153
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
present case, after be had finished the transla- tion, which must be in or soon Jifter 1471, it is not likely that he would delay the impression longer than was necessary for Uie preparing his materials; especially as he was engaged by promise to his friends, who seem to have been pressing and in haste, to deliver copies of it to them as soon as possible.
But as in the case of the first printer, so in this of his first work, we have a testimony also from himself in favour of this book : for we have observed that, in the recital of his works, he mentions it the first in order, before The Boke of Cheue, which seems to be a good argu- ment of its being actually the first. " When I had accomplished dyvert werkyt and hyitoryt translated out of Frenthe into Englythe at the requette of certayn lordet, ladyes, and gentylmen, as the Recvyel of the Hystoryes of Troye, the Boke of Chette, the Hystorye of Jason, the Hys- torye of the Mirrour of the World — / have sub- mysed myself to translate into Englyshe the Le- gende of Sayntes, called Legenda Aurea in Latyn — and Wylyam, Erie of Arondel, desyred me — ami promysed to take a resonyble quantyte of themr—sente to me a worshipful gentylman — promysing that my sayd lord slundd, durying my lyf, give and gravnt to me a yerelyfee, that is to note, a bucke tn sommer and a doo in wynter." ^c.
All this, added to the common marks of ear- lier antiquity, which are more observable in this than in any other of his books, viz. the rudeness of the letter, the incorrectness of the language, and the greater mixture of French words than in his later pieces, makes us conclude it to be his first worli, executed when he came fresh from a long residence in foreign parts. Nay, there are some circumstances to make us believe that it was actually printed abroad at Cologne, where he finished the translation, and where he had been practising and learning the art; for, after the account given above, of his having learnt to print, he immediately adds, " tehicM boke I have presented to my said redoubtid lady Margrete, duchesse of Burgoyne, ^c, and she hath well acceptid hit, and largely reuHirded me," &c., which seems to imply his continuance abroad till after the impression as well as the translation of the book. The conjecture is much strengthened by another fact attested of him — that he did really print at Cologne the first edition of Bartholom/eus de proprietatibus rarum, in Latin ; which is afiirmed by Wynkyn de Worde, in an English edition of the same book, in the following lines : —
And *l«o of roar ctauyte bear in remembrance Tbe soole or Wllliun Ctxton, flnt printer of tUs boke. In L*ten tongne at Coleyn, binueU' to adnonce. That ererr well dlsposyd man may thereon lokc. And John Tate (be Younger, Joye mote he broke Whlche late hath In Engiande do make this paper thynne 1%at now In our EncUih this boke Is prynted Inne.
It is certain that the same book was printed at Cologne, by Jo. Koelholf, and the first that appears of his printing, 1470, whilst Caxton was at the place and busying himself in the art; and if we suppose him to have been the encou-
ra^r and promoter of the work, or to hare for- nj^ed the expense of it, he miriit possibly, on that account, be considered at borne as the u- thor of it.
It is now time to draw to a conclusion, to avoid being censured for spending too mncl pains on an arg^ument so inconsiderable ; where the only view is to set right some points of his- tory that have been falsely or negligently treated by our writers, and, above all, to do a piece of justice to the memory of our worthy conotrr- man, WILLIAM CAXTON, and not snfier him to be robbed of the glory so cTearlv Hat to him of having first introduced into this liingdois an art of great use and benefit to mankind : a kind of merit that, in the sense of all nations, gives the best title to true praise, and the best claim to be commemorated with honour to pos- terity: and it ought to be inscribed on bit monument, what is declared of another printer, Bartholomeus Bottonus of Reggio— "Prniiw ego in patria modo chartas tere signavi, et nonu bibliopola fui," jrc
To sum up the contradictory statements, which have been advanced by Atkyns and Oxonides,!! may be asked can any two statements possibly be more opposite? Atkyns strengthens his opinion by an act of Henry VIII. which prohibits fo- reigners from exercising the art in uis country: while Oxonides brings forward no other proof than the execution of the book, which (according; to Atkyns) was the production of an undei-work- man. Does this declaration carry probability on the face of it ? Most assuredly not. Had Oxo- nides adhered to the account given by Atlmu, he would have done more for the cause. It is my conviction, that the Oxford claim is entitled to no credit ; and fully agreeing with Dr. Hid- dleton, that the book in question must hare beat antedated. Whether Atkyns was the inventor of this story, or dupe of others, cannot, pe^hap^ now be ascertained ; but one thing is clear that he was an interested person, and had it not been from a private motive, he would not have pub- lished a work which bears improbabiUty on the face of almost every sentence.
The glaring contradictions in the statements of Oxonides and Dibdin, are here given to show which is entitled to the greatest credit: the former asserts, that " Caxton and Rood were in- difierently good printers : De Worde and Pynson were worse ; and those that follow them most abominable .'" While the latter maintains, thst Caxton's successor, " Wynkyn de Worde, a printer of very considerable ta.<ste, and of infinitely mote skill than his predecessor. The present is not the place to describe the peculiarities and the beauties of his press-work : but tis connected with the subject of eugraving, we may remark that he seems to have been rather partial to the mode of embellishing his books witn cuts ; and that one of the earliest and most magnificent of his pro- ductions, his edition of Bartholomeus de rto- prietatibut Rerum, exhibits a combinatioo of printing and engraving, of which, in this coonuy, we have nothing before that deserves to be put
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