WILLIAM CAXTON

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume 4185, Issue 4185, 20 November 1934, Page 7

WILLIAM CAXTON

FATHER OF PRINTING Although known as father of English printing, William Caxton was one of the scholar-printers more scholar than printer; his printing as such did not measure up against that of leading contemporaries 111 Europe (says the Sydney ‘ Morning Herald ’). His title derives from his introduction of printing into England in twenty-five years or more after Gutenberg at Mainz, and by considerable industry turning out a great amount of printed matter, with ninety-three books, si me in several editions. Caxton worked on many of them personally in toro they reached the press, there being numerous translations and productions to his credit. It is in his tcansla mg and printing works in the vernacular that his peculiar merit lies. The first book printed in English in England, .. he Diets and Sayings of the Philosophers, was the first book of any European country to appear in the vernacular ol is provenance. First books of other lands generally came out in Latin, usually for church purposes. He has been criticised for not having adopted the Homan letter also, instead or the Gothic, but in this he appears to have taken what was most readily understood by his public. Further, he did not have the fine manuscripts that were exemplars for the better European pointers as guide in workmanship, by which his printing suffers in comparison. But he had a Hair for business which led him into new paths. The clergy wanted service books, and Caxton printed psalters, communications, and directories. Preachers wanted sermens, and he gave them 4 The Golden Legend ’; “ prynces, lordes, barons, Icnyglites, and gentilmen ” wanted “ joyous and playsaunt bistoryes, and he printed romances and poetry. By all of which he prospered. There is a good deal of uncertainty as to when William Caxton was born. He came from the Weald or forests of Kent, of the Cauxton or Causton family. In his teens he was appren ticed to Robert Large, a prominent mercer in London, in 1438, from which it has been variously deduced that he was born between 1412 and 1422. His employer was a man of parts, who became Lord Mayor of London in 1439. In 1450 Caxton went to Bruges to enter business on his own account, and in 1463 he is found acting-governor for the Merchant Adventurers of the Low Countries, or the English Nation in Flanders. With the Mercers’ Company he rose from office to office because of his capacities, integrity, and industry, and in 1464 it was his duty to negotiate a wool treaty with Philip, Duke of Burgundy. The negotiations were protracted, until at length Philip was succeeded by Charles the Bold, who married Margaret of York, sister to Edward IV. of England. Caxton, as governor of the English nation at Bruges, was presented to her, and shortly afterwards entered her service as financial advisor.

LONG STAY IN FLANDERS. During Ins long sojourn in Flanders, Caxton had been doing considerable reading, and had once started a translation of Raoul Le Fevre’s ‘ Recuyell of the Histories of Troy,’ “ to avoid sloth and idleness.” Lack or time caused him to put it aside until moie favourable opportunity, and when, two years later, he entered the service of the Duchess, he showed his work to her whereupon she asked him to finish it. This task he seized with alacrity and was much praised and handsomely rewarded for it. But many of his couiv trymen in Flanders wanted copies of this popular romance, and he complied until his hand “ grew wery and not stedfast,” and his eyes were dimed with overmuch lokying on whit paper. Caxton had been investigating the possibilities of the new art of printing at Cologne, where he helped some printer to do an edition of Baitholomew’s Proprietatibus Rerum, 1471-2. Then at Bruges appeared Colard Mansion, also from Cologne, who began making a specialty of printing in tre French vernacular, and was in need of patronage and money. Caxton mined with him, furnishing money, while Mansion provided the skill, They set to work on the 1 Recuyell, the first book printed in English, finishing it probably in 1474. Following came The Game and Play of Chess.’ The success of these two books encouraged Mansion to print several works in French. International wars affected people then as now, and the Duke of Burgundy?s misfortunes in battle against the Swiss caused Caxton to return to England. With equipment and types obtained from Mansion, he set up a press in the almonry of Westminster, near the famous abbey, at the Sign of the Red Pale. The exact spot is not known. Caxton’s printer’s mark is another matter. There are the W and the _ C, patently for William Caxton. jhe meaning of the S.C. is more occult; possibly it is thought it relates to Cologne (Sancta Colonia). Ihe central interwoven pattern appears to be 74, made as the figures were one time fashioned, and relate to the period of some important event in Caxton s hie, maybe the printing of his first piece. Caxton’s first dated piece came out of his press within ten and a-half weeks after he had set up shop at Westminster, being an Indulgence granted to Henry Lanley and his wife Katherine hv John, Abbot of Abingdon, on behalf of Pope Sixtus IV. in 1476 (December 13). This quickness in getting under way is explained because Caxton arrived in England fully equipped with types and presses, and trained in the use of them. His types had been cast for him by John Veldener, of Louvain, a wandering printer, who seemed equally at home in various parts.

LITERARY LANDMARKS. The first book printed by Caxton in England was ‘ The Dictes and Sayengis nf the Philosophies,’ November 18, 1477, a work by Earl Rivers, though the 'discovery of the Indulgence recently in the British Museum showed it to be the firt printed piece in England, that could be fixed by date, although Caxton had printed small pieces without any date. Within five years at least thirty works were issued from the press at The Sign of the Red Pale, including Chaucer’s ‘ Canterbury Tales ’ and ‘ Le Morte d’Arthur,’ the latter being regarded as saved to literature only by Caxton’s enterprise. Caxton was responsible for one of the earliest of advertisements, which he printed in 1480: “ If it plese ony man spirituel or tempore! to bye ony pyes of two or thre comemoracios of salis-