Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
The original of Raoul's "History," the "Oration of John Russell on
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, being created a Knight of the Garter," and
the "Translation" of Raoul, were, as far as we know, Caxton's first
three works; the last finished in 1471. A "Stanza," by Wynkyn de Worde,
notices an edition of "Bartholomoeus, de Proprietatibus Rerum," as
printed by Caxton at Cologne (about 1470), but the actual existence of
this edition is unknown. Nor has more certain information yet been
obtained of the exact period of Caxton's return to his native country.
The usual supposition has been that he brought the art of printing into
England in 1474, and this date is indicated by the figures which are
united in the centre of his device as a printer. In 1477, however, he
had undoubtedly quitted the Low Countries and taken up his residence in
the vicinity of Westminster Abbey, where and in which year he printed
his "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers." Stowe says he first
exercised his business in an old chapel near the entrance of the abbey;
but a very curious placard, a copy of which, in Caxton's largest type,
is now at Oxford in the late Mr. Douce's library, shows that he printed
in the Almonry. It is as follows: "If it plese any man spirituel or
temporel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre comemoracions of Salisburi vse
emprynted, 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 pole and he shal have them good chepe. Supplico stet cedula."
According to Bagford, Caxton's office was afterward removed to King
Street.
[Illustration: The First Sheet from Caxton's Press.]
From the evidence of Wynkyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition of
"Vitae Patrum," 1495, it appears that these "Lives of the Fathers" were
"translated out of French into English by William Caxton, of
Westminster, lately dead," and that he finished the work "at the last
day of his life." His death, however, seems fixed, by two or three
entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, to the
year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, "Item: atte bureyng of William
Caxton for iiij, torches vj^s viij^d. Item: for the belle at same
Bureyng vj^d." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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