Only two copies are known; one perfect, from which the facsimile of the title-page was taken, the other an imperfect one, which belonged to Earl Spencer's collection. The British Museum possesses only a fragment. Our copy, like that of the Confessio, was one of the nine Caxtons belonging to the Fairfax library. In the list of 1756, it was valued at two pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence; in 1885 it sold for one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds.
Folio.
Collation: 432 leaves, one of which is blank.
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
4. The | booke of the common praier | and adminiſtracion of the | Sacramentes, and | other rites and | ceremonies | of the | Churche: after the | uſe of the Churche of | Englande. | Londini, in officina Richardi Graftoni, | [Two lines] Anno Domini. M.D.XLIX | Menſe Martij. [Colophon] Excuſum Londini, in edibus Richardi Graftoni | Regij Impreſſoris. | Menſe Junij M.D.xlix. | Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum.
We know very little about the preparation of the book. An Act, dated January 22, 1549, entitled "An Act for uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm" speaks of the commissioners who had been appointed, and had first met at Windsor in May, 1548, as follows: "Whereof His Highness by the most prudent advice ... to the intent a uniform, quiet, and godly order should be had concerning the premisses, hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of this realm to consider and ponder the premisses." The same Act goes on to say "the which at this time by the aid of the Holy Ghost, with one uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth and delivered to his highness, to his great comfort and quietness of mind, in a book entituled,—
"The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the Church of England."
Richard Grafton, the printer of our copy, was originally a prosperous London merchant. His zeal for religion led him to associate himself with Edward Whitchurch, another merchant, in causing Matthews's Bible to be translated and printed in 1537, in publishing the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and again in printing the Cranmer Bible of 1540. He turned printer eventually, and his books are counted among the best specimens of the book-making of the period. He and his friend, who also became a typographer, received a patent from Henry VIII in 1543 for printing "bookes of diuine service, that is to say, the masse booke, the graill, the antyphoner, the himptnell, the portous, and the prymer, both in Latyn and in Englyshe of Sarum use," all of which had formerly been printed abroad. In 1546, Grafton was appointed printer to Prince Edward, afterward Edward VI, and in 1547 printer to the King. When the Prayer Book came to be put to press there was therefore no question of who should be chosen to do the work.