The Sandars Lectures
1899 and 1904
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
[Illustration]
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS.
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
[_All Rights reserved_]
The Printers, Stationers
and Bookbinders
of Westminster and London
from 1476 to 1535
By
E. GORDON DUFF, M.A. Oxon.
Sometime Sandars Reader in Bibliography in
the University of Cambridge
Cambridge
at the University Press
1906
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
TO
FRANCIS JOHN HENRY JENKINSON
IN REMEMBRANCE OF MUCH KINDNESS
AND MUCH PLEASANT WORK
IN CAMBRIDGE
PREFACE
The lectures contained in the present volume I delivered as Sandars
Reader in two series, the first in the Lent Term 1899, the second in
the May Term 1904 and they are thus separated by an interval of five
years. Of the first series a small edition was privately printed for
presentation, but never published, the second series is now printed
for the first time. Though the second part forms a continuation of the
first, the two are quite distinct. With the close of the fifteenth
century many important changes took place in the English book-trade,
and its conditions altered to a great extent, so that the period
from 1476 to 1500 has many essential points of difference from the
period between 1501 and 1535 and they can with advantage be treated
separately. I have thought it best therefore not to attempt to combine
the two series, but to issue them, with certain corrections and
additions in their original form.
It remains to express my sincere thanks to Dr Jenkinson, the University
Librarian who was kind enough to read the proofs, and to Mr H. G. Aldis
to whom I am indebted for the excellent index.
E. G. D.
_April, 1906._
LIST OF PLATES
(_These plates are the full size of the originals._)
1. TITLE-PAGE TO W. DE WORDE’S EDITION OF THE
‘BOOK OF GOOD MANNERS’ _to face_ p. 36
From the unique copy in the University Library, Cambridge.
2. MACHLINIA BORDER USED BY R. PYNSON IN
‘APHTHONII SOPHISTAE PRAEEXERCITAMENTA’ _to face_ p. 56
From the copy in the University Library, Cambridge.
3. PAGE OF THE SARUM BREVIARY PRINTED BY R. DE
NOVIMAGIO AT VENICE IN 1483 _to face_ p. 74
From the unique copy in the Bibliothéque Nationale.
4. BINDING OF FREDERICK EGMONT ON A COPY OF
‘LAVACRUM CONSCIENTIAE’ PRINTED AT ROUEN _to face_ p. 114
From the example in the library of Caius College, Cambridge.
5. UNRECORDED DEVICE USED BY W. DE WORDE IN
THE ‘MANIPULUS CURATORUM’ OF 1502 _to face_ p. 132
From the unique copy in the Bodleian Library.
6. TITLE-PAGE TO R. REDMAN’S EDITION OF LYNDEWODE’S
‘CONSTITUTIONS’ OF 1534 _to face_ p. 176
From the copy in the University Library, Cambridge.
7. DEVICE OF CHRISTOPHER ENDHOVEN FROM THE SARUM
‘PROCESSIONALE’ PRINTED AT ANTWERP IN 1525 _to face_ p. 222
From the copy in the Bodleian Library.
PART I.
1476-1500.
LECTURE I.
THE PRINTERS AT WESTMINSTER.
While the history of the invention and introduction of the art of
printing into the various countries of Europe is not only obscure,
but still the subject of endless controversy, the history of its
introduction into England is now practically settled.
There are no troublesome and incomprehensible documents as in the case
of France. No questionable references or undatable fragments such as
Dutch and German bibliographers have to contend with. The only attempt
that has been made to bring forward an earlier printer than William
Caxton is founded upon the misprinted date in the first book printed at
Oxford.
In 1664, while the Company of Stationers and the King were quarrelling
over the question which had or should have the most power in matters
pertaining to printing, a certain Richard Atkyns put forth a tract,
now exceedingly rare, called _The Original and Growth of Printing_. In
this tract, intended to uphold the King’s rights, attention was drawn
for the first time to the Oxford book. “A book came into my hands,”
writes Atkyns, “printed at Oxford, A.D. 1468, which was three years
before any of the recited authors would allow it to be in England.”
Around this book Atkyns wove a wonderful romance, in the style of
the earlier legends about Coster and Gutenberg. Rumours of the new
art, he suggests, having reached England, trusted men were sent over
to bribe or kidnap an eligible printer and bring him over secretly,
along with a press, type, and other _impedimenta_, to England. This
was accordingly done, and a certain Frederick Corsellis was conveyed
into England, and set up a press in Oxford. One curious point has
escaped all commentators on this story, and that is that a real person
named Corsellis did come over to England from the Low Countries about
that time, and was an ancestor of several well-known London families
in Atkyns’s time, such as the Van Ackers, the Wittewronges and the
Middletons.
Atkyns referred for evidence to documents which have never been found,
and his story has met with the disbelief it deserved, but the Oxford
book with the date of 1468 not only exists, but still has supporters
who consider, or say they consider, the date to be genuine.
