Duff, _Bibliographica_, vol. i. pp. 93, 175,
499).

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--William Faques' Device.]

In the year 1504, a printer named William Faques had settled in Abchurch
Lane. He was a Norman by birth, and Ames suggested that he learnt his
art with John Le Bourgeois at Rouen, but this is unconfirmed. He styled
himself the king's printer. Of his books only some eight are in
existence, three with the date 1504, and the remainder undated. His
workmanship was excellent. The _Psalterium_ which he printed in octavo
was in a large well cut English black letter, and each page was
surrounded by a chain border. The Statutes of Henry VII. are also in the
same type with the same ornament, but the _Omelia Origenis_, one of the
undated books, is in the small foreign letter so much in vogue with the
printers of this time. His device has the double merit of beauty and
originality. It consisted of two triangles intersected with his
initials in the centre and the word 'Guillam' beneath. His subsequent
career is totally unknown, but his type, ornaments, etc., passed into
the hands of Richard Fawkes or Faques, who printed at the sign of the
Maiden's Head, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in the year 1509, Guillame de
Saliceto's _Salus corporis Salus anime_, in folio. Not only is the type
used in this identical with that in the _Psalterium_ of William Faques,
but the chain ornament is also found in it. After this we find no other
dated book by Richard Faques until 1523, when he printed Skelton's
_Goodly Garland_ in quarto, in three founts of black letter, and a fount
of Roman, and a great primer for titles. Amongst his undated works is a
copy of the _Liber Festivalis_, believed to have been printed in 1510,
and an _Horœ ad usum Sarum_ printed for him in Paris by J. Bignon.
During the interval he had moved from the Maiden's Head in St. Paul's
Churchyard to another house in the same locality, with the sign of the
A. B. C, and he also had a second printing office in Durham Rents,
without Temple Bar, that is in some house adjacent to Durham House in
the Strand. The earliest extant printed ballad was issued by Richard
Faques, the _Ballad of the Scottish King_, of which the only known copy
is in the British Museum, and amongst his undated books is one which he
printed for Robert Wyer, the Charing Cross printer, under the title of
_De Cursione Lunae_. It was printed with the Gothic type, and the blocks
were supplied by Wyer. Richard Faques' d