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Thomas Berthelet (?–1555, also known as Bercula, Bercleus, Berhelette and Bartlett) was a printer, bookbinder and bookseller. He held the position of Printer to King Henry VIII of England from 1530 until the accession of Edward VI in 1547. Over the course of his career, he published no fewer than 550 books.

Early Career

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Berthelet already had a reputation as a printer by 1516, when was to have accompanied John Rastell in that capacity during an aborted voyage to Newfoundland.[1]

Printer to the King

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Personal Life

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Berthelet married Agnes Langwyth on August 23rd, 1524. He married his second wife, Margaret, in 1550 or shortly before. Two sons, Edward and Anthony, were named in his will; Edward, the elder, had been born on July 24, 1553. Berthelet died on September 26th, 1555.[2]

From[3]

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  • Richard Pynson came from Rouen about 1490.
  • Succeeded William de Macklinia as a printer.
  • "became the recognized law-printer in England"
  • also "printed popular books of every kind"
  • 1508 made "Printer to the King"
  • 1518 "a great change in the appearance and character of the productions of his press"
  • "New fount of type and initial letters were purchased, several fine borders ... were engraved"
  • Due to new partner, "Thomas Becula"
  • William Blades asks "who is this" in 1881 (Bibliographer)
  • First published response by Henry Stevens, 1886, (Athenaeum)
  • Second form of name published in the 1528 "Abridgement of Statutes": "Tho. Bercleus"
  • First sighting: September 1520, Constable's "Epigrams", "Thomas Bercula typographus"
  • Second sighting: October 1520, Whitinton's "Vulgaria", "Lectori Typographus Thomas Bercula"
  • "Bercula had entered into partnership with Pynson to improve the appearance, and possibly supervise the printing of the Latin books."
  • "certainly no ordinary assistant, for he was wealthy enough to provide the types with which the better books were printed, and important enough to prevent Pynson putting his name as printer in the colophons."

From[1]

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  • "Thomas Bercula, printer" accompanied John Rastell on his attempted voyage to Newfoundland in 1516.

From[4]

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  • "Although Tomas Berthelet was one of the chief English printers of the sixteenth century, little is known about his early activities."
  • "The first book at present attributed to Berthelet's own press is a translation of the Regimen sanitatis Salerni (1528)"
  • The author makes a claim for an earlier work: Fratris Galfredi Petri Baiocensis, 27 Sept. 1524

From[5]

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  • "Who was Bercula Typographus? I don't yet know, but I want to know; and I want to know all the more because for many months this Bercula has baffled every attempt of mine to discover him."
  • 1520 and 1525 editions of Vulgaria Whitintoni, "a Latin commonplace book with an interlinear translation in English", "Thomas Bercula, Typographus"

From[6]

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  • Response to Blades, naming Berthelet.
  • The late Henry Stevens wrote the response; the MS was lost, then rediscovered and submitted by his son Henry M. Stevens.

From[7]

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  • 22 Feb 1530, made the King's Printer
  • Also binder of the Royal Books
  • "first English binder to use gold tooling on leather"
  • the first great English bookbinder whose name is known to us"
  • Bound books for Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary
  • black dye used, while usually having worn off, was acidic enough to have damaged the leather; allows Berthelet's work to be distinguished from similar Italian binding of the same period.
  • Edged of his royal books often inscribed with "Rex in Aeturnum vive", occasionally followed by "Nez." or "Neez", possibly a reference to Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Tinted page edges with light yellow pigment

From[8]

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  • "in business at the sign of the Lucretia Romana on Fleet Street"
  • Native of Wales
  • Owned land in County of Hereford
  • "one of the few English printers of that period whose work is worth looking at"
  • "also a bookbinder and bookseller"
  • "succeeded in business by a nephew, Thomas Powell"
  • "first English binder to use gold tooling"
  • Official work: "printing all the acts of Parliament, proclamations, injunctions, and other official documents"
  • Died in 1556
  • Good source for list of notable books

From[9]

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From[10]

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  • died in 1555
  • "retired from the personal conduct of the business about the end of July 1548"

From[11]

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  • "A further proof of the complete naturalization of the story in sixteenth-century England is to be deduced from the fact that one of the earliest printers of repute, Thomas Berthelet, took a figure of the Roman wife for the sign of his business premises, and that his successors in trade through Shakespeare's lifetime continued to employ the same device."

