Chepman and Myllar Press

The two partners operated under a charter of King James IV issued in 1507 which gave them a monopoly in printed books within Scotland.

Those that have survived largely intact are nine chapbooks of vernacular literature known collectively as The Chepman and Myllar Prints[3] and a Latin religious text known as The Aberdeen Breviary.

[2] He charged his "beloved servants" Chepman and Myllar to "acquire and bring home a press with all accessories and skilled men required to use it".

The King intended the press to publish books of laws, acts of parliament, histories and religious texts.

The charter then specifies a key purpose for the press: the production of liturgical books with a distinctive Scottish character.

Walter Chepman was a prosperous textile merchant who had supplied goods to the Crown and also carried out clerical duties at the Royal Court.

It is not known where or when Chepman and Myllar acquired their printing press and staff, but in the months following the Royal charter, they established themselves in the Southgait of Edinburgh,[7] now known as The Cowgate.

The content of breviaries varied across Catholic Europe, with the English Salisbury or Sarum Rite dominant throughout the British Isles.

The Breviary was compiled by Bishop William Elphinstone of Aberdeen and aimed to give the rituals of the Scottish Church a character distinctive from that in England and its dependencies.

[9] As such, it forms part of the policy set out in the charter which established the press;[2] Copies of the Aberdeen Breviary survive, in varying degrees of completeness, at Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University, The National Library of Scotland, The British Library and a private collection.