Henry Denham was one of the outstanding

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

printers of the sixteenth century. He was apprenticed to Richard Tottel and took up the freedom of the

Stationers' Company The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...

on 30 August 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 Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area cal ...

, 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 is a large font size (18 points) 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 (or at least up to about 1843) used in England for printin ...

, 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 (died 1583), was an English printer of the 16th century. Career His 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 pr ...

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 is a Ward of the City of London, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City. The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix de ...

. The last entry under his name occurs in the Registers on 3 December 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.

External links

*Patricia Brewerton
fl.">‘Denham, Henry ( fl.
1556–1590)’ ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 11 Jan 2008 English printers Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{publish-bio-stub