THE Company of STATIONERS, of great Antiquity, before the famous Art of Printing was invented, or brought hither, as (for the most part) their dwelling in Pater-noster-Row, and the adjoining Parts, can testify. Their Charter of Incorporation was granted the 4th Day of May in the third and fourth Years of King Philip and Queen Mary.

Of this Corporation are Printers, Booksellers, and such as sell Paper and Parchment, and Blank Books bound up for the Use of Tradesmen and Merchants; and these last are now peculiarly called Stationers. The first of this Corporation which I have met with, who practised the Art of Printing Books, were Wynkyn de Worde (a Dutchman as it seems) who dwelt at the Sun in Fleet-street, and one Pynson: Who both flourished in the Reign of King Henry VII. and in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry VIII. And Tho. Godfrey; who printed a Treatise, writ by St. Germain in the Time of King Henry VIII. concerning Constitutions Provincial and Legatine. And next to them in the said King Henry VIII. his Reign, were Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch; who had the Honour to print the Translation of the Bible into English in the Years 1538 and 1540, or thereabouts. These continued in the Reign of King Edward VI. Now also Reginald Wolf, a Switzer, and learned, John Day, and William Seres, were noted Printers: Whereof Wolf was Archbishop Cranmer's Printer, and printed his Books, and other Books appointed for publick Use in the Church. He was also a great Collector of English History: afterwards digested and printed by Hollingshead. Cawood and Jugg printed Proclamations and State-Books in the Times of King Edward VI. and Queen Mary. Richard Totil in the Time of Queen Mary, was the great Printer of Law-Books, of whom more by and by. Seres kept his Shop in Peter College, a Place so called, situate on the West of St. Paul's Church. Sir William Cecyl, Principal Secretary to King Edward, procured for him, being his Servant, a License to print all man-ner of private Prayers called Primers (containing the Psalter or Psalms, Devotions, &c.) as should be agreeable to the Book of Common Prayer established in the Court of Parliament. And that none else should print the same, upon pain of forfeiting the same. Provided, that before the said Seres, or his Assigns did begin to print the same, he or they should present a Copy thereof, to be allowed by the Lords of the Privy Council, or by the Lord Chancellor for the Time being, or by the King's four Ordinary Chaplains, or two of them. And when the same was, or should be from Time to Time printed, that by the said Lords, and others of the said Privy Council, or by the Lord Chancellor, or with the Advice of the Wardens of the said Occupation, the reasonable Price thereof be set, as well in the Leaves, as being bound in Paste or Board, in like manner as was express'd in the End of the Book of Common Prayer. This License bore Date 4. March, 7 Edw. VI.

Day, the Printer, was not inferior in Reputation for Printing to any in those Times. He had his Printing-House in Aldersgate, and his Shop, or Shed, near the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, in St. Paul's Churchyard, by Permission of the Church. He printed the voluminous Books of Fox's Acts and Monuments, of Thomas Beacon's Works, and a great many other good Books, written in favour of Religion against Popery. His Motto, with respect to the Night of Ignorance and Superstition newly dispersed, was, Arise, for it is DAY. He also 7 Edw. VI. Mar. 25. obtained a License for the printing a Catechism in English, with the Brief of an A B C, thereunto annexed: And also for the printing and reprinting of all such Works and Books devised and compiled by the Reverend Father in God John Bishop of Winton, or by Thomas Beacon, Professor of Divinity. So that no such Books, or any Part of them, were any ways repugnant to the holy Scriptures, or Proceedings in Religion, or the Laws of the Realm; as the License ran.

I have seen a Patent ready drawn for Queen Elizabeth's signing, for seven Years privileging Richard Totil, Stationer, to imprint all manner of Books or Tables whatsoever, which touched or concerned Cosmography, or any Part thereof, as Geography, Chorography, Topography, writ in the English Tongue, or translated out of any other Language into English, of whatsoever Countries they treated, and whosoever were the Author. But whether this were ever actually signed, I cannot tell.

In the Year 1566. a Sheet was printed, intitled, Ordinances decreed for Reformation of divers Disorders in printing and uttering of Books. At the End were