A SKETCH of the early printer-publishers of Europe would of course be incomplete without some reference to the career of the man whose work will always be associated with the history of printing in England. The publishing undertakings of Caxton were, however, of much less considerable importance than those of his continental contemporaries to whom chapters have been devoted, while it is also the case that the events of his life have been so fully set forth in various English histories that they are already familiar to readers interested in the record of printing and publishing. It would, therefore, be superfluous for me to attempt to present, in a general sketch like the present, any extended or detailed information concerning Caxton’s career. For my present purpose, it will be sufficient to indicate briefly the influences from which Caxton derived his interest in literary undertakings, and the sources from which he secured his training as a printer, with some reference to the character of his publishing undertakings as compared with those of the printers whose work had already been begun in Germany, France, and Italy. Caxton was born in the Weald of Kent, about 1422, and died in London in 1492. His life covered, therefore, the period during which Gutenberg was perfecting his printing-press, and included also the years in which Koberger was beginning his publishing work in Nuremberg and Froben was organising his publishing concern in Basel. The first publication of Aldus in Venice was issued in the year after the death of Caxton. While the larger number of the early printers had had training in technical or mechanical work, which secured for them a certain preparation for the technical requirements of the new art, and others, as in the case of Aldus, had had experience as students and as instructors which gave them advantages for the editorial work of scholarly publishing, the larger proportion of the active life of Caxton had been devoted to business as a wool-merchant, in connection with which business he could, at least in his earlier years, have had but few opportunities for coming into relations with men interested in literature. His literary interests came to him comparatively late in life, as a result of his association with the Court of the Duke of Burgundy, while his first knowledge of and attraction towards the work of printing were the result of the acquaintance formed at that Court with Colard Mansion, the first printer of Bruges.