CHAPTER VI

.

1487-1491.

In December, 1487, Caxton issued an edition of the Sarum _Missal_, though he was not himself the printer. The work was done for him by a printer at Paris named Guillaume Maynial, about whom but little is known. He is presumed to be a relation, son, perhaps, or nephew, of George Maynial, the partner of Ulrich Gering in 1480. He printed only three books, of which this _Missal_ is the earliest, the other two being the _Statutes_ and the _Manual_ of the Church of Chartres, issued in 1489 and 1490. The only copy of this book at present known is in the library of Lord Newton. It is a folio, and when perfect should have contained 266 leaves, but of these 23 are now missing. The page is printed in two columns, with 39 lines to a column.

One point which gives this book a peculiar interest is, that in it is found for the first time Caxton's well-known device. It consists of his initials, divided by his merchant's mark, with a deep ornamental border at top and bottom. Many ingenious writers have attempted to read into this mark several items of information. The merchant's mark they say is not a merchant's mark at all, but the figures 74 significant of the time when he began to print. Two small ornaments shaped like an S and C stand for Sancta Colonia, where he learned the art of printing. The mark is, however, merely an ordinary merchant's mark, which in some shape or another all printers introduced into their devices, and the letters S C merely ornamental flourishes.

[Illustration:

PLATE XVI

CAXTON'S DEVICE

(see page 70) ]

[Illustration:

PLATE XVII

LEGENDA AD USUM SARUM

(see page 71) ]

Another question has been raised as to whether this device was cut in England or in France, but it has no resemblance to French work, and is almost certainly a native production. As Mr. Blades justly remarks: "Caxton, desirous of associating his press more directly with this issue than by the colophon only, which many people might overlook, probably designed his mark for the purpose of attracting attention. He no doubt stamped this device on the last blank page of the books after they had been received from abroad and before putting them into circulation."

It seems not improbable that besides the _Missal_, Maynial printed for Caxton another service-book, the _Legenda_ according to the Salisbury use. The existence of this book is known only from a few odd leaves, for the most part rescued from old bindings and preserved in different libraries, but it agrees in every respect typographically with the _Missal_. The type is identical, the number of lines and size of page the same, and everything points to the same printer. Perhaps some day a copy with the colophon may be found and our doubts on the subject set at rest.

About 1488 appeared a new issue of the _Golden Legend_. It is not an entire reprint of the first, but only of certain parts of it. It contains 448 leaves, being one less than the first issue, and of these 256 are reprinted and 192 are of the original edition. It is difficult to explain this reprinting, but it was probably caused by the destruction of a large part of the stock of the original issue. Caxton took the opportunity to make two improvements in the reprint. He compressed the quires signed X and Y, which contained the awkward number of nine leaves, into a single quire X of eight leaves, and instead of having a blank leaf at the end of the book he added the life of St. Erasmus. The parts of the book which are of the second issue may be readily distinguished from the first by the head-lines. In the first issue they are in the larger type No. 3; in the second, in the smaller type No. 5.

On the 14th of July, 1489, Caxton finished printing a translation of the work of Christine de Pisan, entitled the _Fayts of Arms and of Chivalry_. This translation, as he tells us in the epilogue, he undertook at the express desire of Henry VII., who himself lent him the manuscript with the original French text. It is not improbable that the identical manuscript which Caxton used is one which is now in the British Museum, and which formed part of the old Royal collection. It was written for John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1453, and by whom it was presented to Queen Margaret, and it agrees very closely in every way with Caxton's English version.

Considerable doubt has been thrown on the authorship of Christine de Pisan, but apparently unjustly. In the prologues of many manuscripts, and in Caxton's edition, the writer apologizes as a woman for treating of such warlike subjects, and appeals to the goddess Minerva, saying, "I am, as thou wert, a woman Italian."

A complete copy should contain 144 leaves, the first being blank, and over twenty copies are known. A perfect copy in the Cambridge University Library contains a manuscript note showing that it was bought in 1510 for three shillings and eight pence.

[Illustration:

PLATE XVIII

THE INDULGENCE OF 1489

(see page 73) ]

In 1489, also, Caxton issued two editions of an _Indulgence_ of John de Gigliis, or rather a license to confessors, giving them power to grant indulgences to any Christian person in England or Ireland who should contribute four, three, two, or even one gold florin to assist a crusade against the Turks. These _Indulgences_ are of peculiar interest, as they were printed in a new type of Caxton's, the smallest which he ever cut, and of which he never again made use. The first to draw attention to them was Archdeacon Cotton, who in the second part of his "Typographical Gazetteer" mentions one which he had found in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and which he considered to be a product of the early Oxford press. Henry Bradshaw, the University Librarian at Cambridge, obtained a photograph of it, and at once conjectured from the appearance of the type that it must have been printed by Caxton. He immediately communicated this discovery to Blades, who, however, refused to accept it as the work of Caxton's press without some further and more convincing proof, and never even alluded to either the type or _Indulgence_ in later issues of his book. The necessary proof was soon afterwards found, for Bradshaw discovered at Holkham an edition of the _Speculum Vitae Christi_, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, which had the side-notes printed in this type, and as De Worde inherited all Caxton's materials, this fount must have belonged to him.

