FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
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be, it seems prattr clear, that Caxton's being so mil known at Cologne, and his setting up a press at home immediately after his return from that place, which could hardly be a secret to Rood, must be the ground of the compliment paid to our country, and the very thing referred to in the verses.
There is another book, in the public library at Cambridge, without the name of printer or place; which, from the comparison of its types with those of Rood, is judged to be of his print- ing, and added to the catalogue of his works; bat the identity of the letter in different books, tlumgh a prol»ble argument, is not a certain one tor the identity of the press.
We shall now state, as briefly as we can, the poatire evidence that remains of Caxton being the fiist printer of this kingdom; for what has already been alleged is chieflv negative or cir- camslantia]. And here, as before hinted, all <nr writers before the restoration, who mention the introduction of the art amongst us, give him the credit of it, without any contradiction or variation. Stowe, in his Survey of London, speaking of the 37th year of Heniv VI. or anno 1458, says, " the noble science of printing was about this time found at Magnnce by John Ontemberg, a knight; and William Caxton, of London, mercer, brought it into England about the year 1471, and practised the same in the abby of Westminster." Trussel gives the
J account in the Hittory of Henry rl., and air Richard Baker in his Chronicle : and Mr. Howell, in his Londinopolu, describes the place where the abbot of Westminster set up the first press lor Caxton's use, in the Almonry or Am- bry. As a confirmation of this opinion, Mr. Newoourt, in his Repertorium, torn. i. p. 721, Ina it thus: "St. Aim's, an old chapel, over against which the lady Margaret, mother to kmg Henry VII., erected an alms-house for poor women, which is now (in Stowe's time) tnmed into lodgings for singing-men of the eoD^e. The puce, wherein this chapel and atms-hoose stood, was called the Eleemosinary or Almonry, now corruptly the Ambry [Aum- bry], for that the alms of the abbv were there disoibuted to the poor; in which the abbot of Westminster erected the first press for book- printing, that ever was in Enguind, about the year of Christ 1471, and where William Caxton, citizen and mercer of London, who first brought it into England, practised it." This chapel was in a letirmi place, and free ijrom interruption; and fiom this, or some other chapel, it is sup- poied the name of chapel has been given to all priotiog-houses in England ever since. But above all, the famous John Leland, library keeper to Henry VIII., who, by way of honour, had tiie tide of " The Antiquary,'^ and lived near to Caxton's own time, expr^sly calls him the first printer of England, and speaks honour- ably of his works : and as he had spent some time in Oxford, after having first studied and taken a itgree at Cambridge, he could hardly ^ ignorant of the origin and history of printing
in that university. We cannot forbear adding, for the sake of a name so celebrated, the more modern testimony of Mr. Henry Wharton, who affirms Caxton to have been tKe first that im- ported the art of printing into this kingdom; on whose authority the no less celebrated M. da Pin styles him likewise the first printer of England.
To the attestation of our historians, who are clear in favour of Caxton, and quite silent con- cerning an earlier press at Oxford, the worln of Caxton himself add great confirmation; the rudeness of the letter, irregularity of the page, want of signatures, initial letters, &c. in his first production of the art amongst us. Besides these circumstances, notice has been taken of a passage in his Hittory of Trm/, which amounts to a direct testimony of it— '*^uj end I tUt book," fc. (see page 139, ante.) This is the very style and language of our first printers, which every one knows who is the least conversant with old books; Faust and Schoeffer set the example from Mentz : by advertising the public at the end of each work, — "TTiat they were not dravm or written hy a pen (at all bookt had been before,) but made by a new art and invention of printing or itamping them by characters or types of metal set infomu." In imitation of whom the succeeding printers, in most cities of Europe, where the art was new, generally gave the like advertisement; as may be seen from Venice, Rome, Naples, Verona, Basil, Augsburg, Lou vain. Sec. in a similar manner to Caxton.
In Pliny's Natttral Hittory, printed at Venice, we have the following verses : —
Quern modo tarn ntam cnpiena viz lector haberlt i Quiq; etiam ftmctoa piene IcffendOB eram :
ResUtoit Venetla me noper Spin Johannea g Ezacripaltq; libra lare notante meo*.
Feaa manna quondam, moneo, ralaming i qnieaeat : Namq | labor atodlo ceaait & ingeoio. ■.cccc.i.xTtiii,
At the end of Cicero's Philippic Oratiom :—
Anaer Tarpeil coatoa Joria, nnde, qood alia Comtreperea, QaUna decidit j intor adeat
Uldkicus Gallui : ne qoem poscantur In uaom, Edocnit pennla nil opus eaae tuia.
Imprlmit llle die, quantum Don ■cribltnr anno, InKenlo, baud noceaa, omnia vlncit bomo.
In a Spanish Hittory of Bodericru Santiui, printed at Rome, the following is given : —
" De mandato R. P. O. Rodetld Kpiaoopl Palentinl Anc- torla bojua Ubrl, ego UnAtmcua QALLoa alne calanto aot pcnnia euod. libmm impreaai.'*
In Eusebius' Chronicon, printed in Latin, at Milan : —
Omolbua at pateant, tabnlia Impreaait abenla
UtUe Lannla geute PbUlppua opna. Uactenna hoc toto rarum fait orbe rolamen.
Quod viz, qui forlt tKdla, acriptor etmt. Nunc ope Lavanlae numeroaa rolnmlna noatii
Xn perexigoo qaalibet uibe legant.
In all the books translated by Caxton from the French, as the History of Troy, and others, he commonly marks the precise time of bis en- tering on the translation, of his finishing it, and of his putting it afterwards into the press; which used to follow each other with little or no inter- mission, and were generally completed within the compass of a few months; so that in the
