In May, 1487, Caxton finished the printing of the Book of Good Manners, which he had translated from the French at the request of one of his friends, William Pratt, a mercer of London who had lately died. The original book was written by Jacobus Magnus or Jacques Legrand, the author of the Sophologium, and was evidently popular, for it was frequently reprinted, no less than four other English editions having been issued in the fifteenth century. Caxton's edition is a small folio of 66 leaves, and three copies, all in public libraries, are known. The finest is in the Cambridge University Library, and another, also perfect, is in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. This latter, which was sold by auction in 1682 for the sum of two shillings, was purchased by the Copenhagen Library in 1743 for one guinea. The third copy, wanting some leaves, is at Lambeth.
So far Caxton had worked entirely with his own materials and without any assistance from outside. His work had been confined to the most ordinary kind of printing, which required no special trouble and no great variety of type or ornament. The close of the year, however, saw a change in this respect, and the first influences of the French press, which were gradually later on to assume such large proportions, began to make themselves felt.
CHAPTER VI.
1487-1491.
In December, 1487, Caxton issued an edition of the Sarum Missal, though he was not himself the printer. The work was done for him by a printer at Paris named Guillaume Maynial, about whom but little is known. He is presumed to be a relation, son, perhaps, or nephew, of George Maynial, the partner of Ulrich Gering in 1480. He printed only three books, of which this Missal is the earliest, the other two being the Statutes and the Manual of the Church of Chartres, issued in 1489 and 1490. The only copy of this book at present known is in the library of Lord Newton. It is a folio, and when perfect should have contained 266 leaves, but of these 23 are now missing. The page is printed in two columns, with 39 lines to a column.
One point which gives this book a peculiar interest is, that in it is found for the first time Caxton's well-known device. It consists of his initials, divided by his merchant's mark, with a deep ornamental border at top and bottom. Many ingenious writers have attempted to read into this mark several items of information. The merchant's mark they say is not a merchant's mark at all, but the figures 74 significant of the time when he began to print. Two small ornaments shaped like an S and C stand for Sancta Colonia, where he learned the art of printing. The mark is, however, merely an ordinary merchant's mark, which in some shape or another all printers introduced into their devices, and the letters S C merely ornamental flourishes.
CAXTON'S DEVICE