John Lettou or John of Lithuania ( lt, Jonas Lietuvis,
fl. 1475–1483) was an English bookbinder and printer, presumably from the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...
.
[R. Bideleux. ''A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change''. Routledge, 1998]
Seventeen books printed between 1475 and 1480 are attributed to the workshop of the ‘Indulgence Binder’ now identified as Lettou. The identification depends upon the use of waste strips cut from an
indulgence
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of ...
of 1480 used in the binding of a Bible, printed by Gotz in 1480, which now belongs to
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
. Since this waste would have been found only in the workshop of the printer, and the indulgence was printed by Lettou, he must have been both the printer and the binder. John Lettou also published in partnership with
William de Machlinia and they published mostly law books. Lettou is also considered to have been a colleague of the Belarusian first book printer
Francysk Skaryna
Francysk Skaryna (alternative transcriptions of his name: ''Francišak Skaryna'' or ''Francisk Skaryna''; lat, Franciscus Scorina, be, Францыск (Францішак) Скарына ; pl, Franciszek Skaryna, cs, František Skorina; ...
.
See also
*
List of people from Belarus
*
List of Lithuanians
This is a list of Lithuanians, both people of Lithuanian descent and people with the birthplace or citizenship of Lithuania.
In a case when a person was born in the territory of former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and not in the territory of modern ...
*
Name of Lithuania
The first known record of the name of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuva) is in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno recorded in the Quedlinburg Chronicle ( la, Annales Quedlinburgenses). The Chronicle recorded a Latinized form of the Old Church Slavonic wo ...
*
Lettow
*
Lettau (surname)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lettou, John
15th-century printers
English people of Belarusian descent
English people of Lithuanian descent
English printers