CONTENTS.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
ON
ONE HUNDRED BOOKS
FAMOUS IN
ENGLISH LITERATURE
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
(1340?-1400)
1. [The Canterbury Tales. Printed at Westminster by William Caxton, about 1478.]
The text begins with the first line of the book, and there is no prefatory note or colophon, to give a clue to the name of the work, its place of publication, its printer, or the date of its production. The date and the name of the printer, however, are determined by the type, which is a font used by Caxton in books printed at Westminster between the years 1475 and 1481. This type, known as Type No. 2, because it was the second employed by him (the first used for printing books in England), is like the characters in manuscripts written in Bruges in the fifteenth century, and called "Gros Bâtarde." Colard Mansion, the earliest printer of Bruges, used a font of similar style, and Caxton probably formed his type on the same models, if, indeed, he did not procure it from Mansion himself, with whom he learned the new art of printing. But we may also identify our printer by means of his own statement made in the signed "Prohemye" to the second edition of the work, printed in 1484 (?), where, in speaking of the difficulty of obtaining a pure text, he makes an interesting criticism of this, the first edition. He says:
"For I fynde many of the sayd bookes, whyche wry- | ters haue abrydgyd it and many thynges left out, And in | so
e place haue sette certayn versys, that he neuer made ne sette | in hys booke, of whyche bookes so incorrecte was one brought to me vj yere passyd, whyche I supposed had ben veray true & cor- | recte, And accordyne to the same I dyde do enprynte a certayn | nombre of them, whyche anon were sold to many and dyuerse | gentyl men, of whome one gentylman cam to me, and said that | this book was not accordyn in many places vnto the book that | Gefferey chaucer had made, To whom I answerd that I had ma-| de it accordyng to my copye, and by me was nothyng added ne | mynusshyd."
According to the arrangement of William Blades, this is the tenth work of England's first printer, and the fifth printed on English soil. It was printed after his return from Bruges, whither he had gone as a mercer, and where he turned printer and editor. Few of the books from his press exceed it in size and beauty. Nine copies are known; two are in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, one in Merton College, Oxford, and five in private libraries. Of all these only two are in perfect condition.
The volume has no signatures, folios or catchwords, and the lines are unevenly spaced. The rubrication of the initial letters was done by hand.
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.
The copy whose title-page is here shown in facsimile is one of five copies that are perfect. We first hear of it in the library of Brian Fairfax, a Commissioner of Customs in the 18th century, who bequeathed it to his kinsman, Hon. Robert Fairfax, afterward seventh Lord Fairfax. Lord Fairfax intended to sell the collection at auction, but eventually sold it entire, in 1756, to his relative, Francis Child of Osterley Park, for two thousand pounds. In 1819 the Osterley Park library passed into the family of the Earl of Jersey, and, when finally dispersed, in 1885, brought thirteen thousand and seven pounds, nine shillings.
At the time of the intended auction, in 1756, a catalogue was printed, but afterward all but twenty copies of the edition were suppressed. One of these is marked with the valuation of each book, and shows the Confessio to have been held at three pounds. Eight hundred and ten pounds was the price it brought at the sale in 1885.
Folio. Black letter. 12⅝ × 1815⁄16 inches
Collation: 222 leaves; four of which are blank.
SIR THOMAS MALORY
(1430?-1470?)
3. (Colophon)
Thus endeth thys noble and Joyous book entytled le morte | Darthur / Notwythſtondyng it treateth of the byrth / lyf / and | actes of the ſayd kyng Arthur / of his noble knyghtes of the | rounde table / ... whiche book was re | duced in to englyſſhe by ſyr Thomas Malory knyght as afore | is ſayd / and by my deuyded in to xxj bookes chapytred and | enprynted / and fynyſſhed in thabbey westmestre the last day | of Juyl the yere of our lord / M / CCCC / lxxxv /
Caxton me fieri fecit.
The book begins with a prologue by Caxton wherein he tells how he came to print it, presents his reason for the belief that Arthur was an historical personage, and relates some facts with regard to the sources of the romance. He says:
"After that I had accomplysshed and fynysshed dyuers hystoryes as wel of contemplacyon as of other hyſtoryal and worldly actes of grete conquerours & prynces, and also certeyn bookes of ensaumples and doctryne, Many noble and dyuers gentylmen of thys royame of Englond camen and demaunded me many and oftymes, wherfore that I haue not do made & enprynte the noble hystorye of the saynt greal, and of the moost renomed crysten Kyng,... kyng Arthur....
Thēne al these thynges forsayd aledged J coude not wel denye, but that there was suche a noble kyng named arthur, and reputed one of the ix worthy, & fyrst & chyef of the crysten men, & many noble volumes be made of hym & of his noble knyztes in frensshe which I haue seen & redde beyonde the see, which been not had in our maternal tongue, but in walsshe ben many & also in frensshe, & Somme in englysshe but nowher nygh alle, wherfore such as haue late ben drawen oute bryefly in to englysshe, I haue after the symple connynge that god hath sente me, vnder the fauour and correctyon of al noble lordes and gentylmen enprysed to enprynte a book of the noble hystoryes of the sayd kynge Arthur, and of certeyn of his knyghtes after a copye vnto me delyuerd, whyche copys Syr Thomas Malorye dyd take oute of certayn bookes of frensshe and reduced it in to Englysshe, And I accordyng to my copye haue doon sette it in emprynte...."
The volume is printed without folios, head-lines, or catchwords, in the type known as No. 4, already referred to under the Confessio. The initial letters are printed from wood.
Only two copies are known; one perfect, from which the facsimile of the title-page was taken, the other an imperfect one, which belonged to Earl Spencer's collection. The British Museum possesses only a fragment. Our copy, like that of the Confessio, was one of the nine Caxtons belonging to the Fairfax library. In the list of 1756, it was valued at two pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence; in 1885 it sold for one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds.
Folio.
Collation: 432 leaves, one of which is blank.