Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/195

 at Rouen, and bear his device of a windmill. The former states in its colophon, 'quam Andreas Myllar Scotus mira arte imprimi ac diligenti studio corrigi orthograpieque stilo prout facultas suppetebat enucleatuque sollicitus fuit anno christiane redemptionis millesimo quingentesimo quinto,' As early as 29 March 1503, 10l. was paid to him by James for certain Latin books, whether printed or not is not said, and on 22 Dec. 1503, 50l. to his wife, for three 'printed bookis.' These, perhaps, were the first specimens of his art, which led to his return to Scotland, his partnership with Chepman, and the patent granted by the king to them on 15 Sept. 1507. This patent sets forth that 'our lovittis servitouris Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar, burgessis of our Burgh of Edinburgh, has at our instance and request, for our plesour, the honour and proffit of our realme and liegis, takin on thame to fumis and bring home ane prent, with all stuff belangand tharto, and expert men to use the samyne for imprenting within our realme of the bukis of our lawis, act is of parliament, cronicles, mess bukis, and portuus eftir the use of our realme with addicions and legendis of Scottis Sanctis now gaderit to be ekit tharto and al utheris bookis that salbe sene necessar and to sel the sammyn for competent pricis.' It narrates that the bishop of Aberdeen, Elphinston, and others, have prepared mass books and legends of the Scots saints, and forbids the importation of books of the use of Sarum. Chepman and Myllar are given not only a license, but a monopoly, and the right to prevent the importation of books from any other country. Thus encouraged, they at once set to work, and in 1508 the first book printed in Scotland was issued from their press. It contains, as bound together in the only copy preserved (now in the Advocates' Library), eleven small quarto books, which may have been issued in separate broadsheets. These are in the order in which they are bound : 1. 'The Porteous of Noblenes.' 2. 'The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane.' 3. 'Sir Eglemor of Arteas.' 4. 'The Goldyn Targe' by Dunbar. 5. 'The Buke of Gude Counsale to the King,' by the same poet. 6. 'The Mayng or Disport' of Chaucer. 7. 'The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy.' 8. 'The Tale of Orpheus and Erudices.' 9. 'The Ballad of Lord Barnard Stewart, earl of Beaumont.' 10. 'The Twa Mariet Wemen and the Wedo,' and 'The Lament of the Makaris' by Dunbar. 11. 'A Gest of Robyn Hode.' Chepman's device is on four and Myllar's on seven of these pieces, and three different sets of types appear to have been used. The first nine are in a special type, which Dr. Dickson of Carnoustie supposes to have been cut for the Scottish press ; the tenth, with the same type as one of MyUar's Rouen books ; and the eleventh in a type identical with the one used by Bumgart, a Cologne printer of the end of the fifteenth century, so that it cannot be certain that they issued from the Edinburgh press.

The only other known work of Chepman's press is the Aberdeen breviary referred to in the patent as then in contemplation, and of which the 'Pars Hiemalis' bears on the title that it was 'in Edinburgensi oppido Walteri Chepman mercatoris impensis impressa Februariis idibus anno salutis nostre et gratie ix. M supra et quingentesimum.' The colophon repeats that 'it was printed by the care and at the expense of an honourable man, Walter Chepman, merchant of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.'

The second volume, or 'Pars Æstiva,' states that it was printed in the town of Edinburgh, by the command, and at the expense, of Walter Chepman, merchant in the said town, on the 4tn day of the month of June 1510. Although a doubt has been expressed, from the description of Chepman as a merchant and not a printer, and the omission of any notice of Myllar, it seems all but certain that it proceeded from the same press as the poems printed in 1508. In 1509 Chepman had to assert his privilege against William and Francis Frost, William Lyon, Andrew Ross, and others who had begun to import foreign books, and on 14 Jan. the privy council gave decree in his favour prohibiting such importation. An expression at the close of this decree, which prohibits reprints of 'the buikis abonwrittin and Donatis and Wlric in personaSf or uither buikis that the said Walter hes prent it ellis,' suggests that Donatus, the Latin grammar most in use, had been printed by Chepman, as it was by Furst and Caxton, and possibly other books. If so, no copy has yet been found. The Breviary of Aberdeen closes the known work of Chepman's press, and as the works of Scottish writers between 1510 and his death in 1528 were all printed abroad, it is probable he abandoned the trade. As a merchant he continued to prosper. In 1510 he obtained the king's leave to alter his town house. In 1514-15 he served as dean of guild. James IV exempted him from the service of watching and warding and payment of the stent, and James V gave him a tavern on the north side of the High Street in 1526, the escheat of John Cockburn. As befitted a prosperous burgess, he deyoted part of his means to religious