EPILOGUE TO BOETHIUS
(see page [37])]
Seven copies of the Jason are still extant, the majority imperfect. By far the finest copy known was that sold at the Ashburnham sale in 1897, and which is now in a private collection in America. It is in the original leather binding as it issued from Caxton's workshop, and is quite uncut. This copy has generally been considered the finest Caxton in existence, and its various changes of ownership can be traced back for over two hundred years.
The great admiration which Caxton had for the work of Chaucer would no doubt make him anxious to issue it from his press as soon as possible, and we may therefore ascribe to an early date the publication of the Canterbury Tales and the translation of Boethius. The Canterbury Tales is a small folio of 374 leaves, with 29 lines to the page, and so rare that it is believed that no genuine perfect copy is in existence. Blades, in his account of the book, censures Dibdin for describing the copy at Merton College, Oxford, as imperfect, which, however, in Dibdin's time it certainly was, though through the kindness of Lord Spencer the missing leaves were afterwards supplied. One other copy, complete as regards text, is in the British Museum, having formed part of the library of George III. The Boethius contains 94 leaves, and is a much more common book. One copy is worthy of special mention, as it was the means of bringing to light the existence of three books printed by Caxton which up to that time were unknown. It was found by Mr. Blades in the old grammar-school library at St. Alban's, and he has left us an interesting account of its discovery. "After examining a few interesting books, I pulled out one which was lying flat upon the top of others. It was in a most deplorable state, covered thickly with a damp, sticky dust, and with a considerable portion of the back rotted away by wet. The white decay fell in lumps on the floor as the unappreciated volume was opened. It proved to be Geoffrey Chaucer's English translation of Boecius de Consolatione Philosophiae, printed by Caxton, in the original binding, as issued from Caxton's workshop, and uncut!" "On dissecting the covers they were found to be composed entirely of waste sheets from Caxton's press, two or three being printed on one side only. The two covers yielded no less than fifty-six half-sheets of printed paper, proving the existence of three works from Caxton's press quite unknown before." These fragments came from thirteen different books, and though other examples of one of the unknown works have been found, two, the Sarum Horae and Sarum Pica, are still known from these fragments only.
The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, though most probably by no means the first book printed in England, must still hold the important position of being the first with a definite date, November 18, 1477. The book was translated from the French by Lord Rivers, who had borrowed the original while on a voyage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella from a fellow-traveller, the famous knight Lewis de Bretaylles. Having finished his translation, he handed it to Caxton to "oversee" and to print, and the printer himself added a chapter "touchyng women." To this a quaint introduction is prefixed, in which it is pointed out that the gallant Earl had omitted the chapter, perhaps at request of some fair lady, "or ellys for the very affeccyon, love and good wylle that he hath unto alle ladyes and gentyl women." "But," continues Caxton, "for as moche as I am not in certeyn wheder it was in my lordis copye or not, or ellis peradventure that the wynde had blowe over the leef at the tyme of translacion of his booke, I purpose to wryte tho same saynges of that Greke Socrates, whiche wrote of tho women of grece and nothyng of them of this Royame, whom I suppose he never knewe."
THE DICTES OR SAYENGIS OF THE PHILOSOPHRES