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.