ost frequently
for the works of these friendly authors.]

CHAPTER III

THOMAS BERTHELET TO JOHN DAY

On the death of Pynson, in 1529, the office of royal printer was
conferred upon Thomas Berthelet, who was in business at the sign of the
Lucretia Romana in Fleet Street. Herbert gives the first book from his
press as an edition of the Statutes, printed in 1529; but there is some
evidence that he was at work two or three years, and perhaps more,
before this. Among the writings of Robert Copland, the printer-author,
was a humorous tract entitled _The Seuen sorowes that women have when
theyr husbandes be dead_ (British Museum, C. 20, c. 42 (5)), which has
at the end this curious passage:--

'Go lytle quayr, god gyve the wel to sayle
To that good sheppe, ycleped Bertelet.

* * * * * *

And from all nacyons, if that it be thy lot
Lest thou be hurt, medle not with a Scot.'

This is, without doubt, an allusion to the two London printers, Thomas
Berthelet and John Skot; and certain references in the prologue seem to
point to the printing of the first edition of the _Seuen Sorowes_, as a
year or two earlier than the date given by Herbert.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Thomas Berthelet's Device.]

There also seems to be conclusive evidence that Berthelet, or, as he was
sometimes called, Bartlett, was a native of Wales. He certainly held
land in the county of Hereford, and he was succeeded in business by a
nephew, Thomas Powell, a Welshman. Berthelet was one of the few English
printers of that period whose work is worth looking at. He had a varied
assortment of types, all of them good, and his workmanship was as a rule
excellent; and as very few of his books are illustrated, we may infer
that he was loth to spoil a good book with the rough and often unsightly
woodcuts of that time.

Berthelet was also a bookbinder and bookseller, and some of his fine
bindings for Henry VIII. and his successors are still to be seen. He was
apparently the first English binder to use gold tooling.

Of his official work very little need be said. It consisted in printing
all Acts of Parliament, proclamations, injunctions, and other official
documents. In the second volume of the _Transcript_ (pp. 50-60),
Professor Arber has printed three of Berthelet's yearly accounts, in
which the titles of the various documents are given, with the number of
copies of each that were struck off, and the nature