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Title: William Caxton
Author: Duff, E. Gordon
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "William Caxton" ***
_The Publication Committee of the Caxton Club certifies that this
is one of an edition of two hundred and fifty-two copies printed on
American hand-made paper, of which two hundred and forty are for sale,
and three copies printed on Japanese vellum. The printing was done
from type which has been distributed._
_This is also one of one hundred and forty-eight copies into which has
been incorporated a leaf from an imperfect copy of the first edition
of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," printed by William Caxton, and
formerly in Lord Ashburnham's library, having been purchased for this
purpose by the Caxton Club. The copies so treated comprise the three
Japanese vellum copies and one hundred and forty-five of the American
hand-made paper copies; all of the latter are for sale._
WILLIAM CAXTON
[Illustration: BINDING WITH CAXTON'S DIES
(Frontispiece, and see page 85)
]
WILLIAM CAXTON
BY
E. GORDON DUFF, M. A. OXON.
SANDARS READER IN BIBLIOGRAPHY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
[Illustration]
CHICAGO
THE CAXTON CLUB
MCMV
COPYRIGHT BY THE CAXTON CLUB
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIVE
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE 11
I. CAXTON'S EARLY LIFE 13
II. CAXTON'S PRESS AT BRUGES 22
III. THE EARLY WESTMINSTER PRESS 33
IV. 1480-1483 47
V. 1483-1487 56
VI. 1487-1491 70
VII. CAXTON'S DEATH 86
APPENDIX 91
INDEX 99
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE PAGE
BINDING WITH CAXTON'S DIES _Frontispiece_
[From the cover of a book in the library of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford.]
I. PROLOGUE FROM THE BARTHOLOMAEUS 22
This contains the verse relating to Caxton's first
learning to print.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
(ERRATUM: Read _Prologue_ for _Epilogue_ on Plate I.)
II. THE RECUYELL OF THE HISTORYES OF TROYE 28
Printed in Caxton's Type 1. Leaf 253,
the first of the third book.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
III. EPILOGUE TO BOETHIUS 36
Printed in Caxton's Type 3.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
IV. THE DICTES OR SAYENGIS OF THE PHILOSOPHRES 38
Printed in Caxton's Type 2.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
V. CAXTON'S ADVERTISEMENT 42
Printed in Caxton's Type 3. Intended as an
advertisement for the Pica or
Directorium ad usum Sarum.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
VI. THE MIRROUR OF THE WORLD 50
Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. The woodcuts in this
book are the first used in England.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
VII. THE MIRROUR OF THE WORLD 50
Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. This shows a diagram
with the explanations filled in in MS.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
VIII. THE GAME AND PLAYE OF THE CHESSE 52
Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. The wood-cut represents
the philosopher who invented the game.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
IX. LIBER FESTIVALIS 56
Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. The colophon to the
second part of the book entitled
"Quattuor Sermones."
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
X. CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES 58
Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. This is the second
edition printed by Caxton, but the first with
illustrations.
[From the copy in the British Museum.]
XI. THE FABLES OF ESOPE 60
Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. These two cuts show
the ordinary type of work throughout the book.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XII. THE FABLES OF ESOPE 60
The wood-cut here shewn is engraved in an entirely
different manner from the rest.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XIII. THE FABLES OF ESOPE 62
Shewing the only ornamental initial letter
used by Caxton.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XIV. THE IMAGE OF PITY 66
[From the unique wood-cut in the British Museum.]
XV. SPECULUM VITÆ CHRISTI 66
Printed in Caxton's Type 5. The wood-cut depicts
the visit of Christ to Mary and Martha.
[From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XVI. CAXTON'S DEVICE 70
[From an example in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XVII. LEGENDA AD USUM SARUM 70
Printed at Paris by W. Maynyal, probably for Caxton.
The book is known only from fragments.
[From a leaf in the University Library, Cambridge.]
XVIII. THE INDULGENCE OF 1489 72
Printed in Caxton's Type 7. This type is not
mentioned by Blades in his Life of Caxton.
[From a copy in the British Museum.]
XIX. THE BOKE OF ENEYDOS 76
Printed in Caxton's Type 6. This page gives
Caxton's curious story about the variations
in the English language.
[From the copy in the British Museum.]
XX. ARS MORIENDI 76
Printed in Caxton's Type 6 [text] and 8 [heading].
[From the unique copy in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford.]
XXI. SERVITIUM DE TRANSFIGURATIONE JESU CHRISTI 78
Printed in Caxton's Type 5.
[From the unique copy in the British Museum.]
XXII. THE CRUCIFIXION 78
Used by Caxton in the Fifteen Oes, and frequently
afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde.
[From an example in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
XXIII. THE LYF OF SAINT KATHERIN 80
Printed by W. de Worde with a modification of
Caxton's Type 4*. The large initials serve to
distinguish de Worde's work from Caxton's.
[From the copy in the British Museum.]
XXIV. AND XXV. THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID 82
Two leaves, one with the colophon, from a
manuscript prepared by Caxton for the press,
and perhaps in his own hand.
[From the MS. in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene
College, Cambridge.]
PREFACE.
A life of Caxton must of necessity be little more than an account of
his work. As in the case of the great inventor Gutenberg, nothing but
a few documents are connected with his name. In those days of tedious
communication and imperfect learning, the new art was considered
as merely a means of mechanically producing manuscripts, which the
general public must have looked on with apathy. By the time that
its vast importance was fully perceived, the personal history of the
pioneers was lost.
Caxton, however, indulged now and then in little pieces of personal
expression in his prefaces, which, if they tell us little of his life,
throw a certain amount of pleasant light on his character.
In the present book I have tried to avoid as far as possible the
merely mechanical bibliographical detail, which has been relegated in
an abridged form to an appendix, and have confined myself to a more
general description of the books, especially of those not hitherto
correctly or fully described.
Since William Blades compiled his great work, _The Life and Typography
of William Caxton_, some discoveries have been made and some errors
corrected, but his book must always remain the main authority on the
subject, the solid foundation for the history of our first printer.
Where I have pointed out mistakes in his book or filled up omissions,
it is in no spirit of fault-finding, but rather the desire of a worker
in the same field to add a few stones to the great monument he has
built.
E. G. D.
CHAIN BRIDGE, BERWYN, May, 1902.
CHAPTER I.
CAXTON'S EARLY LIFE.
Amongst those men to whom belongs the honour of having introduced the
art of printing into the various countries of Europe, none holds a
more marked or a more important position than William Caxton. This is
not the place to discuss the vexed questions, when, where, or by
whom the art was really discovered; but the general opinion may be
accepted, that in Germany, before the year 1450, Gutenberg had thought
out the invention of movable type and the use of the printing-press,
and that before the end of the year 1454 a dated piece of printing had
been issued. From town to town down the waterways of Germany the
art spread, and the German printers passed from their own to other
countries,--to Italy, to Switzerland, and to France; but in none of
these countries did the press in any way reflect the native learning
or the popular literature. Germany produced nothing but theology or
law,--bibles, psalters, and works of Aquinas and Jerome, Clement or
Justinian. Italy, full of zeal for the new revival of letters, would
have nothing but classics; and as in Italy so in France, where the
press was at work under the shadow of the University.
Fortunately for England, the German printers never reached her shores,
nor had the new learning crossed the Channel when Caxton set up his
press at Westminster, so that, unique amongst the nations of Europe,
England's first printer was one of her own people, and the first
products of her press books in her own language. Many writers, such
as Gibbon and Isaac Disraeli, have seen fit to disparage the work
of Caxton, and have levelled sneers, tinged with their typical
inaccuracy, at the printer and his books. Gibbon laments that Caxton
"was reduced to comply with the vicious taste of his readers; to
gratify the nobles with treatises on heraldry, hawking, and the game
of chess [Caxton printed neither of the first two]; and to amuse the
popular credulity with romances of fabulous knights and legends of
more fabulous saints." "The world," he continues, "is not indebted
to England for one first edition of a classic author." Disraeli,
following Gibbon, writes: "As a printer without erudition, Caxton
would naturally accommodate himself to the tastes of his age, and it
was therefore a consequence that no great author appears among the
Caxtons." And again: "Caxton, mindful of his commercial interests and
the taste of his readers, left the glory of restoring the classical
writers of antiquity, which he could not read, to the learned printers
of Italy."
It is idle to argue with men of this attitude of mind. Of what
use would it have been to us, or profit to our printer, to reprint
editions of the classics which were pouring forth from foreign
presses, and even there, where most in demand, were becoming
unsaleable? Those who wanted classics could easily and did easily
obtain them from the foreign stationers. Caxton's work was infinitely
more valuable. He printed all the English poetry of any moment then in
existence. Chaucer he printed at the commencement of his career, and
issued a new edition when a purer text offered itself. Lidgate and
Gower soon followed. He printed the available English chronicles,
those of Brut and Higden, and the great romances, such as the History
of Jason and the Morte d'Arthur. While other printers employed their
presses on the dead languages he worked at the living. He gave to
the people the classics of their own land, and at a time when the
character of our literary tongue was being settled did more than any
other man before or since has done to establish the English language.
Caxton's personal history is unfortunately surrounded by considerable
obscurity. Apart from the glimpses which we catch here and there in
the curious and interesting prefaces which he added to many of the
books he printed, we know scarcely anything of him. Thus the story of
his life wants that variety of incident which appeals so forcibly to
human sympathy and communicates to a biography its chief and deepest
interest. The first fact of his life we learn from the preface of the
first book he printed. "I was born and lerned myn Englissh in Kente in
the Weeld where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude Englissh as
is in ony place of Englond."
This is the only reference to his birthplace, and such as it is, is
remarkably vague, for the extent or limits of the Weald of Kent were
never clearly defined. William Lambarde, in his _Perambulation of
Kent_, writes thus of it: "For it is manifest by the auncient Saxon
chronicles, by Asserus Menevensis, Henrie of Huntingdon, and almost
all others of latter time, that beginning at Winchelsea in Sussex
it reacheth in length a hundred and twenty miles toward the West and
stretched thirty miles in breadth toward the North." The name Caxton,
Cauxton, or Causton, as it is variously spelt, was not an uncommon one
in England, but there was one family of that name specially connected
with that part of the country who owned the manor of Caustons, near
Hadlow, in the Weald of Kent. Though the property had passed into
other hands before the time of the printer's birth, some families of
the name remained in the neighbourhood, and one at least retained the
name of the old home, for there is still in existence a will dated
1490 of John Cawston of Hadlow Hall, Essex.
The Weald was largely inhabited by the descendants of the Flemish
families who had been induced by Edward III. to settle there and carry
on the manufacture of cloth. Privileged by the king, the trade rapidly
grew, and in the fifteenth century was one of great importance. This
mixture of Flemish blood may account in certain ways for the "brode
and rude Englissh," just as the Flemish trade influenced Caxton's
future career.
In the prologue to _Charles the Great_, Caxton thanks his parents for
having given him a good education, whereby he was enabled to earn an
honest living, but unfortunately does not tell us where the education
was obtained, though it would probably be at home, and not in London,
as some have suggested. After leaving school Caxton was apprenticed to
a London merchant of high position in the year 1438. This is the first
actual date in his life which we possess, and one from which it is
possible to arrive with some reasonable accuracy at his age.
Although then, as now, it was customary for a man to attain his
majority at the age of twenty-one, there was also a rule, at any rate
in the city of London, that none could attain his civic majority, or
be admitted to the freedom of the city, until he had reached the age
of twenty-four. The period for which a lad was bound apprentice was
based on this fact, for it was always so arranged that he should issue
from his apprenticeship on attaining his civic majority. The length
of servitude varied from seven to fourteen years, so it is easy to
calculate that the time of Caxton's birth must lie between the years
1421 and 1428. When we consider also that by 1449 he was not only out
of his apprenticeship, but evidently a man of means and position, we
are justified in supposing that he served the shortest time possible,
and was born in 1421 or very little later.
The master to whom he was bound, Robert Large, was one of the most
wealthy and important merchants in the city of London, and a leading
member of the Mercers' Company. In 1427 he was Warden of his Company,
in 1430 he was made a Sheriff of London, and in 1439-40 rose to
the highest dignity in the city, and became Lord Mayor. His house,
"sometime a Jew's synagogue, since a house of friars, then a
nobleman's house, after that a merchant's house, wherein mayoralties
have been kept, but now a wine tavern (1594)," stood at the north end
of the Old Jewry. Here Caxton had plenty of company,--Robert Large
and his wife, four sons, two daughters, two assistants, and eight
apprentices. Only three years, however, were passed with this
household, for Large did not long survive his mayoralty, dying on
the 4th of April, 1441. Amongst the many bequests in his will the
apprentices were not forgotten, and the youngest, William Caxton,
received a legacy of twenty marks.
On the death of Robert Large, in April, 1441, Caxton was still an
apprentice, and not released from his indentures. If no specific
transfer to a new master had been made under the will of the old,
the executors were bound to supply the apprentices with the means of
continuing their service. That Caxton served his full time we know
to have been the case, since he was admitted a few years later to the
Livery of the Mercers' Company, but it is clear that he did not remain
in England. In the prologue to the _Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troye_, written in 1471, he says: "I have contynued by the space
of xxx yere for the most part in the contres of Braband, Flandres,
Holand, and Zeland"; and this would infer that he finished his time of
apprenticeship abroad.
About 1445 or 1446 Caxton had served his time, and he became a
merchant trading on his own account, and apparently with considerable
success, a result naturally to be expected from his conspicuous
energy. By 1450 he was settled at Bruges, and there exists in the town
archives the report of a lawsuit in which he was concerned in that
year. Caxton and another merchant, John Selle, had become sureties
for the sum of £110 owed by John Granton, a merchant of the Staple of
Calais, to William Craes, another merchant. As Granton had left Bruges
without paying his debt, Craes had caused the arrest of the sureties.
These admitted their liability, but pleaded that Craes should wait the
return of Granton, who was a very rich man, and had perhaps already
repaid the debt. The verdict went against Caxton and his friend, who
were compelled to give security for the sum demanded; but it was also
decreed that should Granton, on his return to Bruges, be able to prove
that the money had been paid before his departure, the complainant
should be fined an amount double that of the sum claimed.
In 1453 Caxton paid a short visit to England in company with two
fellow-traders, when all three were admitted to the Livery of the
Mercers' Company.
For the next ten years we can only conjecture what Caxton's life may
have been, as no authentic information has been preserved. All that
can be said is, that he must have succeeded in his business and have
become prosperous and influential, for when the next reference to him
occurs, in the books of the Mercers' Company for 1463, he was acting
as governor of that powerful corporation, the Merchant Adventurers.
This Company, which had existed from very early times, had been formed
to protect the interests of merchants trading abroad, and though many
guilds were represented, the Mercers were so much the most important,
both in numbers and wealth, that they took the chief control, and
it was in their books that the transactions of the Adventurers were
entered.
In 1462 the Company obtained from Edward IV. a larger charter, and
in it a certain William Obray was appointed "Governor of the English
Merchants" at Bruges. This post, however, he did not fill for long,
for in the year following we find that his duties were being performed
by Caxton. Up to at least as late as May, 1469, he continued to
hold this high position. His work at this period must have been most
onerous, for the Duke of Burgundy set his face against the importation
of foreign goods, and decreed the exclusion of all English-made cloth
from his dominions. As a natural result, the Parliament of England
passed an act prohibiting the sale of Flemish goods at home, so that
the trade of the foreign merchants was for a time paralyzed. With the
death of Philip in 1467, and the succession of his son Charles the
Bold, matters were entirely changed. The marriage of Charles with the
Princess Margaret, sister of Edward IV., cemented the friendship
of the two countries, and friendly business relations were again
established. The various negotiations entailed by these changes,
in all of which Caxton must have played an important part, perhaps
impaired his health, and were responsible for his complaint of a few
years later, that age was daily creeping upon him and enfeebling his
body.
Somewhere about 1469 Caxton's business position and manner of life
appear to have undergone a considerable change, though we have now no
clue as to what occasioned it. He gave up his position as Governor of
the Adventurers and entered the service of the Duchess of Burgundy,
but in what capacity is not known. In the greater leisure which the
change afforded, he was able to pursue his literary tastes, and began
the translation of the book which was destined to be the first he
printed, _Le Recueil des Histoires de Troyes_. But there is perhaps
another reason which prevailed with him to alter his mode of life. He
was no doubt a wealthy man and able to retire from business, and it
seems fairly certain that about this time he married. In 1496 his
daughter Elizabeth was divorced from her husband, Gerard Croppe, owing
apparently to some quarrels about bequests; and assuming Caxton to
have been married in 1469 the daughter would have been twenty-one at
the time of his death. The rules of the various companies of merchants
trading abroad were extremely strict on the subject of celibacy, a
necessary result of their method of living. Each nation had its house,
where its merchants lived together on an almost monastic system. Each
had his own little bed-chamber in a large dormitory, but meals were
all taken together in a common room.
Caxton's duties in the service of the Duchess had most probably to do
with affairs of trade, in which at that time even the highest nobility
often engaged. The Duchess obtained from her brother Edward IV.
special privileges and exemptions in regard to her own private
trading in English wool, and she would naturally require some one with
competent knowledge to manage her affairs. This, with her interest in
Caxton's literary work, probably determined her choice, and under her
protection and patronage Caxton recommenced his work of translation.
In 1471 he finished and presented to the Duchess the translation of
_Le Recueil des Histoires de Troyes_, which had been begun in Bruges
in March, 1469, continued in Ghent, and ended in Cologne in September,
1471.
The completion of this manuscript was no doubt the turning-point in
Caxton's career, as we may judge from his words in the epilogue to the
printed book. "Thus ende I this book whyche I have translated after
myn Auctor as nyghe as god hath gyven me connyng to whom be gyven the
laude and preysyng. And for as moche as in the wrytyng of the same my
penne is worn, myn hande wery and not stedfast, myn eyen dimmed with
overmoche lokyng on the whit paper, and my corage not so prone and
redy to laboure as hit hath ben, and that age crepeth on me dayly and
febleth all the bodye, and also because I have promysid to dyverce
gentilmen and to my frendes to addresse to hem as hastely as I myght
this sayd book. Therefore I have practysed and lerned at my grete
charge and dispense to ordeyne this said booke in prynte after the
maner and forme as ye may here see. And it is not wreton with penne
and ynke as other bokes ben to thende that every man may have them
attones. For all the bookes of this storye named the recule of the
historyes of troyes thus enprynted as ye here see were begonne in oon
day, and also fynysshed in oon day."
The trouble of multiplying copies with a pen was too great to be
undertaken, and the aid of the new art was called in. Caxton ceased to
be a scribe and became a printer.
CHAPTER II.
CAXTON'S PRESS AT BRUGES.
In what city and from what printer Caxton received his earliest
training in the art of printing has been a much debated question
amongst bibliographers. The only direct assertion on the point is
to be found in the lines which form part of the prologue written
by Wynkyn de Worde, and added to the translation of the _De
proprietatibus rerum_ of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, issued about 1495.
"And also of your charyte call to remembraunce,
The soule of William Caxton, the fyrste prynter of this book,
In Laten tongue at Coleyn, hymself to avaunce,
That every well disposed man may thereon look."
As Wynkyn de Worde was for long associated with Caxton in business and
became after his death his successor, it seems impossible to put aside
his very plain statement as entirely inaccurate. William Blades,
in his _Life of Caxton_, utterly denies the whole story. "Are we to
understand," he writes, "that the editio princeps of Bartholomaeus
proceeded from Caxton's press, or that he only printed the first
Cologne edition? that he issued a translation of his own, which is the
only way in which the production of the work could advance him in
the Latin tongue? or that he printed in Latin to advance his own
interests? The last seems the most probable reading. But though the
words will bear many constructions, they are evidently intended to
mean that Caxton printed Bartholomaeus at Cologne. Now, this seems to
be merely a careless statement of Wynkyn de Worde; for if Caxton did
really print Bartholomaeus in that city, it must have been with his
own types and presses, as the workmanship of his early volumes proves
that he had no connexion with the Cologne printers, whose practices
were entirely different."
[Illustration:
PLATE I
EPILOGUE FROM THE BARTHOLOMAEUS
(see page 22)
]
The meaning which Mr. Blades has read into the lines seems hardly a
reasonable one. Surely, the expression "hymself to avaunce" cannot
apply to the advancement of his own interests, but rather to
knowledge; nor can we imagine a sensible person who wished to learn
Latin entering a printing-office for that purpose. It must rather
apply to the printing itself, and point to the fact that when
at Cologne he printed or assisted to print an edition of the
_Bartholomaeus_ in Latin in order to learn the practical details of
the art.
It must also be borne in mind that in 1471, when Caxton paid his visit
to Cologne, printing had been introduced into few towns. Printed
books were spread far and wide, and some of Schoeffer's editions
have inscriptions showing that they had been bought at an early date,
within a year of their issue, at Bruges; but Cologne was the nearest
town where the press was actually at work, and where already a number
of printers were settled.
Blades adds as another argument the fact that no edition of a
_Bartholomaeus_ has been found printed in Caxton's type, but when
starting as a mere learner in another person's office he could hardly
be expected to have type of his own. But there is an edition of
the _Bartholomaeus_, which, though without date or name of place or
printer, was certainly printed at Cologne about the time of Caxton's
visit. It is a large folio of 248 leaves, with two columns to the
page and 55 lines to a column. It is described by Dibdin in his
_Bibliotheca Spenceriana_ (Vol. III., p. 180), though with his usual
inaccuracy he gives the number of leaves as 238. There is little doubt
that the words of Wynkyn de Worde refer to this edition.
Cologne, as might be expected from its advantageous position on the
Rhine, was one of the earliest towns to which the art of printing
spread from Mainz. Ulric Zel, its first printer, was settled there
some time before 1466, when he issued his first dated book, and by
1470 several others were at work. The study of early Cologne printing
is extremely complex, for the majority of books which were produced
there contain no indication of printer, place of printing, or date.
