Online Encyclopedia

WILLIAM CAXTON (c. 1422-1491)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 588 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

WILLIAM CAXTON (c. 1422-1491)  , the first
See also:
English printer, was born somewhere in the
See also:
Weald of Kent, perhaps at Tenterden . The name, which was apparently pronounced Cauxton, is identical with Causton, the name of a
See also:
manor in the parish of Hadlow, and was a fairly
See also:
common surname in the 15th century . The date of Caxton's birth was arbitrarily fixed in 1748 by Oldys as 1412 . Blades, however, inferred that in 1438, when he was apprenticed to Robert Large, he would not have been more than sixteen years of age . This would place his birth in 1422-1423 . Robert Large was a rich
See also:
silk mercer who became
See also:
sheriff in 1430 and lord mayor of
See also:
London in 1439, and the fact of Caxton's apprenticeship to him argues that Caxton's own parents were in a good position . Large died in 1441, leaving a small be-quest to Caxton, and his executors would be bound to place the young man where he could finish his
See also:
term . He was probably sent
See also:
direct to Bruges, then the central
See also:
foreign market of the Anglo-Flemish trade, for he presently entered business there on his own; account . In 1450 his name appears in the Bruges records as
See also:
standing joint
See also:
surety for the sum of loo; and in 1463 he was acting governor of the
See also:
company of Merchant Adventurers in the Low Countries . This association, sometimes known as the " English Nation," was dominated by the Mercers' Company, to the
See also:
livery of which Caxton had been formally admitted in London in 1453 . The first governor, appointed in terms of a charter granted by
See also:
Edward IV. in 1462, was W . Obray, but Caxton's position is definitely asserted in 1464 .

In that

See also:
year he was appointed, together with
See also:
Sir Richard Whitehill, to negotiate with Philip, duke of
See also:
Burgundy, the renewal of a treaty concerning the wool trade, which was about to expire . These attempts failed, but he was again employed, with two other members of the Mercers' Company, in a similar but successful
See also:
mission in
See also:
October 1468 to the new duke, Charles the Bold, who earlier in the year had married Princess Margaret of York,
See also:
sister of Edward IV . The last mention of Caxton in the capacity of governor of the " English Nation " is on the 13th of August 1469, and it was probably about that time that he entered the household of the duchess Margaret, possibly in the position of commercial adviser . In his
See also:
diplomatic mission in 1468 he had been associated with Lord Scales, afterwards
See also:
Earl Rivers and one of his chief patrons, and at the Burgundian court he must have come in touch with Edward IV. during his brief exile in 1470 . He had begun his
See also:
translation of the popular
See also:
medieval
See also:
romance of Troy, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, from the French of Raoul le Fevre, early in 1469; and, after laying it aside for some time, he resumed it at the wish of the duchess Margaret, to whom the MS. was presented in September 1471 . During his
See also:
thirty-three years' residence in Bruges Caxton would have access to the rich.
See also:
libraries of the duke of Burgundy and other nobles, and about this time he learned the
See also:
art of printing . His
See also:
disciple, Wynkyn de Worde, says that he was taught at Cologne, probably during a visit there in 1471, recorded in the preface to 588 the Recuyell; Blades suggests that he learnt from Colard Mansion, but there is no evidence that Mansion set up his press at Bruges before 1474 . He ceased to be a member of the gild of St John (a gild of illuminators) in 1473, and the first dated
See also:
book he is known to have printed is dated 1476 . Mansion and Caxton were partners or associates at Bruges, where Caxton printed his Recuyell in 1474 or 1475 . His second book, The
See also:
Game and Playe of Chesse, from the
See also:
Liber de ludo scacchorum of Jacobus de Cessolis through the French of Jehan de Vignay, was finished in 1474, and printed soon after; the last book printed by Mansion and Caxton at Bruges was the Quatre derrenieres choses, an
See also:
anonymous
See also:
treatise usually known as De quattuor novissimis . Other books in the same type were printed by Mansion at Bruges after Caxton's departure . By September 1476 Caxton had established himself in the almonry at Westminster at the sign of the Red Pale .