Singer in the early part of the century wrote a book in favour of its
authenticity, though, as he afterwards attempted to suppress his work,
we may conclude he had changed his opinion. Mr Madan of the Bodleian,
in his recent admirable history of Oxford printing, clings hesitatingly
to 1468, “but quaere” as he would himself say. Generally, however it
is agreed that the date is a misprint for 1478. The book has printed
signatures, which are not known to have been used before 1472, and
when the book is placed alongside the two others issued from the same
press in 1479 and printed in the same type, it falls naturally into
its proper place, taking just the small precedence which its slightly
lesser excellence of workmanship warrants.
Having now disposed of Caxton’s only rival, let us turn to Caxton
himself. It would, I think, be out of place here to recapitulate
however shortly the history of Caxton’s early life, since it has been
so fully and excellently done in that standard book Blades’s _Life
of Caxton_. What is more to our purpose is to pass on to the time
when, as an influential and prosperous man, he laid the foundations
of his career as a printer. By 1463 Caxton had been appointed to
the office of governor of the English nation in the Low Countries,
a post of considerable importance, and entailing the supervision
of trade and traders, and this office he held until about the year
1469. At this latter date he was also in the service of the Duchess
of Burgundy, though in what capacity is not stated; but he certainly
employed himself at her request in making translations of romances.
The _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_, a well-known romance of the
period, was translated between the years 1469 and 1471, and presented
to the duchess in September of the latter year. In the prologue of the
printed edition Caxton explains that after the duchess had received
her copy, many other persons desired copies also, but that finding the
labour of writing too wearisome for him, and not expeditious enough for
his friends, he had “practised and learnt, at his great charge and
expense, to ordain the book in print, to the end that every man might
have them at once.”
Now in 1471, when Caxton finished his translation of the _Recueil_,
he was living at Cologne, a city remarkable even at that time for the
number of its printers, and the first town that Caxton had visited
where the art was practised. He had just finished the tedious copying
of a large manuscript, so that the advantages of printing would be
manifest to him; and we may be tolerably certain that it was about this
time and at this town that he took his first lessons in the art and
mastered the mechanical processes.
Printing by this time had ceased to be a secret art, nor was there
such a demand for books as to make it a very valuable one. The printed
books of Germany had at an early date found their way to Bruges, and
people’s eyes were accustomed to the sight of the printed page, though
the nobles still preferred manuscripts, as being more ornamental and
costly. There are copies in the Cambridge University Library and at
Lambeth of the _Cicero de officiis_, printed at Mainz by Schoiffer in
1466, which were bought in 1467 at Bruges by John Russell, afterwards
Bishop of Lincoln, when abroad on a diplomatic mission; and a speech of
his, delivered at Ghent in 1470, on the occasion of the investiture of
the Duke of Burgundy with the order of the Garter, was one of Caxton’s
earliest printed productions.
A very strong piece of evidence to my mind that Caxton learnt at
Cologne is to be found in the epilogue to the English translation of
the _De proprietatibus rerum_, by Bartholomæus Anglicus, which was
printed by W. de Worde, Caxton’s apprentice and successor, in 1496.
This epilogue, written by De Worde himself, contains these lines:--
And also of your charyte call to remembraunce,
The soule of William Caxton, first prynter of this boke,
In Laten tonge at Coleyn, hymself to avaunce,
That every well disposyd man, may theron loke.
Now this is a perfectly clear statement that Caxton printed a
_Bartholomæus_ in Latin at Cologne, and we know an edition of the
book manifestly printed at Cologne about the time Caxton was there.
The type in which it is printed greatly resembles that of some other
Cologne printers, and it seems to be connected with some of Caxton’s
Bruges types. At any rate, the story cannot be put aside as without
foundation. It is not, of course, suggested that Caxton printed the
book by himself or owned the materials, but only that he assisted in
its production. He was learning the art of printing in the office where
this book was being prepared, and his practical knowledge was acquired
by assisting to print it.
Returning to Bruges, he set about turning his knowledge to account,
and in partnership with a writer of manuscripts, named Colard Mansion,
began to make or obtain the necessary materials.
Between the years 1471, when Caxton had learned the art at Cologne,
and 1474, when he set about obtaining material, printing-presses
had started work at Utrecht, Alost, and Louvain. Caxton would most
naturally turn for assistance to a town in his own neighbourhood, and
there is very little doubt that this town was Louvain, and that the
printer who assisted him was John Veldener.
About 1475 their first book was issued, the _Recuyell of the Historyes
of Troye_, the first book printed in the English language. It is
a small thick folio of 352 leaves, and though not uncommon in an
imperfect condition, is of the very greatest rarity when perfect. Two
other books were printed by 1476, _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_
and the _Quatre derrenières choses_, the latter a very rare book, of
which only two copies are known.
In 1476 Caxton obtained a new fount of type, and leaving the first
fount with Colard Mansion, who continued to use it for a short time,
prepared to set out with his new material for England.
It must have been early in 1476 that Caxton returned and set to work.