Some printers issued many volumes, and their names are still unknown,
so that they can only be referred to under the name of some special
book which they printed; as, the "Printer of _Dictys_," the "Printer
of _Dares_," and so on.
M. Madden, the French writer on early printing, who had a genius
for obtaining from plausible premisses the most utterly preposterous
conclusions, was possessed with the idea that the monastery of
Weidenbach, near Cologne, was a vast school of typography, where
printers of all nations and tongues learned their art. He ends up his
article on Caxton, as he ended up those on other early printers, "Je
finis cette lettre en vous promettant de revenir, tôt ou tard, s'il
plaît à Dieu, sur William Caxton se faisant initier à la typographie,
non pas à Bruges, par Colard Mansion, comme le veut M. W. Blades, mais
à _Weidenbach_, par les frères de la vie commune."
As we know from Caxton's own statements, he had when at Cologne
considerable leisure, which was partly employed in writing out his
translation of _Le Recueil_, and like all literary persons, must have
felt great interest in the new art. It was no longer a secret one,
and there would be little difficulty for a rich and important man like
Caxton to obtain access to a printing-office, where he might learn the
practical working and master the necessary details.
The mechanical part of the work was not at that time a complicated
process, and would certainly not have taken long to master. Caxton no
doubt learned from observation the method of cutting and the mechanism
of casting type, and by a little practical work the setting up of
type, the inking, and the pulling off the impression.
At the close of 1471 Caxton returned to Bruges, and presented to the
Duchess of Burgundy the manuscript of the _Recuyell of the Historyes
of Troye_, which he had finished while at Cologne. This work, which
had been undertaken at the request of the Duchess, proved to be
exceedingly popular at the court. Caxton was importuned to set to
work on other copies for rich noblemen. The length of time which the
production of these copies would take reminded him of the excellent
invention which he had seen at work at Cologne, that art of writing
by mechanical means, "ars artificialiter scribendi," as the earliest
printers called it, by which numerous copies could be produced at one
and the same time.
Mr. Blades, in common with almost every writer, assumes that printing
was introduced into Bruges at a very much earlier date than there
is any warrant for supposing. He speaks of Colard Mansion as having
"established a press shortly after 1470 at Bruges." Other writers put
back the date as much as three years earlier, confusing, as is often
the case, the date of the writing of a book with the date of its
printing. Colard Mansion's name does not occur in a dated colophon
before 1476, in his edition of the French translation of a work of
Boccaccio, and we have no reason to suppose that he began to work more
than two years at the outside before this date. In the guild-books at
Bruges he is entered as a writer and illuminator of manuscripts from
1454 to 1473, so that we are certainly justified in considering
that he did not commence to print until after the latter date. Other
writers have brought forward a mysterious and little known printer,
Jean Brito, as having not only introduced the art into Bruges, but as
being the inventor of printing. An ambiguous statement in one of his
imprints, where he says that he learned to print by himself with no
one to teach him, refers more probably to some method of casting type,
and not to an independent discovery, and his method of work and other
details point almost certainly to a date about 1480. Some of his type
is interesting as being almost identical with a fount used a few years
later in London.
Now, there is one very important point in this controversy which
appears to have been quite overlooked. Caxton, we may suppose, learned
the art of printing about 1471 at Cologne, the nearest place to Bruges
where the printing-press was then at work. But, say the opponents of
this theory, his type bears no resemblance to Cologne type, so that
the theory is absurd. It must, however, be remembered that in the
interval between Caxton's learning the art and beginning to practice
it printers had begun to work in Utrecht, Alost, and Louvain. If he
required any practical assistance in the cutting or casting of type
or the preparation of a press, he would naturally turn to the printers
nearest to him,--Thierry Martens, with John of Westphalia at Alost,
or to John Veldener or John of Westphalia (who had moved from Alost in
1474) at Louvain.
Caxton's preparations for setting up a printing-press on his own
account were most probably made in 1474. His assistant or partner,
Colard Mansion, by profession a writer and illuminator of manuscripts,
is entered as such in the books of the Guild of St. John from 1454 to
1473, when his connexion with the guild ceases. This may point to
two things: he had either left Bruges, perhaps in search of printing
material, or had changed his profession; and the former seems the most
probable explanation.
If Caxton was assisted by any outside printer in the preparation
of his type, there can be little doubt that that printer was John
Veldener of Louvain. Veldener was matriculated at Louvain in the
faculty of medicine, July 30, 1473. In August, 1474, in an edition
of the _Consolatio peccatorum_ of Jacobus de Theramo, printed by
him, there is a prefatory letter addressed "Johanni Veldener, artis
impressoriae magistro," showing that he was by that time a printer. He
was also, as he himself tells us, a type-founder, and in 1475 he made
use of a type in many respects identical with one used by Caxton.
In body they are precisely the same, and in most of the letters they
are to all appearance identical; and the fact of their making their
appearance about the same time in the _Lectura super institutionibus_
of Angelus de Aretio, printed at Louvain by Veldener, and in the
_Quatre derrenieres choses_, printed at Bruges by Caxton, would
certainly appear to point to some connexion between the two printers.
Furnished with a press and two founts of type, both of the West
Flanders kind and cut in imitation of the ordinary book-hand, William
Caxton and Colard Mansion started on their career as printers.
Unlike all other early printers, Caxton looked to his own country
and his own language for a model, and although in a foreign country,
issued as his first work the first printed book in the English
language. Other countries had been content to be ruled by the new laws
forced upon them by the revival of learning. Caxton then, as through
his life, spent his best energies in the service of our English
tongue. The _Recuyell of the Hystoryes of Troye_, a translation by
Caxton from the French of Raoul Le Fevre, who in his turn had adapted
it from earlier writers on the Trojan war, was the first book to be
issued.
The prologue to the first part and the epilogues to the second and
third contain a few interesting details of Caxton's life. That to
the third contains some remarks about the printing. "Therefore I have
practysed and lerned at my grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this
said booke in prynte after the maner and forme as ye may here see, and
it is not wreton with penne and ynke as other bokes ben to thende that
every man may have them attones. For all the bookes of this storye
named the recule of the historyes of troyes thus enprynted as ye here
see were begonne in oon day, and also fynysshed in oon day."
The wording of this sentence, which is perhaps slightly ambiguous, has
caused several writers to fall into a curious error in supposing that
Caxton meant to assert that the printed books were begun and finished
in one day. His real meaning, of course, was, that while in written
books the whole of a volume was finished before another was begun, in
printed books the beginnings of all the copies of which the edition
was to consist were printed off in one day, so also the last sheet of
all the copies would be printed off in one day, and the whole edition
finished simultaneously.
The _Recuyell_ is a small folio of 352 leaves, the first being blank,
and each page contains 31 lines, spaced out in a very uneven manner.
The second leaf, on which the book begins, contains Caxton's prologue,
printed in red ink. The book is without signatures, headlines, numbers
to the pages, or catchwords.
Although a considerable number of copies--some twenty in all--are
still in existence, almost every one is imperfect. The very
interesting copy bought by the Duke of Devonshire at the Roxburghe
sale in 1812 for £1,060 10_s._ which had at one time belonged to
Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV., wanted the last leaf; Lord Spencer's
wanted the introduction. Blades, it should be noticed, in his lists
of existing copies of Caxton's books, uses the word "perfect" in
a misleading way, often taking no notice of the blank leaves being
missing, which are essential to a perfect copy, and often also
omitting to distinguish between a made-up copy and one in genuine
original condition.
[Illustration:
PLATE II
THE RECUYELL OF THE HISTORYES OF TROYE
(see page 28)
]
The finest copy is probably that formerly in the library of the Earl
of Jersey, which was sold in 1885. It was described as perfect, and
possessed the blank leaf at the beginning. Valued in 1756, when Bryan
Fairfax's library was bought by Lord Jersey's ancestor, Mr. Child, at
£8 8_s._, it produced the high price of £1,820.
The next book to appear from the Bruges press was the _Game and playe
of the Chess_, "In which I fynde," as Caxton says in his prologue,
"thauctorites, dictees, and stories of auncient doctours philosophres
poetes and of other wyse men whiche been recounted and applied unto
the moralite of the publique wele as well of the nobles as of the
comyn peple after the game and playe of the chesse."
The original of the work was the _Liber de ludo scacchorum_ of Jacobus
de Cessolis, which had been translated into French by Jean Faron and
Jean de Vignay, both belonging to the order of preaching friars, but
who worked quite independently of each other. Caxton appears to have
made use of both versions, part of his book being translated from one
and part from the other.
It is a considerably shorter book than the _Recuyell_, containing only
74 leaves, of which the first and last were blank. Like the last, it
is a folio, with 31 lines to the page. It is not a very scarce book,
as about twelve copies are known, but of these almost every one is
imperfect. The best copy known is probably that belonging to Colonel
Holford, of Dorchester House, which still remains in its old binding,
and another beautiful copy was obtained by Lord Spencer from the
library of Lincoln Minster, the source of many rarities in the Spencer
collection. The story has often been told how Dibdin, the well-known
writer of romantic bibliography, persuaded the lax Dean and Chapter of
Lincoln to part with their Caxtons to Lord Spencer. We must, however,
give even Dibdin his due, and point out that he was quite ignorant of
the transaction, which was carried out by Edwards, the bookseller. The
letter from Lord Spencer to Dibdin is still in existence, in which he
describes the new Caxtons he had acquired, carefully omitting to say
through whom or from what source. This, however, Dibdin found out for
himself some time after, and raided Lincoln on his own account. He
issued a small catalogue of his purchases, under the title of _A
Lincoln Nosegay_, and a few were bought by Lord Spencer, the remainder
finding their way into the libraries of Heber and other collectors.
The last book printed by Caxton and Mansion in partnership at Bruges
was the _Quatre derrenieres choses_, a treatise on the four last
things, Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, commonly known under the
Latin titles of _De quattuor novissimis_ or _Memorare novissima_, and
later issued in English by Caxton as the _Cordyale_.
In this book first appears Caxton's type No. 2, which bears so strong
a resemblance to the fount used by Veldener. The book is a folio of
74 leaves (not 72, as stated by Blades), and has 28 lines to the page.
There is a certain amount of printing in red, which was produced in a
peculiar way. It was not done by a separate pull of the press, as was
the general custom, but the whole page having been set up and inked,
the ink was wiped off from the portions to be printed in red, and the
red colour applied to them by hand, and the whole printed at one pull.
For long but one copy of this book was known, preserved in the British
Museum, and bound up with a copy of the _Meditacions sur les sept
pseaulmes_, to be described shortly. Some years ago, however,
another copy wanting two leaves was found, and it is now in a private
collection in America.
This was the last book printed abroad with which Caxton had any
connexion, and the new type used in it was no doubt specially prepared
for him to carry to England. It contained far more distinct types than
the first, which had 163, for it began with 217, which were increased
on recasting to at least 254.
Supplied with new type and other printing material, Caxton made his
preparations to return to his own country. The exact date cannot
now be determined, but it was probably early in the year 1476. It is
curious that just about this time one of the Cologne presses issued
the first edition of the Breviary for the use of the church of
Salisbury, the use adopted by all the south of England, and it may be
that Caxton, who had had dealings with the Cologne printers, may have
been connected in some way with its production and publication in
England.
After Caxton had left Bruges his former partner, Colard Mansion,
continued to print by himself. In Caxton's first type, which had
been left behind at Bruges, he printed three books, _Le Recueil des
histoires de Troyes_, _Les fais et prouesses du chevalier Jason_, and
the _Meditacions sur les sept pseaulmes_. All three are in folio, with
31 lines to the page. As they are often confused by writers with books
really printed by Caxton, and as they are produced from type which
was at one time in his possession, they may perhaps merit a short
description.
The _Recueil_ contains 286 leaves, of which two are blank. Six copies
are known, of which by far the finest was sold at the Watson Taylor
sale in 1823 to Lord Spencer. It was then in its original binding
and uncut, but Lord Spencer, who, like most collectors of his day,
despised old bindings, had it rebound in morocco, and the edges
trimmed and gilt. Another very fine copy, probably "conveyed" from
some continental library, was purchased from M. Libri by the British
Museum in 1844.
The _Jason_ contains 134 leaves, of which the first and last two are
blank. A magnificent copy, the only one in England, is in the library
of Eton College, and there are two other copies, slightly imperfect,
at Paris.
Of the third book, the _Meditacions sur les sept pseaulmes_, only one
copy is known to exist. It is in the British Museum, bound up with
a copy of the _Quatre derrenieres choses_, and is quite perfect. It
contains 34 leaves, the last being blank.
Mansion continued for some time onwards to print at Bruges in the
workshop which perhaps he had shared with Caxton, over the
church porch of St. Donatus, but later in life seems to have been
unsuccessful and fallen on evil times. The books which he then printed
with such little success are now by the chance of fate the most sought
for and valuable amongst the productions of the early continental
press.
CHAPTER III.
THE EARLY WESTMINSTER PRESS.
In 1476 Caxton returned to England and took up his residence in the
precincts of Westminster Abbey, at a house with the sign of the "Red
Pale" in the "almonesrye." This locality is thus described by Stow:
"Now will I speake of the gate-house, and of Totehill streete,
stretching from the west part of the close.... The gate towards the
west is a Gaile for offenders.... On the South-side of this gate, King
Henry the 7. founded an almeshouse.... Near unto this house westward
was an old chappel of S. Anne, over against the which, the Lady
Margaret, mother to King Henry the 7. erected an Almeshouse for poore
women ... the place wherein this chappell and Almeshouse standeth was
called the Elemosinary or Almory, now corruptly the Ambry, for that
the Almes of the Abbey were there distributed to the poore."
In the account roll of John Estenay, sacrist of Westminster from
September 29, 1476, to September 29, 1477, we find, under the heading
"Firme terrarum infra Sanctuarium," the entry "De alia shopa ibidem
dimissa Willelmo Caxton, per annum X^s." Another account-book, still
preserved at Westminster, shows that in 1483 Caxton paid for two shops
or houses, and in 1484 besides these for a loft over the gateway of
the Almonry, described in 1486 as the room over the road (Camera supra
viam), and in 1488 as the room over the road at the entrance to the
Almonry (Camera supra viam eundo ad Elemosinariam). This latter was
perhaps rented as a place to store the unsold portion of his stock.
The neighbourhood of the Abbey seems to have been a place much
favoured by merchants of the Staple and dealers in wool, and this may
have had something to do with Caxton's choice. He always continued to
be a member of the Mercers' Company, and many of his fellow-members
must have formed his acquaintance, or learned to esteem him, while he
held his honourable and responsible post of Governor of the English
nation in the Low Countries. Like himself, many were members of the
Fraternity of our Blessed Lady Assumption and benefactors to the
church of St. Margaret. The abbots of Westminster themselves were
in the wool trade, and according to Stow had six wool-houses in the
Staple granted them by King Henry VI. Some such special causes,
or perhaps certain privileges obtained from Margaret, Henry VII.'s
mother, who was one of the printer's patrons, must have made Caxton
fix his choice on Westminster rather than on London, the great centre
for all merchants, and which might have been supposed more suitable
for a printer.
The first book with a date issued in England was the _Dictes or
Sayengis of the Philosophres_, which was finished on the 18th of
November, 1477. That Caxton should have allowed more than a year
to elapse before issuing any work from his press seems improbable,
especially considering the untiring energy with which he worked. On
this point a curious piece of evidence is to be found in the prologue
to the edition of _King Apolyn of Tyre_, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in
1510. Robert Copland, an assistant of De Worde and the translator of
the book, says: "My worshipful master Wynken de Worde, having a
little book of an ancient history of a kyng, sometyme reigning in
the countree of Thyre called Appolyn, concernynge his malfortunes
and peryllous adventures right espouventables, bryefly compyled and
pyteous for to here, the which boke I Robert Coplande have me applyed
for to translate out of the Frensshe language into our maternal
Englysshe tongue at the exhortacion of my forsayd mayster, accordynge
dyrectly to myn auctor, gladly followynge the trace of my mayster
Caxton, begynnynge with small storyes and pamfletes and so to other."
Now, taking all the books printed by Caxton before the end of the year
1478, in number twenty-one, and considering that the first dated book
was not issued until almost the end of 1477, and that Caxton had
then presumably been in England for over a year, there does seem some
reasonable ground for believing the statement of Copland, especially
as there are amongst these early books a number which exactly answer
to the description of "small storyes and pamfletes."
An exactly analogous case occurs in regard to the introduction of
printing into Scotland. The first printer, Andrew Myllar, while
preparing for the publication of the Aberdeen Breviary, which was
issued at Edinburgh in 1509-10, published in 1508 a series of small
pamphlets, consisting of stories and poems by Dunbar, Chaucer,
and others. As might naturally be expected, such small books were
especially liable to destruction, both on account of their size and
the popularity of their subjects. It is not surprising to find that
the majority have been preserved to us in single copies only. All
the ten Edinburgh books are unique, and almost all the early Caxton
quartos, so that it is impossible under these conditions to estimate
what the output of Caxton's first year's working may have been. In
writing of these earliest books, it will be perhaps best to take the
folios first, and then the numerous small works, since, as they all
agree so exactly as regards printing, they cannot be arranged in any
definite order.
The first of the folios issued was most probably the _History of
Jason_, translated by Caxton himself from the French version of Raoul
Le Fevre immediately after he had finished those of the _Recueil_
and the _Game of Chess_. The translation was undertaken under the
patronage of Edward IV., with a view to the presentation of the book
when finished to the ill-fated Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward
V., "to thentent he may begynne to lerne rede Englissh." The book has
every appearance of having been one of the very earliest issues of
the Westminster press, and at the end of 1476 or beginning of 1477 the
young prince would have been about four years old, a very suitable age
to begin his education.
The book contains 150 leaves, of which the first and last are blank,
and a full page has 29 lines. Like all early Caxtons, it has no
signatures, which were not introduced until 1480; no headlines, which
were rarely used; no numbers to the pages, which occur still more
rarely; and no catch-words, which were never used at all.
As in all other early printed books, spaces were left for the
insertion of illuminated initials at the beginnings of the chapters.
Now, while in contemporary French, Italian, and Low Country books
such spaces were often filled with the most gracefully designed and
beautifully illuminated initials, rich in scrollwork and foliage, and
ornamented with coats of arms or miniatures, there is not, so far as
I know, any early English book in existence containing any attempt at
such decoration. As a rule, the spaces were left blank as they came
from the printer. In some cases, where the paragraph marks have been
filled in by the rubricator, he has roughly daubed in the initial
with his brush, making no attempt at ornament, or even neatness in the
letter itself.
[Illustration:
PLATE III
EPILOGUE TO BOETHIUS
(see page 37)
]
Seven copies of the _Jason_ are still extant, the majority imperfect.
By far the finest copy known was that sold at the Ashburnham sale in
1897, and which is now in a private collection in America. It is in
the original leather binding as it issued from Caxton's workshop, and
is quite uncut. This copy has generally been considered the finest
Caxton in existence, and its various changes of ownership can be
traced back for over two hundred years.
The great admiration which Caxton had for the work of Chaucer would no
doubt make him anxious to issue it from his press as soon as possible,
and we may therefore ascribe to an early date the publication of the
_Canterbury Tales_ and the translation of _Boethius_. The _Canterbury
Tales_ is a small folio of 374 leaves, with 29 lines to the page,
and so rare that it is believed that no genuine perfect copy is in
existence. Blades, in his account of the book, censures Dibdin for
describing the copy at Merton College, Oxford, as imperfect, which,
however, in Dibdin's time it certainly was, though through the
kindness of Lord Spencer the missing leaves were afterwards supplied.
One other copy, complete as regards text, is in the British Museum,
having formed part of the library of George III. The _Boethius_
contains 94 leaves, and is a much more common book. One copy is worthy
of special mention, as it was the means of bringing to light the
existence of three books printed by Caxton which up to that time were
unknown. It was found by Mr. Blades in the old grammar-school library
at St. Alban's, and he has left us an interesting account of its
discovery. "After examining a few interesting books, I pulled out
one which was lying flat upon the top of others. It was in a most
deplorable state, covered thickly with a damp, sticky dust, and with
a considerable portion of the back rotted away by wet. The white decay
fell in lumps on the floor as the unappreciated volume was opened.
It proved to be Geoffrey Chaucer's English translation of _Boecius
de Consolatione Philosophiae_, printed by Caxton, in the original
binding, as issued from Caxton's workshop, and uncut!" "On dissecting
the covers they were found to be composed entirely of waste sheets
from Caxton's press, two or three being printed on one side only.
The two covers yielded no less than fifty-six half-sheets of printed
paper, proving the existence of three works from Caxton's press quite
unknown before." These fragments came from thirteen different books,
and though other examples of one of the unknown works have been found,
two, the Sarum _Horae_ and Sarum _Pica_, are still known from these
fragments only.
The _Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres_, though most probably
by no means the first book printed in England, must still hold the
important position of being the first with a definite date, November
18, 1477. The book was translated from the French by Lord Rivers, who
had borrowed the original while on a voyage to the shrine of St. James
of Compostella from a fellow-traveller, the famous knight Lewis de
Bretaylles. Having finished his translation, he handed it to Caxton
to "oversee" and to print, and the printer himself added a chapter
"touchyng women." To this a quaint introduction is prefixed, in which
it is pointed out that the gallant Earl had omitted the chapter,
perhaps at request of some fair lady, "or ellys for the very
affeccyon, love and good wylle that he hath unto alle ladyes and
gentyl women." "But," continues Caxton, "for as moche as I am not in
certeyn wheder it was in my lordis copye or not, or ellis peradventure
that the wynde had blowe over the leef at the tyme of translacion of
his booke, I purpose to wryte tho same saynges of that Greke Socrates,
whiche wrote of tho women of grece and nothyng of them of this Royame,
whom I suppose he never knewe."
