Trademark of John Cawood, Royal Printer
In the latter years of the 15th century, some male members of the Cawood family left Yorkshire for London. John Cawood (grandson of John Cawood & Agnes Fairfax, direct descendand of Johannes de Cawood) became famous as the Queen's Printer in the 16th century during the reigns of Queen Mary I and her half sister, Queen Elizabeth I. He was an original member of the Stationers' Company, appointed upper warden on May 4th 1556, he was chosen Master in 1561, 1562, and in 1566. A patent was granted him by Queen Mary, this patent constituded him as Royal Printer and crown Publisher. It seems he published all the proclomations of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Elizabeth Bible (sometimes called Cawood Bible) was printed by John Cawood, Royal Printer, there are only 3 original copies left.
The Homilies: by Dr. Ian Lancashire
Elizabeth, coming to the throne in early 1559, quickly perceived the homilies to be an important instrument in the settlement of religious conflict, a precondition of political security. In April 1559 she restored them as official homilies of the Church of England in her 27th and 53rd injunctions to the clergy and laity.
XXVII. Also, Because through lack of preachers in many places of the queen's realms and dominions the people continue in ignorance and blindness, all parsons, vicars, and curates shall read in their churches every Sunday one of the homilies, which are and shall be set forth for the same purpose by the queen's authority, in such sort, as they shall be appointed to do in the preface of the same.
LIII. Item, That all ministers and readers of public prayers, chapters, and homilies shall be charged to read leisurely, plainly, and distinctly; and also such, as are but mean readers, shall peruse over before, once or twice the chapters, and homilies, to the intent they may read to the better understanding of the people, and the more encouragement to godliness. (Cardwell 1844: I.223-24, 231)
With these instructions in mind, the queen's printers R. Jugge and J. Cawood accordingly issued the first book of homilies in 1559, 1560, 1562, and 1563.
Copyright 1994 Ian Lancashire. ISBN 1-896016-00-6
From: Printing in England
John Cawood (1514-72) came of an old Yorkshire family of some substance and was apprenticed to John Reynes, who is best known as a bookbinder and who died in 1543 or 1544. In 1553 Cawood replaced Richard Grafton as Royal Printer. For his official salary of £6. 13s. 4d. per annum, Cawood was directed to print all ‘statute books, acts, proclamations, injunctions, and other volumes and things, under what name or title soever’ in English, with the profit appertaining. He was also granted the reversion of Reyner Wolfe’s patent, authorized in 1547, for printing Latin, Greek and Hebrew books, for which he was to receive an additional 16s. 8d. per annum ‘and all other profits and advantages thereto belonging.’ He never enjoyed this reversion, for he died a year before Wolfe. In 1553 Cawood seems to have acquired a certain amount of printing material from Steven Mierdman, who on the accession of Mary had been obliged to leave England. In that year a number of books printed by Cawood contain initials formerly used by Mierdman. Upon the incorporation of the Stationers’ Company in 1557, Cawood was one of the Wardens and he became Master in 1561, 1562 and 1566. During his lifetime Cawood was a great benefactor of the Company, though unfortunately his gifts perished in the Great Fire. As Queen’s Printer to Mary, Cawood was responsible for printing the proclamations and acts published during her reign, but on the accession of Elizabeth, the proclamation to that effect was printed by Richard Jugge, who subsequently printed several others and was termed in a letter from the Privy Council dated 20 December, 1558, ‘the Quenes majesties Prynter.’ On 25 January, 1559, Cawood’s name was conjoined with Jugge’s in the printing of An Acte whereby certayne offences be made treason, and from that time they continued jointly to print the State papers. Cawood died in 1572, and had been three times married. His device consisted of his mark and initials.
From: Tyndale-Erasmus 1550 English-Latin Diglot
Under the brief reign of King Edward VI (the successor to King Henry VIII), numerous editions of all English versions were put to press: Coverdale's, Matthew's, the "Great" Bible, and Tyndale's "foundation" version as well. This volume is the fourth edition of Tyndale's New Testament; the editor and publisher (according to the preface), is believed to have been John Cawood of London. Only his initials, "I.C.," appear on the title page and Preface. The intention of this superb diglot was to present Tyndale's English text (given in "Black Letter" type) side by side with Erasmus' Latin translation of his Greek Testament (in Roman type), so that those who were familiar with Latin (the traditional language of the church) could then ascertain the "verity" of Tyndale's version - as if, some 14 years after Tyndale's martyrdom, this was still an issue! After all, Tyndale's version became the foundation for all subsequent English translations, and 90% of it survives in the King James Version. Only three other examples of this diglot are recorded in the United States: at the New York Public Library, at Harvard and at the Huntington Library. This octavo-size treasure is listed by Herbert as #88.
