from blocks impressions of illustrations), parchment and vellum makers, letter engravers, figure engravers, carvers, cloth shearers, curriers, bookbinders, painters, vignette designers, print sellers, booksellers. In Antwerp a similar guild, instituted at about the same time, was called the Guild of S. Luke; while at Brussels the scriveners instituted a limited guild of their own, called _Les Frères de la Plume_. It is to be borne in mind that there was in England no guild of writers or makers of books until a number of years after the introduction of printing, the charter of the Stationers’ Company dating from 1552. It was the good fortune of Caxton to be for thirty-three years a resident of the city which could divide with Paris the distinction of being the literary capital of North Europe, and for the latter portion of that time, in his close association with the Court, to have had access to the ducal libraries and the other great collections of the city. Mr. Blades is of opinion that, in the course of his mercantile business, Caxton must often have had occasion to fill commissions, from correspondents in England who were interested in literature, for transcripts of Flemish manuscripts. If this be the case, he became a connecting link between his native country and the literary treasures of the continent a number of years before he began in London the work of printing for English readers his own versions of the Flemish manuscripts. Of the history of Colard Mansion, the first printer of Bruges, but few details have been preserved. He is known to have been a skilled scribe, and one of the earliest references to him occurs in 1450, when there is record of his receiving from Duke Philip fifty-four livres for the manuscript of a romance entitled _Romuleon_, which was illuminated and bound in velvet. This copy is now in the Royal Library at Brussels.[46] From 1454 to 1473, Mansion’s name is found in the list of subscribers to the Guild of S. John, and, in or about the year 1471, he removed from Brussels to Bruges, and devoted himself to the work of printing. In 1484, he appears to have broken down in resources and in credit. He left Bruges, and after that time nothing further is known of him. He was at the time in arrears to the chapter of S. Donatus for the rent of his printing-office, the work of which he had carried on in two rooms over the porch of the church, but the value of the printed sheets left in the rooms appears to have been sufficient to liquidate this debt. Van Praet speaks of twenty-one works as having been printed by him, while Blades finds record of twenty-two. Of these, the most important was probably the edition of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, printed in French, in a large folio, with numerous woodcuts. The practice of adorning books with illustrations and with ornate initials and tail-pieces remained a characteristic of the Press of the Low Countries. Other noteworthy works on the list were French editions of _Boëthius_ and