[Illustration:
PLATE IV
THE DICTES OR SAYENGIS OF THE PHILOSOPHRES
(see page 38)
]
It is curious that with one exception no copy of this first edition
has a colophon. The copy in which it occurs was in Lord Spencer's
library and is now at Manchester, but beyond this small addition, it
varies in no way from the other copies. All the examples of the second
edition, which was issued a few years later, contain a reprint of this
colophon.
The _Dictes_ when perfect contained 78 leaves (not, as stated by
Blades, 76), of which the first and last two are blank, and though
more than a dozen copies of the book are known, not one is quite
perfect. In the library of Lambeth Palace is a manuscript of this work
on vellum, copied from Caxton's edition, and dated December 29, 1477.
It contains one poor illumination showing Earl Rivers presenting the
copy to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V. By the side of
the Earl is an ecclesiastic, probably "Haywarde," the writer of
the manuscript, and this figure has by some been considered, quite
erroneously, to be intended for a portrait of Caxton.
The _Dictes or Sayengis_ was followed shortly by another dated folio,
the _Morale Proverbes of Cristyne_, issued on the 20th of February,
1478. It contains only four printed leaves, and three copies are
known. The two verses added at the end of the book tell us of the
author, translator, and printer, and are interesting as being the
earliest printed specimen of Caxton's poetical attempts.
"Of these sayynges Cristyne was aucteuresse
Whiche in makyng hadde suche Intelligence
That thereof she was mireur and maistresse
Hire werkes testifie thexperience
In frenssh languaige was writen this sentence
And thus Englished dooth hit rehers
Antoin Widevylle therl Ryvers.
"Go thou litil quayer and recommaund me
Unto the good grace of my special lorde
Therle Ryveris, for I have enprinted the
At his commandement, followyng eury worde
His copye, as his secretaire can recorde
At Westmestre, of feuerer the xx daye
And of kynd Edward the xvjj yere vraye."
The author, Christine de Pisan, wife of Étienne Castel, was one of
the most famous women of the middle ages. Left early a widow, with but
narrow means, she had three children and her own parents to provide
for. Being a woman of high attainments and considerable learning,
she took up the profession of literature, and for many years worked
incessantly. _Les proverbes moraulx_ was written as a supplement to
_Les enseignemens moraulx_, an instructive work addressed to her young
son, Jean Castel, who was for some time in England in the service of
the Earl of Salisbury.
Another point to be noticed about this book is the date, which here,
fortunately, is quite clear. Among the early printers there is very
considerable variation as to the day on which the new year began.
Putting on one side the foreign and considering only the English
printers, the dates narrow themselves to two, January 1st and March
25th, so that any date falling between these two may be in two
different years, according to the habit of the printer. For instance,
March 1, 1470, will really mean 1470 if the printer began his year on
January 1st. If, on the other hand, he did not begin it until March
25th, the real date will be 1471.
Fortunately, Caxton frequently added to his dates the regnal year,
which gives at once a definite solution. For instance, his edition
of the _Cordyale_ was begun the day after Lord Rivers handed him the
manuscript, on February 3, 1478, and finished on March 24th following,
in the nineteenth year of Edward IV. Now, the nineteenth year of
Edward IV. ran from March 4, 1479, to March 3, 1480, so that Caxton's
1478 was really 1479, and his custom was, therefore, to begin his
years on the 25th of March.
As has been said earlier, it is probable that Caxton began his
printing in England with small pamphlets, and of these a considerable
number have come down to our time, but as the majority are unique, it
is impossible to conjecture how many may have utterly perished. The
most considerable collection is in the University Library, Cambridge,
which owns a series, originally bound in one volume, which was in
the collection of Bishop Moore presented to the University in 1715 by
George the First. This library was peculiarly rich in early English
books; indeed, the great majority of those now at Cambridge formed
part of it, and their acquisition was mainly due to the exertions of
that much maligned person, John Bagford, whom Moore employed to search
for such rarities, and who did so with conspicuous success.
Amongst these priceless volumes one stands out pre-eminent. It was
until recently in an old calf binding, lettered on the back, "Old
poetry printed by Caxton," and contained eight pieces, the _Stans puer
ad mensam_, the _Parvus Catho_, _The Chorle and the Bird_, _The Horse,
the Shepe and the Goose_, _The Temple of Glas_, _The Temple of Brass_,
_The Book of Courtesy_, and _Anelida and Arcyte_. Five of these are
absolutely unique; of the others a second copy is known.
These books must have caught the popular taste, for of several we find
second editions issued almost at once. A second issue of the
_Parvus Catho_ is known from a unique copy belonging to the Duke of
Devonshire. York Cathedral possesses the only known copy (with the
exception of a few leaves at Cambridge) of the second edition of _The
Horse, the Shepe and the Goose_, and a unique second edition of _The
Chorle and the Bird_.
All these little poetical pieces agree typographically. They contain
nothing but the bare text, and are without signatures, headlines, or
pagination. Probably they were all issued at intervals of a few days,
and not many printed, so that the second editions may have been issued
only a few months after the first.
There are three other early quartos to be noticed, which are of quite
a different class from those just mentioned. These are the Sarum
_Ordinale_, the _Propositio Johannis Russell_, and the _Infancia
Salvatoris_.
The Sarum _Ordinale_, or _Pica_, was a book giving the rules for the
concurrence and occurrence of festivals, containing an explanation for
adapting the calendar to the services of each week, in accordance with
the thirty-five varieties of the almanac. This book would be in very
considerable demand amongst those officiating in services, and would
be a good method of attracting the attention of the priests to the new
art, so that no sooner had the book been printed than Caxton struck
off a little advertisement about it. "If it plese ony man spirituel
or temporel to bye ony pyes of two and thre comemoracions of salisburi
use enpryntid after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel
and truly correct, late hym come to westmonester in to the almonesrye
at the reed pale and he shal have them good chepe. Supplico
stet cedula." The quaint Latin ending, "Pray don't tear down the
advertisement," was then perhaps a customary formula attached to
notices put up in ecclesiastical or legal precincts, but it might
naturally be supposed that those most likely to damage or tear down
advertisements would be uneducated people, who would be ignorant of
Latin.
[Illustration:
PLATE V
CAXTON'S ADVERTISEMENT
(see page 42)
]
When the advertisement first came before the notice of writers on
printing, the existence of the _Ordinale_ was unknown, and it is
amusing to read the various conjectures as to the buying of "pyes"
hazarded by them. One of the most ingenious occurred in a letter
from Henry Bradshaw to William Blades, which was that the syllable
"co" had dropped out by accident, and that the word should read
"copyes," and this appeared all the more probable, as the word
"pyes" comes at the end of the first line, which is slightly shorter
than the rest. This is the only specimen of an early English book
advertisement known, though foreign examples are not uncommon.
The _Propositio Johannis Russell_ is one of the very few pieces
printed by Caxton dealing with current affairs or politics. It is
the oration delivered at Ghent, early in 1470, on the occasion of the
investiture of the Duke of Burgundy with the Order of the Garter.
It has often been considered as one of Caxton's very earliest
pieces,--perhaps printed at Bruges. Blades writes, rather vaguely:
"To me it appears most likely that it was issued at Bruges at no long
period after its delivery, and before Caxton's final departure for
England. At that town, both with the subjects of the Duke of Burgundy
and the 'English nation' there resident, it would secure a good
circulation; not so if issued seven years after its delivery in
another country."
It could not have been printed anywhere by Caxton before 1475, and
everything seems to point to its having been printed at Westminster in
1476-1477, perhaps at the instance of the author himself, then Bishop
of Rochester.
It is a little quarto tract of four leaves, and two copies only are
known, one belonging to the Earl of Leicester at Holkham, the other,
formerly in the Spencer Library, now at Manchester. This latter was
originally bound up, apparently by mistake, amongst the blank leaves
of a note-book used for miscellaneous manuscript treatises of the
fifteenth century, which run on over the first and last blank pages
of the tract itself. It appeared, unrecognized, at the Brand sale
in 1807, and was described amongst the MSS., "A work on theology and
religion, with five leaves at the end a very great curiosity, very
early printed on wooden blocks, or type." It was bought by Lord
Blandford for forty-five shillings, and purchased at his sale in 1819
by Lord Spencer for £126.
Blades speaks of it as in its original binding, a quite inexplicable
mistake, for it was bound between the years 1807 and 1819 in
resplendently gilt morocco, double, with gauffered gilt edges! The
copy at Holkham, which used to be in an old vellum wrapper, has also
been rebound, and the two inner leaves, by some unfortunate mistake,
transposed.
Of the _Infancia Salvatoris_, a version of one of the smaller
treatises among the apocryphal books of the New Testament, but one
copy is known. It was in the celebrated Harleian Library, which was
bought entire by Osborne in 1746. The Caxton collectors of the period
seem to have passed it over, for it did not get sold, even at its
very modest price, until three years later, when it was bought for the
University Library of Göttingen. It is still in its old red morocco
Harleian binding, with Osborne's price--15--on the fly-leaf. Another
note records, "aus dem Katalogen Thomas Osborne in London d. 12 Maij
1749 (No 4179) erkauft." Blades, in his description of the book, which
he had not examined, conjectured that it was made up in three quires,
the first of eight leaves, the second and third of six each, making
in all twenty leaves, including a blank both at beginning and end. An
examination of the water-marks of the paper shows that this was not
the case, and that it consisted of two quires, the first of eight
leaves, the second of ten, and that there were no blank leaves.
This tract, and the _Compassio lamentationis Beate Marie Virginis_,
are the only two unique Caxtons in libraries outside England.
Some time towards the end of 1478 Caxton recast his fount No. 2, in
which almost all the books so far mentioned were printed, and added
a few extra types. With this new fount he printed the _Margarita
Eloquentiae_ of Laurentius de Saona, Saona being the earlier form of
Savona, the birthplace of Columbus, a city not far from Genoa. At the
end of the book, which contains neither name of printer nor place, is
a notice that the work was completed at Cambridge on the 6th of July,
1478.
In an old catalogue of books bequeathed by Archbishop Parker to
the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the entry occurs,
"Rethorica nova impressa Canteb. fo. 1478." Strype, in writing his
life of the Archbishop, came across this notice and communicated it to
Bagford, who reported it in his turn to Tanner, the antiquary. Ames,
from their information, placed it at the head of Cambridge books in
his _Typographical Antiquities_, and Herbert, in his reprint, merely
reproduced the account. Dibdin does not mention it, and it was
not until 1861 that Henry Bradshaw, coming across it by accident,
discovered that it was a genuine production of Caxton's press.
The book is a folio of 124 leaves, and besides the copy at Cambridge,
one other is known, now in the University Library at Upsala.
On the 24th of March, 1479, was issued the _Cordyale_, a translation
from the French _Quatre derrenieres choses_, by Earl Rivers. The
translation, as the colophon tells us, was handed to Caxton on the
day of the Purification (February 2d), and the printing was begun "the
morn after the saide Purification of our blissid Lady, which was the
daye of Seint Blase, Bisshop and Martir: And finisshed on the even of
the annunciacion of our said bilissid Lady fallyng on the wednesday
the 24 daye of Marche."
The _Cordyale_ contains 78 leaves, with a blank at each end, and is
not very uncommon. The second edition of the _Dictes or Sayengis_ was
issued this year, and is considerably rarer than the first, only four
copies being known. Its collation is exactly the same as the first,
and Blades has fallen into the same mistake, and gives it two leaves
too few.
CHAPTER IV.
1480-1483.
The year 1480 saw a considerable change in Caxton's methods of
printing. Hitherto he had been content to print his books without
signatures, although these were generally in use abroad, but their
obvious utility appears to have impressed him, and henceforward he
always printed them. The earlier books were of course signed, but the
signatures were written in by hand, a very laborious process compared
with setting them up with the type, and the greater clearness of the
printed letter must have been an advantage to the bookbinder. About
this time also he began to decorate his books with illustrations, a
concession perhaps to popular taste, for his own inclination seems
to have led him more to the literary than the artistic side of book
production.
Another matter also may have helped to bring about this change, the
settlement of a rival printer in London. Two other presses had before
this started in England, one at Oxford in 1478, and one at St. Alban's
about a year later, but their distance rendered them little dangerous
as rivals, while the nature of their productions was mainly scholastic
and little suited to the popular taste. But with a press setting up
work some two miles away matters were quite different. There was no
knowing what it might not print.
John Lettou, this first London printer, came apparently from Rome,
bringing with him a small, neat gothic type, which had already been
used in that city to print several books. To judge from his name, he
was a native of Lithuania, of which Lettou is an old English form. He
was certainly a practised workman, and his books are very foreign
in appearance, and quite unlike the work of any other early English
printer.
Caxton's first piece of work in 1480 was a broadside _Indulgence_,
issued by John Kendale by authority of Sixtus IV., to all persons
who would contribute towards the defence of Rhodes, which was being
besieged by the Turks. The copy in the British Museum, which is
the only one at present known, is filled in with the names of Symon
Mountfort and Emma, his wife, and is dated the last day of March.
Another example which was in existence about 1790, but has now
disappeared, was filled in with the names of Richard and John Catlyn,
and dated April 16th. This _Indulgence_ begins with a wood-cut initial
letter, the first to be used in England.
John Kendale, in the proclamation of Edward IV. of April, 1480, which
relates to this appeal for assistance, is styled "Turcopolier of
Rhodes and locum tenens of the Grand Master in Italy, England,
Flanders, and Ireland," and he was at a later date implicated in a
plot against the King's life. He is the subject of the earliest known
existing contemporary English medal, which was struck in 1480. No
sooner had Caxton issued this _Indulgence_, which is printed in the
large No. 2* type, and very unsuitable for that kind of work, than the
rival printer, John Lettou, issued two editions printed in his small,
neat type. This attracted Caxton's attention, and he immediately
set to work on a new small type, No. 4, which came into use soon
afterwards.
Two books only in this new type are without signatures, so that they
may presumably be taken to be the earliest; these are a _Vocabulary
in French and English_, and a _Servitium de Visitatione Beatae Mariae
Virginis_. The first is a small folio of 26 leaves, of which the
first is blank, and consists of words and short phrases in the two
languages, arranged in opposite columns. It is an uninteresting book
to look at, but must have been useful, for it was reprinted in the
fifteenth century both by Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson, and also
in the early sixteenth. Four copies are known, in Bamburgh Castle,
Ripon Cathedral, the Rylands Library, and an imperfect copy in the
Duke of Devonshire's library.
The second book, the _Servitium_, has, I think, been always wrongly
described. All that now remains of it are seven leaves in the British
Museum, the last being blank; and the whole book was considered to
have consisted of a quire of eight leaves, the first being wanting.
The _Servitium_ was a special service intended to be incorporated into
the _Breviary_ and _Missal_. The Pope had announced it in 1390, but it
was not until 1480 that the Archbishop of Canterbury received from the
Prolocutor a proposal to order the observance of July 2d as a fixed
feast of the Visitation, "sub more duplicis festi secundum usum Sarum,
cum pleno servitio." The book would therefore contain the full service
for the day itself, the special parts for the week days following
(except the fourth which was the octave of SS. Peter and Paul), and
the service for the octave. Almost the whole of the principal service,
which would have occupied a considerable space, is wanting, so that
it may be assumed that the book consisted originally of at least two
quires, or sixteen leaves. An edition of the _Psalter_ must have been
printed about this time, and is perhaps the first book in which Caxton
made use of signatures; it is at any rate the only one, with the
exception of _Reynard the Fox_, in which he went so far wrong as to
necessitate the insertion of an extra leaf in one quire. This book,
a quarto of 177 leaves, has a handsome appearance, as it is printed
throughout with the formal church-type No. 3, the only complete
book in which this type alone is used. The only copy known is in
the British Museum, to which it came with the Royal Library, having
belonged at one time to Queen Mary, whose initials are on the back of
the binding.
An edition of the _Book of Hours_ of Salisbury use was printed about
the same time in the same type, but nothing remains of it now except
two fragments found in the binding of a Caxton _Boethius_ in the
Grammar School at St. Alban's, and since purchased by the British
Museum. It was a quarto of the same size as the _Psalter_, and a full
page contained 20 lines.
On the 10th of June, 1480, Caxton finished his first edition of the
_Chronicles of England_, a folio of 182 leaves, which, as he says in
his preface, "Atte requeste of dyverce gentilmen I have endevourd
me to enprinte." Though mainly derived from the ordinary manuscript
copies, the history has been brought down to a later date, and this
continuation may very well have been written by Caxton himself. In
August of the same year, the _Description of Britain_ was issued. It
is taken from Higden's _Polycronicon_, and was clearly intended to
form a supplement to the _Chronicles_, with which it is commonly found
bound up. More copies of it appear to have been printed than of the
_Chronicles_, for it is found also with the second edition of the
_Chronicles_, though it was not reprinted.
John Lidgate's poem, _Curia Sapientiae_, or _The Court of Sapience_, a
poem in seven-line stanzas, containing descriptions of animals, birds,
and fishes, with a survey of the arts and sciences, was published
about this time. It is a folio of 40 leaves, of which the first and
last two are blank. Three copies only are known, all of which are in
public libraries.
[Illustration:
PLATE VI
THE MIRROUR OF THE WORLD
(see page 51)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE VII
THE MIRROUR OF THE WORLD
(see page 51)
]
Early in 1481 Caxton finished his translation of _The Mirror of the
World_, and it must have been printed immediately after. The work was
a commission from his friend Hugh Bryce, a fellow-member of the
Mercers' Company, and who must often have met Caxton on his official
visits to Bruges. In this book for the first time the printer made
use of illustrations. These are of two kinds. The first consists of
little pictures, rudely designed and coarsely cut, of masters engaged
in teaching their pupils various sciences, or of single figures
engaged in scientific pursuits. These are original and introduced by
Caxton. The second series are diagrams more or less carefully copied
from the MSS. In his prologue he says that there are twenty-seven
figures, "without whiche it may not lightly be understande."
Curiously enough, he himself goes astray, for in the first part,
which should contain eight diagrams, he puts the second and third in
their wrong places and omits the fourth. The nine diagrams of the
second part are wrongly drawn, and in some cases misplaced, owing to
the original text having been misunderstood. The diagrams of the
third part are most correct, but although ten are mentioned, only
nine appear.
An interesting point about these diagrams is, that they have short
explanations written in them in ink, and in all copies where these
inscriptions are found they are in the same handwriting. Oldys, who
first drew attention to this peculiarity, supposed the handwriting to
be that of Caxton himself, and though this is not impossible, it is
more probable that this simple and monotonous task would be done by
one of his assistants.
The _History of Reynard the Fox_ was translated by Caxton in 1481 from
the Dutch edition printed at Gouda in 1479 by Gerard Leeu, a printer
who later on at Antwerp reprinted some of Caxton's English books.
The story of Reynard was extremely popular and widely spread, yet it
appears that no manuscripts exist with the story in the form given by
Caxton. Five copies of this book are known; one of them, the fine copy
which was in the Spencer collection, is part of the spoil obtained
from Lincoln Minster. A mistake of the printer necessitated the
insertion of a half printed leaf in all copies between leaves 48 and
49.
On the 12th of August, 1481, Caxton issued a translation of two
treatises of Cicero, _De senectute_ and _De amicitia_, and a work of
Bonaccursus de Montemagno, entitled _De nobilitate_. The translation
of the first two into French was made by command of Louis, Duke of
Bourbon, in 1405, by Laurence de Premierfait, and the last by Jean
Mielot. The English translation seems to have been made by Tiptoft,
Earl of Worcester, at the desire of Sir John Fastolfe, for whom his
son-in-law, Scrope, a kinsman of Tiptoft, had translated the _Dictes
or Sayengis_. Cicero apparently did not appeal so much to the popular
taste as such stories as _Reynard_, so that it is now one of the
commonest of Caxton's books, some twenty-five to thirty copies being
known.
On the 20th of November, in the same year, appeared another romance,
_The History of Godfrey of Bologne_, or _The Conquest of Jerusalem_,
translated by Caxton from the French. Almost every copy known of this
book is imperfect, but there is a beautiful example in the possession
of Colonel Holford. It was Edward the Fourth's own copy, and at
the end of the fifteenth century had come by some means into the
possession of Roger Thorney, a mercer of London and a patron of
Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde, who printed, at his request, his
edition of the _Polycronicon_. After various changes of ownership, it
came into the possession of a noted collector, Richard Smith, and at
his auction in 1682 was bought by the Earl of Peterborough for the not
excessive sum of eighteen shillings and two pence.
[Illustration:
PLATE VIII
THE GAME AND PLAYE OF THE CHESSE
(see page 53)
]
About this time two more illustrated books were issued, a third
edition of Burgh's _Cato parvus et magnus_, and a second edition of
the _Game of Chess_.
The _Cato_ contains two wood-cuts out of the set made for the _Mirror
of the World_. It is a folio of 28 leaves, of which the first was
blank, and is wanting in the two known copies, those in St. John's
College, Oxford, and the Spencer collection.
The _Game of Chess_ contains twenty-four illustrations, but the
wood-cuts used number only sixteen, for many served their purpose
twice. The first cut is of the son of Nebuchadnezzar, named
Evilmerodach, described in the text as "a jolly man without justice,
who did do hew his father his body into three hundred pieces." Most of
the remainder are pictures of the various pieces.
The suggestion which has sometimes been made that Caxton's wood-cuts
were engraved abroad is quite without foundation. They are very often
copied from those in foreign books, but their very clumsy
execution would be well within the capacity of the veriest tyro in
wood-engraving. Mr. Linton suggested that they might have been cut
in soft metal, but as the blocks when found in later books often have
marks clearly showing that they had been injured by worm-holes, this
conjecture is untenable.
