CAXTON’S GREAT WORK

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 2 June 1928, Page 11

CAXTON’S GREAT WORK

AN invportfcanft discovery in the world of books has laltelv been miade in i London, at the Record Office, behind Fleet Street. A bit of old brown vellum found there full of holes proves to be the earliest piece of printing in Eng. land to which a date can be assigned. It is What was once known as an Indulgence (a pardon for sins), issued by John San’t, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at Abingdon to Henry Langley and his wife, on December 13, 1476. Up till now the earliest date connected with any known English piece of printing by Caxton (was his English (translation of extracts from Latin 'and Greek authors in Manchester. It may now be stated with certainty, according to Dr. A. W. Pollard, who reports this new discovery, that, printing began in England nOt in .1477 but in 1476, within ten weeks after ,Caxton went home from the Low Countries. ■

This was quick work, but Caxton probably took his metal type and imple. men'ts from Bruges; and if he did not take his press it was so simple an ■affair that i't 'could Wave been made and set up in two or three weeks by the assistant he took with him. Wynpyn do Wbrde, his first foreman, took over the whole mechanical side of Oaxton’s book production, leaving Caxton free to devote his sc'holary mind to the Choice of books, their translation, and their editing. Just when Caxton went abroad is not known, but it must have 'been after he had completed his term of apprenticeship in 1441. It is known from his Own writings that he spent thirty years ■of liis life in the Low Countries, becoming a frc'eni'an of his Guild in (Bruges and finally rising to the important position of “Governor .of the English nation” there. It was the custom of merchants in foreign countries then to combine for mutual aid arid protection in) the capital Where their business lav, with a governor at their head. Burges, lying on the high road to England, wa : s the metropolis of .trade of all the neighbouring countries, and was unsurpassed in Northern Europe not. only for its business prosperity, but for its brilliant social life and its keen interest in art and letters.

Oaxton, as head of the company of English merchant adventurers in Bruges, had duties somewhat like an ambassador’s. An official residence was provided for him, and ho had en-

FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH

tiro control of all English subjects residing or trading in the Low Countries. In the interval of his official duties he seems to have found .time .for the literary pursuits to which ho was so much attached, for in the .spring of 1468 he .began the translation of one of the favourite romances of that age. But i't was not until 147 T thla;t (the work was completed, and in 'the meantime he had relinquished his important post in Bruges, probably owing to a serious reversal of fortune.

While in Germany Caxton would have ample opportunity of obtaining practical knowledge of the new art of printing which had just been perfected by Gutenberg, and on his return to Bruges he .decided to set up a printing press in partnership with q skilful calligrapher named Colard Mansion, who probably cut .the type. Thus- it came about that the first book .printed in English was printed yi Bruges; it was Caxton’s translation of the “Recuyell of the historyes of Troye,” as he states in the quaint epiloguo to that work, a copy of which is in the John Rvlands Library. It bears neither place of printing, name of printer, nor date, but it must have been completed between J.4'72 and 1474. The re'ason for Caxton’s. return-home in 147.6 was probably the ‘anxious state of affairs in the Low Countries following on.the disastrous defeat of Charles the Bold bv the Swiss in June of that year. He set up his press at Westminster, within the precincts of '.the Abbey, in a house with the Sign of the Red Pale, and within three months he was hard at work printing. From then till the time of his death, in 1491, his press was never idle. His publications in Bruges and . in England number about a hundred.

The Indulgence just found is only a broadside, not a book, .printed in Latin, so it can still be said that the first book printed in England was a book in English printed by an Englishman! In m ! ost other countries the first book printed was in the Latin language and wins printed by a German. Besides his first book printed in Bruges, and his first, book printed in England, the John Rvlands Library has no fewer than 59 other examples of genuine Caxhons, of Which 3<5 are perfect. There arc few libraries in Europe so rich in old -treasures as this beautiful temple of literature standing in the str.eets of Manchester.