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Bibles printed by John Cawood that are/were for sale
The bible in English, ... London: J. Cawood, 1569. 4to, bound in wooden boards/ leather spine (this a bit worn with large piece chipped away from bottom of spine & front hinge splitting), probably 17th/18th century(?), rather larger than the text itself (9 1/8" x 6" against 7 1/2" x 5 5/8"); lacks all before Genesis 1 AND 11 further leaves: Xx8 (a blank), Yy1 (the first leaf of Psalms), Yyy1 (title to Apocrypha), Ffff 5-8 (chapters 37-40 of 'The Booke of Jesus the sonne of Syrach'}, Llll 10 (probably a blank), A1 (NT title), B 7 & 8 (Matthew 25/6), & P7 (the beginning of I John); top corner torn from Xx 7 & N2 (in NT) affecting a couple lines of text in outer column, & bottom outer corner torn from Eee 5 & 7 (Prov/Eccl); the bottom 2/3 lines are torn from Kkk8; the outer 20% of Q7 (the last leaf of Revelation & the table) is torn away; there is a paper flaw in Nnn3 slightly affecting the text; NB: the NT concludes with K8 (Romans 8) and the rest of the NT is replaced from a similar 16th century black letter NT: this begins with chapter 13 and is from a Bishops' quarto of about the same time. The margins are slightly frayed at front and more severely so toward the end of the NT (beginning in Romans and getting progressively worse, with occasional loss to the side-notes; there are a few tears without loss. The bulk of the text is nevertheless quite good with good margins. **Herbert 127; not nearly as nice a copy as the Fry preceding, but still quite acceptable. $4000.
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The bible in English, ... London: J. Cawood, 1569. 4to, old two toned half tan/grey cloth, bit worn with rear hinge splitting. LACKS all preliminary leaves and text to Exodus 12 (folio 34), K1-8, F8, Ii1, Gg2, Ff2, Yy1 (the title to part 3), Yy8, Aaa1-8 & Bbb1-8, Yyy1 (title to Apocrypha), A1 (the NT title), P2-8, R1-4 and S1 & 2 (table and colophon at rear); the top third is missing from M1 (& the recto of M1 & 2 is quite soiled), the top 20% of H6 is missing, a small piece is torn from Rr2 (affecting the sidenote), Xx6, 7 & 8 (at the end of Job) have the bottom outer corner worn, removing a bit of text on the first two (7 also has a hole affecting text; 8 is a blank, though with old MS notations); the top outer corner of Mmm3-5 is torn away with loss of text; most of the outer column is missing on Rrr5 (Daniel 1); about a square inch is cut from the bottom of the inner column of L4 (the beginning of I Corinthians); Bb7 (in the Apocrypha) is duplicated; the text is a combination of very close cut leaves which occasionally have the headlines, sidenotes or catchword shaved or cropped AND (mostly) crisp, clean leaves with very good margins all around (most of the NT is the smaller size). There are some leaves from a different printing, though the catchwords are the same throughout. ***Apparently a combination of Herbert 122, 128 & 129, made up as leaves were available (the text of these 1568/9 Great Bibles virtually matches page for page; mixed copies are known). A rare edition; no perfect copies are known. $3000.
click here for web site - scroll to number 20/21 for Cawood Bibles
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Would you like to bid on a book printed by John Cawood?
Title: Ship of Fools...
Author: Sebastian Brant
Translated (Latin to English): Alexander Barclay, Priest
Publication: London, John Cawood, 1570.
Current price = $44,300
click here
English title: The ship of fooles, wherin is shewed the folly of all states, with divers other workes adioyned unto the same, very profitable and fruitfull for all men.
Latin title: Stultifera navis, qua omnium mortalium narratur stultitia, admodum utilis & necessaria ab omnibus ad suam salutem perlegenda, è Latino sermone in nostrum vulgarem versa, & iam diligenter impressa.