As with all illustrated books, most of the remaining copies of the
_Game of Chess_ are more or less imperfect. The dated books of
1482 are two in number, and both historical; these are Higden's
_Polycronicon_ and the second edition of the _Chronicles of England_.
The first was finished on the 2d of July, and is a large, thick folio
of 450 leaves. The work was originally compiled by Ralph Higden in the
fourteenth century from various earlier sources, and was translated
into English in 1387 by John of Trevisa, chaplain to the Earl
of Berkeley. The whole of this Caxton revised, and continued the
chronicle up to the year 1460, this continuation being the only
important piece of Caxton's own composition which we possess. This
book shares with the _Golden Legend_ the position of being the
commonest of Caxton's books, and like it is unrepresented by a
single absolutely perfect copy, the blank leaves, five of which
occur throughout the book, being always in part wanting. A copy which
belonged to Tutet contained the inscription, "Presens liber pertinet
ad Willelmum Perde emptus a Willelmo Caxton, Regio impressore
vicessimo Novembrio anno Regis Edwardi quarti vicessimo secundo." This
would be November 20, 1482, immediately after the issue of the book.
The printing of the second edition of the _Chronicles_ was finished
on October 8, 1482. It agrees exactly with the first edition, and
curiously enough, almost the same number of copies are known, though
none are quite perfect.
The _Pilgrimage of the Soul_ came out on June 8, 1483, during Edward
the Fifth's short reign. It was an adaptation by Jehan de Gallopes
from the larger work of Guillaume de Deguilleville, translated into
English by Lidgate. Five copies are known, of which the finest is in
the British Museum.
I traced out some time ago the history of two copies of this book,
which is worth mentioning as showing the extraordinary manner in which
Caxtons were mutilated and made up. About the year 1750 there were in
existence two copies, A and B. A had two leaves in the middle, 52 and
53, taken from B, and after these leaves had been taken B came into
the possession of W. Herbert, the bibliographer. A still wanted one
leaf at end; B wanted three at the beginning, the two taken from the
middle, and the leaf at the end.
In 1814 B belonged to Heber, the celebrated collector, who parted with
it to Lord Spencer in exchange for some other books. In the same year
Lord Spencer obtained a duplicate last leaf from the British Museum,
which he added to this copy B.
In 1819, at the "White Knights" sale, Lord Spencer bought copy A,
took out the last leaf from B and inserted it in A, thus making A
practically complete. B was then sold as a duplicate, repurchased
by Heber, and is now in the splendid library formed by Mr. Christie
Miller at Britwell Court.
Fortunately in these days collectors are beginning to recognize
that such doctored and made-up books are of little value or interest
compared to genuine even if imperfect copies. Like paintings which
have been "restored," the charm is gone. A few wealthy buyers who
acquire libraries as part of the suitable furniture of a great house,
and to whom the name and fine appearance of a rare book is all that is
necessary, keep up such books to a fictitious value, but their day is
slowly but surely passing and giving way to intelligent appreciation.
CHAPTER V.
1483-1487.
The publication of the _Liber Festivalis_ on the last day of June,
1483, marks the beginning of a new group of books, for in it first
appears a recasting of type No. 4 on a slightly larger body, and with
one or two different letters, thus giving us a clear date by which to
divide all books in this type into two divisions.
The _Liber Festivalis_, or _Festial_ as it should more properly be
called, was compiled by John Mirk, canon of the abbey of St. Mary at
Lilleshall, in Shropshire. It was intended, as the compiler tells
us, to supply short sermons for ignorant priests to expound to their
congregations on saints' days, and the stories were obtained from the
_Golden Legend_ and the _Gesta Romanorum_. It was in no way a
service book, though often so considered, indeed, it is included in
Dickinson's _List of printed service books according to the ancient
uses of the Anglican Church_, but was more in the nature of a
preacher's assistant, such as are published to the present day, giving
a series of headings and anecdotes applicable to particular subjects.
This first edition of Caxton's differs considerably in the text from
all later editions, which follow the version printed at Oxford by Rood
and Hunte in 1486.
It is a folio of 116 leaves, of which the first is blank, and has 38
lines to the page.
With it was issued a supplement of 30 leaves, called _Quattuor
Sermones_, which were homilies on such matters as the Seven
Sacraments, Seven Deadly Sins, and the like.
[Illustration:
PLATE IX
LIBER FESTIVALIS
(see page 56)
]
About this time was issued the _Sex Epistolae_, edited by Petrus
Carmelianus, an Italian scholar settled in England, who afterwards
became Latin secretary to Henry VII. The letters were published in the
interest of the Venetians, who were indignant at the separate terms
made between Pope Sixtus IV. and the Duke of Ferrara.
This book, one of the earliest known separate publications of
diplomatic correspondence, is quite different in character from any
of Caxton's other books, except perhaps the _Oration_ of John Russell.
The only known copy of the tract was discovered in 1874 in the
Hecht-Heine Library at Halberstadt, bound up in a volume of late
theological pamphlets, by Dr. Könnecke, Archivist at Marburg, and
after various cautious overtures, was finally secured by the trustees
for the British Museum. It is a very uninteresting-looking quarto of
24 leaves, of which the first is blank. Lidgate's _Life of Our Lady_,
a folio of 96 leaves, appeared about this time. There were apparently
two editions issued, one of which has almost entirely disappeared,
with the exception of a few leaves, which evidently varied very
considerably in the text. Blades mentions only the one edition, and in
this connexion a rather curious and amusing point may be noticed.
When he published his _Enemies of Books_ he was anxious to give an
illustration of the ravages of a book-worm, and for this purpose gave
a fac-simile of two fragments of a Caxton almost destroyed by these
pests. Now, the very pages which he reproduced were from this variant
edition of the _Life of Our Lady_, and yet, not thinking of comparing
them with the ordinary edition, he missed the opportunity of adding
another to his list of Caxtons.
The second edition of Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, also ascribed to
the year 1483, is an interesting book in many ways. The prologue shows
very strongly how much enthusiasm Caxton took in the literary side
of his work. I give the following quotation in his own words: "Whyche
book I have dylygently oversen and duly examyned to thende that it
be made acordyng unto his owen makyng. For I fynde many of the sayd
bookes whyche wryters have abrydgyd it and many thynges left out. And
in somme place have sette certayn versys that he never made ne sette
in hys booke, of whyche bookes so incorrecte was one brought to me
vj yere passyd whyche I supposed had ben veray true and correcte.
And accordyng to the same I dyde do enprynte a certayn nombre of them
whyche anon were sold to many and dyverse gentyl men of whome one
gentylman cam to me and said that this book was not accordyng in
many places unto the book that Gefferey chaucer had made. To whom
I answered that I had made it accordyng to my copye and by me was
nothyng added ne mynusshyd. Thenne he sayd he knewe a book whyche hys
fader had and moche lovyd that was very trewe and accordyng unto hys
owen first book by hym made; and sayd more, yf I wold enprynte it
agayn he wold gete me the same book for a copye, how be it he wyst wel
that hys fader wold not gladly departe fro it. To whom I said, in caas
that he could gete me suche a book trewe and correcte yet I wold ones
endevoyre me to enprynte it agayn. And thus we fyll at accord. And he
ful gentylly gate of hys fader the said book and delyverd it to me, by
whiche I have corrected my book."
Besides revising his text, Caxton added illustrations. There are
twenty-four of these, but several are made to do duty twice over,
a common custom with early printers. Thus the "poor parson" and the
"doctor of physick," the "somnour" and the "Franklin," are represented
by the same cuts; while the large illustration depicting the
pilgrims sitting at supper at a round table does duty in some later
publications for the "Assembly of the Gods."
[Illustration:
PLATE X
CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES
(see page 58)
]
As might have been expected, such a book became very popular, and
is now consequently very rare. Besides a few more or less imperfect
copies, only one perfect one is known, now in the library of St.
John's College, Oxford, which unfortunately has the cuts rudely daubed
with colour. When perfect, the book should contain 312 leaves, the
first being blank. Chaucer's _Troilus and Creside_ and _Hous of Fame_,
as well as a little tract of six leaves called the _Curial_, were also
printed about this time.
September 2, 1483, is another definite date, for on that day Caxton
finished an edition of Gower's well-known poem, the _Confessio
Amantis_, or _Lover's Confession_, written by command of Richard II.,
who, meeting the poet rowing on the Thames, near London, invited him
into the royal barge, and after much conversation requested him to
"book some new thing." The book is a folio of 222 leaves, of which
no less than four are blank, and only one copy is now in existence in
which these blank leaves have been preserved. Otherwise the book is
not uncommon, though nearly every copy is imperfect. An extremely fine
copy, wanting only the blank leaves, is in the library of Shrewsbury
School, and is mentioned here to correct an error of Blades, who goes
out of his way to state, "The copy ascribed by N. Carlisle to Edward
VI. Grammar School, Shrewsbury, is not from the press of Caxton."
The _Life of the Holy and Blessed Virgin Saint Winifred_ is a small
folio of 16 leaves, printed about this date. Caxton states that he
"reduced" this book into English, but there is some difficulty as to
the source from which he took it. The life of the celebrated Welsh
saint was written in Latin in the twelfth century by Robert, Prior of
Shrewsbury, and this Caxton may have translated, but as no copy of the
manuscript is now in existence the point cannot be determined. Only
three copies of the printed book are known.
The book called _Caton_ was translated by the end of December, 1483,
and must therefore have been printed at the beginning of 1484. The
_Catonis Disticha_ was the best known school-book of the middle ages,
and with the _Donatus_, was the groundwork of Latin learning over
Europe. About 1480 a certain Daniel Church added a few Latin precepts
to the original book, which acquired the name of _Parvus Cato_, and
after his time the two are generally found together as _Cato, parvus
et magnus_. In the second half of the fifteenth century it was, as
Caxton himself tells us, "translated in to Englysshe by Mayster Benet
Burgh, late Archdeken of Colchestre and hye chanon of saint stephens
at westmestre, which ful craftly hath made it in balade ryal for the
erudicion of my lord Bousher, sone and heyr at that tyme to my lord
the erle of Estsex." Of this version Caxton printed three editions,
which have already been noticed, but the present is a different and
considerably larger work. It contains, besides the "disticha" and
moral maxims, very extensive glosses or commentaries containing
"histories and examples," translated by Caxton from a French original.
It is a folio of 80 leaves, of which four are blank and usually
wanting. About twelve copies are known, and a good example is in the
Lenox Library, New York.
On the 31st of January, 1484, Caxton issued the _Booke whiche the
Knyght of the Toure made to the enseygnement and techyng of his
doughters_. This work was compiled about the year 1371 by Geoffrey
de la Tour-Landry, a literary knight of celebrated family, and was
translated by Caxton, "at the request of a noble lady which hath
brought forth many noble and fair daughters, which be virtuously
nourished." In his preface he advises "every gentleman or woman having
children desiring them to be virtuously brought forth to get and have
this book," though it would in these days be considered anything but
suitable for young persons,--or for the matter of that, for their
elders.
[Illustration:
PLATE XI
THE FABLES OF ESOPE
(see page 61)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XII
THE FABLES OF ESOPE
(see page 61)
]
The _Fables of Aesop_ was issued on March 26th, the first day of the
year 1484. This is certainly one of the finest and rarest amongst
the books which Caxton printed. It begins with a large full-page
frontispiece containing a figure of Æsop similar in treatment to those
occurring in some foreign editions. This is found only in the copy
at Windsor Castle. In the text there are no less than one hundred and
eighty-five wood-cuts, the work of two or perhaps even three different
engravers, one of whom apparently cut the illustrations to the second
edition of the _Game of Chesse_. One illustration is engraved in quite
a different manner from the rest, and was probably cut hurriedly to
replace one accidentally lost or broken, and has an appearance much
more resembling modern work than the others, which are simply the
ordinary heavy black outline cuts of the period. A complete copy of
the book should contain 144 leaves, the last two being blank, and the
leaves are numbered. It was twice reprinted in the fifteenth century
by Richard Pynson at London, and these two reprints are even rarer
than the original, one copy of each being known, and both of them
imperfect.
The only perfect copy known of Caxton's edition is in the King's
Library at Windsor, and was one of the very few books retained when
the Royal Library was handed over to the nation by George IV. A note
on the fly-leaf shows the reason for this. "Left to his Majesty by the
late Mr. Hewett of Ipswich in Suffolk and delivered to Mr. Allen by
Philip Broke, Esq. and Sir John Hewett, Bart. to present to the King."
It is in magnificent condition and uncut. The British Museum was
fortunate enough to be able to purchase a copy in 1844, which, with
the one imperfection of not having the frontispiece, is in as fine
condition as the Windsor copy, and in an early sixteenth-century
binding by John Reynes. The third and last copy is in the Bodleian, to
which it was presented in 1680, with other Caxtons, by Moses Pitt,
a London bookseller. It is imperfect, wanting in all about twelve
leaves.
A curious broadside was published about this time, which is generally
known as the _Death-bed Prayers_. It contains two prayers to be said
by a priest at the bedside of dying persons, and the only known copy,
which was formerly in the Spencer Library, was found bound up with a
copy of the _Pilgrimage of the Soul_.
The _Order of Chivalry_, which was printed in the reign of Richard
III., may be ascribed to 1484. The author of the book is not known,
but it was translated from the French, and agrees exactly with
a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, entitled _L'Ordre de
Chivallerie_, beautifully illuminated, and written in Flanders for
Edward IV. Caxton used in this book and the _Aesop_ a large floriated
initial letter A, the only large ornamental capital which he seems to
have possessed.
Five copies are known, two in the British Museum, two in the Spencer
collection at Manchester, and one in a private library in America. The
book, which is a small quarto, should contain 52 leaves, the first and
last being blank. One copy in the British Museum and one at Manchester
are complete as regards text, but neither has both blanks.
[Illustration:
PLATE XIII
THE FABLES OF ESOPE
(see page 62)
]
The _Golden Legend_, Caxton's most important work, was finished, so
far as regards the translation, on the 20th of November, 1483. In
the second prologue the printer tells us that when beginning the
translation the magnitude of the task and the heavy expenses of
printing made him "halfe desperate to have accomplissd it," and he
proposed to put what he had already done to one side and leave the
work. The Earl of Arundel, however, encouraged him to proceed, not
only by promising to take a certain number of copies when finished,
but by the offer of an annual gift of a buck in summer and a doe in
winter. Thus assisted, Caxton finished his translation and printed the
book, and some idea of the task involved may be gathered from the fact
that the work consists of 894 printed pages, each page containing two
columns of 55 lines. It is illustrated with a frontispiece, eighteen
large and fifty-two small wood-cuts. The translator compiled his
version from three sources, for he tells us that he had beside him "a
legende in frensshe, another in latyn and the thyrd in englysshe."
The French edition which Caxton used has been clearly identified in a
curious manner. In one or two places it contains bad misprints which
Caxton translated blindly. In the life of St. Stephen the words
"femmes veuves" have been misprinted "Saine venue," which Caxton
renders "hole comen," in spite of the words making no sense. In the
life of St. Genevieve "a name" occurs in place of "a navire," which
appears in the English version as "at name" in place of "by ship."
This French version is of great rarity, the only two copies known
being in the British Museum and the Cambridge University Library.
Fortunately, the _Golden Legend_ is one of the commonest of Caxton's
books, though every copy is more or less imperfect. The finest is that
which formerly belonged to Lord Spencer, which was made perfect as
regards the text with leaves from other copies, and is, with the
exception of these leaves, very large and in fine condition. In 1577
it belonged to Robert Hedrington, who appears to have owned many
Caxtons.
The three books which follow the _Golden Legend_, and which are
all dated 1485, are of very great interest. These are the _Morte
d'Arthur_, the _Lyf of Charles the Great_, and the _History of Paris
and Vienne_, all printed in folio.
Sir Thomas Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, that cycle of stories connected
with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and as Sir Walter
Scott called it, the best of all English romances, is perhaps the
most interesting volume that Caxton ever printed. Two copies only, one
perfect, the other wanting a few leaves, are now known. The first has
a long and interesting pedigree. It first appeared at Dr. Bernard's
sale in 1698, when it produced the magnificent sum of two shillings
and ten pence, passing into the vast library of the Earl of Oxford.
Osborne, the bookseller who bought that library _en bloc_, sold the
volume to Bryan Fairfax for five pounds, and in 1756 it passed with
the whole of his library to Mr. Child, the banker, at a valuation of
two pounds, twelve shillings, and six pence. While safely preserved at
Osterley at the beginning of last century, it raised the most covetous
feelings in the breasts of the two great Caxtonian collectors,
Lord Spencer and his nephew, the Duke of Devonshire, who both made
overtures for its acquisition. It had almost been ceded to the latter
in exchange for some work of art, when it was discovered that it could
not legally be parted with, and it remained at Osterley until 1885,
when Lord Jersey's library was sold. At this sale it was purchased by
Mr. Pope for a sum little under two thousand pounds, and left England
for America, where it still remains. The second copy was obtained
by Lord Spencer in 1816 at the sale of the library of Mr. Lloyd of
Wygfair. Both copies are in very fine condition. The complete book
consists of 432 leaves, the first being blank. There are 38 lines to
a page, and as these run straight across, instead, as is so often the
case, being made up into two columns, the effect of the whole, with
the wide margins, is very striking. Sir Thomas Malory's translation
from the French was finished in the ninth year of King Edward
IV.,--that is, about 1470,--but apparently no manuscript of it is now
in existence.
The _Life of the noble and christian prince, Charles the Great_, was
translated by Caxton from an anonymous French version compiled at
the request of Henry Bolomyer, Canon of Lausanne. In it the various
stories and legends relating to Charlemagne have been gathered
together from various sources. Caxton finished his translation on the
18th of June, when he had nearly finished the printing of the _Morte
d'Arthur_, and the printing of the book was finished on the 1st of
December.
The only copy known, which is perfect with the exception of the last
blank leaf, is in the King's Library in the British Museum.
The moment Caxton had finished the translation of _Charles the Great_
he set to work on another short romance, the _History of the knight
Paris and the fair Vienne_. This he finished on the 31st of August,
and the book was printed by the 19th of December. Like the last, only
one copy, and that quite perfect, is known; and it is also in the
King's Library in the British Museum.
It seems very probable that at an early date these two books were
bound together, but either before or on their coming into the
possession of the Earl of Oxford they were bound separately. They
agree entirely in size and typographical particulars, both having 39
lines to the page in two columns.
The _Paris and Vienne_ was reprinted in 1492 by Gerard Leeu at Antwerp
in small folio, with illustrations. He reprinted also in the
same month the _History of Jason_, and in the year following the
_Chronicles of England_. The apathy in book production which seems to
have immediately succeeded Caxton's death may have encouraged him to
attempt printing for the English market, but his own death while his
edition of the _Chronicles_ was passing through the press put an end
to the trade. He printed one other English book, the _Dialogue of
Salomon and Marcolphus_, of which one copy exists. This, like the
rest, may have been copied from an edition printed by Caxton, but if
so, all traces of it have disappeared.
No dated book of 1486 is known, but several may be ascribed to this
date. First the _Directorium Sacerdotum_, or _Pica_, a work compiled
by Clement Maydeston, containing the rules for adapting the calendar
to the services of each week in accordance with the thirty-five
varieties of the Almanac. Of this book, so interesting to liturgical
students, but one copy is known, now in the British Museum, a library,
however, to which it should not rightly belong. The volume formed part
of the collection bequeathed to the Cambridge University Library by
Dr. Holdsworth in 1648, but it was stolen from there in or shortly
before 1778, and soon afterwards "bought of a man introduced by Dr.
Nugent" by William Bayntun, Esq., of Gray's Inn, after whose death it
came into the possession of King George III., and passed with the rest
of the King's Library into the British Museum. At the beginning of the
book a single leaf containing a large wood-cut has been inserted which
does not really belong to the volume. In the centre is a half-length
figure of Our Lord with the hands crossed. Behind the head and
shoulders is the cross, and on either side the spear and the reed with
the sponge. Below is the text of an _Indulgence_, which in this case
has been cut out, while round the whole is a framework composed of
twenty-eight small square compartments, each containing some emblem of
the crucifixion. These early English prints, several of which exactly
similar in treatment are known, go under the name of the _Image of
Pity_.
[Illustration:
PLATE XIV
THE IMAGE OF PITY
(see page 66)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XV
SPECULUM VITAE CHRISTI
(see page 67)
]
The _Directorium_ is a folio of 160 leaves, the first, which is
wanting in the only known copy, having been most probably blank.
About this year the first edition of Bonaventura's _Speculum Vitae
Christi_ was issued, remarkable for its illustrations. These, though
not large, are much more graceful in design and better in execution
than any which preceded them, and are clearly the work of a new
engraver. It is a curious fact that in neither edition which he
printed did Caxton use the full series of these cuts, for odd
illustrations appear in later books which clearly belong to the set,
but which had not been made use of before. Besides the regular series,
a few smaller cuts occur, much ruder in execution.
These belong to a set cut for an edition of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_,
but the early editions of this book are known only from fragments, so
that we cannot ascertain how many there were in the original series.
Several of these _Speculum_ cuts reappear in the _Royal Book_, a
translation of _La Somme des vices et vertus_, published very shortly
after. This book at present enjoys the distinction of having brought
the highest price hitherto paid for a Caxton, a copy having been sold
(March 20, 1902) for the sum of £2,225. The history of this particular
copy is an interesting one. It belonged early in the seventeenth
century to Thomas Archer, parson of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire,
who bequeathed it to the Church Library of St. John's, Bedford. This
library was afterwards moved to St. Paul's Church, Bedford, and about
1840 transferred to the Bedford Literary Institute. The council of
this Institute, entirely ignoring their moral obligations, determined
to make money out of so valuable a book, and not only did they do so,
but they also did their best to destroy one of the very few existing
evidences of Caxton's work. The book when I examined it several years
ago was in its original binding, tooled with stamps which we have many
reasons for believing belonged to Caxton himself. This Bedford book
afforded the strongest proof of all, for the boards of the binding
were lined with unused copies of one issue of Caxton's 1481
_Indulgences_. Of these there had originally been four, two at each
end, but two had been abstracted. When the book was sold the remaining
two were taken out and sold separately, thus destroying for ever a
most valuable piece of evidence. This book, together with one of the
_Indulgences_, is now in a private library in America.