The _Statutes_ of the first, third, and fourth years of Henry VII. may also be put down to the end of 1489, for the fourth year of Henry VII. ended on August 21, 1489, and the _Statutes_ would no doubt be printed at once.

With the exceptions just given, none of Caxton's books printed between May, 1487, and his death in 1491 bear any date, so that although all may be approximately dated, their exact order cannot be determined. One very common error in the method of arranging Caxton's books may be pointed out here, which arises from the method adopted by Blades. In his _Life of Caxton_ the books are arranged according to types, which would be an excellent plan if the use of one type had been discontinued as soon as a newer one was made. This, however, was not the case, for several were often in use at one time, and thus Blades's system, though correct in one way, is very misleading to a superficial reader. For instance, Caxton started at Westminster with types Nos. 2 and 3, and both are used in his first books, but Blades puts the books in type No. 3 after all those in type No. 2, and thus the Sarum _Ordinale_, certainly one of the earliest books printed in England, comes thirty-sixth on his list, and while one book with the printed date of 1481 is number 33, another with the printed date of 1480 is number 39. It will thus be seen that Blades's arrangement was not a chronological one, though most writers have made the mistake of thinking so, and have followed it as such, as may be seen, for instance, in the list appended to Caxton's life in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, which blindly follows Blades's arrangement without any reference to his system or mention of the types.

Two interesting romances were printed about 1489, the _History of the Four Sons of Aymon_ and the _History of Blanchardyn and Eglantine_. The first was an extremely popular story both at home and on the continent; indeed, it still circulates abroad in the form of a pedler's chap-book, which perpetuates in a very mutilated state the story of Renaud, Alard, Richard, and Guichard, with their famous horse Bayard, on which all four rode at once. The early English editions of this book almost suffered extermination. The earliest edition of which a complete copy is known is that printed at London by William Copland in 1554. The colophon of this book speaks of an edition printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1504, of which no trace remains except perhaps some fragmentary leaves in the Cambridge University Library; while of the edition printed by Caxton only one copy, and that imperfect, is known. It is in folio, and probably contained when complete 278 leaves. The unique copy, wanting some leaves at the beginning, was obtained by Lord Spencer from Triphook, the bookseller, and is now, with the rest of the Spencer Library, in Manchester.

The _History of Blanchardine and Eglantine_ is also known only from an imperfect copy which was in the Spencer Library. It is impossible to settle what the correct collation may have been, as the book breaks off abruptly at leaf 102 and all the remainder is wanting. As, however, the last chapter of the work is just beginning on the last remaining page, it seems probable that only the last quire is missing. On the fly-leaf is a curious note in Lord Spencer's handwriting relating to its purchase. "This book belonged to Mr. G. Mason; at whose sale it was bought by John, Duke of Roxburghe. The Duke and I had agreed not to oppose one another at the sale, but, after the book was bought, to toss up who should win it; when I lost it. I bought it at the Roxburghe sale, on the 17th of June, 1812 for £215 5_s._" At the earlier sale the Duke had paid £21 for it. This book was undertaken at the request of Margaret, Duchess of Somerset, who brought to Caxton a copy of the French version, which she had long before purchased from him, commanding him to translate it into English.

During the last two years of his life at least half of Caxton's books were merely new editions of some of his earlier works, and therefore hardly call for much detailed notice. The _Dictes or Sayings_ was reprinted for the third time, and the _Directorium Sacerdotum_, _Reynard the Fox_, and the _Mirror of the World_ for the second.

Of the _Directorium_ but one copy is known, which is in the Selden collection in the Bodleian. Blades remarks about it that it is "still in the original parchment wrapper as issued from Caxton's workshop." All evidence goes to prove that Caxton never made use of parchment or vellum as a binding material, and in the case of the present book it is quite clear, on close examination, that it has been made up from two imperfect copies, and that the binding is not earlier than the seventeenth century.

The _Reynard the Fox_ is also unique, and buried in that almost inaccessible collection, the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. It wants, unfortunately, the last two leaves, so that the colophon, if it had one, is wanting.

The _Mirror_ is a fairly common book, and is an exact reproduction, though in different type, of the first edition. In the interval between the printing of the two editions one wood-cut had been lost or destroyed, so that the illustration for