This portrait of More is from the cover of a 1626 book The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes. The book was written by More’s son-in-law, William Roper around the time of Tottel’s publication of A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation but remained unpublished until the 17th century.
Thomas More (1477 – 1535) was an important Renaissance humanist scholar, lawyer, member of parliament and chancellor during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1535 he was executed for refusing to recognise Henry VIII’s divorce and the English church’s break with Rome. His writings remained influential across Europe following his death and were regularly printed throughout the sixteenth century. Richard Tottel printed three volumes of More’s work early in his career.
A dialoge of comfort against tribulacion, made by Syr Thomas More Knyght, and set foorth by the name of an Hu[n]garie[n], not before this time imprinted.
1553 English Short Title Catalogue record
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation was written by Thomas More while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534. Following More’s death the text circulated in manuscript form. Tottel published the first printed edition of the text in November 1553. This was one of the works William Rastell, Thomas More’s nephew, brought back with him to England when he returned from his first period of exile during the reign of Edward VI.
The vvorkes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chauncellour of England, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge.
1557 English Short Title Catalogue record
In 1557 Tottel financed a folio volume of More’s complete English works together with two other printers, John Cawood, the Queen’s Printer and John Walley. The work was printed at Tottel’s house and his usual address appears in the colophon. Some of the type used however belonged to John Cawood.
The volume includes a dedication to the Queen by William Rastell.
In his lecture on Tottel’s life, Richard Tottell – His Life and Work, H.J. Byrom drew attention to the fact that Tottel must already been very successful to bear his part in the cost of preparing this work. The cost of labour and the materials of such a lengthy book – 1458 pages – would have been beyond the means of most London printers at the time.
The University of Leeds Library has digitised some pages from their copy of this volume.
A frutefull pleasaunt, [and] wittie worke, of the beste state of a publique weale, and of the newe yle, called Vtopia: written in Latine, by the right worthie and famous Syr Thomas More knyght, and translated into Englishe by Raphe Robynson, sometime fellowe of Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and nowe by him at this seconde edition newlie perused and corrected, and also with diuers notes in the margent augmented.
1556 English Short Title Catalogue record
Woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein from the 1518 edition of Utopia
Tottel also printed a translation of More’s well-known work Utopia for another printer, Abraham Vele in 1556. Records show that it was ‘Imprinted at London : By [Richard Tottel for] Abraham Vele, dwellinge in Pauls churchyarde, at the signe of the Lambe, [1556]’. A copy of this edition is part of an online exhibition Kings College Library has displaying early editions of Utopia. Utopia was first published in Louvain in 1516 and five printed editions in Latin were published during More’s lifetime. The book describes a fictional island community that shares a common culture and values. The fourth edition, printed in Switzerland in 1518 includes illustrations by Ambrosius Holbein (c. 1494 – c. 1519 and his brother Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497 – 1543). This woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein (pictured) shows Raphael Hythlodaeus, the main character in the book, describing the island Utopia. A digitised copy of this edition is available from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Richard Tottel 