The Ship of Fools was as popular in its English dress as it had been in Germany. It was the starting-point of a new satirical literature. In itself a product of the medieval conception of the fool who figured so largely in the Shrovetide and other pageants, it differs entirely from the general allegorical satires of the preceding centuries. rrhe figures are no longer abstractions; they are concrete examples of the folly of the bibliophile who collects books but learns nothing from them, of the evil judge who takes bribes to favour the guilty, of the old fool whom time merely strengthens in his folly, of those who are eager to follow the fashions, of the priests who spend their time in church telling “gestes” of Robin Hood and so forth. The spirit of the book reflects the general transition between allegory and narrative, morality and drama. The Narrenschi,ff of Sebastian Brant was essentially German in conception and treatment, but his hundred and thirteen types of fools possessed, nevertheless, universal interest. It was in reality sins and vices, however, rather than follies that came under his censure, and this didactic temper was reflected in Barclay. The book appeared in 1494 with woodcuts said to have been devised and perhaps partly’ executed by Brant himself. In these illustrations, which gave an impulse to the production of “enblems” and were copied in the English version, there appears a humour quite absent from the text. In the Latin elegiacs of the Stultifera Navis (,497) of Jacob Locher the book was read throughout Europe. Barclay’s The Shyp of Folys of the Woride was first printed by Richard Pynson in 1509. He says he translated” oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doche,” but he seems to have been most familiar with the Latin version. He used a good deal of freedom in his translation, “ sometyme addynge, sometyme detractinge and takinge away suclie thinges as semeth me necessary and superflue.” The fools are given a local colour, and Barclay appears as the unsparing satirist of the social evils of his time. At the end of nearly every section he adds an envoi of his own to drive home the moral more surely. The poem is written in the ordinary Chaucerian stanza, and in language which is more modern than the common literary English of his day.
Certayne Ecloges of Alexander Barclay, Priest, written in his youth, were probably printed as early as 1513, although the earliest extant edition is that in John Cawood’s reprint (I57o) of the Ship of Fools. They form, with the exception of Henryson’s Robin and Makyn, the earliest examples of the English pastoral.
Book Description
Folio (258x176mm.). Brown 19th-century gilt tooled morocco, gilt fillets, floral borders and centre-piece on covers; spine gilt in compartments, one lettered in gold ('Barclay's Ship of Fooles'), dated ('1570') at foot, floral gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, g.e. A very good copy of this important second edition of the best English translation of this classic. Faded early ownership's entry on the colophon; early ownership's entry on f. 97v: 'Ann Howerd'; with the bookplates of Joseph Tasker, Middleton Hall, Essex (early 19th cent.), and of C.W. Dyson Perrins.- (Title a little bit soiled; some lvs. shaved affecting a few headlines towards the end; some occ. browning and some little streaks at a few lower margins).
This is the second edition of this translation of Mancin's De quattour virtutibus; the first edition is from 1518 (?) (STC 17242), and:- Aeneas Silvius PICCOLOMINI (= Pope Pius II), Certayne egloges of Alexander Barclay Priest, whereof the first three conteyne the miseryes of courtiers and courtes of all princes in generall, gathered out of a booke named in Latin, Miseriae Curalium. (f. (1)-(24)). The colophon is on f. (24)r: 'Imprinted at London, in Paules Church-yarde by John Cawood ...' (f. (1)-(24)). (reprint of STC 1384/5).
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Titles of a few other books I've found that were printed by John Cawood
The Office and Duetie of an Husband. Trans. Thomas Paynell. London: John Cawood, ca. 1555. STC 24855
John Cawood & the First edition printing of the first acts of the reign of Queen Mary
This is in Acrobat reader format. You must scroll down to page 9
It seems there was a book printed for one of John Cawood's children, Gabriell
Watson, Thomas. The EKATOMIIA[char]IA or Passionate Centurie of Loue…. Composed by Thomas Watson, Gentleman: and published at the request of certaine Gentlemen his very frendes. Imprinted by John Wolfe for Gabriell Cawood. [1582.] Reprinted in Arber’s English Reprints, 1870.
Another book with mention of Gabriell's name: Lyly, John. Euphues and his England. London: Gabriel Cawood, 1580.