Richard Pynson

Possibilities suggested by scholars over the years include apprenticeship to Guillaume Le Talleur in Rouen, or Jean du Pré in Paris, or John Lettou and William de Machlinia in London, or William Caxton in Westminster.

[1] The bibliographer and historian of printing E. G. Duff, writing in 1896, commented that although Pynson wrote of Caxton as "my worshipful master",[n 2] it seemed unlikely that he was ever in the latter's employment.

[1][n 3] According to several sources, it is likely that he took over de Machlinia's business in 1490 after the latter's death, including "his tools, stock, possibly his press, and to a large extent his clientele".

[6][7] During the first years, he worked in the parish of St Clement Danes just outside the city boundary at Temple Bar, but he moved east into the city in 1501, possibly because of xenophobic disturbances,[8] or perhaps simply "to be closer to the book trade, most of the leading men having their shops in the neighbourhood of St Paul's Cathedral".

Robert Redman, Pynson's chief (and according to Duff "rather unscrupulous")[2] rival in the publication of legal texts, and his successor as King's Printer, eventually took over his printing house and materials.

[19] This was fewer than his rival, Wynkyn de Worde, but, according to Duff his books are "of a higher standard and better execution".

[19] In 1496, Pynson issued an edition of the works of the Roman poet Terence, the first classic printed in London.