by Caxton, that these were not secured from Cologne, but were cast in Bruges, while various details of the workmanship of Caxton’s earlier volumes show methods entirely different from those of the Cologne printers. As one such detail, Mr. Blades points out that Zell, after 1467, always spaced out the lines of his books to one even length, and feels convinced that he would have taught any one learning the art from him to do the same; yet this improvement was not adopted by either Mansion or Caxton until several years later. “Whoever may have been the instructor of Mansion and Caxton, and whatever may have been the origin of their typography, the opinion that either of them, after learning the art in an advanced school such as that of Cologne, would have adopted in their first productions, without any necessity for so doing, primitive customs which they had never been taught, and would have returned in after years by slow degrees to the rules of their original tuition, has only to be plainly stated to render it untenable.”[49] The chief information concerning Caxton’s training as a printer is derived from his own _Prologues_ and _Epilogues_. The first six books ascribed to Caxton’s Press are: “The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.” “Le Recueil des Histoires de Troye.” “The Game and Playe of Chesse, with Prologue by Caxton.” “The Meditacions sur les Sept Pseaulmes Penitenceaux.” “Les Fais et Processes du Chevalier Jason.” “Les Quatre Dernières Choses Advenir.” Without going into the careful analysis presented by Blades of the evidence concerning the production of these books, it is sufficient to give his conclusions. The _Recueil_, with the translation of which Caxton had begun his literary undertakings, was probably first printed (in Caxton’s version) in 1474, and the edition of the French original must have followed shortly afterwards. The remaining four books were brought before the public between this date and 1476. It is interesting to note the character of the selections made by Caxton for the first issues of his Press. With the exception of the _Meditations on the Psalms_, this group of books belongs entirely to what to-day would be called light literature. The same general character obtains with the books printed by Mansion, and, excepting with one or two Houses in Lyons, it could not be paralleled by the lists of any other of the printers of this generation, whose first undertakings were almost exclusively devoted to the service of the Church or to the revival of the classics. How far the responsibility for the literary standard of the two printers of Bruges rested with themselves, and how far it was determined by the preferences and suggestions of their patroness the Duchess, it is probably not now practicable to determine.