In the matter of purity of text this edition is inferior to the second, as Caxton himself thus early recognized; the manuscript from which it was printed, Tyrwhitt tells us, "happened unluckily to be one of the worst in all respects that [he] could possibly have met with." But however that may be, the _Canterbury Tales_ is entitled to a chief place among English books as presenting the first printed text of Chaucer, who, "by hys labour enbelysshyd, ornated, and made faire our englisshe." Folio. Black letter. COLLATION: _371 leaves; sixteen of which are in facsimile._ JOHN GOWER (1325?-1408) 2. This book is intituled, confeſ- | ſio amantis / that is to saye | in englysshe the confeſſyon of | the louer maad and compyled by | Johan Gower squyer borne in walys | ... (Colophon) Enprynted at Westmestre by me | Willyam Caxton and fynyſſhed the ij | day of Septembre the fyrſt yere of the | regne of Kyng Richard the thyrd / the yere of our lord a thouſand / CCCC / | lxxxxiij / (a mistake for 1483). The text is a composite one, being taken from at least three MSS. Manuscripts are extant in three versions: the earliest is dedicated to Richard II, and contains a panegyric on Chaucer; the second is dedicated to Henry of Lancaster, but the poets having quarreled, the panegyric is omitted; and the third is likewise addressed to Henry, but with certain differences in the work. With the exception of these variations, the text is alike in all. The type of the printed work exhibits two variations of the same characters, and is called Type No. 4, and No. 4*. It is the smallest font employed by Caxton in any of his books, and the most used, thirty-one volumes having been printed between 1480 and 1487 in one or the other or in both variations. The printer does not, as in the following work, write a special prologue or preface to the _Confessio_, but states all the facts he knows concerning it in the introductory paragraph, or title, at the beginning of the first column. The book has no catchwords or folios, and the signatures are irregularly printed. Seventeen copies were known to Blades: three in the British Museum; Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Hereford Cathedral, Lambeth Palace Library, Queen's College, and All Souls, Oxford, each having one; while eight were in private libraries.