Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/527

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OAXTON


469


CAYES


municipality of the City of Mexico, Bustamente asserts was composed after his expatriation and while at Rome. From considerations of delicacy, Cavo desisted from the work after his order had been expelled from Mexico. He has preserved and co-ordinated a large number of facts that are found nowhere else. Bustamente edited and con- tinued the chronicle to 1836, but not with the impartiality of Cavo. The book was published at Jalaps m Mexico in 1S70.

Bbbistaxn pe Souza. Bibiiolcca hispano-amrricana srtcn- trumal (Mexico, 2nd ed., L885, by Fortino Hipouto Vera); Cavo, L* en flf&rtco (Jalapa, 1870); Diccionario

universal de Histona y Geografia (Mexico).

Ad. F. Bandelier.

Caxton, William, b in the Weald of Kent c. 1422; d. at Westminster. 1491; the first English printer and the in- troducer of the art of printing into Eng- land. Of his life we have little definite inf irmation beyond that given us by himself in the pref- aces and epilogues to his printed books. He thanks his par- ents for having given him an education that fitted him to earn a living, though he says nothing as to the place where he had been educated. From the records of the Mercers' Com- pany we learn that in 1138 (the first definite date of his life that is known) he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a well-known and wealthy London

mercer. About 1446 he became a merchant on his own ecclesiastical province of Port-au-Prince (the arch- account and settled at Bruges, and, being a good man diocese and the four suffragan dioceses of Cap Haitien, of business, soon became prosperous. In 1453 he Gonaives, Cayes, and Port-de-Paix) dates only from went to Eng- land for his formal admit- tance to the Mercers' Com- pany, and in 1465 he was appointed governor for Bruges of, t he Merchant Ad- venturers an association of English mer- chants. This important position involved delicate and respon-


WlI.MAM C\\o


There is some evidence to show that Caxton first learned printing at Cologne, where other famous printers had learned it , but the question is still under debate. His first book, the "Recuyell", was un- doubtedly printed at Bruges in 1474, at the press of Colard Mansion, an illuminator of manuscripts, who had set up a press in that city in 1473. Caxton's second book, the "Game & Pleye of Chess", another translation from the French, came, it is almost certain, from the same press in 1475.

The highest point of interest in Caxton's life is reached when in 1476. returning to England, he set up a printing press of his own at Westminster. The first dated book issued from this press was the "Dictes and sayings of the Philosophers" and bears the im- print 1477. From this date to the end of his life he issued ninety-six books from the Westminster press, including, amongst others, the works of Chaucer and (lower. Sir Thomas Malory's "Morte d' Arthur", and various translations of more or less classical works from French. Latin, and Dutch, together with a number of smaller books, a good many of which are religious. His industry was very great, and he died in the midst of his work. He was not only a skilful master printer and publisher of books, but to some extent a man of letters — editor, author, trans- lator — with a certain style of his own and a true enthusiasm for literature. His work as writer and t ranslator helped to fix the literary language of Eng- land in the sixteenth century. Specimens of his printed books exist in various public and private libraries. The Britisli Museum possesses eighty-three ( axt.in volumes, twenty-five of which are duplicates.

BiiADES, liiie and Typography of Wm. Caxton (London, 1861-63): condensed smd revised edition of the above (London, ISS.'i; Cordon- Duff, William Carton (Chicago, 1903); Lee, in Did. Nat. Biog., s. v.; British Museum Catalogue.

K. M. Warren. Cayes, Diocese of (Cajesensis), in the Republic of Haiti, suffragan to Port-au-Prince The actual


jeitplefeonp man (jfttifuelmtmtp)teltob£eon£ ppes oEttijo ant) tin* tommtoratios of feUf buri n(e cnprjmtiD after t&fiwme o£ tfjis ptrfetfetttei&ljitfjc fcn tort ano ttulp correct/late t#m cotnc to voefimo* mftecinto tfc aimomft^att^mDjBfeanDfjcCbal Ijjauetfrmaootirfjepe ♦*♦♦

Caxton's Advertisement at Westminster (Bodleian Library)


Bible commercial negotiations, and Caxton seems to have fulfilled his duties honourably and with success. About 1 170 a change took place in his life. He gave up his connexion with commerce, and entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. sisteT of Edward IV. It is not known


t he reorgan- i z a t i o n fol- lowing upon the Concordat of 1860 be- t ween Pope Pius IX and the Republic of Haiti; but the Faith was planted in t his part of Santo

I )< iming" tow- ards the end of

the fifteenth century, and despite the many political and social vi- cissitudes of the island has never been quite extin- guished there. The jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cayes (Monscigneur Jean-Marie-Alexandre Morice, elected I March. 1893) extends over the whole civil Depart- ment of the South (Werner, Orb. Terr. Cath., Freiburg, 1890). and his episcopal see is at Caves (commonly


why lie did this, but it may well be that he wished for spoken of as Aux Cayi S I, a seaport in t he ex! reme


greater freedom for literary work. He had already begun his first translation from the French, the "Recuyell of the Bistoryes of Troye", and this lie finished in 1471, dedicating it to his patroness, the Duchess of Burgundy. It was this piece of work which led him to turn his attention to the art of printing. The book in manuscript was much sought after, and the labour of copying was too heavy and too slow to meet the demand. Therefore, he says, "I have practysed & lerned at my grete charge & dispense to ordeyne this said book in prynte. . . that every man may have them attones."


south-western part of the island. This diocese is di- vided into 25 parishes containing altogether a popu- lation of 500,000, almost without exception Catholics

by profession. According to the" Am ma ire pontifical " for 1907, there were 95 churches or chapels in the dio- cese, with 35 secular priests.

The Catholic progress of Caves since the first settlement of Santo Domingo, as well as the educa- tional, racial, and economic conditions and develop- ment of the district, have been substantially the same as in the northern dioceses of Haiti. (See Cap Haitien.) M. Chatte.