Androw Myllar

On 29 March 1503 the sum of 10 Scots pounds was paid by the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland "to Andro Millar for thir bukis undirwritten, viz., Decretum Magnum, Decretales Sextus cum Clementinis, Scotus super quatuor libris Sententiarum, Quartum Scoti, Opera Gersonis in tribus voluminibus."

"[1] The first book on which Myllar's name appears is an edition, printed in 1505, of Joannes de Garlandia's Multorum vocabulorum equiuocorum interpretation, of which the only copy known is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.

It was probably due to the influence of William Elphinstone the Bishop of Aberdeen, who was engaged in preparing an adaptation of the Sarum breviary for the use of his diocese, that James IV on 15 September 1507 granted a patent to Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar "to furnis and bring hame ane prent, with all stuff belangand tharto, and expert men to use the samyne, for imprenting within our Realme of the bukis of our Lawis, actis of parliament, croniclis, mess bukis, and portuus efter the use of our Realme, with addicions and legendis of Scottis sanctis, now gaderit to be ekit tharto, and al utheris bukis that salbe sene necessar, and to sel the sammyn for competent pricis.

[2] Bound with this work are ten other unique pieces, eight of which are also from the Southgait press, but two only of all are perfect, The Maying or Disport of Chaucer and The Goldyn Targe of William Dunbar.

About two years later, in 1510, the Aberdeen Breviary, the main cause of the introduction of printing into Scotland, was executed by the command and at the expense of Walter Chepman; but doubt exists as to the actual printer of this, the last but most important work of the primitive Scottish press.

A sculpted tablet on the facade of Edinburgh's Central Library commemorates Myllar
An adjacent tablet commemorates Chepman
The Porteous of Nobleness
Chepman & Myllar plaque in the Old Town of Edinburgh