A few years ago Mr. Robert Proctor, working in the library of New
College, Oxford, found in the binding of a book two small slips of
vellum with some printing upon them in Caxton's type No. 5. These
turned out to be portions of a leaf of a hitherto unknown Caxton, an
edition of the _Donatus melior_, revised by Mancinellus, printed in
folio. They are also the earliest specimens of Caxton's use of vellum.
The date of the book would be about 1487.
In May, 1487, Caxton finished the printing of the _Book of Good
Manners_, which he had translated from the French at the request of
one of his friends, William Pratt, a mercer of London who had lately
died. The original book was written by Jacobus Magnus or Jacques
Legrand, the author of the _Sophologium_, and was evidently popular,
for it was frequently reprinted, no less than four other English
editions having been issued in the fifteenth century. Caxton's
edition is a small folio of 66 leaves, and three copies, all in
public libraries, are known. The finest is in the Cambridge University
Library, and another, also perfect, is in the Royal Library at
Copenhagen. This latter, which was sold by auction in 1682 for the sum
of two shillings, was purchased by the Copenhagen Library in 1743 for
one guinea. The third copy, wanting some leaves, is at Lambeth.
So far Caxton had worked entirely with his own materials and without
any assistance from outside. His work had been confined to the most
ordinary kind of printing, which required no special trouble and no
great variety of type or ornament. The close of the year, however,
saw a change in this respect, and the first influences of the French
press, which were gradually later on to assume such large proportions,
began to make themselves felt.
CHAPTER VI.
1487-1491.
In December, 1487, Caxton issued an edition of the Sarum _Missal_,
though he was not himself the printer. The work was done for him by
a printer at Paris named Guillaume Maynial, about whom but little is
known. He is presumed to be a relation, son, perhaps, or nephew, of
George Maynial, the partner of Ulrich Gering in 1480. He printed only
three books, of which this _Missal_ is the earliest, the other two
being the _Statutes_ and the _Manual_ of the Church of Chartres,
issued in 1489 and 1490. The only copy of this book at present known
is in the library of Lord Newton. It is a folio, and when perfect
should have contained 266 leaves, but of these 23 are now missing. The
page is printed in two columns, with 39 lines to a column.
One point which gives this book a peculiar interest is, that in it is
found for the first time Caxton's well-known device. It consists of
his initials, divided by his merchant's mark, with a deep ornamental
border at top and bottom. Many ingenious writers have attempted to
read into this mark several items of information. The merchant's
mark they say is not a merchant's mark at all, but the figures 74
significant of the time when he began to print. Two small ornaments
shaped like an S and C stand for Sancta Colonia, where he learned the
art of printing. The mark is, however, merely an ordinary merchant's
mark, which in some shape or another all printers introduced into
their devices, and the letters S C merely ornamental flourishes.
[Illustration:
PLATE XVI
CAXTON'S DEVICE
(see page 70)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XVII
LEGENDA AD USUM SARUM
(see page 71)
]
Another question has been raised as to whether this device was cut in
England or in France, but it has no resemblance to French work, and
is almost certainly a native production. As Mr. Blades justly remarks:
"Caxton, desirous of associating his press more directly with this
issue than by the colophon only, which many people might overlook,
probably designed his mark for the purpose of attracting attention. He
no doubt stamped this device on the last blank page of the books
after they had been received from abroad and before putting them into
circulation."
It seems not improbable that besides the _Missal_, Maynial printed for
Caxton another service-book, the _Legenda_ according to the Salisbury
use. The existence of this book is known only from a few odd leaves,
for the most part rescued from old bindings and preserved in different
libraries, but it agrees in every respect typographically with the
_Missal_. The type is identical, the number of lines and size of page
the same, and everything points to the same printer. Perhaps some day
a copy with the colophon may be found and our doubts on the subject
set at rest.
About 1488 appeared a new issue of the _Golden Legend_. It is not
an entire reprint of the first, but only of certain parts of it. It
contains 448 leaves, being one less than the first issue, and of these
256 are reprinted and 192 are of the original edition. It is difficult
to explain this reprinting, but it was probably caused by the
destruction of a large part of the stock of the original issue. Caxton
took the opportunity to make two improvements in the reprint. He
compressed the quires signed X and Y, which contained the awkward
number of nine leaves, into a single quire X of eight leaves, and
instead of having a blank leaf at the end of the book he added the
life of St. Erasmus. The parts of the book which are of the second
issue may be readily distinguished from the first by the head-lines.
In the first issue they are in the larger type No. 3; in the second,
in the smaller type No. 5.
On the 14th of July, 1489, Caxton finished printing a translation of
the work of Christine de Pisan, entitled the _Fayts of Arms and
of Chivalry_. This translation, as he tells us in the epilogue, he
undertook at the express desire of Henry VII., who himself lent him
the manuscript with the original French text. It is not improbable
that the identical manuscript which Caxton used is one which is now in
the British Museum, and which formed part of the old Royal collection.
It was written for John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1453,
and by whom it was presented to Queen Margaret, and it agrees very
closely in every way with Caxton's English version.
Considerable doubt has been thrown on the authorship of Christine de
Pisan, but apparently unjustly. In the prologues of many manuscripts,
and in Caxton's edition, the writer apologizes as a woman for treating
of such warlike subjects, and appeals to the goddess Minerva, saying,
"I am, as thou wert, a woman Italian."
A complete copy should contain 144 leaves, the first being blank,
and over twenty copies are known. A perfect copy in the Cambridge
University Library contains a manuscript note showing that it was
bought in 1510 for three shillings and eight pence.
[Illustration:
PLATE XVIII
THE INDULGENCE OF 1489
(see page 73)
]
In 1489, also, Caxton issued two editions of an _Indulgence_ of John
de Gigliis, or rather a license to confessors, giving them power to
grant indulgences to any Christian person in England or Ireland who
should contribute four, three, two, or even one gold florin to assist
a crusade against the Turks. These _Indulgences_ are of peculiar
interest, as they were printed in a new type of Caxton's, the smallest
which he ever cut, and of which he never again made use. The first to
draw attention to them was Archdeacon Cotton, who in the second part
of his "Typographical Gazetteer" mentions one which he had found in
the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and which he considered to be
a product of the early Oxford press. Henry Bradshaw, the University
Librarian at Cambridge, obtained a photograph of it, and at once
conjectured from the appearance of the type that it must have been
printed by Caxton. He immediately communicated this discovery to
Blades, who, however, refused to accept it as the work of Caxton's
press without some further and more convincing proof, and never even
alluded to either the type or _Indulgence_ in later issues of his
book. The necessary proof was soon afterwards found, for Bradshaw
discovered at Holkham an edition of the _Speculum Vitae Christi_,
printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, which had the side-notes printed
in this type, and as De Worde inherited all Caxton's materials, this
fount must have belonged to him.
The _Statutes_ of the first, third, and fourth years of Henry VII. may
also be put down to the end of 1489, for the fourth year of Henry VII.
ended on August 21, 1489, and the _Statutes_ would no doubt be printed
at once.
With the exceptions just given, none of Caxton's books printed between
May, 1487, and his death in 1491 bear any date, so that although all
may be approximately dated, their exact order cannot be determined.
One very common error in the method of arranging Caxton's books may be
pointed out here, which arises from the method adopted by Blades. In
his _Life of Caxton_ the books are arranged according to types,
which would be an excellent plan if the use of one type had been
discontinued as soon as a newer one was made. This, however, was not
the case, for several were often in use at one time, and thus Blades's
system, though correct in one way, is very misleading to a superficial
reader. For instance, Caxton started at Westminster with types Nos. 2
and 3, and both are used in his first books, but Blades puts the
books in type No. 3 after all those in type No. 2, and thus the Sarum
_Ordinale_, certainly one of the earliest books printed in England,
comes thirty-sixth on his list, and while one book with the printed
date of 1481 is number 33, another with the printed date of 1480 is
number 39. It will thus be seen that Blades's arrangement was not
a chronological one, though most writers have made the mistake
of thinking so, and have followed it as such, as may be seen, for
instance, in the list appended to Caxton's life in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_, which blindly follows Blades's arrangement
without any reference to his system or mention of the types.
Two interesting romances were printed about 1489, the _History of the
Four Sons of Aymon_ and the _History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine_.
The first was an extremely popular story both at home and on the
continent; indeed, it still circulates abroad in the form of a
pedler's chap-book, which perpetuates in a very mutilated state the
story of Renaud, Alard, Richard, and Guichard, with their famous horse
Bayard, on which all four rode at once. The early English editions of
this book almost suffered extermination. The earliest edition of which
a complete copy is known is that printed at London by William Copland
in 1554. The colophon of this book speaks of an edition printed by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1504, of which no trace remains except perhaps some
fragmentary leaves in the Cambridge University Library; while of the
edition printed by Caxton only one copy, and that imperfect, is known.
It is in folio, and probably contained when complete 278 leaves. The
unique copy, wanting some leaves at the beginning, was obtained by
Lord Spencer from Triphook, the bookseller, and is now, with the rest
of the Spencer Library, in Manchester.
The _History of Blanchardine and Eglantine_ is also known only from an
imperfect copy which was in the Spencer Library. It is impossible to
settle what the correct collation may have been, as the book breaks
off abruptly at leaf 102 and all the remainder is wanting. As,
however, the last chapter of the work is just beginning on the last
remaining page, it seems probable that only the last quire is missing.
On the fly-leaf is a curious note in Lord Spencer's handwriting
relating to its purchase. "This book belonged to Mr. G. Mason; at
whose sale it was bought by John, Duke of Roxburghe. The Duke and I
had agreed not to oppose one another at the sale, but, after the book
was bought, to toss up who should win it; when I lost it. I bought it
at the Roxburghe sale, on the 17th of June, 1812 for £215 5_s._"
At the earlier sale the Duke had paid £21 for it. This book was
undertaken at the request of Margaret, Duchess of Somerset, who
brought to Caxton a copy of the French version, which she had long
before purchased from him, commanding him to translate it into
English.
During the last two years of his life at least half of Caxton's books
were merely new editions of some of his earlier works, and therefore
hardly call for much detailed notice. The _Dictes or Sayings_ was
reprinted for the third time, and the _Directorium Sacerdotum_,
_Reynard the Fox_, and the _Mirror of the World_ for the second.
Of the _Directorium_ but one copy is known, which is in the Selden
collection in the Bodleian. Blades remarks about it that it is "still
in the original parchment wrapper as issued from Caxton's workshop."
All evidence goes to prove that Caxton never made use of parchment or
vellum as a binding material, and in the case of the present book it
is quite clear, on close examination, that it has been made up from
two imperfect copies, and that the binding is not earlier than the
seventeenth century.
The _Reynard the Fox_ is also unique, and buried in that almost
inaccessible collection, the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College,
Cambridge. It wants, unfortunately, the last two leaves, so that the
colophon, if it had one, is wanting.
The _Mirror_ is a fairly common book, and is an exact reproduction,
though in different type, of the first edition. In the interval
between the printing of the two editions one wood-cut had been lost or
destroyed, so that the illustration for Chapter II., "Why God Made
and Created the World," instead of being the correct picture of the
Almighty with the globe in his hand (which Blades strangely calls
"the figure of a philosopher"), is the inappropriate cut of the
Transfiguration of Christ.
The _Doctrinal of Sapience_, a translation from a French version of
the _Manipulus Curatorum_, was doubtless printed in the latter half of
1489, as the translation had been finished on the 7th of May of
that year. The book itself is not of much interest, though one copy
deserves special mention. It is preserved in the Royal Library at
Windsor Castle, to which it was presented by a Mr. Bryant. It is
printed throughout upon vellum, and contains three leaves found in no
other copy. In the text of the book, Chapter 64 is not printed, but
the following heading is inserted: "Of the neclygences of the masse
and of the remedyes I passe over for it apperteyneth to prestes and
not to laie men. C. Lxiiij."
In the Windsor copy this chapter is printed at the end of the book
on three extra leaves, and ends as follows: "This chapitre to fore
I durst not sette in the boke by cause it is not convenyent ne
aparteynyng that every laye man sholde knowe it."
[Illustration:
PLATE XIX
THE BOKE OF ENEYDOS
(see page 77)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XX
ARS MORIENDI
(see page 77)
]
In June, 1490, Caxton finished the translation of two books, _The Art
and Craft to know well to die_ and the _Eneydos_. The first is not
a translation of the complete book, but merely a small abridgment,
running to thirteen printed leaves in folio. Blades mentions only
three copies, and curiously enough makes no mention of the peculiarly
fine one which belonged to Lord Spencer, though he made a careful
examination of all the Caxtons at Althorp.
The _Eneydos_ is not, as might be expected from the name, a
translation of Virgil's _Aeneid_, but is more in the nature of a
romance founded upon it. Caxton's version was translated from "a lytyl
booke in frenshe, named Eneydos," probably the work called _Le
Livre des Eneydes_, printed at Lyons in 1483 by G. le Roy. The most
interesting part of the work is the prologue, for in it Caxton sets
out at length his views and opinions on the English language, its
changes and dialects. He notes that it was rapidly altering. "And
certaynly our langage now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used
and spoken when I was borne." While some were anxious to preserve the
old style, others were equally wishful to introduce the new. "And thus
bytwene playn rude and curious I stande abasshed, but in my judgemente
the comyn termes that be dayli used ben lyghter to be understonde than
the olde and auncyent englysshe."
In order to make the style as good as possible, Caxton obtained the
assistance of John Skelton, lately created a "poeta laureatus" at
Oxford, who revised the work for the press.
A second edition of the _Speculum Vitae Christi_ and the _Liber
Festivalis_ belong probably to 1490. The latter book is not a reprint
of the first edition, but another version, and is reprinted from the
Oxford edition of 1486.
The last five books printed by Caxton are theological or liturgical.
The _Ars Moriendi_, a unique little quarto of eight leaves, was
discovered in a volume of early tracts in the Bodleian by Henry
Bradshaw, and is described by Blades in the second edition of his
book. He there states that no other edition in any language is known;
but it was certainly reprinted by Wynkyn de Worde. The _Fifteen Oes_,
a little quarto containing fifteen prayers, each commencing with O, is
known from a unique copy in the British Museum. The book was no doubt
intended as a supplement to the Sarum _Book of Hours_, but no edition
agreeing with it typographically is known. It differs from all other
of Caxton's books in having wood-cut borders round each page of text.
It also contains a beautiful wood-cut of the Crucifixion, one of a
series intended for a _Book of Hours_. No doubt Caxton possessed the
set, and we find it later on in the hands of Wynkyn de Worde.
The _Servitium de Transfiguratione Jesu Christi_ and the _Commemoratio
lamentationis Beatae Mariae Virginis_ are special issues of new
services to be incorporated into the _Breviary_. The first contains
10 leaves, and is one of the very few books in which Caxton introduced
printing in red. The only copy known, bound up with a unique tract
printed by Pynson, and some foreign books, was formerly in the
Congregational Library, London, but was purchased by the British
Museum in 1862 for £200. The _Commemoratio_, a quarto of 34 leaves, is
known only from the unique copy, wanting two leaves, presented to the
University of Ghent by the learned librarian, Dr. Ferdinand Vander
Haeghen. This little book was purchased for a trifle at a sale in
Ghent and remained unrecognized for many years, until M. Campbell of
The Hague identified it as a production of Caxton's press.
The book generally considered to have been the last printed by Caxton
consists of three treatises printed with separate signatures. These
are the _Orologium Sapientiae_, the _Twelve profits of Tribulation_,
and the _Rule of St. Benet_.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXI
SERVITIUM DE TRANSFIGURATIONE JESU CHRISTI
(see page 78)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXII
THE CRUCIFIXION
(see page 78)
]
A writer in the British Museum speaking of these three books, says
that they "are in most of the known copies bound together, and have
been usually treated as a single volume under the title, probably
dating from the eighteenth century, _A Book of Divers Ghostly
Matters_. There is, however, no reason to suppose the connexion to be
due to any other cause than similarity of subject and form, combined
with nearly simultaneous publication."
No doubt this idea commends itself to the Museum authorities, since
they possess only one of the three portions, ruthlessly abstracted by
a thief some years ago from a perfect copy in a private library, but
unfortunately it is quite incorrect. The compiler distinctly speaks
of the books having been printed together, and on account of their
treating different subjects, his wish that the compilation should be
called the _Book of Divers Ghostly Matters_.
When complete the book consisted of 148 leaves in quarto. It contains,
at the end of the second tract, a wood-cut which belongs to the series
specially cut for the _Speculum Vitae Christi_, though it was not used
in it.
The number of books actually printed by Caxton in England, counting
separate editions, is ninety-six, and with the three printed at Bruges
and the _Missal_ makes altogether one hundred genuine Caxtons. Blades
describes ninety-nine books, but amongst these he includes two which
were certainly printed at Bruges after Caxton had left, and three
printed by Wynkyn de Worde after Caxton's death, so that the number of
genuine books which he describes is ninety-four. The finest collection
is now, as is right, in the British Museum, which by judicious
purchases in recent years has quite outstripped any possible rival.
Five more books remain to be described, which although not printed by
Caxton himself, were printed with his types, and have therefore often
been ascribed by different writers to his press. These are the _Life
of St. Katherine_, the _Chastising of God's Children_, the _Treatise
of Love_, the _Book of Courtesy_, and the third edition of the _Golden
Legend_.
The first of these books is a small folio of 96 leaves, and contains,
besides the Life of St. Katherine of Siena, the Revelations of St.
Elizabeth of Hungary. The type used is a modification of Caxton's
type No. 4*, recast on a slightly smaller body and with several new
additions. Unlike Caxton's books which were made up in quires of eight
leaves, this has been made up in quires of six. Another point which
distinguishes it and the remaining books from Caxton's work is
the introduction of several remarkable capital letters. These were
obtained along with a fount of type and some wood-cuts from Godfried
van Os, apparently about the year 1490, when he moved from Gouda to
Copenhagen. The fount of type was not used until 1496, and then only
for one book.
The _Chastising of God's Children_, a folio of 48 leaves, printed in
Caxton's type No. 6, is notable as being the first book issued at the
Westminster press with a genuine title-page. It is printed in three
lines, and runs as follows: "The prouffytable boke for mannes soule,
And right comfortable to the body, and specyally in adversitee and
trybulacyon, whiche boke is called The Chastysing of goddes Chyldern."
Why so obvious an improvement as a title-page never commended itself
to Caxton it is hard to say. It could not have been for want of
examples, for, introduced in Germany as far back as the year 1468,
they had at any rate during the last ten years of Caxton's life been
in common use abroad. Even the London printer, William de Machlinia,
had prefixed one to an edition of the _Treatise on the Pestilence_, by
Canutus, Bishop of Aarhaus, which he printed about the year 1486. Of
the _Chastising_, about twelve copies are known.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIII
THE LYF OF SAINT KATHERIN
(see page 80)
]
The _Treatise of Love_ is also a folio of 48 leaves, and agrees
typographically with the _Chastising_; indeed, the two were often
bound together, and are quoted by Dibdin as two parts of one book. The
introduction tells us that it was translated in 1493 from French into
English by a person "unperfect in such work," but no mention is made
either of the original author or the translator. It was most probably
printed also in 1493, for at the end of that year De Worde introduced
his own type and ceased the use of Caxton's for the text of his books.
At the end his first device is found, consisting of Caxton's initials
and mark, much reduced in size, in black on a white ground, and
apparently engraved on metal. Blades quotes four copies of this book,
all of them perfect, but does not mention the copy in the University
Library at Göttingen, and there are probably at least two other copies
in private libraries in England.
Of the _Book of Courtesy_, which, like the earlier editions, was in
quarto, nothing now remains but two leaves printed on one side in the
Douce collection at the Bodleian. These two leaves, which have been
used at some time to line a binding, are waste proof of the beginning
and end of the second and last quire of the book, which probably
consisted, like the earlier edition, of 14 leaves. On the last page,
under the colophon, "Here endeth a lytyll treatyse called the booke
of curtesye or lytyll John. Enprynted atte westmoster," is De Worde's
device printed upside down, the reason no doubt for the rejection of
the sheet.
The last book, the _Golden Legend_, is a small, thick folio of 436
leaves, with a number of illustrations which had been used in previous
editions. The colophon is reprinted verbatim from the first edition,
with the simple alteration of the date and regnal year. It ends, as
do those of the preceding editions, "By me William Caxton," a
circumstance which gives Blades the opportunity of remarking on the
carelessness of Wynkyn de Worde. "This is only another instance," he
writes, "of the utter disregard of accuracy by Wynken de Worde, who
has here reprinted Caxton's colophon, with the date only altered, and
thus caused what might have been a puzzling anomaly."
This is, I think, hardly fair criticism. The book is the largest which
Caxton translated, and the words "By me William Caxton" may apply
quite as much to the translation as to the printing, and it is no
doubt that De Worde retained it as applying to the former. As Caxton
was but recently dead, and well known to every one, he could not
possibly have intended to signify that he was the printer.
One point in connexion with this book is curious. How was it that this
third edition was printed when the stock of the earlier edition was
not exhausted? Caxton, by his will, bequeathed a certain number to
the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, to be sold for the benefit of
the church, but these were not exhausted even by 1498, when a fourth
edition was printed. In 1496 Caxton's son-in-law received twenty, and
a number still remained in possession of his daughter.
