Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Machlinia, William de
MACHLINIA, WILLIAM de (fl. 1482–1490), printer, appears, as his name denotes, to have been a native of Mechlin in Belgium. It is uncertain when he first came to England or when he first began to print, but in 1482 he was in partnership with John Lettou [q. v.] for some months at a printing-press near the church of All Saints in the city of London. There they printed the first edition of the 'Tenores Novelli,' by Sir Thomas Littleton [q. v.], and a few other works. From about 1483 to 1485 Machlinia was residing alone near the Fleet Bridge, where he printed ' Vulgaria Terencii,' Albertus Magnus's 'Liber Aggregationis' and 'Secreta Mulierum,' the 'Revelation to a Monke of Evesham,' 'Horæ ad usum Sarum,' and a few other books. From about 1485 he had a press in Holborn, where he printed 'The Chronicles of England;' Canutus 'On the Pestilence' (perhaps in consequence of that which raged in London in the first year of Henry VII)—of this he issued three editions; the ' Speculum Christian'; 'a few law books, and a bull of Innocent VIII (dated 2 March 1485-6), being a broadside relating to Henry VIIs title and marriage. About twenty-two books are allotted to Machlinia's press, some being only known by a few detached leaves: one edition of Canutus 'On the Pestilence,' printed by Machlinia, has a separate title-page, an innovation not known in England before 1491-2. Machlinia appears to have been succeeded as a printer by Richard Pynson [q. v.]
[Information from E. Gordon Duff, esq.; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Early English Books to 1640; Ames's Typographical Antiquities.]