He took up his residence in Westminster at a house with the heraldic
sign of the “Red Pale,” which was situated in the Almonry, a place
close to the Abbey where alms were distributed to the poor, and where
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII., and a great
patroness of learning, built alms-houses. The exact position of
Caxton’s house is not known, but it was probably on some part of the
ground lately covered by the Westminster Aquarium.
The first dated book printed in England was the _Dictes or Sayengis
of the Philosophres_, translated from the French by Earl Rivers, a
friend and patron of Caxton, and edited by Caxton himself, who added
the chapter “concernyng wymmen,” a chapter which, with its prologue,
exhibits a considerable amount of humour.
It is interesting to notice that, as the book is in English, we alone
of European nations started our press with a book in the vernacular.
The ordinary copies of the _Dictes_ are without colophon, though
the printer and year are in the epilogue, but a copy formerly in the
Althorp Library and now at Manchester has an imprint which states
that the book was finished on the 18th November, 1477. Although we
count the _Dictes or Sayengis_ as the first book printed in England on
account of its being the first dated book, it is quite possible that
some may have preceded it. Between the time of Caxton’s arrival in
1476 and the end of 1478 about twenty-one books were printed, and only
two have imprints, so that the rest are merely ranged conjecturally by
the evidence of type or other details. Now in 1510 W. de Worde issued
an edition of _King Apolyn of Tyre_, translated from the French by
one of his assistants, Robert Copland, who in his preface writes as
follows: “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
aduentures right espouuentables, 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 this Robert Copland was
spoken of a little later as the oldest printer in England, so that he
may well have known a good deal about the beginning of Caxton’s career.
We find a very similar case in Scotland. Printing was introduced there
mainly for the purpose of printing the Aberdeen _Breviary_, but the
first thing the printers did was to issue a series of small poetical
pieces by Dunbar, Chaucer, and others, an exactly similar kind of set
to the small Caxton pieces in the Cambridge University Library.
In connexion with these Caxton pieces I noticed the other day a strange
statement. The writer was speaking of Henry Bradshaw’s knowledge of
Caxton, and went on to say that “to his bibliographical genius the
Cambridge University Library owes the possession of its many unique
Caxtons and unique Caxton fragments.” The library, however, owes
them mainly to the much-maligned John Bagford, who collected the
early English books which came to the University with Bishop Moore’s
library. The monstrous collection of title-pages in the British Museum,
generally associated with Bagford’s name, was made by the venerated
founder of English bibliography, Joseph Ames.
Before the end of 1478 Caxton had printed about twenty-one books.
Of these sixteen were small works, all containing less than fifty
leaves; of the others the most important is the first edition of the
_Canterbury Tales_, of which there is, I think, no perfect copy. Blades
speaks of a fine perfect copy in the library of Merton College, Oxford,
and remarks also that Dibdin ignorantly spoke of it as imperfect. In
Dibdin’s time, however, it certainly was imperfect, for I have seen
some notes of Lord Spencer’s referring to his having sent some leaves
from an imperfect copy to the college to assist them in perfecting
their own, a courtesy which they repaid by presenting to the library at
Althorp their duplicate and only other known copy of _Wednesday’s Fast_
printed by W. de Worde in 1532.
Among the other books of the period of special interest is the
_Propositio Johannis Russell_, which has often been ascribed to the
Bruges press, as the speech of which it consists was delivered in the
Low Countries. Lord Spencer’s copy had a curious history. It is bound
up in a volume of English and Latin MSS., and in the Brand sale in 1807
the volume appeared among the MSS., with a note, “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 the Marquis
of Blandford for forty-five shillings, and at his sale ten years after
cost Lord Spencer £126.
Another interesting book is the _Infancia Salvatoris_, of which the
only known copy is at Göttingen, being one of the two unique Caxtons
which are in foreign libraries. It was originally in the Harleian
Library, which was sold entire to Osborne the bookseller, and was
bought with many other books for the Göttingen University. It is in
its old red Harleian binding, with Osborne’s price, fifteen shillings
marked inside, and the note of the Göttingen librarian: “aus dem
Katalogen Thomas Osborne in London 12 Maii 1749 (No. 4179) erkauft.”
In the first group of books comes also the only printed edition of the
_Sarum Ordinale_ or _Pica_, which was superseded by Clement Maydeston’s
_Directorium Sacerdotum_. Unfortunately the book is only known from
some fragments rescued from a binding and now in the British Museum.
To it refers the curious little advertisement put out by Caxton, the
only example of a printer’s advertisement in England in the fifteenth
century, though we know of many foreign specimens: “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 haue them good chepe.” So
far the advertisement; below it is the appeal to the public, “Supplico
stet cedula.” It seems curious that this should be in Latin, for one
would naturally suppose that the ones most likely to tear down the
advertisement would be the persons ignorant of that language.
