Sales catalogues: Quaritch

Date:: 1897

Reference:: WA/HMM/CM/Sal/17/51

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogues: Quaritch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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A fair conclusion from these words is that he went from Cologne to Ghent or Bruges to present his MN., early in 1472, and that he immediately returned to Cologne te learn the new art of multiplying copies. The words “and is not wreton, etc.” seem to have been suggested by the phraseology which Schoeffer adopted in 1472, “ non atramentali penn cannave.’ Caxton must have been accompanied or assisted by Colard Mansion, as the type which is called Caxton’s first was modelled on Mansion’s calligraphy. Mr. Blades tried to make out that Mansion began printing at Bruges im 1471-72, and that, between 1472 and 1475, he printed all the books which are tn Caxton’s first type; but it is hardly worth discussing the assertion in view 0) Mansion’s own statement in 1475-76 (see No. 170). Even Holtrop and Campbell d not reckon the first-type Oaaton books among the productions of Bruges typography which they would have been delighted to do if they had seen the slightest ground for such a theory. Wherever Caxton established his press, whether at Cologne or ai Bruges, he was not merely the capitalist of the business, but was a practical printe himself, and the date of his first achievement, i.e. the complete impression 0; the Recuyell, must be sought for by the numerals on his device. ‘This device although not used by him till 1487, was clearly intended to convey the date of 1474 and to ewpress the time of the foundation of his press, or of the production of his firs book. In 1474 and 1475 he printed the Recuyell in English, the Recueil in French the first edition of the Game of Chess, the jirst Jason, and a small French book.— Lhen a second fount of type was prepared for him and the first one disappeared Tlus new fount synchronises with the introduction of typography into Bruges, ant with Colard Mansion’s appearance as a printer; and furthermore has som significance by reason of its resemblance to Mansion’s first type. While Caxton’ type No. 1 (1474) was formed on the model of Mansion’s own calligraphy, Caton’: type No. 2 and Mansion’s type No. 1 (1475) were modelled from the handwriting o some other calligrapher. The intention to quit Bruges and to return to England hat no doubt been already formed. The two men (Caton and Mansion) agreed to separate and each start as an independent printer—the one in Bruges, the other in London Something must have interfered to delay Caxton, and he utilised the time by printing im his No. 2 type the Quatre Derrenieres Choses, and a couple of tracts. These wer probably printed in Bruges, and not in Cologne or elsewhere. Then he quitted th Low Countries, taking all his material with him, and established his press in West minster, early in 1477. According to Blades he may have printed in 1477 a couph of quarto tracts and the English Jason before he produced the Dictes, but the jirs dated book with his name as printer—the first book in fact which was certainly ‘printec in England by him, and which contains the earliest positive evidence that he was ¢ printer—is the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers. His next great achievemem was the printing of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a work which, however faulty, mus be allowed to rank above all the other productions of his press from beginning to end From that time onward his labours, both as translator and as printer, were incessan and rapid until his death in the latter part of 1491.—The establishment in 1478, ai Oxford, of a press from Cologne, which produced some score of books between thai year and 1486—was the first show of typographical rivalry in England ; but Caaton had the grim satisfaction of seeing it rise and fall while he was still active. Th 1480-85 Lettow and Machlinia were closer rivals, having started their press im the City of London ; but their success was not great. Machlinia’s type is singularly lik Caxton’s and is supposed to have come from Bruges. Another contemporary rival