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.