William of Wallingford - St Albans Press

St Albans Press

The main interest of Wallingford's abbacy lies in the fact that the art of printing, brought into England a few years before by William Caxton, was then introduced into the town of St Albans. The whole subject of the relation of the St. Albans press to other presses is obscure, and even the name of the St. Albans printer and his connection with the abbot unknown. All that is certain is that between 1480 and 1486 this unknown printer issued eight works, the first six in Latin, the last two in English. The most important and last of these was the famous ‘Boke of St. Albans’ . All that is clearly known of the St. Albans printer is that in Wynkyn de Worde's reprint of ‘St. Albans Chronicle’ the colophon states: ‘Here endith this present chronicle, compiled in a book and also emprinted by one sometime schoolmaster of St. Alban.’ There is no clear proof of any closer relation between Wallingford and the ‘schoolmaster of St. Alban’ than between John Esteney, Abbot of Westminster, and William Caxton, who worked under the shadow of Westminster Abbey. Yet the probabilities of close connection in a little place like St. Albans between the abbot, who was keenly interested in education, and the ‘schoolmaster,’ who was furthering education by the printing of books, are in themselves great, and are confirmed by the fact that two of the eight books printed between 1480 and 1486 bear the arms of the town of St. Albans. See, for the discussion of the subject, Blades and Duff. Mr. Blades is of the opinion that no connection between the schoolmaster and the abbey can be established.