William Caxton

by E. Gordon Duff

Cologne, as might be expected from its advantageous position on the Rhine, was one of the earliest towns to which the art of printing spread from Mainz. Ulric Zel, its first printer, was settled there some time before 1466, when he issued his first dated book, and by 1470 several others were at work. The study of early Cologne printing is extremely complex, for the majority of books which were produced there contain no indication of printer, place of printing, or date. Some printers issued many volumes, and their names are still unknown, so that they can only be referred to under the name of some special book which they printed; as, the "Printer of Dictys," the "Printer of Dares," and so on.

M. Madden, the French writer on early printing, who had a genius for obtaining from plausible premisses the most utterly preposterous conclusions, was possessed with the idea that the monastery of Weidenbach, near Cologne, was a vast school of typography, where printers of all nations and tongues learned their art. He ends up his article on Caxton, as he ended up those on other early printers, "Je finis cette lettre en vous promettant de revenir, tôt ou tard, s'il plaît à Dieu, sur William Caxton se faisant initier à la typographie, non pas à Bruges, par Colard Mansion, comme le veut M. W. Blades, mais à Weidenbach, par les frères de la vie commune."

As we know from Caxton's own statements, he had when at Cologne considerable leisure, which was partly employed in writing out his translation of Le Recueil, and like all literary persons, must have felt great interest in the new art. It was no longer a secret one, and there would be little difficulty for a rich and important man like Caxton to obtain access to a printing-office, where he might learn the practical working and master the necessary details.

The mechanical part of the work was not at that time a complicated process, and would certainly not have taken long to master. Caxton no doubt learned from observation the method of cutting and the mechanism of casting type, and by a little practical work the setting up of type, the inking, and the pulling off the impression.

At the close of 1471 Caxton returned to Bruges, and presented to the Duchess of Burgundy the manuscript of the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, which he had finished while at Cologne. This work, which had been undertaken at the request of the Duchess, proved to be exceedingly popular at the court. Caxton was importuned to set to work on other copies for rich noblemen. The length of time which the production of these copies would take reminded him of the excellent invention which he had seen at work at Cologne, that art of writing by mechanical means, "ars artificialiter scribendi," as the earliest printers called it, by which numerous copies could be produced at one and the same time.

Mr. Blades, in common with almost every writer, assumes that printing was introduced into Bruges at a very much earlier date than there is any warrant for supposing. He speaks of Colard Mansion as having "established a press shortly after 1470 at Bruges." Other writers put back the date as much as three years earlier, confusing, as is often the case, the date of the writing of a book with the date of its printing. Colard Mansion's name does not occur in a dated colophon before 1476, in his edition of the French translation of a work of Boccaccio, and we have no reason to suppose that he began to work more than two years at the outside before this date. In the guild-books at Bruges he is entered as a writer and illuminator of manuscripts from 1454 to 1473, so that we are certainly justified in considering that he did not commence to print until after the latter date. Other writers have brought forward a mysterious and little known printer, Jean Brito, as having not only introduced the art into Bruges, but as being the inventor of printing. An ambiguous statement in one of his imprints, where he says that he learned to print by himself with no one to teach him, refers more probably to some method of casting type, and not to an independent discovery, and his method of work and other details point almost certainly to a date about 1480. Some of his type is interesting as being almost identical with a fount used a few years later in London.

Now, there is one very important point in this controversy which appears to have been quite overlooked. Caxton, we may suppose, learned the art of printing about 1471 at Cologne, the nearest place to Bruges where the printing-press was then at work. But, say the opponents of this theory, his type bears no resemblance to Cologne type, so that the theory is absurd. It must, however, be remembered that in the interval between Caxton's learning the art and beginning to practice it printers had begun to work in Utrecht, Alost, and Louvain. If he required any practical assistance in the cutting or casting of type or the preparation of a press, he would naturally turn to the printers nearest to him,—Thierry Martens, with John of Westphalia at Alost, or to John Veldener or John of Westphalia (who had moved from Alost in 1474) at Louvain.

Caxton's preparations for setting up a printing-press on his own account were most probably made in 1474. His assistant or partner, Colard Mansion, by profession a writer and illuminator of manuscripts, is entered as such in the books of the Guild of St. John from 1454 to 1473, when his connexion with the guild ceases. This may point to two things: he had either left Bruges, perhaps in search of printing material, or had changed his profession; and the former seems the most probable explanation.

If Caxton was assisted by any outside printer in the preparation of his type, there can be little doubt that that printer was John Veldener of Louvain. Veldener was matriculated at Louvain in the faculty of medicine, July 30, 1473. In August, 1474, in an edition of the Consolatio peccatorum of Jacobus de Theramo, printed by him, there is a prefatory letter addressed "Johanni Veldener, artis impressoriae magistro," showing that he was by that time a printer. He was also, as he himself tells us, a type-founder, and in 1475 he made use of a type in many respects identical with one used by Caxton.