Page:A litil boke the whiche traytied and reherced many gode thinges necessaries for the infirmite a grete sekeness called Pestilence.djvu/22

 expense of a certain William Wilcock, who cannot be identified with any degree of certainty.

After issuing the two books just named, and the different editions of the indulgence, Lettou was joined by Willelmus de Machlinia, whom from his name we may assume to have been a native of Mechlin, or Malines, in Brabant.

Of the productions of their press five books are known, all of a legal character, namely: "The abridgement of the statutes", the Year-books of the 33rd, 35th, and 36th years of King Henry VI, and the "Tenores novelli" of Sir T. Littleton, the last alone possessing a colophon, from which we learn that the press was situated "iuxta ecclesiam omnium sanctorum". The last-mentioned work and the "Abridgement of the statutes" are both in the John Rylands Library. As there were several churches in London at this time dedicated to All Saints, the site of the press cannot be definitely fixed.

Since none of the books issued jointly by Lettou and Machlinia are dated, it is impossible to state with certainty the time either of the commencement, or of the termination, of their partnership. With the advent of Machlinia came a change in the character of the books produced by the press. Machlinia, one may presume, had some particular interest in, or special knowledge of, legal matters, as the printers seem to have confined their attention to printing this class of work, for which it is quite possible they may have procured a royal patent.