Two copies of this advertisement are known, one in the Bodleian, and
another, formerly in the Althorp collection, at Manchester. It has been
suggested that both copies may have been at one time extracted from
some old binding in the Cambridge University Library. The example at
Manchester certainly belonged at one time to Richard Farmer, who was
University Librarian, but the Bodleian example was found by Francis
Douce in a binding in his own collection.
The group of eight small books in the University Library which I spoke
of as perhaps printed earlier than the _Dictes or Sayengis_ were
originally all bound together in one volume in old calf, and lettered
“Old poetry printed by Caxton.” This precious volume contained 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_, and of
five of these no other copies are known.
About 1478-9 was issued the _Rhetorica Nova_ of Laurentius of Savona,
of which two copies are known, one in the Library of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, the other in the University Library of Upsala. Now
although this book had been known and examined by many for two hundred
years, and is printed in the most widely used of Caxton’s types, yet it
was not recognised as a Caxton until it was examined by Henry Bradshaw
in 1861. The colophon says that the work was compiled in the University
of Cambridge in 1478, and it was in consequence described by all the
early writers as the first book printed at Cambridge. Strype wrote
an account of the Corpus copy to Bagford, who in his turn wrote of
it to Tanner, and he in his turn communicated it to Ames. Ames then
inserted it at the head of his list of books printed at Cambridge, and
the mistake, as is usual in such cases, was copied in turn by each
succeeding writer on printing.
In 1480 considerable changes are to be found in Caxton’s methods of
work, owing no doubt to competition, for in this year a press was
started in London by a certain John Lettou. He appears to have been a
practised printer, and his work is certainly better than Caxton’s, his
type much smaller and neater, and the page more regularly printed. He
also introduced into England the use of signatures. Signatures are the
small letters printed at the foot of the page which were intended to
serve as a guide to the bookbinder in gathering up the sheets. From the
earliest times they were added in writing both to manuscripts and the
earliest printed books, but about 1472 printers began to print them in
type, and the habit soon became general. Caxton’s use of signatures
begins in 1480 and was doubtless copied from the London printer.
At the beginning of 1480 Caxton had printed an indulgence in his large
type, the second of his founts, and immediately afterwards the London
printer issued another edition in his small neat type. Caxton promptly
had another fount cut of small type, and issued with it a third edition
of the indulgence.
It is a matter much to be regretted that Henry Bradshaw never issued
one of his _Memoranda_ on the subject of these indulgences, for he had
collected much interesting information, and was the first to point out
the variations in the wording of the different issues as well as the
discoverer of several unknown examples.
The year 1481 saw the introduction of illustrations, which were first
used in the _Mirror of the World_. In it there are two sets of cuts,
one depicting various masters, either alone or with several pupils,
the other are merely diagrams copied from those found in manuscripts
of the work. These diagrams are meagre and difficult to understand,
so much so that the printer himself has put several in their wrong
places. The explanatory words inside the diagrams, which would no
doubt have been printed in type had Caxton had a fount small enough,
are written by hand. It is interesting to notice that in all copies of
the book the same handwriting is found, though I am afraid it would be
unsafe to conclude it to be Caxton’s. The period from 1480 to 1483 is
the least interesting as regards Caxton’s books. Besides the _Mirror
of the World_ only two books contain woodcuts; the _Catho_, and the
second edition of the _Game and Playe of the Chesse_. The two cuts in
the _Catho_ had been used before in the _Mirror_, but the sixteen in
the chess-book are specially cut, though clearly by a different artist
from the one who made those for the _Mirror_. Mr Linton in his book on
wood-engraving expressed the opinion that many of these cuts were of
soft metal, treated in the same manner as a wood-block, but whenever we
find any of them in use for a long period, the breaks which occur in
them and the occurrence sometimes even of worm-holes show that the cut
must have been of wood.
Among the other books of this period are the first and second editions
of _Caxton’s Chronicle_ and _Higden’s Polycronicon_. The unique copy
of the Latin _Psalter_ in the British Museum, a Caxton which remained
unidentified until fairly recently, also belongs to about 1480, but
perhaps the most interesting book of all is the first edition in
English of _Reynard the Fox_. This was translated by Caxton from the
Dutch, the translation being finished in June, 1481, and the book
evidently printed at once. It is curious that this book, which would
lend itself so readily to illustration, was not printed with woodcuts,
but Caxton after using them in 1481 made no further move in this
direction until 1484, when another group of illustrated books appeared.
It always looks as though Caxton, and indeed his own words tend to
prove it, was much more interested in the literary side of his work
than in the mechanical, and therefore only called in the aid of the
wood-engraver when he thought it absolutely necessary. He wished his
books to be purchased on their merits alone, and therefore did not try,
like the later printers, to use illustrations merely to attract the
unwary purchaser. On the other hand, as none of the other printers in
England issued illustrated books, he had no competition to contend with.
A book which may have been printed about this time, but if so has
entirely disappeared, is a translation of the _Metamorphoses of Ovid_.