A solution of this difficulty has occurred to me, which, though it may
be considered as improbable, is by no means impossible. This is, that
the "legends" mentioned in the various documents were not copies
of the _Golden Legend_ at all, but were copies of the _Legenda_ of
Salisbury use, which, as pointed out on page 71, were probably printed
for Caxton. Being a book printed specially for the use of the clergy
in church, such a bequest would be very suitable. In 1496 these
"legends" were valued in the law-court at thirteen shillings and
four pence apiece, but the twelve copies sold by the churchwardens of
Westminster between 1496 and 1500 gradually decreased in price from
six shillings and eight pence in the first year to five shillings in
the last.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIV
THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID
(see page 83)
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV
THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID
(see page 83)
]
Considering the number of Caxton's productions that are now known to
us only from mere fragments, it is probable that many have disappeared
altogether. Amongst these may be reckoned one of considerable
importance, the _Metamorphoses of Ovid_.
In the introduction to the _Golden Legend_ Caxton writes: "Whan I had
parfourmed and accomplisshed dyvers werkys and hystoryes translated
out of frensshe into englysshe at the requeste of certeyn lordes,
ladyes and gentylmen, as thystorye of the recuyel of Troye, the book
of the chesse, the hystorye of Jason, the hystorye of the myrrour of
the world, the xv bookes of Metamorpheseos in whyche been conteyned
the fables of ouyde, and the hystorye of godefroy of boloyn ... wyth
other dyuers werkys and bookes, etc."
These, like all Caxton's translations, were done for the press, so
there is every reason for believing that the _Ovid_ also was printed.
Fortunately we have further evidence, for in the Pepysian collection
at Magdalene College, Cambridge, is a manuscript on paper bought by
Pepys at an anonymous auction, which contains the last six books of
the _Metamorphoses_, with the following colophon: "Translated and
fynysshed by me William Caxton at Westmestre the xxij day of Apryll,
the yere of our lord. M. iiijc iiijxx. And the xx yere of the Regne of
kyng Edward the fourth."
Though the point can never be settled, it is not unlikely that this
manuscript has preserved for us a genuine specimen of Caxton's own
writing, not, of course, the ordinary current hand, but the book hand
used in copying manuscripts. At that time there was still a prejudice
amongst the nobles against printed books, so that the presentation
copy to the patron generally took the form of a neatly written
manuscript.
There is another interesting point to be noticed about this
manuscript. It contains the autograph of Lord Lumley, who inherited
the library formed by the Earls of Arundel. Now, William Fitzalan,
Earl of Arundel, was one of Caxton's patrons, so that it seems
extremely probable that this manuscript was presented to him by Caxton
himself.
Another translation of which no trace remains is mentioned in the
prologue to the _Four Sons of Aymon_. The only known copy of Caxton's
edition is imperfect, and wants the earlier part containing this
prologue, but it occurs in full in the later edition printed by
William Copland in 1554, from which the following quotation is taken:
"Therefore late at the request and commandment of the right noble
and virtuous Earl, John Earl of Oxford, my good singular and especial
lord, I reduced and translated out of French into our maternal and
English tongue the life of one of his predecessors named Robert Earl
of Oxford tofore said with divers and many great miracles, which
God showed for him, as well in his life as after his death, as it is
showed all along in his said book." What this romance may have been is
difficult to say, but it probably refers to the favourite of Richard
the Second, the Duke of Ireland, who was killed in France while
engaged in a boar-hunt.
Caxton, like all other printers at that time, numbered bookbinders
amongst his workmen and issued his books ready bound. Every genuine
binding from his workshop is of brown calf, ornamented with dies. His
general method of covering the sides of his bindings was to make a
large centre panel contained by a framework of dies. This panel was
divided into lozenge-shaped compartments by diagonal lines running
both ways from the frame, and in each of these compartments a die was
stamped. The die most commonly found has a winged dragon or monster
engraved upon it. The framework was often composed of repetitions of a
triangular die pointing alternately right and left, also containing
a dragon. This die is interesting, not only because the use of a
triangular die was uncommon, but because it was an exact copy of one
used by a London binder of the twelfth century.
CHAPTER VII.
CAXTON'S DEATH.
The exact date of Caxton's death has never been settled, but from the
position of the entry in the parish accounts relating to his burial,
it would appear to have taken place towards the end of the year 1491.
All the early writers fixed on 1493 as the date, no doubt because his
name appears in the colophon of the edition of the _Golden Legend_
printed in that year.
His will, could this be recovered, would doubtless throw light on this
and many another obscure point, but the hope of finding it grows daily
less and less. The ordinary repositories have been searched in vain;
though it was still considered possible that it might be found amongst
the large collection of documents preserved in Westminster Abbey. Mr.
Scott, of the British Museum, who is at present engaged in calendaring
these documents, and to whom I wrote on the subject, replied: "I
believe it to be quite impossible that Caxton's will can be in the
Muniment Rooms at the Abbey, because all the wills are together in one
bundle, arranged chronologically, and also I have calendared, so far
as I can see, all papers and deeds relating to Westminster." There
is just the possibility that at some period the will, having been
recognized as of supreme interest, has been removed to some place of
greater security and its whereabouts forgotten.
In a copy of the _Fructus Temporum_ printed by Julyan Notary in
1515, which belonged at one time to a Mr. Ballard of Cambden, in
Gloucestershire, a friend of Joseph Ames, the bibliographer, there was
written in a very old hand the following epitaph on Caxton:
"Of your charitee pray for the soul of Mayster Wyllyam Caxton, that
in hys time was a man of moche ornate and moche renommed wysdome
and connyng, and decessed ful crystenly the yere of our Lord
M.CCCC.Lxxxxj.
"Moder of Merci shyld him from thorribul fynd
And bryng hym to lyff eternall that neuyr hath ynd."
There seems great probability that this is a genuine copy of a genuine
inscription, for had it been a forgery of the time when it is first
mentioned, early in the eighteenth century, the forger would have
given the date as 1493, which was then supposed to be the date of
Caxton's death, rather than 1491, the genuine date.
Two years later we find in the colophon to Gerard Leeu's reprint of
_Caxton's Chronicles_ the same epithets applied to him by his workmen
(by one of whom he had been killed during the progress of the work)
as are applied to Caxton, "a man of grete wysedom in all maner of
kunnying."
Of Caxton's domestic affairs we know hardly anything. A lucky
discovery made by Mr. Gairdner in the Public Record Office proves
that he was a married man. This is a copy of a document produced in
a lawsuit relating to a separation between Gerard Croppe, a tailor of
Westminster, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Caxton, and
dated the 11th of May, 1496. Each was bound over, under penalty of
one hundred pounds, not to vex, sue, or trouble the other about any
matters relating to their marriage, and to live for the future apart,
unless the said Gerard could recover the love and favour of the said
Elizabeth. This having been agreed to, Gerard was to receive out
of the bequest of William Caxton twenty printed Legends at thirteen
shillings and four pence a Legend, giving a general quittance to the
executors of William Caxton.
Could the record of the original trial be recovered, the evidence of
the various witnesses would no doubt afford much information.
In the churchwarden's accounts of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster,
there occurs an entry in the year 1490.
"Item atte Bureyng of Mawde Caxston for torches and tapres iij_s._
ij_d._"
This has been supposed to refer to Caxton's wife, but beyond the
similarity of names there is no evidence to support the conjecture. In
the same way, too, the entry of a William Caxton's burial in 1479 in
the parish records of St. Margaret's has caused several to conjecture
that this may have been the printer's father.
It appears almost certain that Caxton left no son, for all his
printing material passed into the hands of Wynkyn de Worde, who had
for some time been his assistant.
Wynkyn de Worde, who took out letters of denization in April, 1496,
is described as a printer, and a native of the Duchy of Lorraine. Many
writers have mistakenly derived his name from the town of Woerden in
Holland, whereas he really came from the town of Worth in Alsace, and
sometimes uses the name Worth in place of Worde. The suggestion, too,
that he came with Caxton from Bruges would appear improbable, for as
that event took place in 1476, and De Worde did not die until 1535, he
would have been too young to be an assistant.
Amongst the documents, however, in Westminster Abbey is one dated
1480, relating to the giving up of a tenement by Elizabeth, wife of
Wynand van Worden. If this really refers to the printer, it is clear
that he must have married an Englishwoman, who would be able to hold
property, which the husband, as an alien, could not. It makes it also
appear probable that he was an assistant of Caxton when he established
himself as an English printer in 1476, but De Worde must at that time
have been a fairly young man.
Several other printers have been quoted as apprentices of Caxton by
different writers, but without any authority. Blades mentions Pynson,
and even goes so far as to say that he used Caxton's device, a mistake
which may be traced to an imperfect copy of Pynson's _Speculum Vitae
Christi_ in the British Museum, formerly in the Offor Library, which
has a leaf with Caxton's device inserted at the end.
Although Caxton makes frequent mention of the homeliness and rudeness
of his language, yet it is clear that these expressions must not be
taken quite literally. He was born in the Weald of Kent, where the
peasants no doubt spoke a very marked dialect, but his own English
shows no signs of this. His family was not of the peasant class, and
he had received a good education, though where he does not say. Living
as an apprentice in the house of one of the richest and most important
London merchants, and in the company of his fellow-apprentices, he
would soon lose any provincialisms he might possess. His position as
head of the English merchants abroad, and his confidential position at
the court of the Duchess of Burgundy, could hardly have been reached
by one who spoke rude and provincial language. His statements must
be taken rather as expressions of the mock humility which it was the
fashion of the time to insert in prefaces, especially when they were
addressed to people in high rank.
In the same way we must hardly take as literal his expressions as
to his own want of education and learning. French and Dutch he knew
fluently, and we know from his own words in the _Golden Legend_
that he could read Latin, for he made use of both a French and a Latin
version in making his translation. He seems, indeed, to have been
a really well-educated man of the middle classes, at a time when
learning was difficult to obtain, and was generally confined to the
professions and the members of the Universities.
His work as a printer and a translator is the best evidence as to what
manner of man he was. It shows clearly that he did not look upon the
printing-press merely as a means of making money, or his publications
would have been of a very different character. His mind seems to have
grasped the great possibilities of his art, though he could not have
foreseen the immensity of the power it was destined to become.
He laboured steadily to give to the English-speaking public the
literature of their country, and where a suitable book was not to be
found in the vernacular, he set to work and translated it. Death found
him at his work. "Thus endyth," writes his successor in the colophon
of Jerome's _Vitas Patrum_, "the moost vertuouse hystorye of the
devoute and right renommed lyves of holy faders lyvynge in deserte,
worthy of remembraunce to all well dysposed persones, whiche hath
be translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe by Wyllyam Caxton of
Westmynstre late deed, and fynysshed it at the laste daye of his
lyff."
APPENDIX.
LIST OF CAXTON'S BOOKS, WITH COLLATIONS.
[When the signatures are within brackets it denotes that the book has
no printed signatures.]
BOOKS PRINTED AT BRUGES.
Cessolis (I. de). The game and play of the chess fol. [1475]
[a-h^8, i^10]; 74 leaves. Leaves 1, 74 blank.
Cordiale. Les quartre derrenieres choses fol. [1476]
[a-d^8, e^10, f-i^8]; 74 leaves. Leaves 1, 74 blank.
Le Fevre. The Recuyell of the histories of Troye fol. [1475]
[a-o^10, p^8; A-I^10, K^8, L^6; aa-kk^10]; 352 leaves.
Leaf 1 blank.
BOOKS PRINTED AT WESTMINSTER.
Aesop. Fables fol. 1484
a-s^8; 144 leaves. Leaves 143, 144 blank.
Ars moriendi 4to [1491]
A^8; 8 leaves.
Art and craft to know well to die fol. 1490
A^8, B^4, B3^2; 14 leaves. Leaf 14 blank.
Blanchardyn and Eglantine fol. [1489]
[6] A-M^8 ... Full collation unknown.
Boethius de consolatione philosophiae fol. [1478]
[a-l^8, m^6]; 94 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Bonaventura. Speculum vitae Christi fol. [1486]
a-s^8, t^4; 148 leaves. Leaves 1, 148 blank.
Bonaventura. Speculum vitae Christi. Ed. 2 fol. [1490]
a-s^8, t^4; 148 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Book of Courtesy 4to [1477]
[a^8, b^6]; 14 leaves. Leaf 14 blank.
Book of divers ghostly matters 4to [1491]
A-M^8; 96 leaves (1-96) Seven points.
A-D^8; 32 leaves (97-128) Twelve profits.
aa, bb^8, cc^4; 20 leaves (129-148) Rule of St. Benet.
Cato. Cato, parvus et magnus 4to [1477]
[a-c^8, d^10]; 34 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Cato. Cato, parvus et magnus. [Ed. 2] 4to [1477]
[a-c^8, d^10]; 34 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Cato. Cato, parvus et magnus. [Ed. 3] fol. [1481]
a-c^8, d^4; 28 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Cato. Cathon. fol. [1483]
[6] a-h^8, i^10; 80 leaves. Leaves 1, 6, 7, 80 blank.
Caxton. Advertisement of Sarum Pica [1477]
Single sheet.
Cessolis (I. de). Game of chess fol. [1483]
a-i^8, k, l^6; 84 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Charles the Great, Life fol. 1485
a-m^8; 96 leaves. Leaves 1, 96 blank.
Chartier (Alain). The Curial fol. [1484]
i, ii, iii^6; 6 leaves.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). The Book of Fame fol. [1483]
a-c^8, d^6; 30 leaves. Leaves 1, 30 blank.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). The Canterbury Tales fol. [1478]
[a-z, A-I^8, K^10, L-Q^8, R^6, S-Z^8, aa^6]; 374 leaves.
Leaves 1, 266, 374 blank.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). The Canterbury Tales. [Ed. 2] fol. [1484]
a-t^8, v^6, aa-hh^8, ii^6, A-K^8, L^4; 312 leaves.
Leaf 1 blank.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). Queen Anelida and the false Arcyte 4to [1477]
[a^10]; 10 leaves.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). The temple of brass 4to [1477]
[a-c^8 ... ]. End not known.
Chaucer (Geoffrey). Troilus and Creside fol. [1483]
a-g^8, h^10, L-O^8, p^6; 120 leaves.
Leaves 1, 119, 120 blank.
Christine of Pisan. Moral proverbs fol. 1478
[A^4]; 4 leaves.
Christine of Pisan. Fayts of arms and chivalry fol. 1489
[2] A-R^8, S^6; 144 leaves. Leaf 144 blank.
Chronicles of England fol. 1480
[8] a-x^8, y^6; 182 leaves. Leaves 1, 9 blank.
Chronicles of England. Ed. 2 fol. 1482
[8] a-x^8, y^6; 182 leaves. Leaves 1, 9 blank.
Cicero (M. T.). Of old age and friendship fol. 1481
1, a^6, b-h^8, i^4; 72 leaves (1-72) Old Age.
a-f^8; 48 leaves (73-120) Friendship.
Leaves 1, 12, 72 blank.
Commemoratio lamentationis del. B. V. Mariae 4to [1487]
a-c^8, d^10; 34 leaves.
Cordyale fol. 1479
[a-i^8, k^6]; 78 leaves. Leaves 1, 78 blank.
Death-bed prayers fol. [1483]
Single leaf.
Description of Britain fol. 1480
[a-c^8, d^6]; 30 leaves. Leaf 30 blank.
Dictes or sayings fol. 1477
[a-i^8, k^6]; 78 leaves. Leaves 1, 77, 78 blank.
Dictes or sayings. [Variant copy with colophon.] fol. 1477
[a-i^8, k^6]; 78 leaves. Leaves 1, 77, 78 blank.
Dictes or sayings. Ed. 2 fol. [1479]
[a-i^8, k^6]; 78 leaves. Leaves 1, 77, 78 blank.
Dictes or sayings. Ed. 3 fol. [1489]
[2] A-G^8, H-I^6; 70 leaves. Leaf 70 blank.
Doctrinal of Sapience fol. 1489
A-I^8, K, L^10; 92 leaves.
[The Windsor copy has four extra leaves at end, the last
blank.]
Donatus (Ae). Donatus melior fol. [1487]
Collation not known.
Festum transfigurationis Jesu Christi 4to [1491]
a^6, b^4; 10 leaves.
Festum visitationis beate Mariae virginis 4to [1480]
Collation not known.
Fifteen Oes 4to [1491]
a, b^8, c^6; 22 leaves.
Four sons of Aymon fol. [1489]
Collation not known.
Godfrey of Bologne fol. 1481
a^6, b^4, 1-16^8, 17^6; 144 leaves.
Leaves 1, 11 blank.
Governal of Helthe 4to [1489]
A, B^8, [2]; 18 leaves.
Gower (John). Confessio amantis fol. 1483
[8], 1, b-z, &, A, B^8, C^6; 222 leaves.
Leaves 1, 8, 9, 222 blank.
Higden (Ranulph). Polycronicon fol. 1482
a, b^8, c^4, 1-28^8, 28*^2, 29-48^8, 49^4, 50, 52-55^8;
450 leaves. Leaves 1, 21, 25, 246, 450 blank.
Horae ad usum Sarum 8^o [1478]
Collation not known.
Horae ad usum Sarum 4to [1480]
Collation not known.
Horae ad usum Sarum 8^o [1490]
Collation not known.
Horae ad usum Sarum 8^o [1490]
Collation not known.
Image of Pity fol. [1487]
Single sheet.
Image of Pity 4to [1490]
Single sheet.
Indulgence of John Kendale. Singular issue, 1480
no year of pontificate
Single sheet.
Indulgence of John Kendale. Plural issue, 1480
with year of pontificate
Single sheet.
Indulgence of I. de Gigliis. Singular issue, 1481
with year of pontificate
Single sheet.
Indulgence of I. de Gigliis. Plural issue, 1481
with year of pontificate
Single sheet.
Indulgence of I. de Gigliis 1489
Single sheet.
Indulgence of I. de Gigliis 1489
Single sheet.
Infancia Salvatoris 4to [1477]
[a^8, b^10]; 18 leaves.
Landry (De la Tour). The knight of the tower fol. 1484
[4] a-m^8, n^6; 106 leaves. Leaves 105, 106 blank.
Lefevre (Raoul). The history of Jason fol. [1477]
[a-s^8, t^6]; 150 leaves. Leaves 1, 150 blank.
Legrand (I.). The book of good manners fol. 1487
a-g^8, h^10; 66 leaves.
Lidgate (John). The churl and the bird 4to [1477]
[a^10]; 10 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Lidgate (John). The churl and the bird. Ed. 2 4to [1477]
[a^10]; 10 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Lidgate (John). Curia sapientiae fol. [1480]
a-e^8; 40 leaves. Leaves 1, 39, 40 blank.
Lidgate (John). The horse, the sheep and the goose 4to [1477]
[a^8, b^10]; 18 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Lidgate (John). The horse, the sheep and the goose. 4to [1477]
Ed. 2
[a^8, b^10]; 18 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Lidgate (John). The life of our lady fol. [1484]
[2] a-l^8, m^6; 96 leaves. Leaf 96 blank.
Lidgate (John). The life of our lady. Ed. 2 fol. [1484]
Collation not known.
Lidgate (John). The pilgrimage of the soul fol. 1483
[4] a-n^8, o^6; 114 leaves. Leaves 1, 5, 113, 114 blank.
Lidgate (John). Stans puer ad mensam 4to [1477]
[a^4]; 4 leaves.
Lidgate (John). The temple of glass 4to [1477]
[a-c^8, d^10]; 34 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Malory (Sir T.). Morte d'Arthur fol. 1485
1^8, 5^10, a-z, &, A-Z, aa-dd^8, ee^6; 432 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Maydeston (C.). Directorium sacerdotum fol. [1487]
[6] a-q^8, r^10, s, t^8; 160 leaves.
Maydeston (C.). Directorium sacerdotum fol. [1489]
a^8, a-y^8, z^10; 194 leaves.
Mirk (John). Liber festivalis fol. 1483
a-n^8, o, p^6; 116 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Mirk (John). Liber festivalis fol. [1491]
a-p^8, q^2, R^8, s^6; 136 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Order of chivalry 4to [1484]
a-f^8, g^4; 52 leaves. Leaves 1, 52 blank.
Ordinale secundum usum Sarum 4to [1477]
Collation not known.
Paris and Vienne fol. 1485
a-c^8, d, e^6; 36 leaves. Leaf 36 blank.
Psalterium 4to [1480]
a-x (+7* incipiunt), y^8; 177 leaves. Leaves 1, 177 blank.
Quattuor sermones fol. [1483]
a-c^8, d^6; 30 leaves.
Quattuor sermones fol. [1491]
A-C^8, D^10; 34 leaves.
Reynard the Fox fol. 1481
a-h (+8* your children), i^8, k, l^6; 85 leaves.
Leaves 1, 85 blank.
Reynard the Fox. Ed. 2 fol. [1489]
[2] a-h^8, i^6; 72 leaves.
Royal book fol. [1488]
a-t^8, u^10; 162 leaves. Leaves 1, 162 blank.
Russell (John). Propositio 4to [1478]
[a^4]; 4 leaves.
Saona (L. G. de). Nova rhetorica fol. [1479]
[a^6, b^2, c-n^10, o^6]; 124 leaves.
Sixtus IV. Sex epistolae 4to [1483]
a-c^8; 24 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Statutes of Henry VII. An. 1, 3, 4 fol. [1489]
a-d^8, e^10; 42 leaves. Leaves 1, 42 blank.
Vincentius. The mirror of the world fol. [1481]
a-m^8, n^4; 100 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Vincentius. The mirror of the world. Ed. 2 fol. [1490]
a-l^8; 88 leaves.
