Richard Pynson (c. 1449 – c. 1529) was one of the first printers of English books. Born in Normandy, he moved to London, where he became one of the leading printers of the generation following William Caxton. His books were printed to a high standard of craftsmanship, and his Morton Missal (1500) is regarded as among the finest books printed in England in the period. Pynson was appointed King's Printer to Henry VII and Henry VIII, and printed and published much official legal material. In addition he produced a wide range of books, including the first printed cookery book in English, an illustrated edition of The Canterbury Tales, and the first English book to use roman type. Life and career Early years [[File:Chauser knight from prologue.png|thumb|left|upright=1.25| The knight in Pynson's 1492 edition of The Canterbury Tales]] Pynson was Norman by birth. According to the antiquarian Joseph Ames, the official document (now lost) recording Pynson's subsequent English naturalisation, in about 1493, describes him as Richardus Pynson in partibus Normand oriund ("… originating in Norman parts"). The earliest presumed reference to him is in 1464, in a list of students enrolled at the University of Paris. It is not known when he moved to London, but the historian H. R. Plomer established that a Richard Pynson was a glover near the City of London in 1482 in the same parish in which a man of that name is recorded as a printer and bookbinder in the 1490s, although there is no firm evidence that they are the same person. Where and with whom Pynson learned the craft of printing is unknown. Possibilities suggested by scholars over the years include apprenticeship to Guillaume Le Talleur in Rouen, or Jean du Pré in Paris, or John Lettou and William de Machlinia in London, or William Caxton in Westminster. The bibliographer and historian of printing E. G. Duff, writing in 1896, commented that although Pynson wrote of Caxton as "my worshipful master", it seemed unlikely that he was ever in the latter's employment. Pynson had begun his printing career by 1492, the year in which he printed Alexander Grammaticus's Doctrinale, his first dated book. According to several sources, it is likely that he took over de Machlinia's business in 1490 after the latter's death, including "his tools, stock, possibly his press, and to a large extent his clientele".Duff, 1906, p. 56; and Plomer, 1925, pp.