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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    was the mysterious schoolmaster of St. Albans, who between 1480 and 1486 printed a few books, of which only two were of first-rate importance, namely the Book of St. Albans and the Chronicle. His types were likewise from the same foundry which had produced those of Caxton. 655 DICTES OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, the jirst book printed in England. fol. la: w Here it is so that euery humayn Creature by the | suffraice of our lord god is born z ordeigned to | be subgette and thral vnto the stormes of fortune | And so in diuerse zc many sondry wyses man is perplex- | id with worldly aduersitees, Of the whiche I Antoine | wydeuille Erle Ryuyeres, lord Scales zé haue largely z | in many diffirent maners haue had my parte And of hem |releued,. ol. 1b, line 3: . ..whyche book I had | neuer seen before. and is called the saynges or dictis of | the Philosophers .. ol. 2a, line 1:... concluded in my self to traslate it in to thenglyssh | tonge .. Fol. 2b blank. Fol. 3a: f Kdechias was the first Philosophir . . fol. 726, last line: the traslacion of the sayingis of these philosopheres .:. Fol. 73a: h Ere endeth the book named the dictes or sayengis | of the philosophres enprynted, by me william | Caxton at westmestre the yere of our lord .M. | CCCC. Lxxvij. Whiche book is late translated out of | Frenshe into englyssh. by the Noble and puissant lord | Lord Antone Erle of Ryuyers lord of Scales z of the | Ile of wyght, Defendour and directour of the siege apos- | tolique, for our holy Fader the Pope in this Royame of | Englond and Gouernour of my lord Prynce of wales|.. ol. 75d, line 5:.. . Humbly requyryng and | besechyng my sayd lord ..|..|. . to take the labour of thenpryntyng in ere | c thanke, which gladly haue don my dyligence in thaccom- | plysshyng of his desire and commandement . . Last line: Et sic est finis .°. Small folio, 75 leaves, 29 long lines to the page, printed in Caxton’s No. 2 type; a little wormed towards the end, and having a hole in the middle of two leaves, but every leaf’ genuine; gilt russia, by C. Hering 1477 1500 0 0 So Sa ae A PERFECT AND LARGE copy (114 inches x 7) OF THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN Encuanp. The last three leaves are entirely of Caxton’s own composition, and exhibit him as a humourist of the gentle Addisonian kind. He remarks that Lord Rivers had omitted some of the sharp sayings of Socrates against women, and therefore proceeds to supply the deficiency in his own language. He says “I am not in certayn wheder it was in my lordis copye or not. or ellis perauenture that the wynde had blowe ouer the leef, at the tyme of traslacion of his booke, I purpose to wryte tho same saynges of that Greke Socrates, whiche wrote of tho women of grece and nothyng of them of this Royame, whom I suppose he neuer knewe, For if he had I dar plainly saye that he wold haue reserued them inespeciall in his sayd dictes . .” No more than five perfect copies are recorded by Blades. Three