Robert

Copland the printer, who was afterwards one of Caxton's assist-ants, states that Caxton began by printing small
See also:
pamphlets . The first dated book printed in England was Lord Rivers's translation (revised by Caxton) of The Dictes or sayengis of the philosophres (1477) . From this time until his
See also:
death in 1491 Caxton was busy writing and printing . His services to English literature, apart from his
See also:
work as a printer (see TYPOGRAPHY), are very considerable . His most important
See also:
original work is an eighth book added to the Polychronicon (vol. viii. in the Rolls Series edition) of Ralph Higden . Caxton revised and printed John of Trevisa's work, and brought down the narrative himself from 1358 to 1460, using as his authorities Fasciculus temporum, a popular work in the 15th century, and an unknown Aureus de universo . In the year before his death he complained in the preface to his Eneydos of the changing state of the English language, a condition of things which he did as much as any man to remedy . He printed Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1478? and 1483),
See also:
Troilus and Creseide (1483 ?), the House of Fame (1483 ?), and the translation of Boethius (1478?); Gower's Confessio Amantis (1483), and many poems of Lydgate . His press was, however, not worked for purely
See also:
literary ends, but was a commercial
See also:
speculation . For the many service-books which he printed there was no doubt a sure sale, and he met the taste of the upper classes by the tales of chivalry which issued regularly from his press . He printed Malory's Morte d' Arthur, and himself translated from the French the Boke of Histories of Jason (1477 ?), The Historye of Reynart the Foxe (from the Dutch, 1481 and 1489?), Godfrey of Boloyne or The Siege and Conqueste of Jherusalem (1481), The Lyf of Charles the Grete (1485), The Knyght Parys and the Fayr Vyenne (1485), Blanchardyn and Eglantine (1489?), The Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1489?); also the Morale Proverbs (1478), and the Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye (1489) of Christine de Pisan . The most ambitious production of his press was perhaps his version of the
See also:
Golden Legend, the translation of which he finished in November 1483 .

It is based on the lives of the

saints as given in the 13th century Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, but Caxton chiefly used existing French and English versions for his compilation . The book is illustrated by seventy woodcuts, and Caxton says he was only encouraged to persevere in his laborious and expensive task by the liberality of William, earl of Arundel . The idleness which he so often deprecates in his prefaces was no
See also:
vice of his, for in addition to his voluminous
See also:
translations his output as a printer was over 18,000 pages, and he published ninety-six
See also:
separate
See also:
works or
See also:
editions of works, with apparently little skilled assistance, though later printers, Wynkyn de Worde, Robert Copland and possibly Richard Pynson, were trained under him . The different founts of type used by Caxton are illustrated by Blades and Duff, and there is an excellent selection of Caxtons in the
See also:
British Museum, in the University library at Cambridge, besides those in private hands . A record price for a Caxton was reached in 1902 when Mr Bernard Quaritch paid £2225 for The Royal Book (1487?), a translation of the popular
See also:
Somme
See also:
des vices et des vertus . His books have no title-pages, and from 1487 onwards are usually adorned with a curious
See also:
device, consisting of the letters W . C. separated by a trade mark, with an elaborateborder above and below . The flourishes on the trade mark have been fancifully interpreted as S.C. for Sancta Colonia, implying that Caxton learnt his art at Cologne, and the whole mark has been read as 74, for 1474, the date of his first printed book . This device was first used in an edition of the Sarum
See also:
missal, printed for Caxton by George Maynial in Paris, and was subsequently adopted with small alterations by his successor at the Westminster press, Wynkyn de Worde . The first of his books containing woodcut illustrations was his Myrrour of the
See also:
World (1481), translated from Vincent de
See also:
Beauvais, which has diagrams and pictures for the assistance of young students . He had used a woodcut initial letter in his
See also:
broadside Indulgence printed in 1480 . No record of Caxton's
See also:
marriage or of the birth of his children has been found, but Gerard Croppe was separated from his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Caxton, before 1496, when Croppe made certain claims in connexion with his
See also:
father-in-law's will .

End of Article: WILLIAM CAXTON (c. 1422-1491)
[back]
CAWNPORE, or KANPUR
[next]
CAYENNE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.