Reginald (or Reyner) Wolfe (died 1573) was a
Dutch-born
English Protestant printer and one of the original members of the
Royal Stationers' Company.
Life
Wolfe was born in
Druten 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. Wolfe began to print in 1542. He was the first printer in England to maintain a large stock of Greek type.
Edward VI made him Royal Printer in Latin, Greek and Hebrew and awarded him an annuity of 26s. 8d. for life. Despite his Protestantism,
Mary made him one of the original members of the Stationers' Company. Under
Elizabeth, he served as Master of the Company in 1559, 1564, 1567 and 1572.
Wolfe published works by
Archbishop Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry's ...
, the antiquarian
John Leland,
Robert Recorde and
Archbishop Parker
Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with a p ...
. 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 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).
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.
See also
*''
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede
''Pierce the Ploughman's Crede'' is a medieval alliterative poem of 855 lines, lampooning the four orders of friars.
Textual history
Surviving in two complete 14th-century manuscripts and two early printed editions, the ''Crede'' can be dated o ...
''
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