Main (Thompson) Library location: North wing -- Second window. Originally from Normandy, Richard Pynson (1449 - c.1529) integrated the methods of his French contemporaries into his work in England. It is likely that he contracted his printing firm in London from English printer William de Machlinia, as many of his publications include woodcuts, borders, and bindings resembling those crafted by de Machlinia. Pynson's first known book is Doctrinale by Alexander Grammaticus, printed in 1492 – though approximately five other books may be traced to his typeset in earlier years. Once established independently, Pynson was appointed royal printer under Henry VIII, for whom he published the royal book in 1521, Assertion of the Seven Sacraments. Throughout the course of his prolific career, Pynson independently developed seven type fonts. Many of his publications were language books and dictionaries, such as the Promptorius Puerorum, a Latin-English dictionary; others were religious narratives and biographies, including his prominent Speculum vitae Christi. Within the hundreds of books Pynson printed, there have been five consistently similar printer's marks, as well as a number of variants. The center of each version is his first initial: an ornate, uppercase R. The mark in the Vassar Library reflects his earliest versions. Later versions include stylized floral ornamentation, and also bear the printer's full name, embedded within decorative borders.