The Life of the noble and christian prince, Charles the Great, was translated by Caxton from an anonymous French version compiled at the request of Henry Bolomyer, Canon of Lausanne. In it the various stories and legends relating to Charlemagne have been gathered together from various sources. Caxton finished his translation on the 18th of June, when he had nearly finished the printing of the Morte d'Arthur, and the printing of the book was finished on the 1st of December.
The only copy known, which is perfect with the exception of the last blank leaf, is in the King's Library in the British Museum.
The moment Caxton had finished the translation of Charles the Great he set to work on another short romance, the History of the knight Paris and the fair Vienne. This he finished on the 31st of August, and the book was printed by the 19th of December. Like the last, only one copy, and that quite perfect, is known; and it is also in the King's Library in the British Museum.
It seems very probable that at an early date these two books were bound together, but either before or on their coming into the possession of the Earl of Oxford they were bound separately. They agree entirely in size and typographical particulars, both having 39 lines to the page in two columns.
The Paris and Vienne was reprinted in 1492 by Gerard Leeu at Antwerp in small folio, with illustrations. He reprinted also in the same month the History of Jason, and in the year following the Chronicles of England. The apathy in book production which seems to have immediately succeeded Caxton's death may have encouraged him to attempt printing for the English market, but his own death while his edition of the Chronicles was passing through the press put an end to the trade. He printed one other English book, the Dialogue of Salomon and Marcolphus, of which one copy exists. This, like the rest, may have been copied from an edition printed by Caxton, but if so, all traces of it have disappeared.
No dated book of 1486 is known, but several may be ascribed to this date. First the Directorium Sacerdotum, or Pica, a work compiled by Clement Maydeston, containing the rules for adapting the calendar to the services of each week in accordance with the thirty-five varieties of the Almanac. Of this book, so interesting to liturgical students, but one copy is known, now in the British Museum, a library, however, to which it should not rightly belong. The volume formed part of the collection bequeathed to the Cambridge University Library by Dr. Holdsworth in 1648, but it was stolen from there in or shortly before 1778, and soon afterwards "bought of a man introduced by Dr. Nugent" by William Bayntun, Esq., of Gray's Inn, after whose death it came into the possession of King George III., and passed with the rest of the King's Library into the British Museum. At the beginning of the book a single leaf containing a large wood-cut has been inserted which does not really belong to the volume. In the centre is a half-length figure of Our Lord with the hands crossed. Behind the head and shoulders is the cross, and on either side the spear and the reed with the sponge. Below is the text of an Indulgence, which in this case has been cut out, while round the whole is a framework composed of twenty-eight small square compartments, each containing some emblem of the crucifixion. These early English prints, several of which exactly similar in treatment are known, go under the name of the Image of Pity.
THE IMAGE OF PITY
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