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 ...

printers of the sixteenth century. He was apprenticed to

Richard Tottel Richard Tottel (died 1594) was an English publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London. The majority of his printing was centered on legal documents, but ...

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 Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London. The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into ...

, 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 ca ...

, 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 print ...

, and he had a fine range of initial letters, ornaments and

borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

. 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 Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

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 den ...

. The last entry under his name occurs in the Registers on 3 December 1589, after which nothing more is heard of him.

Richard Yardley Richard Quincy Yardley (March 11, 1903 – November 24, 1979) was an editorial cartoonist for ''The Baltimore Sun'', Maryland, United States. He joined the ''Sun'' in 1923, later replacing Edmund Duffy who left to take a cartoonist position at ' ...

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