LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| plate | page | |
| [Binding with Caxton's Dies] [From the cover of a book in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.] | [Frontispiece] | |
| I. | [Prologue from the Bartholomaeus] This contains the verse relating to Caxton's first learning to print. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] (Erratum: Read Prologue for Epilogue on Plate I.) | [22] |
| II. | [The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye] Printed in Caxton's Type 1. Leaf 253, the first of the third book. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [28] |
| III. | [Epilogue to Boethius] Printed in Caxton's Type 3. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [36] |
| IV. | [The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres] Printed in Caxton's Type 2. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [38] |
| V. | [Caxton's Advertisement] Printed in Caxton's Type 3. Intended as an advertisement for the Pica or Directorium ad usum Sarum. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [42] |
| VI. | [The Mirrour of the World] Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. The woodcuts in this book are the first used in England. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [50] |
| VII. | [The Mirrour of the World] Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. This shows a diagram with the explanations filled in in MS. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [50] |
| VIII. | [The Game and Playe of the Chesse] Printed in Caxton's Type 2*. The wood-cut represents the philosopher who invented the game. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [52] |
| IX. | [Liber Festivalis] Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. The colophon to the second part of the book entitled "Quattuor Sermones." [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [56] |
| X. | [Chaucer's Canterbury Tales] Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. This is the second edition printed by Caxton, but the first with illustrations. [From the copy in the British Museum.] | [58] |
| XI. | [The Fables of Esope] Printed in Caxton's Type 4*. These two cuts show the ordinary type of work throughout the book. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [60] |
| XII. | [The Fables of Esope] The wood-cut here shewn is engraved in an entirely different manner from the rest. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [60] |
| XIII. | [The Fables of Esope] Shewing the only ornamental initial letter used by Caxton. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [62] |
| XIV. | [The Image of Pity] [From the unique wood-cut in the British Museum.] | [66] |
| XV. | [Speculum Vitæ Christi] Printed in Caxton's Type 5. The wood-cut depicts the visit of Christ to Mary and Martha. [From the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [66] |
| XVI. | [Caxton's Device] [From an example in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [70] |
| XVII. | [Legenda ad usum Sarum ] Printed at Paris by W. Maynyal, probably for Caxton. The book is known only from fragments. [From a leaf in the University Library, Cambridge.] | [70] |
| XVIII. | [The Indulgence of 1489] Printed in Caxton's Type 7. This type is not mentioned by Blades in his Life of Caxton. [From a copy in the British Museum.] | [72] |
| XIX. | [The Boke of Eneydos] Printed in Caxton's Type 6. This page gives Caxton's curious story about the variations in the English language. [From the copy in the British Museum.] | [76] |
| XX. | [Ars Moriendi] Printed in Caxton's Type 6 [text] and 8 [heading]. [From the unique copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [76] |
| XXI. | [Servitium de Transfiguratione Jesu Christi] Printed in Caxton's Type 5. [From the unique copy in the British Museum.] | [78] |
| XXII. | [The Crucifixion] Used by Caxton in the Fifteen Oes, and frequently afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde. [From an example in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] | [78] |
| XXIII. | [The Lyf of Saint Katherin] Printed by W. de Worde with a modification of Caxton's Type 4*. The large initials serve to distinguish de Worde's work from Caxton's. [From the copy in the British Museum.] | [80] |
| XXIV. and XXV. | [The Metamorphoses of Ovid] Two leaves, one with the colophon, from a manuscript prepared by Caxton for the press, and perhaps in his own hand. [From the MS. in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge.] | [82] |
PREFACE.
A life of Caxton must of necessity be little more than an account of his work. As in the case of the great inventor Gutenberg, nothing but a few documents are connected with his name. In those days of tedious communication and imperfect learning, the new art was considered as merely a means of mechanically producing manuscripts, which the general public must have looked on with apathy. By the time that its vast importance was fully perceived, the personal history of the pioneers was lost.
Caxton, however, indulged now and then in little pieces of personal expression in his prefaces, which, if they tell us little of his life, throw a certain amount of pleasant light on his character.
In the present book I have tried to avoid as far as possible the merely mechanical bibliographical detail, which has been relegated in an abridged form to an appendix, and have confined myself to a more general description of the books, especially of those not hitherto correctly or fully described.
Since William Blades compiled his great work, The Life and Typography of William Caxton, some discoveries have been made and some errors corrected, but his book must always remain the main authority on the subject, the solid foundation for the history of our first printer.
Where I have pointed out mistakes in his book or filled up omissions, it is in no spirit of fault-finding, but rather the desire of a worker in the same field to add a few stones to the great monument he has built.