Chepman and Myllar Press

A page from the psalter of the Aberdeen Breviary. (National Library of Scotland).

The Chepman and Myllar Press was the first printing press to be established in Scotland.[1]

The press was founded in 1508 in Edinburgh by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, both burgesses of the Scottish capital. The two partners operated under a charter of King James IV issued in 1507 which gave them a monopoly in printed books within Scotland.[2]

Very few products of the press are preserved today. Those that have survived largely intact are nine chapbooks of vernacular literature known collectively as The Chepman and Myllar Prints[3] and a Latin religious text known as The Aberdeen Breviary.[4] Fragments of two other publications also exist. These were editions of The Wallace and The Buke of the Howlat.

The press seems to have had a brief existence. The earliest surviving example of its work dates to 1508[3] and the latest to 1510.[4]

Chepman and Myllar's press is also referred to as The Southgait Press.

  1. ^ Norman Macdougall, The Stewart Dynasty in Scotland, James IV, Tuckwell press, 1997, pp. 218.
  2. ^ Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 223 no. 1546.
  3. ^ a b The Chepman and Myllar Prints at the National Library of Scotland
  4. ^ a b The Aberdeen Breviary at the National Library of Scotland