Rimbault refers to confirms that
fact. The almonry was not merely "within the precincts of the abbey," it
was actually a part of the abbey. Dr. Rimbault aims at the conclusion
that "the old chapel of St. Anne was doubtless the place where the first
printing-office was erected in England." But why so? Did not the chapel
continue a chapel until the Reformation, if not later? And Caxton would
no more set up his press in a chapel than in the abbey-church itself.
Stow says it was erected in the almonry. The almonry was one of the
courts of the abbey, (situated directly west of the abbey-church, and
not east, as Dr. Dibdin surmised); it contained a chapel dedicated to
St. Anne, and latterly an almshouse erected by the Lady Margaret. The
latter probably replaced other offices or lodgings of greater antiquity,
connected with the duties of the almoner, or the reception and relief of
the poor; and there need be no doubt that it was one of these buildings
that the Abbot of Westminster placed at the disposal of our
proto-typographer. There was nothing very extraordinary in his so doing
if we view the circumstance in its true light; for the _scriptoria_ of
the monasteries had ever been the principal manufactories of books. A
single press was now to do the work of many pens. The experiment was
successful; "after which time," as Stow goes on to say, "the like was
practised in the Abbeys of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, St. Alban's,
and other monasteries.
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