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24-580: He was apprenticed to Richard Tottel and took up the freedom of the Stationers' Company on 30 August 1560. In 1564 he set up his own printing house in White Cross Street , Cripplegate , but in the following year he moved to Paternoster Row , at the sign of the Star, where he remained for many years. His printing office was well supplied with good type in all sizes, from nonpareil to great primer , and he had

48-414: A decade of infirmity brought on by old age. As the sole owner of the printing patent for law books in the kingdom of Elizabeth I a huge legal battle ensued following his death. Eventually the patent was dissolved, and the rights to printing such volumes were free to any publisher. Though Tottel printed several volumes unrelated to law, the bulk of his publications were legal pieces. In light of this, it

72-447: A fine range of initial letters , ornaments and borders . He was particularly fond of arranging his titles with a lace border formed of printers' flowers and showed much ingenuity in their arrangement. When Henry Bynneman died in 1583, he appointed Denham and Ralph Newbery to be his executors. Shortly after this it is thought that Denham started the Eliot's Court Printing House . Denham

96-556: A legal history of the reign of Richard III , and legal yearbooks covering parts of the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI . The first edition of this work appeared on 5 June 1557 with the title Songes and Sonettes Written By the Ryght Honorable Lord Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey , Thomas Wyatt the Elder and others. The volume consisted of 271 poems, none of which had ever been printed before. Songs and Sonettes

120-540: Is ironic that he is best known for the compilation he edited and printed known as Tottel's Miscellany or Songes and Sonnets . Tottel's treatment of this piece is both careful and bold. His accuracy and ability are seen to be of scientific quality in an age where neither was of great importance. Now, hundreds of years on and eight editions later, he is still praised for his work on this and many other works of English literature. Tottel%27s Miscellany Songes and Sonettes , usually called Tottel's Miscellany ,

144-473: The English Reformation . Later editors of the early modern period then took out many of these religious references. The collection comprises mostly the works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Thomas Wyatt the Elder. Both were heavily influenced by Italian poetry , although Wyatt's meter would be adapted to conventional English iambic stress by Tottel. The star poet of Tottel's Miscellany ,

168-410: The rhetorical question mark "⸮", which did not become a permanent part of the language. This United Kingdom business-related biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biography of a publisher is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Richard Tottel Richard Tottel (died 1594) was an English publisher and influential member of

192-749: The Earl of Surrey, created the English sonnet form by modifying the Petrarchan sonnet . If the English sonnet is also called the Shakespearean sonnet, that can be attributed to Shakespeare's fame. The form which Surrey created (three quatrains in alternate rhyme and a concluding couplet ) is easier to write in English than the Petrarchan form, with its more complex rhyme scheme. Wyatt's inclusion in Tottel's Miscellany would mark

216-466: The Stationers' Company including the title of warden, upper warden, and master from 1578 to 1584. Due to Tottel's failing health he was continually absent to his duties within the company and was excluded from their ranks. He was still fairly loved and admired within the company and at liberty to attend their meetings whenever he was in the area. Tottel's published works mainly include law documents as he

240-481: The anthology The Phoenix Nest (1593). Most of the poems included in the anthology were written in the 1530s but were only published in the first edition in 1557. Many of them were published posthumously. There are in total 54 actual sonnets in the anthology. These include nine from unknown authors, three from Nicholas Grimald , 15 from Surrey, and 27 from Wyatt. The incorporated poetry had numerous comments on religion, covering Catholicism , Protestantism , and

264-541: The authors were sure to include Thomas Churchyard , Thomas Vaux, Edward Somerset, John Heywood and Sir Francis Bryan . It has been decided definitely that of those ninety-five poems, two were written by Vaux, one by John Heywood, and one by Somerset. The only first edition left is in the Bodleian Library in England. A reprint, which was limited to sixty copies, was edited by John Payne Collier in 1867. The second edition

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288-539: The final ninth edition being published in 1587. It was so popular during the Elizabethan era it is considered the most influential of all Elizabethan miscellanies . It is generally included with Elizabethan era literature even though it was, in fact, published in 1557, a year before Elizabeth I took the throne. Shakespeare uses some of its verses in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Hamlet , and directly quotes

312-432: The first time this poet's work was printed. (Two of Surrey's poems had appeared in print). Other contributors include Nicholas Grimald , Thomas Norton , Thomas Vaux , John Heywood , Edward Somerset and other uncertain or unknown authors. Among these unknown authors, it is believed that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote at least one of the poems, titled in the anthology as, "To leade a vertuous and honest life." Although some of