Virgilius. Eneydos fol. 1490
A^4, A3^2, B-L^8; 86 leaves. Leaves 6, 86 blank.
Vocabulary in French and English fol. [1480]
[a, b^8, c^10]; 26 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Voragine (I. de). The golden legend fol. 1483
AA^6, a-z, &^8, 2^6, A-V^8, X^6, Y^2 (+2*)^3, aa-ff^8, gg^6, hh,
ii^8, kk^6; 449 leaves.
Leaves 1, 449 blank.
Voragine (I. de). The golden legend fol. [1488]
AA^6, a-z, &^8, [Greek: rho]^6, A-X^8, aa-ff^8, gg^6, hh, ii^8,
kk^6; 448 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Winifred, Life fol. [1485]
a, b^8; 16 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
BOOKS PRINTED FOR CAXTON.
Legenda secundum usum Sarum [Maynyal, Paris, fol. 1487]
Collation not known.
Missale secundum usum Sarum Maynyal, Paris, fol. 1487
[10] a^10, b-z, &, [Greek: rho], A-F^8, G^6;
266 leaves. Leaves 1, 11 blank (?).
BOOKS PRINTED BY W. DE WORDE WITH CAXTON'S TYPES.
Book of Courtesy 4to [1492]
Collation not known.
Chastising of God's children fol. [1492]
[2] A-G^6, H^4; 48 leaves.
Treatise of Love fol. [1493]
A-H^6; 48 leaves.
Vineis (R. de). Life of St. Katherine of Senis fol. [1493]
a^8, b-p^6, q^4; 96 leaves.
Voragine (I. de). The golden legend fol. 1493
[4] a-e^8, F^2, f-z, &, [Greek: rho]^8, [=e]^4, A-Y, aa-ee^8,
ff^6, gg^4; 436 leaves.
INDEX.
PAGE
A, Only ornamental initial used by Caxton, pl. XIII., 62
Aberdeen Breviary, 35
Advertisement, Caxton's, pl. V., 42, 43, 91
Aesop. _Fables. See Fables of Aesop._
Alost, Printing at, 26
Ames, Joseph, Error in _Typographical antiquities_, 45
_Anelida and Arcyte. See Queen Anelida, etc._
Angelus de Aretio. _Lectura super institutiones_,
printed by Veldener at Louvain, 27
Appendix, 91-98
Archer, Thomas, 67
_Ars moriendi_, printed by Caxton, 77, 78, pl. XX.
Collation, 91
_Art and Craft to know well to die_,
translated and printed by Caxton, 76, 77
Collation, 91
Arundel, William Fitzalan, Earl of, 63, 84
Ashburnham sale, 1897, 37
Bagford, John, book-buyer, 41
Ballard of Camden, 86
Bamburgh castle, 49
Bartholomaeus Anglicus. _Bartholomaeus de
proprietatibus rerum_, 22, 23, pl. I.
Bayntun, William, of Gray's Inn, 66
Bedford Literary Institute, 67
Bernard sale, 1698, 64
Bibliothèque Nationale, Manuscript of _L'Ordre de Chevallerie_, 62
Bindings. _See_ forward, Bookbindings.
Blades, William. Arguments concerning Caxton at Cologne, 22-26
Arrangement of Caxton's books by types, 73, 74
_Boethius_ at St. Alban's, 37, 38
Book-worms, 57
Dibdin censured, 37
Errors with regard to: _Ars Moriendi_, 78
_Confessio Amantis_, 59
_Dictes_, 39
_Eneydos_ (Spencer's copy), 77
_Indulgence_, 1489, 73
_Infancia Salvatoris_, 44
_Mirrour_, 76
Number of books printed by Caxton, 79
Perfect copies, 28
_Propositio Johannis Russell_, 43, 44
Pynson as apprentice, 89
_Treatise of Love_, 81
W. de Worde, 82
_Blanchardyn and Eglantine_, printed by Caxton, 74, 75, 91
Blandford, Lord, Copy of _Propositio_, 44
Boccaccio, Work printed by C. Mansion, 1476, 25
Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Copies of: Advertisement for _Pica_, pl. V.
_Ars moriendi_, 77, pl. XX.
_Bartholomaeus_, pl. I.
_Boethius_, pl. III.
_Dictes_, pl. IV.
_Directorium_, 75
_Mirrour_, pl. VI., VII.
_Fables of Aesop_, 62
_Fifteen Oes_, pl. XXII.
_Game of the Chess_, pl. VIII.
_Liber Festivalis_, pl. IX.
_Recuyell_, pl. II.
_Boethius de consolatione philosophiae_, tr. by Chaucer,
printed by Caxton, 37, 38, 91, pl. III.
_Boke of Eneydos. See Eneydos._
Bolomyer, Henry, Canon of Lausanne, 65
Bonaccursus de Montemagno. _De nobilitate. See De nobilitate._
Bonaventura, St. _Speculum Vitae Christi. See Speculum, etc._
_Book of Courtesy_, printed by Caxton, 41, 92
By W. de Worde, 81, 98
_Book of divers ghostly matters_, printed by Caxton, 79, 92
_Book of Fame_ (Chaucer, G.). _See Hous of Fame_.
_Book of Good Manners_, tr. and printed by Caxton, 68
_Book of Hours_ of Salisbury use. _See Horae ad usum Sarum._
Bookbindings, 38, 44, 68, 75
Caxton's method, 84, 85, frontispiece
_Booke which the Knight of the Toure made_ (La Tour-Landry, G.),
translated and printed by Caxton, 60, 95
Book-worms, Ravages of, 57
Bourbon, Louis, Duke of, 52
Brabant, Caxton in, 17
Bradshaw, Henry, Conjecture as to "pyes" in Caxton's advertisement, 43
Discovery of: _Ars moriendi_, 77-78
_Indulgence_ of J. de Gigliis, 73
_Margarita Eloquentiae_, 45
_Breviary_ of the Church of Salisbury, issued at Cologne, 31
_Breviary_, _Commemoratio_ and _Servitium_, intended for, 78
British Museum.
Copies of: _Canterbury Tales_, 37, ed. 2, pl. X.
_Charles the Great_, 65
_Directorium_, 66
_Fables of Aesop_, 61
_Fayts of Arms_ (French manuscript), 72
_Fifteen Oes_, 78
_Golden Legend_ (French version), 63
_Image of Pity_, 66, pl. XIV.
_Indulgence_ of J. Kendale, 1480, 48
_Meditacions_, printed by Mansion, 32
_Order of Chivalry_, 62
_Paris and Vienne_, 65
_Psalter_, 50
_Quatre dernierres choses_, 30
_Servitium_, 78
_Sex Epistolae_, 57
_Speculum_, printed by Pynson, 89
Broadside, printed by Caxton, 62
Bruges, Caxton's press at, 17, 18, 22 _et seq._, 43
Mansion's, 25
Brut, printed by Caxton, 14
Bryce, Hugh, 51
Burgh, Benet, translator _Cato parvus et magnus_, 53, 60
_See also_ Cato.
Burgundy, Duchess of, 19, 20, 25
Burgundy, Duke of, 43
Calendar, Rules for adapting to the church services, 42, 66
_See also Directorium_ and _Ordinale_.
Cambridge, Caxton at, 45
Cambridge University Library, Collection of Caxton pamphlets, 41
Copies of: _Book of Good Manners_, 68
_Directorium_, 66
_Fayts of Arms_, 72
_Four Sons of Aymon_ (de Worde's), 74
_Golden Legend_ (French version), 63
_Legenda_ (Maynial), pl. XVII.
Campbell of The Hague, 78
_Canterbury Tales_ (Chaucer, G.), printed by Caxton, 37
Second edition, revised and illustrated, 57-59; fac-simile pl. X.
Collations, 92
Canutus, Bishop of Aarhaus. _Treatise on Pestilence_, 80
Capital letters. _See_ Initials, Woodcut.
Carlisle, N., 59
Castel, Étienne and Jean, 40
_Cato parvus et magnus_ (Cato, D.), translated by B. Burgh,
printed by Caxton 41, 53, 60
Collations, 92
_Caton_ or _Cathon_ (Cato D.), translated and printed by Caxton, 60
Collation, 92
Caxton, William. Advertisement, 42, 43, 91; fac-simile pl. V.
Apprentices employed, 88, 89
Apprenticeship, 16, 17
Birth, 15, 16
Bookbindings. _See_ Bookbindings, in general alphabet.
"Braband, Flandres, Holand, and Zealand," residence, 17
Bruges press, 17, 22 _et seq._
Collections of Caxtons. _See_ Collectors, in general alphabet;
_also_ names of individual collectors.
Cologne, Printing learned at (?), 22-26
Dates, Method of reckoning, 40, 41
Daughter, 20, 87
Death, 86-90
Device, 70, 71, pl. XVI.
Duchess of Burgundy's service, 19, 20
Education, 16, 89, 90
England, First printer of, 13 _et seq._
Return to, 31
English language, Changes remarked in, 77
Services to, 14, 15
Spoken by, 89
Epitaph, 87
French influence first felt, 69
Gibbon and Disraeli, Sneers of, 13, 14
Handwriting, 51, 83, pl. XXV.
Literary and editorial work, 53, 54, 58, 60, 90
_See also_ forward Translations.
Mansion, Colard, partner, 24-27, 30
_See also_ Mansion.
Marriage, 20, 87
Merchant, 17-19
Governor of Merchant Adventurers, 34
Name, Various spellings, 15
Our Blessed Lady Assumption, Member of Fraternity of, 34
Personal history, 15 _et seq._
Poetical attempts, 39, 40
Politics, 43, 57
Portrait, Illumination erroneously called, 39
Press, _Periods_: before 1476, 20-32
1476-1479, 33-46
1480-1483, 47-55
1483-1487, 56-69
1487-1491, 70-85
_Products_: List of books printed by or for Caxton, 91-97
List of books printed by De Worde, with Caxton's types, 98
Lost productions, 83, 84
Number of books printed, 79, 80
Pamphlets, 34, 35, 41-46
Reprints in later years, 75
Signatures first used, 47, 49
Statement in _Recuyell_, 20, 21
_See also_ titles of individual books.
Translations: _Art and Craft to know well to die_,
_Blanchardyn and Eglantine_, _Book of Good Manners_,
_Book which the Knyght of the Tour made_, _Eneydos_,
_Game of the Chess_, _Godfrey of Bologne_,
_Golden Legend_ (most important), _Jason_, _Metamorphoses_,
_Mirrour of the World_, _Oxford_ (_Life of Robert, Earl of_),
_Reynard the Fox_, _Recuyell of the Hystories of Troye_,
_Vitas Patrum_, _Winifred_ (_Life of St._).
_See also_ these titles in general alphabet.
Types. _See_ forward, in general alphabet, Types.
Westminster press, 13, 33 _et seq._, 92-97
Continued by De Worde, 80-85, 98
Will, 82, 86
Cessolis, Jacobus de. _Liber de ludo scacchorum_.
_See Game and playe of the Chess._
Chap-book, _Four Sons of Aymon_ in form of, 74
Charles the Bold, Marriage with Princess Margaret, 19
_Charles the Great, Life of_, translated and printed
by Caxton, 16, 65, 92
Chartier Alain. _See Curial._
Chartres, Church of. _Manual_ and _Statutes_, 70
_Chastising of God's Children_, printed with Caxton's type
by De Worde, 80, 81, 98
Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poems early printed by Caxton, 14
List, with collations, 92
Poems printed by A. Myllar, 35
Translation of _Boeccius_, 37, 38
_See also_, in general alphabet, _Canterbury Tales_,
_Hous of Fame_, _Queen Anelida_, _Temple of Brass_,
_Troilus and Creside_.
_Chorle and the Bird_ (Lidgate, J.), printed by Caxton, 41, 42, 95
Christine de Pisan, Character and attainments, 39, 40
_See also Fayts of Arms, Morale Proverbes._
Chronological arrangement of Caxton's books not determined, 73
_Chronicles of England_, printed by Caxton, 50
Second edition, 53, 54
Collations, 93
Reprinted by G. Leeu, 65, 87
Church, Daniel, 60
_Churl and the Bird._ _See_ Chorle.
Cicero, M. T. _Of Old Age and Friendship_, translated from
_De senectute_ and _De amicitia_; printed by Caxton, 52
Collation, 93
Collations of Caxton's books, 91-97
Of De Worde's books, 98
Collectors of Caxtons: American private collector owns
finest copy, 37
Only two unique Caxtons outside England, 45, 78
Made-up copies of little value to, 54
_See also_ names of individual collectors,--as, Bamburgh castle;
Bedford Library Institute; Bodleian Library; British Museum;
Cambridge University; Congregational Library;
Copenhagen Royal Library; Devonshire, Duke of; Edward IV.;
Eton College; George III.; George IV.; Ghent, University of;
Göttingen University Library; Harleian Library; Heber, W.;
Hedrington, R; Herbert, W.; Holland, Colonel; Jersey, Lord;
Lambeth Palace Library; Leicester, Earl of;
Lenox Library, New York; Lincoln Minster;
Magdalene College (Cambridge); Mary, Queen of England;
Merton College (Oxford); Miller, C.; Moore, Bishop;
Newton, Lord; Osborne, T.; Perde, W.; Peterborough, Earl of;
Pope; Ripon Cathedral; Roxburghe, J., Duke of;
St. Alban's Grammar School; St. John's College, Oxford;
Selden collection; Shrewsbury School; Smith, Richard;
Spencer, Lord; Trinity College, Dublin; Tutet;
Windsor, Royal Library at; York Cathedral.
_Also_ under titles of individual books.
Cologne, Controversy as to Caxton's learning to print there, 22-26
_Commemoratio Lamentationis Beatae Mariae Virginis_,
printed by Caxton, 45, 78, 93
Commonest Caxtons, 53, 54
_Confessio Amantis_ (Gower, J.), printed by Caxton, 59, 94
Congregational Library, London, Copy of _Servitium_, 78
_Consolatio peccatorum._ _See_ Jacobus de Theramo.
Copenhagen, Royal Library. Copy of _Book of Good Manners_, 68
Copland, Robert, assistant of De Worde, and translator
of _Dictes_, 34, 35
Copland, William, printer of _Four Sons_, 74, 84
_Cordyale_, translated by Lord Rivers,
from _Quatre derrenieres choses_;
printed by Caxton, 40, 41, 45, 46, 93
For French edition, _see Quatre derrenieres choses_.
Cotton, Archdeacon, Remarks on Caxton's _Indulgence_ type, 73
Croppe, Gerard, Separation from Caxton's daughter, 20, 87
Crucifixion, Wood-cut, pl. XXII.
_Curia Sapientiae_ (Lidgate J.), printed by Caxton, 50, 95
_Curial_ (Chartier, A.), printed by Caxton, 59
Dates: Definite date, 59
First book printed with, in England, 34
None in Caxton's books, 1487-1491 (excepting _Statutes_), 73
Variations in style as to, 40, 41
_De amicitia._ _See_ Cicero.
_De consolatione philosophiae. See_ Boethius.
_De nobilitate_ (Bonaccursus de Montemagno), printed by Caxton, 52
_De proprietatibus rerum. See_ Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
_De quattuor novissimis. See Quatre derrenieres choses._
_De senectute. See_ Cicero.
Death-bed Prayers, printed by Caxton, 62, 93
Deguilleville, Guillaume, 54
_See also Pilgrimage of the Soul._
_Description of Britain_, printed by Caxton, 50, 93
Devices, Caxton's, 70, 71, pl. XVI.
De Worde's, 81
Devonshire, Duke of.
Copies of: _Parvus Cato_, 41
_Recuyell_, 28
_Vocabulary_, 48-49
Overtures for _Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Dibden, censured by Blades, 37
Description of _Bartholomaeus_, 23
Persuaded Dean of Lincoln to sell Caxtons, 30
Remarks on _Treatise of Love_ and _Chastising_, 81
_Dialogue of Salomon and Marcolphus_, printed by G. Leeu, 66
_Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres_,
printed by Caxton, 34, 35, 38, 39, fac-simile pl. IV.
Second edition, 46
Reprinted, 75
Translated by Scrope, 52
Collations, 93
Dickinson's _List of printed Service Books_, 56
_Dictionary of National Biography_, List of Caxton's books in, 74
Dies used by Caxton on bindings, 85, pl. XXVI.
_Directorium Sacerdotum_, or _Pica_ (Maydeston, C.),
printed by Caxton, 66, 67
Reprinted, 75
Collation, 96
Disraeli, Isaac, sneers at Caxton, 13, 14
_Doctrinal of Sapience_, translated and printed by Caxton, 76, 93
_Donatus melior_ (Donatus, Ae.), printed by Caxton, 68, 93
Douce collection, Bodleian Library, 81
Dunbar, Stories by, 35
Edward IV., Copy of _Godfrey of Bologne_, 52
Grants charter to Mercer's Company, 18, 19
Authorizes translation of _Jason_, 36
_L'Ordre de Chevallerie_, written for, 62
Proclamation concerning Rhodes, 48
Elizabeth, Wife of Edward IV, 28
_Elizabeth of Hungary, Revelations of St._, 80
_Eneydos, Boke of_, translated and printed by Caxton, 77, pl. XIX.
England, Caxton first printer of, 13
First dated book in, 34
Only two unique Caxtons outside, 45, 78
English language, Caxton's remarks on changes in, 77, pl. XIX.
First printed book in, 27
Services of Caxton to, 13, 14
English nation in the Low Countries. _See_ Merchant Adventurers.
_Erasmus, Life of St._, added by Caxton to _Golden Legend_, 71
_Esope, Fables of. See Fables of Aesop._
Estenay, John, Sacrist of Westminster, 33
Evil-merodach, Wood-cut of, 53
_Fables of Aesop_, printed by Caxton, 61, 62,
fac-simile pls. XII., XIII.
Collation, 91
_Faits et prouesses du chevalier Jason. See Jason._
Fairfax, Bryan, copy of _Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Fastolfe, _Sir_ John, 52
_Fayts of Arms_ (Christine de Pisan),
translated and printed by Caxton, 72
Collation, 93
Ferrara, Duke of, 57
_See also Sex Epistolae._
_Festial. See Liber Festialis._
_Festum Transfigurationis Jesu Christi. See Servitium._
_Festum Visitationis Beatae Mariae Virginis. See Servitium._
_Fifteen Oes_, printed by Caxton, 78
Cut of Crucifixion for, pl. XXII.
Collation, 94
Flanders, Caxton in, 17
Flemish families in Kent, 16
Flemish goods prohibited in England, 19
_Four Sons of Aymon, History of_, printed by Caxton, 74
Collation, 94
Printed by Copland, 84
Folios, Caxton's early, 35 _et seq._
Fraternity of Our Blessed Lady Assumption, 34
_Fructus Temporum_, printed by Julyan Notary, 86
Gairdner discovers record of Caxton's marriage, 87
Gallopes, Jean de, 54
_Game and playe of the Chess_ (Cessolis, J. de),
translated and printed by Caxton, 29-31, fac-simile pl. VIII.
Second edition, 53
Collations, 91
George I. presents Caxton pamphlets to Cambridge, 41
George III., Copy of _Directorium_, 66
George IV., Copy of _Fables of Aesop_, 61
Germany, Origin of printing in, 13
Title-pages used in, 80
Ghent, Oration at, 1470, 43
Ghent, University of, Copy of _Commemoratio_, 78
Gibbon, Criticism of Caxton, 13, 14
Gigliis, John, 73
_See also Indulgence._
_Godfrey of Bologne, History of_,
translated and printed by Caxton, 52, 94
Göttingen University Library, Copy of _Infancia Salvatoris_, 44
_Of Treatise of Love_, 81
_Golden Legend_ (Voragine, J. de),
translated and printed by Caxton, 63
Second edition, 71, 72
Copies left to Caxton's son-in-law, 82, 83, 88
Introduction, 83
French and Latin version used in, 89
Third edition, reprint by De Worde, 81-83
Date of Caxton's death in colophon (?), 86
Collations, 97, 98
_Governal of Helthe_, printed by Caxton, 94
Gower, John, 14, 59
_See also Confessio Amantis._
Granton, John, debtor to Wm. Craes of Bruges, 18
Guild of St. John, 26
Gutenberg, Invention of movable type, 13
Halberstadt. Hecht-Heine Library, Copy of _Sex Epistolae_, 57
Harleian Library, Copy of _Infancia Salvatoris_, 44
Heber, Book-collector, 54, 55
Hedrington, Robert, Collector of Caxtons, 63
Henry VII., Founded almonry, 33
Loaned Caxton manuscript of _Fayts_, 72
_Statutes_, printed by Caxton. _See also Statutes._
Herbert, W., Bibliographer, 54
Higden, Ralph, 14, 50, 53
_See also Polycronicon._
_History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine. See Blanchardyn._
_History of Jason. See Jason._
_History of Reynard the Fox. See Reynard._
_History of the Four Sons of Aymon. See Four Sons, etc._
_History of the Knight Paris and the Fair Vienne. See Paris._
Holdsworth, Dr., 66
Holford, Col., Copy of _Game of the Chess_, 29
Of _Godfrey of Bologne_, 52
Holkham, Copy of _Speculum_, 1494, 73
Holland, Caxton in, 17
_Horae ad usum Sarum_, printed by Caxton,
found in binding of _Boethius_, 38, 50
Wood-cuts intended for, 67
_Fifteen Oes_, supplement to, 78
Collations, 94
_Horse, the Shepe and the Goose_ (Lidgate, J.),
printed by Caxton, 41, 42
Collation, 95
_Hous of Fame_ (Chaucer, G.), printed by Caxton, 59
Collation, 92
Illustrations. _See_ Wood-cuts.
_Image of Pity_, 66, pl. XIV., 94
_Indulgence_ of John Kendale, printed by Caxton, 1480, 48, 94
_Indulgence_ of John de Gigliis, printed by Caxton, 1481, 68
1489, 73, pl. XVIII.
