Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/449

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of Arms. It was first printed by Hearne with the ‘Liber Niger Scaccarii’ in 1728 (reprinted 1771), and again in 1864 by Rev. Joseph Stevenson in the Rolls Series at the end of ‘Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France’ (vol. ii. pt. ii.). 2. A collection of documents (1447–50) relating chiefly to the cession of Maine to Charles VII, printed by Stevenson (vide supra) from Arundel MS. 48 in Worcester's own hand. 3. A collection of documents (1427–52) mainly relating to the Duke of Bedford's regency in France, with a dedication originally addressed to Edward IV, but clumsily altered into a dedication to Richard III by Worcester's son; printed by Stevenson from Lambeth MS. 506. 4. ‘Acta domini Johannis Fastolf’ (Tanner, p. 115; cf. Paston Letters, i. 545). The incipit shows that this was not identical with 3, but it is not now known to exist. 5. ‘Antiquitates Angliæ’ (Tanner, p. 115). This is said to have been in three books, and an incipit is given; but Nasmith doubted whether Worcester ever did more than plan such a work. 6. ‘Itinerarium.’ The portions of historical and topographical interest were printed by James Nasmith [q. v.] in 1778 from the manuscript in Worcester's hand in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 7. ‘De agri Norfolciensis familiis antiquis.’ Tanner notes that a manuscript formerly belonged to Thomas Allen. 8. ‘Variorum autorum deflorationes.’ Cotton MS. Julius F. vii. (Tanner, p. 115; cf. Worcester's own reference to a ‘magnus liber,’ Ann. p. 771). The ‘Deflorationes’ may include those in Arundel MS. 48, a few of which were printed by Hearne at the end of the ‘Annals.’ 9. ‘Registratio sive excerptio versuum proverbialium de libro Ovidii de arte amandi, de fastis et de epistolis’ (A.D. 1462), Cotton. MS. Julius F. vii. 5 (Tanner). 10. ‘De ordinibus religiosorum tam nomine quam habitu compilatus de diversis cronicis in civitate Lond.’ Written for Nicholas Ancrage, prior of St. Leonard's, close to Pokethorpe (A.D. 1465), Cotton. MS. Julius F. vii. 40 (Tanner). 11. ‘Polyandrum Oxoniensium’ (Tanner, p. 115). 12. A translation into English of Cicero's ‘De Senectute,’ which he presented to Waynflete at Esher on 10 Aug. 1473 without eliciting any response (Itinerarium, p. 368; cf. Paston Letters, iii. 301). Caxton printed a translation, generally identified with this, in 1481, part of which he attributed to Tiptoft, earl of Worcester. 13. ‘Epistolarum acervum.’ 14. ‘Abbreviationes doctorum’ (Tanner, p. 115). 15. ‘De sacramentis dedicationis’ (ib.) But this is not by Worcester, who merely presented it to Waynflete (Liber Niger, i. xxv). It is in Magdalen College Library. 16. ‘Collectiones medicinales’ (Sloane MS. 4, Brit. Mus.); Worcester's authorship inferred from internal evidence; according to Hearne mainly derived from the papers of John Somerset [q. v.] 17. ‘De Astrologiæ valore’ (ib.); Antony Wood questioned this attribution. 18. ‘Unificatio omnium stellarum fixarum pro anno 1440.’ Drawn up at the instance of Fastolf, and 19. ‘Abbreviatio tractatus Walt. Evesham de motu octavæ sphæræ,’ both in Bodleian MS. Laud B. 23, in his own hand.

[Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner; Itinerarium Willelmi de Worcestre, ed. Nasmith; Wars of the English in France, ed. Stevenson (Rolls Ser.); Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica; Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Hearne; Scrope's History of Castlecombe; Hunt's Bristol (Historic Towns); Gasquet's An Old English Bible and other Essays (Note-Books of William Worcester), 1897.]

J. T-t.

WORDE, WYNKYN de (d. 1534?), printer and stationer, came originally, as his name denotes, from the town of Worth in Alsace. His real name was Jan van Wynkyn (‘de Worde’ being merely a place name), and in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey from 1491 to 1500 he figures as Johannes Wynkyn. While still a young man he came over to England and served as an apprentice in the printing office of William Caxton. Probably he accompanied Caxton from Bruges in 1476. Before 1480 he married his wife Elizabeth, an Englishwoman; she appears on the rent-roll of Westminster Abbey on 4 Nov. of that year as holding a tenement in Westminster of the dean and chapter, Wynkyn being incapacitated as an alien from holding real estate (Athenæum, 1899 i. 371, 1900 i. 177).

When Caxton died in 1491 Wynkyn succeeded to his materials, and continued to carry on business at Caxton's house in Westminster. In the first two years he did little, printing, so far as is known, only five books, and using for them the founts of type which had belonged to Caxton. At the end of 1493 in his edition of Mirk's ‘Liber Festivalis’ he introduced a new type, and from that time onward his business increased in importance. Unlike Caxton, he does not appear to have taken any interest in the literary side of his work, and we cannot point to a single book among the many hundreds which he issued as being translated or edited by himself. On the other hand, he seems to have been very successful as a business man, and the output of his press was far larger than that of any printer before 1600. Between 1493 and 1500 Wynkyn issued at least