(see page [38])]
It is curious that with one exception no copy of this first edition has a colophon. The copy in which it occurs was in Lord Spencer's library and is now at Manchester, but beyond this small addition, it varies in no way from the other copies. All the examples of the second edition, which was issued a few years later, contain a reprint of this colophon.
The Dictes when perfect contained 78 leaves (not, as stated by Blades, 76), of which the first and last two are blank, and though more than a dozen copies of the book are known, not one is quite perfect. In the library of Lambeth Palace is a manuscript of this work on vellum, copied from Caxton's edition, and dated December 29, 1477. It contains one poor illumination showing Earl Rivers presenting the copy to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V. By the side of the Earl is an ecclesiastic, probably "Haywarde," the writer of the manuscript, and this figure has by some been considered, quite erroneously, to be intended for a portrait of Caxton.
The Dictes or Sayengis was followed shortly by another dated folio, the Morale Proverbes of Cristyne, issued on the 20th of February, 1478. It contains only four printed leaves, and three copies are known. The two verses added at the end of the book tell us of the author, translator, and printer, and are interesting as being the earliest printed specimen of Caxton's poetical attempts.
"Of these sayynges Cristyne was aucteuresse
Whiche in makyng hadde suche Intelligence
That thereof she was mireur and maistresse
Hire werkes testifie thexperience
In frenssh languaige was writen this sentence