may enjoy the sole exercise of Printing in the University of Cambridge....