FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
143
The Low Countries werediis at period the great mart of Europe, in which were tu be purchased, at all times, and in great abundance, the produce and mannfactures of most parts of the world. Treaties of commerce between England and them were frequently made and broken ; and it re- quired not only considerable Imowledge in com- mercial affairs, and in the relative commercial wants and advantages of the two countries, but also a sound judgment, and much circumspec- tion and prudence, to make or renew them. — Merchants seem to have been generally employ- ed on these occasions ; and we may reasonably conjecture that Caxton's character and experi- ence, as a merchant, and his long residence iu the Netherlands, pointed him out as a fit person for this embassy.
On the marriage of lady Margaret to Charles duke of Burgundy,* his majesty placed Caxton upon her house establishment : the situation he filled is not known : Lewis says that it could not be a mean one, because her grace requested him to correct his English : Oldys thinlcs that he was employed in a literary way. Caxton acknow- ledges that he received an yearly fee, besides many other good apd great benefits ; Mr. Dibdin supposes that he was a sinecure gentleman of her household. It was at the request of this lady that he finished the translation ot the History of Troy \ on the completion of which, she did not fail to reward him largely. He informs us, in the latter part of this performance, that his CTes " were tummed with over much looking on the white paper; that his courage was not so prone and ready to labour as it had been ; and that age was creeping on him daily, and enfeebling his all body : that he had practised and learnt, at htf great charge and expense, to ordain this said book in print, after the manner and form as we there see it ; and that it was not written with pen and ink as other books be." By this we understand, that Jie had learned the art of print- ing, and that he was advanced in years. We find thatoiir typographer " paid'his obedience to Edward TV. [then ^ven to the duke of Bur- gundy's court, to seek succour gainst the earl of Warwick,] and received his majesty's appro- bation for his engagement in this new art"
There is no doubt but Caxton was particularly
- niQip, duke of Borgiuulr, died in Jane, 14(17, >uid was
g occec U ed by his son, Charles.— Philip, dnke of Bnrgnndy, VIS the most magnificent prince at his age ; liis court, one of the most polished ; and tils fondness for the expir- ing customs of diivalry, and for literature, eqoallj great and influentiai. In the prologue to a book of the whole Ue of Jaaon. translated nuder the protection of King Ed- ward, Caxton thus describes the chamber of ttiis prince, in hi* castle of Hesdein, in ArtoLi. It ought to be pre- mised, that Philip had instituted the order of the Knights fltf the Golden Fleece. " Bat, well wote I, that the noble dokd Philip, first founder of this said order, did do maken a chamber tn the castle of Hesdein, wherein was craftily and ctuiooslr depainted, the conquest of the golden fleece, by the said Jason ; in wiiich chamber 1 have been, and seen the said history so depainted ; and in remembrance of Medea, and of her cunning and science, he bad do make in the said chamber, by si^til engine, that when he wonld, it should seem that It lightened, and after, thun- der, snow, and rain, and all within the said chamber, as ofthnes, and when it staoold please him, which was all made (br his singular pleasure."
curious as to every thing relative to the invention of printing, though it is much to be regretted that he had not inspected the beautiful specimens of the Roman, Venetian, and Parisian presses, before he caused his fount of letters to he cut, otherwise it is probable that he would have selected the Roman character, amongst the variety of his type. It is conjectured that he consulted Zell and Olpe of the Cologne press, (who had learned the art at Mentz) and Colard Mansion of Bniges, as to the materials neces- sary for his office. We h^ve no account of Caxton's typographical labours from 1 471 to 1474. Is it not probable that a curious and active mind like bis, just embarked in a new undertaking, would have a variety of subjects in view for publication ? We are not informed of the exact period when he returned to his native country : Oldys is of opinion, that three years might elapse during the period of his procuring materials for his office, prior to his return, at which time he had arrived at the evening of life ; for we find him in England, in 1474, wmch date appears to the Game of Chess. This is considered the first book ever printed in this kingdom : it is dedicated to the auke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV. it has been conjectured that it was printed before his return.
Upon his arrival in England, his press was set up in a part of Westminster abbey,* at which time Thomas Milling, bishop of Hereford, held the abbotship of St. Peter in commendam. According to Oldys, his father, William Caxton, resided with him at Westminster during the the height of his business; he must have lived to a good old age. From a memorial in St. Margaret's church, we learn that he died between 1478-80. John Leland, the learned antiquarian, who died in London 1552, sixty years after Caxton, calls the latter Anglic Prototypographus, the first printer of England. Bagford informs us that our typographer, exclusive of the labour of working at his press, contrived, though " well stricken in years," to translate not fewer than five thousand closely printed folio pages, and that " his like for industry," had never yet appeared. Oldys states, that "he kept preparmg copy for the press to the very last."
Wyniyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition of the ViaUt Palrum, in 1495, mentions, that these lives of the fathers were " translated out of French into English by William Caxton
- Mr. Dibdin, in his Tppograpkieal Antifuitifl, vol. 1, p.
d. cii. says :— " It is most probable that Caxton, after the manner observed in other monasteries, erected his press near one o( the chapels attached to the aisles of the abbey, and his Printing-office might have superseded the ase- of what was caUed the Scriptorium of the same. No remains of this once Interesting place can now be ascertained ; Indeed, there is a strong presamption, that it was pulled down in making alterations for the building of Henry Vllth's chapel ; for If Henry made no scruple to demolish the chapel of the Vlrffin (See Pennant's London, p. 78, 3rd cilit.) in order to carry into clltct his own plans for erecting the magnificent one which goes by his own name, the office of the Printer stood little chance of escaping a similar fate! According to Bagford, 'Caxton's office was afterwards removed into King-street, but whereabouts, or what sign is not known.*"
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