Collations, 95
_Infancia Salvatoris_, printed by Caxton, 42, 44
Collation, 95
Initials, Wood-cut A, used by Caxton, 62, pl. XIII.
Blank spaces usually left for, 36
First used in England, 48
Intended for _Life of St. Katherine_, printed by De Worde, 80
Jacobus de Cessolis. _See_ Cessolis.
Jacobus de Theramo. _Consolatio peccatorum_, printed by Veldener, 27
Jacobus Magnus. _See_ Legrand, Jacques.
_Jason, Faits et prouesses du chevalier_ (Lefevre, R.),
printed by C. Mansion, 31, 32
_Jason, History of_ (Lefevre, R.),
translated and printed by Caxton, 35-37, 95
Reprinted by G. Leeu, 65
Jerome, St. _Vitas Patrum_, colophon, 90
Jersey, Earl of. Copy of _Recuyell_ sold, 29
Library sold, 64
John of Westphalia, Printer, 26
John of Trevisa, 53
_Katherine, Life of St._,
printed with Caxton's type by W. de Worde, 80, 98, pl. XXIII.
Kendale, John, _Indulgence_ of. _See Indulgence._
Kent, Weald of, Birthplace of Caxton, 15, 16
_King Apolin of Tyre_, printed by De Worde in 1510, 34
Knight of the Tour. _See_ La Tour-Landry, G.
Könnecke, Archivist at Marburg, 57
Lambarde, William. _Perambulation of Kent_, 15
Lambeth Palace Library, Copy of _Book of Good Manners_, 68
Manuscript of _Dictes_, 39
Landry, Geoffrey de la Tour-. _See_ La Tour-Landry.
La Tour-Landry, Geoffrey, 60
_See also Booke which the Knyght of the Toure made._
Large, Robert, Master of Caxton, 16, 17
Laurentius de Saona. _Margarita Eloquentiae_, or, _Nova rhetorica_.
_See Margarita._
_Lectura super institutiones._ _See_ Angelus de Aretio.
Leeu, Gerard, Printer of Antwerp. Dutch edition of _Reynard_, 51
Reprint of _Paris and Vienne_, _History of Jason_,
_Chronicles of England_, 65, 66, 87
Lefevre, Raoul, 27, 36
_See also Recueil des histoires de Troyes_ and _Recuyell_, etc.
_Legenda secundum usum Sarum_, printed for Caxton,
probably by Maynial, 71, 82, pl. XVII.
Collation, 97
"Legends" bequeathed by Caxton, 82
Legrand, Jacques (Jacobus Magnus), 68
_See also Book of Good Manners._
Leicester, Earl of. Copy of _Propositio_, 43
Lenox Library, New York, Copy of _Caton_, 60
Le Roy, G., Printer at Lyons, 77
Lettou, John, First London printer, 47, 48
Lewis de Bretaylles, 38
_Liber de ludo scacchorum_ (Cessolis, J. de). _See Game of Chess._
_Liber Festivalis_, or _Festial_ (Mirk, J., comp.),
printed by Caxton, 56, pl. IX.
Second edition, 77
Collation, 96
Lidgate, John, 14, 50, 57
_See also Chorle and the Bird_, _Curia Sapientiae_, _Horse,
the Shepe and the Goose_, _Life of Our Lady_,
_Pilgrimage of the Soul_, _Stans puer ad mensam_,
_Temple of Glass_.
_Life of Charles the Great. See Charles the Great._
_Life of Our Lady_ (Lidgate, J.), printed by Caxton, 57, 95
_Life of St. Katherine of Senis. See Katherine._
_Life of the Holy and Blessed Virgin St. Winifred. See Winifred._
Lincoln Minster, Copies of _Recuyell_, 30
_Reynard_, 52
Sale of Caxtons, 30
Linton, Mr., Suggestion as to metal blocks, 53
List of Caxton's books, with collations, 91-97
_Little John. See Book of Courtesy._
_Livre des Eneydes_, printed at Lyons, 1483, by G. le Roy, 77
Lloyd, Mr., of Wygfair, Library sold, 1816, 64
London, John Lettou first printer of, 47, 48
Louvain, Printing at, 26
_Lover's Confession. See Confessio Amantis._
Low Countries, Caxton Governor of the English nation in, 34
Lumley, Lord, Autograph, 84
Lydgate. See Lidgate.
_Lyf of St. Katherin. See Katherine, Life of St._
Machlinia, William de, London printer, 80
Madden, Note on Caxton at Weidenbach, 24
Made-up copies of Caxtons, 54, 55
Magdalene College, Cambridge. Pepysian collection,
Copy of _Reynard the Fox_, 76
Manuscript colophon of _Metamorphoses_, 83, pls. XXIV., XXV.
Malory, Sir Thomas. _See Morte d'Arthur_.
Mancinellus, Revision of Donatus, 68
_Manipulus Curatorum. See Doctrinal of Sapience._
Mansion, Colard, Illuminator and writer of manuscripts, 24, 26
Press at Bruges established, 25
Partner of Caxton, 26, 27, 30
Printed alone, 25, 31, 32
Manuscript preferred to printing for presentation, 84
Margaret, Lady, mother of Henry VII., patron of Caxton, 33, 34
Margaret, Queen, 72
_Margarita Eloquentiae_ or _Nova Rhetorica_ (Laurentius de Saona),
printed by Caxton, 45, 97
Martens, Thierry, Printer, 26
Mary, Queen of England, Copy of _Psalter_, 49-50
Maydeston, Clement, 66
_See also Directorium._
Maynial, or Maynyal, Printer for Caxton, 70, 71, 97, pl. XVII.
Medal, Earliest known English, 48
_Meditaciones sur les sept pseaulmes_, printed by C. Mansion, 31, 32
_Memorare novissima. See Quatre derrenieres choses._
Mercers' Company, Caxton a member of, 34
Mention of, 51
Merchant Adventurers, or "English nation in the Low Countries,"
Caxton Governor of, 18, 19, 34
Merchant's mark in Caxton's device, 70, 71
Merton College, Oxford, Copy of _Canterbury Tales_, 37
_Metamorphoses of Ovid_,
a lost product of Caxton's press, 83, pls. XXIV., XXV.
Mielot, Jean, 52
Mirk, John. _See Liber Festivalis._
_Mirrour of the World_ (Vincentius), translated and
printed by Caxton, 50, 51, fac-simile pls. VI., VII.
Reprinted, 75, 76
Collations, 97
_Missale secundum usum Sarum_, printed for Caxton by Maynial, 70, 97
Montemagno, Bonaccursus. _See_ Bonaccursus.
Moore, Bishop, Collector of Caxtons, 41
_Morale Proverbes of Cristyne_ (Christine de Pisan),
translated by Earl Rivers, printed by Caxton, 39, 40, 93
_Morte d'Arthur_ (Malory, Sir T.), printed by Caxton, 63-65, 96
Mutilation of Caxtons, 54, 55
Myllar, Andrew, First printer of Scotland, 35
_New Testament. Apocrypha. Infancia Salvatoris. See Infancia._
Newton, Lord, Copy of _Missale_, 70
Notary, Julyan, Printer, 86
_Nova Rhetorica. See Margarita Eloquentiae._
Number of books printed by Caxton, 79, 80
O, Fifteen prayers commencing with. _See Fifteen Oes._
Obray, William, Governor of Merchant Adventurers, 19
_Of Old Age and Friendship._ _See_ Cicero, M. T.
Oldys on handwriting of Caxton, 51
_Order of Chivalry_, printed by Caxton, 62, 96
_Ordinale secundum usum Sarum_,
printed by Caxton, 42, 74, 96, pl. V.
_Orologium Sapientiae_, part of
_Book of divers ghostly matters_, _q. v._
Os, Gotfried van, 80
Osborne, Thomas, Bookseller. Copy of _Infancia Salvatoris_, 44
_Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Osterly, Copy of _Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Ovid. _Metamorphoses. See Metamorphoses._
Oxford, Earl of.
Copies of _Charles the Great_ and _Paris and Vienne_, 65
Library sold, 64
_Oxford, Life of Robert, Earl of_, translated by Caxton, 84
Oxford, Press at, 47
Pamphlets printed by Caxton rare, 34, 35, 41-46
Parchment not used as binding material by Caxton, 75
_Paris and the fair Vienne_, translated and printed by Caxton, 65
Collation, 96
Reprinted by G. Leeu, 65
Parker, Archbishop, Books bequeathed to Corpus Christi, 45
_Parvus Cato._ _See_ Cato.
Pepysian library. _See_ Magdalene College.
Perde, William, Copy of _Polycronicon_, 54
Peterborough, Earl of, Copy of _Godfrey_, 52
Petrus Carmelianus, Editor of _Sex Epistolae_, 57
"Philosopher," Wood-cut, pl. VIII.
_Pica. See Directorium Sacerdotum; also Ordinale secundum usum Sarum._
_Pilgrimage of the Soul_ (Deguilleville, G.), translated by Lidgate,
and printed by Caxton, 54, 95
Pisan, Christine de. _See_ Christine.
Pitt, Moses, 62
_Polycronicon_ (Higden, R., compiler), printed by Caxton, 53, 54, 94
Pope, American collector, Copy of _Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Pratt, William, Mercer, 68
_Prayers, Death-bed. See Death-bed prayers._
Premierfait, Laurence de, 52
Prices, Highest, paid for a Caxton, 67
_See also_ under names of individual books.
Printing, Brito reputed inventor of, 25, 26
Introduced into Europe, 13
Into England, 13, 27
Prior, Robert, Reputed author of _Life of St. Winifred_, 59
Proctor, Robert, Discovery of _Donatus melior_, 68
_Propositio Johannis Russell_, printed by Caxton, 42, 44, 97
_Psalter_, printed by Caxton, with signatures, 49, 96
Pynson, Richard, not apprenticed to Caxton, 89
Reprinted _Servitium_, 49
Quartos, Almost all early ones unique, 35
_Quatre derrenieres choses_, also called
_Cordiale, Memorare novissima_, or _De quattuor novissimis_,
printed by Caxton and Mansion, 30
Collation, 91
For English translation printed later by Caxton, _see Cordyale_.
_Quattuor Sermones_, printed by Caxton, 56, 96
_Queen Anelida and the false Arcyte_ (Chaucer, G.),
printed by Caxton, 41, 92
Quires of eight leaves, Caxton's books in, 80
Record Office, Document concerning Caxton's daughter, 87
_Recueil des histoires de Troyes_ (Lefevre, R.),
translated by Caxton, 19, 20, 24, 25
Printed by Mansion, 31, 32
_Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_ (Lefevre, R.),
translated by Caxton, 20, 21
Manuscript presented to Duchess of Burgundy, 25
Printed by Caxton, 17, 20, 21, 28-30, fac-simile pl. II.
Collation, 91
Prices, 20-30
Red ink, Caxton's method of printing in, 30, 78
Red Pale, Sign of the, 33
_Reynard the Fox_, translated and printed by Caxton, 49, 51, 52
Reprinted, 75, 76
Collations, 96
Reynes, John, Binding by, 62
Rhodes, Besieged by Turks, 48
Richard II., Command to poet Gower, 59
Ripon Cathedral, Copy of _Vocabulary_, 48-49
Rivers, Lord, Illuminated portrait of, 39
Translator of: _Dictes_, 38, 39
_Quatre derrenieres choses_, 45
Rood and Hunte, Oxford printers, 56
Roxburghe, John, Duke of, Copy of _Blanchardyn and Eglantine_, 75
_Royal Book_, translated and printed by Caxton, sold for £2,225, 67
Binding lined with _Indulgences_, 68
Collation, 96
_Rule of St. Benet_, Part of _Book of divers ghostly matters_, _q. v._
Russell, John. _Propositio Johannis Russell. See Propositio._
St. Alban's Grammar School, Copy of _Boethius_, 37-38, 50
Press, 47
St. John's, Bedford, Church library, 67
St. John's College, Oxford, Copy of _Canterbury Tales_, 59
St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, "Bureyng of Mawde Caxston", 88
Salisbury, Church of. _Hours_, _Legends_, _Missal_, _Ordinale_.
_See_, respectively, _Horae_, _Legenda_, _Missale_,
_Ordinale_, _ad usum Sarum_.
Saona, Laurentius de. _Nova Rhetorica. See Margarita Eloquentiae._
Sarum, Church of. _See_ Salisbury.
Scotland, Andrew Myllar first printer of, 35
Scott, Sir Walter, Comment on _Morte d'Arthur_, 64
Scott, Mr., of British Museum, Remark on Caxton's will, 86
Scrope, Translator of _Dictes_, 52
Selden collection, 75
_Sermones, Quattuor. See Quattuor Sermones._
_Servitium_, or _Festum de Transfiguratione Jesu Christi_,
printed by Caxton, 78, 94, pl. XXI.
_Servitium_, or _Festum de Visitatione Beatae Mariae Virginis_,
printed by Caxton, reprinted by
De Worde and Pynson, 48, 49, 94
_Sex Epistolae_, edited by Petrus Carmelianus, printed by Caxton, 57
Shrewsbury School, Copy of _Confessio Amantis_, 59
Shrewsbury, John Talbot, Earl of, 72
Signatures adopted by Caxton, 47, 49
Sixtus IV. _Indulgence_, 48
_Sex Epistolae_, 57, 97
Skelton, John, Assisted Caxton in translation, 77
Smith, Richard, Copy of _Godfrey of Bologne_, 52
Somerset, Margaret, Duchess of, 75
_Somme des vices et vertus_ (La). For English translation,
_see_ Royal Book.
_Sophologium_, 68
_Speculum Vitae Christi_ (Bonaventura, St.),
printed by Caxton, 67, fac-simile pl. XV.
Second edition, 77
Wood-cut intended for, 79
Collations, 91
Printed by De Worde, 73
Spencer, Lord, Collection of Caxtons at Manchester, 62
Copies of: _Blanchardyn and Eglantine_, with manuscript note, 75
_Dictes_, 39
_Eneydos_, 77
_Four Sons of Aymon_, 74
_Game of the Chess_, 30
_Golden Legend_, 63
_Propositio_, 43, 44
_Recueil_, printed by Mansion, 31
_Recuyell_, 28
_Reynard_, 52
Supplied missing leaves for _Canterbury Tales_, 37
_Stans puer ad mensam_ (Lidgate, J.), printed by Caxton, 41, 96
_Statutes_ of Henry VII., printed by Caxton, 73, 97
Stow, John, Description of "almonesrye," _etc._, 33, 34
Strype, Rev. John, Life of Archbishop Parker, 45
Taylor, Watson, Sale, 31
_Temple of Brass_ (Chaucer, G.), printed by Caxton, 41, 92
_Temple of Glas_ (Lidgate, J.), printed by Caxton, 41, 96
Theological and liturgical books printed by Caxton, 77
Thorney, Roger, 52
Title-page first used at Westminster press, 80
Tour-Landry. _See_ La Tour-Landry.
Trade regulations in England, 19
Translations made by Caxton. _See before under_ Caxton.
_Treatise of Love_, printed with Caxton's type by De Worde, 81, 98
_Treatise on Pestilence_ (Canutus), Title-page prefixed, 80
Trinity College, Dublin, Copy of _Indulgence_, 1489, 73
Triphook, Bookseller, 74
_Troilus and Creside_ (Chaucer, G.), printed by Caxton, 59, 92
Turks, Crusade against, 73
Tutet, Copy of _Chronicles_, 54
_Twelve Profits of Tribulation_, part of
_Book of divers ghostly matters_, _q. v._
Type, Invention of movable, 13
Types, Caxton's No. 1, 22 _et seq._, pl. II.
No. 2, 30, 31, pl. IV.
Recast, 45
No. 2*, 48, pls. VI.-VIII.
No. 3, 49, pls. III., V.
No. 4, 48, 49
Recast, 56 _et seq._
No. 4*, pls. IX.-XI.
De Worde's modification, 80, pl. XXIII.
No. 5, 68, pls. XV., XXI.
No. 6, 80, pls., XIX., XX.
No. 7, 72, 73, pl. XVIII.
No. 8, pl. XX.
Caxton's types used by Mansion, 31, 32
By De Worde, 80-82, 98
Chronological arrangement of Caxton's books by, 73, 74
Smallest used. _See_ No. 7.
Upsala University Library, Copy of _Margarita Eloquentiae_, 45
Utrecht, Printing at, 26
Vander Haeghen, Dr. Ferdinand, 78
Veldener, John, printer at Louvain, 26, 27
Vellum, Copy of _Doctrinal of Sapience_ printed on, 76
Not used by Caxton for bindings, 75
Venetians, Letters in interest of, 57
Vincentius. _Mirrour of the World. See Mirrour._
Vineis, R. de. _Life of St. Katherine of Senis. See Katherine._
Virgilius. _Eneydos. See Eneydos._
Visitation, Feast of, 49
_See also Servitium._
_Vitas Patrum_ (St. Jerome), translated by Caxton,
printed by De Worde, 90
_Vocabulary in French and English_, printed by Caxton, 48, 97
Voragine, Jacques de. _Golden Legend. See Golden Legend._
Waste sheets found in bindings, 38, 68
Weald of Kent, Birthplace of Caxton, 15, 16
Weidenbach, Monastery of, 24
Westminster Abbey, Caxton's will possibly preserved in, 86
Westminster press, Conducted by Caxton, 33-79
List of books printed by Caxton, 91-97
Continued by De Worde, 80-85
List of books printed by De Worde, 98
White Knights sale, 1819, 55
Windsor Royal Library, Copy of _Doctrinal of Sapience_, 76
_Fables of Aesop_, 61
_Winifred, Life of the Holy and Blessed Virgin St._,
translated and printed by Caxton, 59, 97
Women, Caxton adds to _Dictes_ chapter on, 38
Wood-cuts. A, first wood-cut initial used in England, 48, 62
Caxton's first illustrations, 51
Not engraved abroad, 53
Doing double duty, 58
Special cuts mentioned: Crucifixion, pl. XXII.
Caxton's device, 70, 71, pl. XVI.
De Worde's device, 81
"Figure of a Philosopher", 76, pl. VIII.
Transfiguration, 76
Special mention of illustrated books:
_Cato parvus et magnus_, 3d ed., 53
_Canterbury Tales_, 58, pl. X.
_Directorium_, 66
_Fables of Aesop_, 61, pls. XII., XIII.
_Fifteen Oes_, 78, pl. XXII.
_Game of Chess_, 2d ed., 53, pl. VIII.
_Golden Legend_, 63
_Image of Pity_, 66, pl. XIV.
_Mirrour_, 51, 76, pls. VI., VII.
_Speculum_, 67, 79, pl. XV.
Wool trade, Abbots of Westminster in, 34
Worde, Wynkyn de, Printer. Birth, _etc._, 88, 89
Device, 81, 88
Printed books with Caxton's type, 79 _et seq._, 88, 98
_Also Ars moriendi_, 77-78
_Four Sons of Aymon_, 74
_King Apolyn of Tyre_, 34
_Polycronicon_, 52
_Speculum_, 73
Quatrain about Caxton at Cologne, 22, pl. I.
Remark on Caxton's death in _Vitas Patrum_, 90
Wood-cut used by, pl. XXII.
York Cathedral, Copy of _Chorle_, 2d ed., 42
_Horse_, 41
Zel, Ulric, Printer at Cologne, 24
PRINTED FOR THE CAXTON CLUB BY
R. R DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO
[Illustration]
[Advertisement pasted into the front of this Book:
WITH A GENUINE LEAF PRINTED BY W. CAXTON PRESERVED AT END.
44 CAXTON (William), by E. GORDON DUFF.
_With 25 full-plates of facsimiles of specimens of his work,
etc._
4to, orig. boards, uncut. _Chicago, The Caxton Club_, 1905.
(SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE NO. XVII.)
The above is one of a few special copies, each of which
contains A GENUINE ORIGINAL LEAF (contained in a pocket
at end), from a copy of the First Edition of Chaucer's
"Canterbury Tales," printed by Caxton, and formerly in Lord
Ashburnham's Library, having been purchased for this purpose
by the Caxton Club.
The Author has compiled an extremely interesting Biography of
the First English Printer, avoiding, as far as possible, the
merely mechanical bibliographical details (which have been
relegated in an abridged form to an Appendix), and has
confined himself to a more general description of the Books,
especially of those not hitherto correctly or fully
described, and is able to add to the Bibliographical List some
discoveries and corrections, since Blades published his great
work in 1861.
]
Transcriber's Note:
_ _ represents italic text
= = represents bold text
^ indicates a superscript. Characters after ^ are to be
treated as superscript until the next space or punctuation
mark, unless overridden by braces.
The spelling in parts of this book is from the 15th century,
some centuries before spelling rules existed. The text is as
printed.
Sundry missing or damaged punctuation has been repaired.
Both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants of many words
occur in this book. All have been retained.
Illustrations which interrupted paragraphs have been moved to
more convenient positions between paragraphs, and Index page
numbers amended, if necessary.
Page 24: 'plait' corrected to 'plaît'.
"tôt ou tard, s'il plait à Dieu, sur William Caxton...."
Page 93: '8' corrected to 'a'.
"Cordyale fol. 1479
[a-i^8, k^6]; 78 leaves. Leaves 1, 78 blank.
Page 95: 'Ed. 2' added to 2nd entry, as for similar entries
above and below.
"Lidgate (John). The horse, the sheep and the goose 4to [1477]
[a^8, b^10]; 18 leaves. Leaf 1 blank.
Lidgate (John). The horse, the sheep and the goose.
Ed. 2 4to [1477] [a^8, b^10]; 18 leaves. Leaf 1 blank."
Page 115: 'Somerest' corrected to 'Somerset'.
"Somerset, Margaret, Duchess of, 75"
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