Henry Denham
Encyclopedia
Henry Denham was one of the outstanding English
printer
s of the sixteenth century.
He was apprenticed to Richard Tottel
and took up the freedom of the Stationers' Company on August 30, 1560. In 1564 he set up his own printing house in White Cross Street, Cripplegate
, but in the following year he moved to Paternoster Row
, at the sign of the Star, where he remained for many years. His printing office was well supplied with good type in all sizes, from nonpareil to great primer
, and he had a fine range of initial letters, ornaments and borders. He was particularly fond of arranging his titles with a lace border formed of printers' flowers and showed much ingenuity in their arrangement.
When Henry Bynneman
died in 1583, he appointed Denham and Ralph Newbery to be his executors. Shortly after this it is thought that Denham started the Eliot's Court Printing House.
Denham was an industrious printer and in 1583 was returned as having four presses; in 1586-7 and 1588-9 he served as Junior Warden of the Stationers' Company, but he never became Master. About 1585 he removed to Aldersgate Street
. The last entry under his name occurs in the Registers on December 3, 1589, after which nothing more is heard of him.
Richard Yardley and Peter Short
succeeded to the business.
Denham invented the rhetorical question mark
, which did not become a permanent part of the language.
England
England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
printer
Printer (publisher)
In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses. With the invention of the moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450, printing—and printers—proliferated throughout Europe.Today, printers are found...
s of the sixteenth century.
He was apprenticed to Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel was an English publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop was located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London...
and took up the freedom of the Stationers' Company on August 30, 1560. In 1564 he set up his own printing house in White Cross Street, Cripplegate
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a city gate in the London Wall and a name for the region of the City of London outside the gate. The area was almost entirely destroyed by bombing in World War II and today is the site of the Barbican Estate and Barbican Centre...
, but in the following year he moved to Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row was a London street in which clergy of the medieval St Paul's Cathedral would walk, chanting the Lord's Prayer . It was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz during World War II. Prior to this destruction the area had been a centre of the London publishing trade , with...
, at the sign of the Star, where he remained for many years. His printing office was well supplied with good type in all sizes, from nonpareil to great primer
Great primer
Great primer is a large font size that was used in the printing of English Bibles and other large-format books, leading to its other name of Bible Text. The largest size ever used in England for printing books, it was several sizes larger than English but smaller than paragon . It was known in...
, and he had a fine range of initial letters, ornaments and borders. He was particularly fond of arranging his titles with a lace border formed of printers' flowers and showed much ingenuity in their arrangement.
When Henry Bynneman
Henry Bynneman
Henry Bynnemans career as a printer lasted from 1566, when he became free of the Stationers' Company, until 1583. He had been apprenticed to Richard Harrison in 1560, but that printer died about January of 1563; though definitive evidence is lacking, Bynneman likely served the remainder of his...
died in 1583, he appointed Denham and Ralph Newbery to be his executors. Shortly after this it is thought that Denham started the Eliot's Court Printing House.
Denham was an industrious printer and in 1583 was returned as having four presses; in 1586-7 and 1588-9 he served as Junior Warden of the Stationers' Company, but he never became Master. About 1585 he removed to Aldersgate Street
Aldersgate
Aldersgate was a gate in the London Wall in the City of London, which has given its name to a ward and Aldersgate Street, a road leading north from the site of the gate, towards Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington.-History:...
. The last entry under his name occurs in the Registers on December 3, 1589, after which nothing more is heard of him.
Richard Yardley and Peter Short
Peter Short (printer)
Peter Short was a London printer of the later Elizabethan era. He printed several first editions and early texts of Shakespeare's works....
succeeded to the business.
Denham invented the rhetorical question mark
Question mark
The question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
, which did not become a permanent part of the language.
External links
- Patricia Brewerton, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7477‘Denham, Henry (fl.FloruitFloruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1556–1590)’], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 11 Jan 2008