In the Pepysian Library is a MS. of books x.-xv., with the following
colophon: “Translated and fynysshed by me William Caxton at Westmestre,
the 22 day of Apryll, the yere of our lord 1480 And the 20 yere of the
Regne of Kyng Edward the fourth.” It seems very improbable Caxton would
have taken the trouble to make this translation had he not intended
it to be printed, and he mentions it in one of his prologues amongst
a series of books which he had translated and printed. This MS. was
bought by Pepys at an auction in 1688.
Another interesting point to be noticed about it is that 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, and the manuscript may have been presented to him by
Caxton himself.
The period from 1483 to 1486 is more interesting. First in order comes
the first edition of Mirk’s _Liber Festivalis_ and its supplement the
_Quattuor Sermones_. The next is a small quarto pamphlet known as the
_Sex quam elegantissimæ epistolæ_, and consisting of letters that
passed between Sixtus IV. and the Venetian Republic. The only copy
known was found bound up in a volume of seventeenth century theological
tracts in the library at Halberstadt, and was sold in 1890 to the
British Museum for £200. After these come a series of English writers,
Lidgate’s _Life of our Lady_; Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_, _Troilus
and Cressida_, and _Hous of Fame_; Gower’s _Confessio amantis_, and the
_Life of St Wenefrede_. The _Canterbury Tales_ is the second edition
published by Caxton, and has a peculiarly interesting preface by the
printer, in which he tells us that having some six years before printed
the _Canterbury Tales_, which were sold to many and divers gentlemen,
one of the number had complained that the text was corrupt. He said,
however, that his father had a very fine MS. of the poem which he
valued highly, but that he thought he might be able to borrow it.
Caxton at once promised that if this could be done, he would reprint
the book. This second edition is ornamented with a series of cuts of
the different characters, and one of all the pilgrims seated together
at supper at an immense round table. This cut does duty several times
later on as the frontispiece of Lidgate’s _Assembly of the Gods_.
In the same year as the _Canterbury Tales_ appeared two other
illustrated books, the _Fables of Esop_, and the _Golden Legend_. The
_Esop_ has one large full-page cut of Esop used as a frontispiece and
which is found only in the copy at Windsor Castle, and no less than
a hundred and eighty-five smaller cuts, the work of two if not three
engravers, one being evidently the man who made the cuts for the
chess-book.
The _Golden Legend_ is the largest book ever printed by Caxton. It
contains 449 leaves, and is printed on a much larger-sized paper
than he ever used elsewhere, the full sheet measuring about two feet
by sixteen inches. The frontispiece is a large woodcut representing
the saints in glory, while in addition there are eighteen large and
fifty-two small cuts, the large series including one of the device of
the Earl of Arundel, to whom the book is dedicated. The three dated
books of 1485 are all especially important. The first is the first
edition of the _Morte d’Arthur_, surely the most covetable of all
Caxton’s books. For many years only one copy was known in the library
of Osterley Park, and many were the attempts made by the two great
Caxton collectors in the early years of last century, Lord Spencer and
his nephew, the Duke of Devonshire, to obtain the treasure. The Duke of
Devonshire almost succeeded, but was foiled by some awkward clause in a
deed. However, another copy appeared at a sale in Wales, wanting eleven
leaves, but otherwise in beautiful condition, and this was bought by
Lord Spencer. The Osterley Park copy was sold in 1885 for £1950, and
went to America, and after several changes of ownership is now in the
fine library of Mr Hoe of New York. The other two dated books are the
_Life of that Noble and Christian Prince, Charles the Great_, and the
_History of the Knight Paris and Fair Vienne_. Both of these books were
translated by Caxton from the French. Only one copy of each is known,
and both are in the British Museum.
After 1485 Caxton’s energy began to decline, or at any rate we know of
fewer books having been issued during the period from 1486 to 1489. The
_Speculum vitæ Christi_ and the _Royal Book_ belong to 1486, and are
illustrated with woodcuts of a very much superior execution to those
which had been previously in use; they are not large, but are simply
and gracefully designed. Besides the regular series in the _Speculum_
specially cut for it, a few very small and rather roughly designed cuts
are found, evidently cut for use in one of the editions of the Sarum
_Horae_, which were issued at an earlier date, but of which nothing
now remains but a few odd leaves. It is interesting to notice that in
neither edition of the _Speculum_ which he printed did Caxton use the
full series of the cuts which had been engraved for it; for, several
years afterwards, one or two cuts occur in books printed by Caxton’s
successor, evidently part of the series, and which he had never used
himself. To this time may be ascribed the newest Caxton discovery, two
fragments printed on vellum of an edition of the _Donatus Melior_,
revised by Mancinellus, which were discovered some few years ago by
Proctor in the binding of a book in the library of New College, Oxford.
