Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Notary, Julian
NOTARY, JULIAN (fl. 1498–1520), printer, was probably a Frenchman by birth. The statement of Bagford, ‘that he had seen of his printing in France before he printed in England’ (Ames, Typogr. Antiquities, ed. Herbert, i. 303), is believed to be inaccurate. In 1498 Notary and Jean Barbier, a Frenchman, produced a ‘Missale secundum usum Sarum’ at King Street, Westminster, for Wynkyn de Worde. Jean Barbier printed several books at Paris in 1505 and 1506, and became ‘libraire juré’ on 28 Feb. 1507. Lacaille calls him ‘un des plus habiles imprimeurs de son temps et tres estendu en son art’ (Histoire de l'Imprimerie, 1689, p. 79). He printed at Paris down to 1511. A facsimile of his mark is given by Brunet (Manuel du Libraire, 1864, v. 1191).
Notary henceforward printed alone. He brought out at Westminster the ‘Liber Festivalis’ (1499), taken from the ‘Legenda Aurea;’ ‘Quatuor Sermones’ (1490) in English; ‘Horæ ad usum Sarum’ (1500); and Chaucer's ‘Love and Complayntes betwene Mars and Venus’ (no date). In 1503 Notary was living, possibly in Pynson's house, ‘without Temple Bar, in St. Clement's parish, at the sign of the Three Kings,’ and there produced ‘The Golden Legend,’ containing some woodcuts used by Wynkyn de Worde and some metal cuts. During the next six or seven years there came from his press ‘The Cronycle of Englond’ (1504), ‘Scala Perfectionis’ (1507), and other works, about thirteen in number. In 1510 he had a second shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Three Kings, ‘besyde my lorde of London palays.’ His next dated books were the ‘Cronicles of Englond’ (1515); two small grammatical treatises by Whittinton, ‘De Metris’ and ‘De Octo Partibus Orationis’ (1516), at the sign of St. Mark against St. Paul's (copies of which are in the Cambridge University Library); and the ‘Lyfe of Saynt Barbara’ (1518), in St. Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Three Kings. Dr. H. Oskar Sommer places about 1518 the date of Notary's famous edition (the fifth) of ‘The Kalender of Shepardes,’ of which no perfect copy is known (The Academy, 20 Dec. 1890, p. 593). His last known productions are ‘The Parlyament of Deuylls’ (1520) and ‘Life of Saynt Erasmus’ (1520), also printed at the Three Kings. Herbert mentions two other lives of saints, but furnishes no particulars.
The date of Notary's death is unknown. Specimens of his printing are rare and few in number. His name appears in about twenty-eight works. His productions are not remarkable for beauty, except perhaps a ‘Book of Hours’ (1503), of which the only copy known to be extant belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. Like other printers of his time, Notary bound his own books, and specimens of the original calf covers are in existence, bearing stamped panels with the royal arms (Prideaux, Historical Sketch of Bookbinding, 1893, pp. 18–19). Two of his devices are reproduced by Dibdin.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), 1785, i. 303–7; the same (Dibdin), 1812, ii. 574–603; Gordon Duff's Early Printed Books, 1893, pp. 143–46; Warton's Hist. of English Poetry (Hazlitt), 1871, iii. 155; Hazlitt's Handbook and Bibliographical Collections, 1867–89; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, pp. 226–7.]