About this time was issued the Sex Epistolae, edited by Petrus Carmelianus, an Italian scholar settled in England, who afterwards became Latin secretary to Henry VII. The letters were published in the interest of the Venetians, who were indignant at the separate terms made between Pope Sixtus IV. and the Duke of Ferrara.
This book, one of the earliest known separate publications of diplomatic correspondence, is quite different in character from any of Caxton's other books, except perhaps the Oration of John Russell. The only known copy of the tract was discovered in 1874 in the Hecht-Heine Library at Halberstadt, bound up in a volume of late theological pamphlets, by Dr. Könnecke, Archivist at Marburg, and after various cautious overtures, was finally secured by the trustees for the British Museum. It is a very uninteresting-looking quarto of 24 leaves, of which the first is blank. Lidgate's Life of Our Lady, a folio of 96 leaves, appeared about this time. There were apparently two editions issued, one of which has almost entirely disappeared, with the exception of a few leaves, which evidently varied very considerably in the text. Blades mentions only the one edition, and in this connexion a rather curious and amusing point may be noticed. When he published his Enemies of Books he was anxious to give an illustration of the ravages of a book-worm, and for this purpose gave a fac-simile of two fragments of a Caxton almost destroyed by these pests. Now, the very pages which he reproduced were from this variant edition of the Life of Our Lady, and yet, not thinking of comparing them with the ordinary edition, he missed the opportunity of adding another to his list of Caxtons.
The second edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, also ascribed to the year 1483, is an interesting book in many ways. The prologue shows very strongly how much enthusiasm Caxton took in the literary side of his work. I give the following quotation in his own words: "Whyche book I have dylygently oversen and duly examyned to thende that it be made acordyng unto his owen makyng. For I fynde many of the sayd bookes whyche wryters have abrydgyd it and many thynges left out. And in somme place have sette certayn versys that he never 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 and correcte. And accordyng to the same I dyde do enprynte a certayn nombre of them whyche anon were sold to many and dyverse gentyl men of whome one gentylman cam to me and said that this book was not accordyng in many places unto the book that Gefferey chaucer had made. To whom I answered that I had made it accordyng to my copye and by me was nothyng added ne mynusshyd. Thenne he sayd he knewe a book whyche hys fader had and moche lovyd that was very trewe and accordyng unto hys owen first book by hym made; and sayd more, yf I wold enprynte it agayn he wold gete me the same book for a copye, how be it he wyst wel that hys fader wold not gladly departe fro it. To whom I said, in caas that he could gete me suche a book trewe and correcte yet I wold ones endevoyre me to enprynte it agayn. And thus we fyll at accord. And he ful gentylly gate of hys fader the said book and delyverd it to me, by whiche I have corrected my book."
Besides revising his text, Caxton added illustrations. There are twenty-four of these, but several are made to do duty twice over, a common custom with early printers. Thus the "poor parson" and the "doctor of physick," the "somnour" and the "Franklin," are represented by the same cuts; while the large illustration depicting the pilgrims sitting at supper at a round table does duty in some later publications for the "Assembly of the Gods."
CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES
(see page [58])]
As might have been expected, such a book became very popular, and is now consequently very rare. Besides a few more or less imperfect copies, only one perfect one is known, now in the library of St. John's College, Oxford, which unfortunately has the cuts rudely daubed with colour. When perfect, the book should contain 312 leaves, the first being blank. Chaucer's Troilus and Creside and Hous of Fame, as well as a little tract of six leaves called the Curial, were also printed about this time.