In 1487 Caxton was anxious to issue an edition of the Sarum _Missal_,
and, not considering his own type suitable for the purpose,
commissioned a Paris printer named William Maynyal to print one for
him. Who this Paris printer was is a matter of mystery. In 1489
and 1490 he printed two service books for the use of the Church of
Chartres, but is not otherwise known. A George Maynyal, probably a
relation, printed at Paris about 1480, and M. Claudin conjectures on
somewhat vague grounds, that both were English. The _Missal_ is a very
handsome book, printed in red and black, with two fine woodcuts at the
Canon. The only known copy, which belongs to Lord Newton of Lyme Park,
appears to have met at an early date with bad treatment, and wants some
seventeen leaves, mostly at the beginning.
In this book for the first time Caxton uses his well-known device,
consisting of his trade or merchant’s mark, with his initials on either
side.
Whether this device was cut in England or abroad has long been a vexed
question, but as it has no resemblance to any foreign device of the
period, and as the execution is poor and coarse, we may conclude safely
that it is of native work. Caxton, no doubt, wished to call attention
to the fact, which might have escaped notice, that the book was
produced for him and at his cost; and so when the copies of the book
had been delivered to him at Westminster he had the device cut, and
stamped it on the last leaf of each copy. In this edition the portion
of the marriage service in English has been omitted by the printer, who
has left blank spaces for it to be filled in with the pen. There was
an edition of the Sarum _Legenda_ issued about the same time, which is
known now only from a few odd leaves rescued from book-bindings. It
agrees in every way typographically with the _Missal_, it is in the
same type, has the same number of lines to the page, every detail the
same, so I think we have good reason for supposing that it also was
printed by Maynyal for Caxton. Bradshaw suggested Higman, the Paris
printer, as the printer of these fragments, so that Maynyal may have
had some business connexion with him.
The second edition of the _Golden Legend_ came out shortly after this,
that is about 1488, and is a difficult book to explain typographically.
About 200 leaves are of the first edition, while the beginning, a small
piece of the middle, and the end are of the second. Now it is curious
that no copy in existence seems to be correctly made up with the full
number of second edition leaves, and the most probable explanation
seems to be that part of the stock happening to get damaged, a reprint
was made to complete what was left, and that sheets were picked
indiscriminately. The most nearly perfect second issue that I have seen
is the one at Aberdeen, but it is imperfect at beginning and end. The
copy in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow has a second edition ending,
and also part of the first quire of the second issue.
In 1489 two editions of an indulgence from Joannes de Gigliis were
issued, printed in a type used nowhere else by Caxton and not mentioned
by Blades. The earliest noticed of these indulgences was discovered
in the following manner. Cotton, who found it at Dublin, published an
account of it in the second series of his _Typographical Gazetteer_ in
1862, and he there described it as a product of the early Oxford press.
Bradshaw obtained a photograph of it, and at once conjectured from
the form and appearance of the type that it was printed by Caxton. He
immediately communicated his discovery to Blades, who, however, refused
to accept it as a product of Caxton’s press without further proof, and
it was never mentioned in any edition of his books on that printer. The
necessary proof was soon afterwards forthcoming, for Bradshaw found
that in a book printed by W. de Worde in 1494, the sidenotes were in
this identical type, and as De Worde was the inheritor of all Caxton’s
material, this fount must have belonged to him.
About the same year were issued two unique books, _The History of
Blanchardin and Eglantine_, and the _Four Sons of Aymon_.
The _Blanchardin_ is unfortunately imperfect, wanting all the end, and
it is impossible to say of how much this consisted. The _Four Sons of
Aymon_ is also imperfect, wanting a few leaves at the beginning. Both
books were formerly in the Spencer Library. The _Doctrinal of Sapience_
published in 1489 is a translation by Caxton from a French version, and
one particular copy of it in the Royal library at Windsor is worthy
of special notice. It is printed throughout upon vellum, a material
which Caxton hardly ever used, the only other complete book so printed
being a copy of the _Speculum Vitæ Christi_ in the British Museum. This
particular copy of the _Doctrinal_ has also a special chapter added “Of
the negligences happyng in the masse and of the remedyes” which is not
found in any other copy. That it was specially printed is evident from
its concluding words, “This chapitre to fore I durst not sette in the
boke by cause it is not conuenyent ne aparteynyng that euery layman
sholde knowe it.”
During the last year or two of his life most of the books issued by
Caxton were of a religious nature. Some would have us believe that
this was owing to illness or a premonition of his own approaching end,
some to the fact that his wife, if the Maud Caxton who was buried in
1490 was his wife, was just dead. Both these ideas seem to me rather
fanciful. He no doubt printed what was most in demand. One book issued
about this time was certainly not religious. It is a free paraphrase
of some portions of the _Æneid_ and was translated by Caxton from the
French. It does not pretend to be a translation of the original, but
was abused soundly by Gavin Douglas, who issued a translation in
1553, for its many inaccuracies. Amongst the religious books I may
mention the _Ars Moriendi_, a little quarto of eight leaves, which was
discovered by Henry Bradshaw in a volume of tracts in the Bodleian, and
of which no other copy is known, and the very interesting _Commemoratio
lamentationis beate Marie_, which is in the University Library at Ghent
and which is one of the two unique Caxtons on the Continent. It was, I
believe, picked up by one of the librarians bound in a volume of tracts
and by him presented to the University Library. This Caxton bought for
a trifle in Belgium may be considered as the real successor to the
imaginary one picked off the stall in Holland by the celebrated Snuffy
Davy of the _Antiquary_.
