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Elizabeth Pickering: The First Woman to Print Law Books in England and Relations Within the Community of Tudor London's Printers and Lawyers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Barbara Kreps
Barbara Kreps*
Affiliation:
Università di Pisa
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Abstract

Elizabeth Pickering took over Robert Redman's press when he died in 1540, thus becoming the first woman known to print books in England. Her books tell us simply that she was Redman's widow. Wills and other legal documents in the London archives permit us to know much more. The documents examined here illuminate aspects of her personal life, but also reveal connections between a group of law-printers and lawyers that appear to have influenced the printing of law books in Tudor London. The first part of the essay traces this microhistory of family and community relations. The second half examines the books Elizabeth Pickering published.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , Winter 2003 , pp. 1053 - 1088
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2003

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to the Corporation of London Record Office, Guildhall Library, and the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn for permission to use the manuscript material I cite here. Of the many people who have so generously provided me with their help and comments, I particularly wish to thank Jim Sewell at the Corporation of London Record Office, Dr. Guy Holborn of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Peter Blayney, and Betsy Walsh and Heather Wolfe, both at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The following abbreviations are used in this paper: CLRO: Corporation of London Record Office; CP: Court of Common Pleas; GL: Guildhall Library; HR: Court of Husting Roll; Cal HR: Calendar to the Court of Husting Roll; PC: Privy Council; PCC: Prerogative Court of Canterbury; PRO: Public Record Office; and STC: A Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640 I first compiled by A. W.Pollardand G. R. Redgrave. 1976-1991. 2nd ed., rev. and enl. Ed. W A. Jackson, E S. Ferguson, and Katharine F. Pantzer. 3 vols. London.

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