Richard Tottel (d.1594) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop was located at
Temple BarTemple Bar is the barrier marking the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street becomes the Strand...
on
Fleet StreetFleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the street's name continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press.-History and...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. The majority of his printing was centered around
legal documentsLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
, but he is most known for a collection he edited and published in 1557 called
Songes and SonnettesSonges and Sonettes, usually called Tottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. It was published by Richard Tottel in 1557, and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.-Richard Tottel:...
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.
Richard Tottel (d.1594) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop was located at
Temple BarTemple Bar is the barrier marking the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street becomes the Strand...
on
Fleet StreetFleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the street's name continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press.-History and...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. The majority of his printing was centered around
legal documentsLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
, but he is most known for a collection he edited and published in 1557 called
Songes and SonnettesSonges and Sonettes, usually called Tottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. It was published by Richard Tottel in 1557, and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.-Richard Tottel:...
Early Life
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 was a wealthy citizen of
Exeter, EnglandExeter is a city and district in Devon, England; it is the county town of Devon. Exeter is located approximately northeast of Plymouth, and southwest of Bristol, on the River Exe. The city has a population of 111,076 according to the 2001 Census....
and held many public offices in his life span including
bailiffA bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
in 1528,
sheriffA sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
in 1529, and eventually
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
in 1552. Tottel was the third child of eleven, having three brothers and seven sisters.
At some point, approximately 1540, Tottel was
indenturedAn Indenture is a legal contract between two parties, particularly for indentured labour or a term of apprenticeship but also for certain land transactions...
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 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.
Professional Career and Midlife
Tottel’s career leapt forward when he was granted a
patentA patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention....
that would allow him to print all authorized books dealing with common law. This patent was originally granted in April of 1553 and was to last seven years. In 1556, 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 StationersThe Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
. Upon receiving its
royal charterIn medieval Europe, royal charters were used to create cities . The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was "founded", regardless of when the locality originally began to be settled.At one time a royal charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be...
in 1557, the Stationers' Company of London named him as a the sixty-seventh member of their charter out of ninety-four. Tottel would later rise in the ranks of 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 was the sole publish 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.
Though not a full list, Tottel’s published works include:
- William Baldwin’s
-Life:From the West Country, he spent several years at Oxford in the study of logic and philosophy. On leaving Oxford he became a corrector of the press to the printer Edward Whitchurch. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, it appears that Baldwin was employed in preparing theatrical...
A Treatise of Morall Phylosophye Contaynyng the Sayinges of the Wise (1547)
- Thomas More's
Sir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulations (1553)
- John Lydgate's
John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England.- Early life and education :He was admitted to the Benedictine monastery of Bury St...
Fall of Princes (1554)
- Stephen Hawes'
Stephen Hawes , was a popular English poet during the Tudor period who is now little known. He was probably born in Suffolk owing to the commonness of the name in that area and, if his own statement of his age may be trusted, was born about 1474. He was educated at Oxford and travelled in...
Pastime of Pleasure (1555)
- Translation of Cicero's
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
De Officiis by Nicholas GrimaldNicholas Grimald , English poet, was born in Huntingdonshire, the son probably of Giovanni Baptista Grimaldi, who had been a clerk in the service of Empson and Dudley in the reign of Henry VII....
(1556)
- Translations of the second and fourth books of Virgil's
Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
by Henry Howard, Earl of SurreyHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey KG was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.-Life:...
(1557)
- Thomas More’s Works (1557)
- A Hundreth Good Points of Husbandry (1557)
- Tottel's Miscellany
- First edition (1557), second edition (July 31, 1557), third edition (1558), fourth edition (1565), fifth edition (1567), and sixth edition (1574)
- Arthur Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet
The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet is a narrative poem, first published in 1562 by Arthur Brooke, who is reported to have translated it from an Italian novella by Matteo Bandello...
(1562)
- William Painter’s
William Painter , English author, was a native of Kent. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554. In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a position in which he appears to have amassed a fortune out of the public funds...
The Palace of Pleasure (1566-1567)
- Sir James Dyer’s
Sir James Dyer was a judge and Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of Edward VI of England.Dyer was knighted at Whitehall on 9 April 1553, Strand Inn, preparatory 1520s, Middle Temple abt. 1530, called to the bar 1537?, bencher 1540s, serjeant-at-law 17 Oct...
Collection of Cases (1586)
Death and Legacy
Tottel’s death came as no surprise. He died in early July of 1593 after suffering little less than a decade of infirmity brought on by old age. As the sole owner of the printing patent for law books in the Kingdom of
Queen ElizabethElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
a huge legal battle ensued upon his decease. 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 is ironic that he is most well 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 passed and eight editions later he is still praised for his work on this and many other works of English literature.