om for monasteries
to subsidize printers to print their service books, it seems possible
that Caxton may have had some hand in establishing this press, and that
it was for St. Albans Abbey that he cast type No. 3, which (putting
aside its subordinate employment for headlines) we find used exclusively
for service books.

Three years after Caxton had settled at Westminster, viz. in 1480, an
_Indulgence_ was issued by John Kendale, asking for aid against the
Turks. Caxton printed some copies of this, and others are found in a
small neat type, and are ascribed to the press of John Lettou. _Lettou_
is an old form of Lithuania, but whether John Lettou came from Lithuania
is not known.

In this same year 1480, Lettou published the _Quaestiones Antonii Andreae
super duodecim libros metaphysicae Aristotelis_, a small folio of 106
leaves, printed in double columns, of which only one perfect copy is
known, that in the Library of Sion College. The type is small, and
remarkable from its numerous abbreviations. Mr. E. G. Duff in his _Early
Printed Books_, p. 161, speaks of its great resemblance to those of
Matthias Moravus, a Naples printer, and suggests a common origin for
their types. In his _Early English Printing_, on the other hand, he
writes: 'There are very strong reasons for believing that he [Lettou] is
the same person as the Johannes Bremer, _alias_ Bulle, who is mentioned
by Hain as having printed two books at Rome in 1478 and 1479. The type
which this printer used is identical (with the exception of one of the
capital letters) with that used in the books printed by John Lettou in
London.'

A few years later Lettou was joined by William de Machlinia. They were
chiefly associated in printing law-books, but whether they had any
patent from the king cannot be discovered. Only one of the five books
they are known to have printed, the _Tenores Novelli_, has any colophon,
and none of them has any date. The address they gave was 'juxta
ecclesiam omnium sanctorum,' but as there were several churches so
dedicated, the locality cannot be fixed.

We next find Machlinia working alone, but out of the twenty-two books or
editions that have been traced to his press, only four contain his name,
and none have a date. All we can say is that he printed from two
addresses, 'in Holborn,' and 'By Flete-brigge.' Mr. Duff inclines to the
opinion that the 'Flete-brigge' is the earlier, but it seems almost
hopeless to attempt to place these bo