The _Fifteen Oes_ is another of these religious books. Its name is
taken from the fact that each of the fifteen prayers of which it is
composed begins with O, and it was printed as a supplement to a Sarum
_Horæ_, with later editions of which it was generally incorporated. It
contains a beautiful woodcut of the Crucifixion, and is also the only
existing book printed by Caxton which had borders round the pages.
That a _Horae_ to accompany it was printed is most probable, for the
Crucifixion is only one of a set of cuts which was used, together with
the borders, in an edition printed about 1494.
Though most of the books at this time can only be arranged
conjecturally it is probable that the last book printed by Caxton was
the _Book of Divers Ghostly Matters_. It consists really of three
tracts, each separately printed, the _Seven Points of True Love_, the
_Twelve Profits of Tribulation_, and the _Rule of St Benet_; but as
they are always found bound together, they are classed as one book.
There is one cut in the second treatise taken from the _Speculum_
series, but no other illustrations.
Caxton used during his career eight founts of type, of which six only
are included in Blades’s enumeration. The late French type which
appeared about 1490-91, and is found in a few of the latest books,
such as the _Ars Moriendi_ and the _Fifteen Oes_, Blades considered
not to have been used until after Caxton’s death; and the type of the
1489 indulgences was not mentioned at all. Blades’s arrangement, too,
of the books under their types, though correct in a certain way, is a
very misleading one, for he takes the types in their order, and then
arranges all the books under the type in which the body of the book
is printed. Now this leads to considerable confusion when different
types were in use together. For instance, Caxton started at Westminster
with types 2 and 3, and both are used in his first book, but Blades
puts the books in type 3 after all those in type 2, and thus the Sarum
_Ordinale_, perhaps the second book printed in England, certainly one
of the earliest, comes thirty-sixth on his list. Now, though Blades’s
arrangement was not a chronological one, 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 follows Blades’s arrangement without any
reference to his system or mention of the types.
Caxton printed in England ninety-six separate books, and, counting in
the three printed by him at Bruges, and the Sarum _Missal_, altogether
one hundred, of which ninety-four are mentioned by Blades. It is true
that Blades describes ninety-nine books, but he includes two certainly
printed at Bruges after Caxton had left, and three printed by De Worde
after Caxton’s death. But it is not the mere number of the books he
printed that makes Caxton’s career so remarkable, but the fact that
he edited almost every book he issued, and translated a large number.
He himself says that he had translated twenty-two, and the statement
was made at a time previous to his making several others, and when we
consider that amongst his translations is to be included such a large
book as the _Golden Legend_, we can only wonder that he printed as much
as he did.
Of the exact date of his death we have no evidence, but it evidently
must have taken place in 1491. It is unfortunate, too, that no copy
of his will has been preserved; for the collection of documents in
Westminster Abbey, where it might, with most probability, have been
expected to be found, has been searched in vain. The will, besides the
interesting personal details which it might supply, would most likely
give some information about those engaged with him in business, the
assistants who worked his presses, or the stationers who sold his books.
Of his family we know next to nothing. We know that he was married
and had a daughter named Elizabeth, who was married to a merchant
named Gerard Croppe, from whom she obtained a deed of separation
in 1496. Had Caxton had a son he would probably have continued the
printing business. As it was the printing materials were inherited by
his assistant or apprentice Wynkyn de Worde, who continued to carry
on work in his old master’s house at Westminster. In his letters of
denization, taken out so late as the 20th April, 1496, he is described
as a printer, and a native of the Duchy of Lorraine. His name, De
Worde, which some have fallen into the mistake of deriving from the
town of Woerden in Holland, is clearly taken from the town of Wörth
in Alsace; indeed, the printer sometimes uses the form Worth in place
of Worde. Although he inherited Caxton’s business, which was no doubt
a flourishing one, he seems to have started on his own account with
very little vigour or enterprise. Indeed, so torpid was the press at
that time that foreign printers found it worth their while to produce
and import reprints of Caxton’s books for sale in this country, books
to which I shall refer more fully in a future lecture. We soon see
that we have to deal now with a man who was merely a mechanic, and who
was quite unable to fill the place of Caxton either as an editor or a
translator, one who preferred to issue small popular books of a kind
to attract the general public, rather than the class of book which had
hitherto been published from Caxton’s house.
For the first two years De Worde contented himself with using Caxton’s
old types, of which he appears to have possessed at least five founts,
and in that time he printed five books, the _Book of Courtesy_, the
_Treatise of Love_, the _Chastising of God’s Children_, the _Life of
St Katherine_, and a third edition of the _Golden Legend_. Why this
book should have been so often printed is rather a mystery, for, while
Caxton issued two editions and De Worde another two before 1500, at the
end of the century a considerable number of Caxton’s edition still
remained for sale at the price of thirteen shillings and fourpence, not
a large sum for those days and considering the size of the book.