336-490: The legal community. He ran his business from a shop located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London. The majority of his printing was centered on legal documents , but he is most known for a collection he edited and published in 1557 called Songes and Sonnettes . Son of William Tothill (the more common spelling of the family name) and Elizabeth Matthew, Richard Tottel's early life is not one easily deciphered. Tottel's father

360-460: The patent was renewed for another seven years and, in 1559, Tottel's patent was granted to him for life. Tottel's publishing played a large role in the founding of the Worshipful Company of Stationers . Upon receiving its royal charter in 1557, the Stationers' Company of London named him as the sixty-seventh member of their charter out of ninety-four. Tottel would later rise in the ranks of

384-564: The printing house of Henry Smithe at the Sign of the Hand and Star after Smithe's death in 1550. Sometime after, Tottel married Joan Grafton who bore him one son, William, and several daughters. Tottel's career leapt forward when he was granted a patent that would allow him to print all authorized books dealing with common law. This patent was originally granted in April 1553 and was to last seven years. In 1556,

408-586: The public Surrey 's translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil 's Aeneid , which is the earliest known example of English blank verse . He is responsible too for the first edition printed of Cicero's De Officiis in 1556 by Nicholas Grimald , who would later contribute to the poetry anthology. Tottel also published Thomas More 's Utopia and another collection of More's writings, John Lydgate 's translations from Giovanni Boccaccio , and books by William Staunford and Thomas Tusser . The majority of his publications were legal treatises, including

432-681: The wording has been altered slightly, this poem appears to be "a somewhat mutilated copy of Chaucer's ballad on 'Truth ' ". This is a sample of a poem found in the text by Sir Thomas Wyatt:. (This poem refers to Elizabeth I 's mother, Anne Boleyn . Wyatt wisely withdrew from the chase in favor of a more heavyweight suitor. Both had the problem of being already married, but the other suitor, Henry VIII , eventually solved that one). The first edition of Tottel's Miscellany (1557) featured forty poems by Surrey, ninety-six poems by Wyatt, forty poems by Grimald, and ninety-five poems written by unknown authors. Tottel made note that of those anonymous poems,

456-624: Was a wealthy citizen of Exeter, England and held many public offices in his life span including bailiff in 1528, sheriff in 1529, and eventually mayor in 1552. Tottel was the third child of eleven, having three brothers and seven sisters. At some point, approximately 1540, Tottel was indentured to a William Middleton, a printer of law books in London. Towards the end of Tottel's indentureship, in 1547, William Middleton died. Middleton's wife remarried within seven months to William Powell, another printer of Law books. The new Mrs. Powell and William Powell freed Tottel, who then went on to take over

480-527: Was also published in 1557; thirty of Grimald's poems were removed but thirty-nine additional ones were added to the "uncertain authors" category with a final tally of 281 poems. There are only two copies of this work in existence left, one in the Grenville Collection at the British Museum , the other at Trinity College, Cambridge . The next seven editions were all printed between 1558 and 1586, with

504-476: Was an industrious printer and in 1583 was returned as having four presses; in 1586-7 and 1588-9 he served as Junior Warden of the Stationers' Company, but he never became Master. About 1585 he removed to Aldersgate Street . The last entry under his name occurs in the Registers on 3 December 1589, after which nothing more is heard of him. Richard Yardley and Peter Short succeeded to the business. Denham invented

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528-421: Was the first of the poetic anthologies that became popular by the end of the 16th century, and is considered to be Tottel's 'great contribution to English letters', as well as the first to be printed for the pleasure of the common reader. It was also the last large use of sonnet form for several decades, in published work, until the appearance of Philip Sidney 's sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (1591) and

552-430: Was the first printed anthology of English poetry . First published by Richard Tottel in 1557 in London, it ran to many editions in the sixteenth century. Richard Tottel was an English publisher with a shop at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London. His main business was the publication of law textbooks but his biggest contribution to English literature would come in the form of the anthology of poetry. He also gave

576-470: Was the sole publisher from 1553 until he died. However, he did publish a variety of other books ranging from literary works to books on animal husbandry. The book that gained him a lasting place in history is his publication and editing of Songes and Sonettes , also known as Tottel's Miscellany . The following is an incomplete list of works published by Tottel: Tottel's death came as no surprise. He died in early July 1593 after suffering little less than

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