Thomas Creede

Thomas Creede (fl. 1593 – 1617) was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to 1617. Creede is best known for printing editions of works in English Renaissance drama, especially for ten editions of six Shakespearean plays and three works in the Shakespeare Apocrypha.

In Creede's era, the disciplines of printing and publishing were generally conducted separately. Books were published by stationers or booksellers, who subcontracted the job of printing to professional printers. Those individuals, like William Jaggard of First Folio fame, who regularly functioned as both publishers and printers, were the exceptions to the general rule. Much of Creede's most noteworthy work, as with Shakespearean texts, followed this model — he worked as a printer hired by booksellers; yet Creede did a not-insignificant amount of publishing too (see below).

For the bookseller Thomas Millington, Creede printed:

For Andrew Wise, Creede printed:

For Matthew Law (who acquired the rights to Richard III from Wise in 1603), Creede printed:

For Cuthbert Burby, Creede printed:

For Thomas Millington and John Busby, Creede printed:

For Thomas Pavier (who acquired the rights to Henry V later in 1600), Creede printed:

For Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:

For Henry Gosson, Creede, along with fellow printer William White, printed:

For Nathaniel Butter, Creede printed the sole quarto of:

And for Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:

...
Wikipedia