The _Book of Courtesy_, which is known only from two leaves in the
Douce collection at Oxford, was a reprint from Caxton’s edition, of
which the only known copy is in the Cambridge University Library.
In the waste leaves in the Bodleian, De Worde’s device is printed
upside-down, and for this reason perhaps the sheet was rejected and
used to line a binding, and thus preserved for us. The _Treatise of
Love_ was printed for the translator, whose name unfortunately does not
appear, but the translation is dated 1493, and the printing is clearly
of the same year. The _Chastising of God’s Children_, a deplorably dull
book, is interesting typographically as being the first book printed
at Westminster with a title-page. Why Caxton never introduced this
improvement it is hard to say, for he must have seen many books in
which they were used, and a book with one was printed at London before
his death.
The imprint of the _Golden Legend_ is curious, for though it is dated
1493 it contains Caxton’s name. De Worde seems to have reprinted from
an earlier edition, merely altering the date, or perhaps he meant the
words “By me William Caxton” to refer to the translator rather than the
printer.
In 1493, very nearly at the close of the year, De Worde’s first type
makes its appearance in an edition of the _Liber Festivalis_, the
second or companion part of the book, the _Quattuor Sermones_, coming
out early in 1494. The type has a strong French appearance, though it
retains several characteristics and even a few identical letters of
Caxton’s founts. It is curious that up to this time De Worde had not
put his name to any book, though most of them contain his first device,
a copy on a small scale of Caxton’s, and evidently cut in metal.
In 1494 two important books were issued, the _Scala perfeccionis_ of
Walter Hylton, a Carthusian monk, and a reprint of the _Speculum Vitæ
Christi_, both being in the late French type of Caxton. The _Scala
perfeccionis_ is a rare book when it contains the last part, which is
only found in two or three copies. It has on the title-page a woodcut
of the Virgin and Child under a canopy, and below this the sentence
beginning “Sit dulce nomen domini nostri Jesu Christi benedictum,” but
the engraver in cutting the block has not attempted to cut the words
properly, but merely to give their general appearance, so that the
result though decorative is almost impossible to decipher.
The _Speculum_ of this year has many points of interest, the chief
perhaps being that Caxton’s small type No. 7 is found in it, the only
time it is used in a printed book, though it had been used before in
1489 for printing indulgences. The text of the book is in Caxton’s
French type, but the sidenotes are in this small Caxton type up to
about the middle of the book, whence the notes are continued in the
same type as the text. Up till a year or two ago only one copy of this
book was known, in Lord Leicester’s library at Holkham, but lately
another copy, imperfect and in bad condition, turned up amongst some
rubbish in the offices of a solicitor at Birkenhead, and is now in the
Rylands Library at Manchester. Three editions of the _Horae ad usum
Sarum_, two in quarto and one in octavo, printed in the same type as
the other two books, may also be ascribed to 1494. The two in quarto
are evidently reprinted from the last edition of Caxton’s of which the
little treatise called the _Fifteen Oes_ formed part, for they have
the same borders, and the woodcuts are clearly of sets which belonged
to Caxton. The octavo edition is quite different, having no borders,
and the woodcuts so far as is known, for the book is only known from a
fragment, belong to a set which do not appear to have been used again.
The most famous of the cuts used at this time is one of the Crucifixion
formerly used by Caxton in the _Fifteen Oes_, of which a facsimile
is given by Dibdin in the second volume of his _Typographical
Antiquities_, page 79. He erroneously remarks about it in another
place, “The woodcut of the Crucifixion was never introduced by Caxton,
it is too spirited and elegant to harmonise with anything that he
ever published.” It was used frequently after this time by De Worde,
and affords us towards the end of the century one of the most useful
date-tests for undated books. Between May, 1497, and January, 1498,
part of the cap of the soldier who stands on the right of the cross was
broken away, so that any book containing this cut with the cap entire
must be before 1498. In 1499 the cut began to split, and in 1500 it
split right across. Towards the end of 1500 one of the two border lines
at top and bottom was cut away. Of course there are for De Worde’s
books many date-tests, and when they can be worked in various ways and
in conjunction, the result may be taken as very fairly accurate. If it
were only possible to get once together all the scattered undated books
for comparison, they could easily be arranged in their exact order.
In 1495 appeared the _Vitas Patrum_, “the moste vertuouse hystorye
of the deuoute and right renowned lyves of holy faders lyvynge in
deserte, worthy of remembraunce to all wel dysposed persones, whiche
hath be translated out of Frenche into Englisshe by Wylliam Caxton of
Westmynstre, late deed, and fynysshed at the laste daye of his lyff.”
The delay in the bringing out of this work may be due to the large
number of illustrations, for it is profusely illustrated; the cuts,
however, are very rudely designed and engraved.