Chepman and Myllar Press

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

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.

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 and a Latin religious text known as The Aberdeen Breviary. 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 and the latest to 1510.

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

Johannes Gutenberg developed printing with moveable type in Germany in the decade after 1440. The new technology spread rapidly.

Scots began to commission the printing of books in other countries. France, with its strong diplomatic and intellectual connection to Scotland, was favoured.

King James IV authorised the creation of a press in a proclamation of September 1507. He charged his "beloved servants" Chepman and Myllar to "acquire and bring home a press with all accessories and skilled men required to use it".

The King intended the press to publish books of laws, acts of parliament, histories and religious texts.

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