evice was a copy of that of the
Paris bookseller Thielmann Kerver, with an arrow substituted for the
tree, and the design on the shield altered. The custom of adapting other
men's devices was very common, and is one of the many evidences of
dearth of originality on the part of the early English printers.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Richard Faques' Device.]

The latest date found in the books of this printer is 1530.

Another prominent figure in the early years of the sixteenth century was
that of Robert Copland. He was a man of considerable ability, a good
French scholar, and a writer of mediocre verse. Apart from this, he was
also, in the truest sense of the word, a book lover, and used his
influence to produce books that were likely to be useful, or such as
were worth reading. In the prologue to the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_,
which Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1508, he described himself as servant
to that printer. This has been taken to mean that he was one of De
Worde's apprentices. But in 1514, if not earlier, he had started in
business for himself as a stationer and printer, at the sign of the Rose
Garland in Fleet Street. Very few of the books that he printed now
exist, and this, taken in conjunction with the fact that he translated
and wrote prologues for so many books printed by De Worde, has led all
writers upon early English printing to conclude that he was an odd man
about De Worde's office, and that he was in fact subsidised by that
printer. There is evidence, however, that many of the books printed by
De Worde, that have prologues by Robert Copland, were first printed by
him, and that in others he had a share in the copies.

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Robert Copland's Device.]

In the British Museum copy of the _Dyeynge Creature_, printed by De
Worde in 1514, it is noticeable that on the last leaf is the mark or
device of Robert Copland, not that of the printer, while in the copy now
in the University Library, Cambridge, De Worde's device is on the last
leaf.

This would appear to indicate that both printers were associated in the
venture, though the work actually passed through De Worde's press, and
that those copies which Copland took and paid for were distinguished by
his device. Again, in several of these books, found with De Worde's
colophons, Copland speaks of himself as the 'printer,' or 'the buke
printer,' and the inference is that they were reprints of books which
Copland had previously printed. Ind