From[2]

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  • married Agnes Langwyth, widow on August 23rd, 1524
  • "On February 15th, 1530, immediately after the death of Pynson, Berthelet was appointed printer to the King with an annuity of four pounds."
  • Richard Grafton succeeded him as the King's Printer
  • "the first occasion on which a royal printer had lost his office before his death."
  • "it would be hard to speak too highly of his taste and skill in bookbinding."
  • Died September 26th, 1555
  • Edward, his elder son, was born on July 24th, 1553.
  • Anthony was his younger son.
  • Wife Margaret, second wife, married in or shortly before 1550

From[12]

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  • "Up to 1550 Berthelet published over 550 books, the great majority of these after he assumed his official role."
  • "the King's Printer was responsible for the publication of all texts which communicated the king's mind and desired image."
  • "In what is believed to be the first recorded penalty for the infringement of privilege, Berthelet successfully petitioned against Redman for pirating Christopher St German's Treatise concernynge the diusion between the spirtualtie and temporaltie (1532?).


From[13]

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  • Thinks Davenport was wrong (pg 84)

From[14]

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  • "In March 1526 Berthelet was summoned before Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of London, charged with printing four English works without approval." "All four works were subsequently re-issued..." (p 160)

From[15]

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  • "Berthelet may have come into the business to take the place of Pynson's son Richard who had died, but it is curious that there is no reference to him in Pynson's will."

References

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  1. ^ a b Reed, Arthur W. (1926). Early Tudor drama; Medwall, the Rastells, Heywood, and the More circle. London: Methuen. pp. 11–12. OCLC 162803250., cited in Djwa, Sandra (1979). "Early Explorations: New Founde Landys". Studies in Canadian Literature. 4 (2).
  2. ^ a b Duff, E. Gordon (2011). A Century of the English Book Trade: Short Notices of All Printers, Stationers, Book-Binders, and Others Connected with It from the Issue of the First Dated Book in 1457 to the Incorporation of the Company of Stationers in 1557. Cambridge Library Collection: History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries. CambridgeUP. p. 12. ISBN 9781108026765.
  3. ^ Duff, E. Gordon (1907). Macalister, J. Y. W.; Pollard, Alfred W. (eds.). "Richard Pynson and Thomas Bercula". The Library. 8. London: Alexander Moring, Limited: 298–303.
  4. ^ "The Protocollum of Thomas Berthelet". Library. s5-I (1): 47–49. doi:10.1093/library/s5-I.1.47. FIXME
  5. ^ Blades, William (December 1881). "Who was Bercula?". The Bibliographer: A Journal of Book-lore. 1. London: Elliot Stock: 13–15.
  6. ^ Stevens, Henry (September 25, 1886). "Who Was Thomas Bercula, Typographus?". The Publishers Weekly (764–65): 334–5.
  7. ^ Davenport, Cyril James Humphries (1898). Cantor Lectures on Decorative Bookbinding. London: William Trounce. pp. 18–19. OCLC 3623720.
  8. ^ Plomer, Henry Robert (1900). Pollard, Alfred (ed.). A Short History of English Printing: 1476–1898. The English Bookman's LIbrary. Vol. 2. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Limited. p. 61–67. OCLC 22010458.
  9. ^ Warton, Thomas (1824). The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 4. Thomas Tegg. p. 242. OCLC 60765507. (footnote x)
  10. ^ Greg, W. W. (1907). "Notes on the Types, Borders, Etc. Used by Thomas Berthelet". Transactions of the Bibliographical Society. London: Blades, East & Blades: 187–220.
  11. ^ Lee, Sidney (1905). Shakespeare's Lucrece. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 12. OCLC 312106169.
  12. ^ Atkin, Tamara; Edwards, A.S.G. (2014). "Printers, Publishers and Promoters to 1558". In Gillespie, Vincent; Powell, Susan (eds.). A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain: 1476–1558. pp. 27–45. ISBN 9781843843634.
  13. ^ Gillespie, Alexandra (2014). "Bookbinding and Early Printing in England". In Gillespie, Vincent; Powell, Susan (eds.). A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain: 1476–1558. pp. 75–95. ISBN 9781843843634.
  14. ^ Powell, Susan (2014). "The Secular Clergy". In Gillespie, Vincent; Powell, Susan (eds.). A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain: 1476–1558. pp. 150–176. ISBN 9781843843634.
  15. ^ Duff, E. Gordon (1906). The Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders of Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535. CambridgeUP. p. 177. OCLC 2300706.
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