Reginald (or Reyner) Wolfe (died 1573) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

-born

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 ...

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

and one of the original members of the Royal Stationers' Company.

Life

Wolfe was born in

Druten Druten () is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. The municipality covers the eastern part of the region of the province of Gelderland. One of its key features is the town's church, designed by architect Pierre Cuypers. The chur ...

in the Netherlands. A learned and devout Protestant, he settled in England some time before 1530 and established himself as a bookseller at St. Paul's Churchyard,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Wolfe began to print in 1542. He was the first printer in England to maintain a large stock of Greek type.

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

made him Royal Printer in Latin, Greek and Hebrew and awarded him an annuity of 26s. 8d. for life. Despite his Protestantism,

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

made him one of the original members of the Stationers' Company. Under

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

, he served as Master of the Company in 1559, 1564, 1567 and 1572. Wolfe published works by Archbishop Cranmer, the antiquarian John Leland,

Robert Recorde Robert Recorde () was an Anglo-Welsh physician and mathematician. He invented the equals sign (=) and also introduced the pre-existing plus sign (+) to English speakers in 1557. Biography Born around 1512, Robert Recorde was the second and las ...

and Archbishop Parker. In 1548, he conceived a project for a "Universal Cosmography of the whole world, and therewith also certain particular histories of every known nation." He hired

Raphael Holinshed Raphael Holinshed ( – before 24 April 1582) was an English chronicler, who was most famous for his work on ''The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande'', commonly known as ''Holinshed's Chronicles''. It was the "first complete printe ...

and William Harrison to assist in the task, but it remained unfinished at Wolfe's death in 1573. Much of the material was published by Holinshed in 1577 as ''The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland'' (usually known as

Holinshed's Chronicles ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', also known as ''Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland'', is a collaborative work published in several volumes and two editions, the first edition in 1577, and the second in 1587. It was a large, co ...

Family

Wolfe married Joan (died 1574), who briefly ran his business after his death. The family included sons John and Robert, a daughter who married John Harrison, another bookseller, and Elizabeth who married Stephen Nevinson.

Notes

External links

*An illustration of Reginald Wolfe'
printing device
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Reginald Year of birth unknown 1573 deaths People from Druten English printers English Protestants 16th-century English businesspeople 16th-century Protestants Holinshed's Chronicles

Life

Family

See also

Notes

External links