(see page [51])]
THE MIRROUR OF THE WORLD
(see page [51])]
Early in 1481 Caxton finished his translation of The Mirror of the World, and it must have been printed immediately after. The work was a commission from his friend Hugh Bryce, a fellow-member of the Mercers' Company, and who must often have met Caxton on his official visits to Bruges. In this book for the first time the printer made use of illustrations. These are of two kinds. The first consists of little pictures, rudely designed and coarsely cut, of masters engaged in teaching their pupils various sciences, or of single figures engaged in scientific pursuits. These are original and introduced by Caxton. The second series are diagrams more or less carefully copied from the MSS. In his prologue he says that there are twenty-seven figures, "without whiche it may not lightly be understande." Curiously enough, he himself goes astray, for in the first part, which should contain eight diagrams, he puts the second and third in their wrong places and omits the fourth. The nine diagrams of the second part are wrongly drawn, and in some cases misplaced, owing to the original text having been misunderstood. The diagrams of the third part are most correct, but although ten are mentioned, only nine appear.
An interesting point about these diagrams is, that they have short explanations written in them in ink, and in all copies where these inscriptions are found they are in the same handwriting. Oldys, who first drew attention to this peculiarity, supposed the handwriting to be that of Caxton himself, and though this is not impossible, it is more probable that this simple and monotonous task would be done by one of his assistants.
The History of Reynard the Fox was translated by Caxton in 1481 from the Dutch edition printed at Gouda in 1479 by Gerard Leeu, a printer who later on at Antwerp reprinted some of Caxton's English books. The story of Reynard was extremely popular and widely spread, yet it appears that no manuscripts exist with the story in the form given by Caxton. Five copies of this book are known; one of them, the fine copy which was in the Spencer collection, is part of the spoil obtained from Lincoln Minster. A mistake of the printer necessitated the insertion of a half printed leaf in all copies between leaves 48 and 49.
On the 12th of August, 1481, Caxton issued a translation of two treatises of Cicero, De senectute and De amicitia, and a work of Bonaccursus de Montemagno, entitled De nobilitate. The translation of the first two into French was made by command of Louis, Duke of Bourbon, in 1405, by Laurence de Premierfait, and the last by Jean Mielot. The English translation seems to have been made by Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, at the desire of Sir John Fastolfe, for whom his son-in-law, Scrope, a kinsman of Tiptoft, had translated the Dictes or Sayengis. Cicero apparently did not appeal so much to the popular taste as such stories as Reynard, so that it is now one of the commonest of Caxton's books, some twenty-five to thirty copies being known.