POSTHUMOUS AND DOUBTFUL WORKS.
Reading edition
No. 100.—The Life of Saint Katherine.—The Revelations of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Folio. Sine ullâ notâ. (1493?)
Collation.—a is a 4n; b c d e f g h i k l m n o p are 3ns; q is a 2n. Total 96 leaves, all printed.
Typographical Particulars.—There is no title-page. The type for some of the headings is No. 7, the same as that already noticed in “Chastising” and “Festial;” but the type for the body of the work is a partial re-casting of No. 4*, with many new additions, and on a rather smaller body, being evidently a different fount from any known to have been used by Caxton. The pages are in double column, and have 43 and 44 lines to a page. Full lines measure 2⅞ inches. Without folios or catchwords. On the last leaf is the large Device.
This book, like some already mentioned, was in all probability the workmanship of Wynken de Worde, shortly after Caxton’s death. This opinion is borne out by the types used, by the signatures being in 3ns instead of 4ns; by very long pages, and by wood initials, identical with those used in the early books of Wynken de Worde.
No. 101.—The Golden Legend. Third Edition. Folio. “Fynysshed at westmestre . . The year of our lord M CCCC lxxxxiij / . . ℂ By me wyllyam Caxton.”
Collation.—Table and prologue a 2n; a b c d e are 4ns; F a single sheet; f g h i k l m n o p q r s t v x y z & 9 are 4ns; e a 2n, signed to e iij; A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y are 4ns; aa bb cc dd ee are 4ns; ff a 3n, signed to ff iiij; and gg a 2n, signed to gg iij. Total 436 leaves, all printed.
Typographical Particulars.—Without title-page. The types are No. 7, and the re-casting of type No. 4*, noticed in the preceding work, which fount is only known to have been used for these two books. The work is in double column, and the lines, of which there are 44 to a column, measure 2⅞ inches. Without folios or catchwords. Many woodcuts and woodcut initials.
Caxton died two years before the date of printing.
No. 102.—The Siege of Rhodes. Folio. Sine ullâ notâ.
Collation.—Four unsigned 3ns, or 24 leaves all printed.
Typographical Particulars.—Without title of any sort. The type is very rude and uneven, being a different fount to that used for the “St. Katherine” and “Golden Legend” just noticed. Some of the letters are the same as Caxton’s No. 4*, but many rude additions have been made. There is a space between each line, probably made by the use of “reglets,” the unevenness of which is very apparent. The lines are spaced to an even length, and there are 26 to a page, except the first and second, which have, respectively, 30 and 31. They measure in length 4½ inches, the depth of 26 lines varying from 7 to 7⅛ inches. Without signatures, folios, catchwords, or printed initials.
No. 103.—Missale ad usum Sarum.—Exaratum Parisius impensa optimi viri Guillermi Caxton. Folio. Paris, 4th Dec. 1487.
The type is the usual church text used for service books. In double columns, with head-lines.
As connected with Caxton, the whole of the interest centres in the colophon.
Missale ad vsum Sar’ cun ctitenetis dei dono / magno conamine elaboratum finis feliciter . Exaratum Parisiꝰ impensa optimi viri Guil- lermi Caxton . Arte vero et industria Magistri Guiller mi Maynyal . Anno domini M . CCCC . lxxxvii . iiij De cembris.
This is on the recto of the last leaf, and upon the verso is Caxton’s large device.
Remarks.—Passing by the great interest which this missal has in being five years earlier in date than the celebrated Rouen edition, dated October 1st, 1492, hitherto considered as the editio princeps, we have to elucidate it in relation to Caxton.
It has not, until the discovery of this volume, been supposed that Caxton employed foreign printers to help him, although it is well known that his successors did so. In this case he used the services of a printer at Paris, whose name very seldom appears in typographical annals. Little is known of William Maynyal, who is erroneously called, by Panzer, George. In 1480, working in conjunction with Ulric Gering, the first printer at Paris, he produced “Speculum aureum,” as well as “Summa de virtutibus cardinalibus,” both in Roman types. Afterwards, he worked alone. In 1487, Caxton, not having appropriate types of his own, sent instructions to Maynyal, of Paris, to print for him the Salisbury Missal. The commission was executed, and 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. It is certainly the earliest date at which it has yet been found; and the state of the block, which has fewer breakages than any other known example, confirms the priority of this in a most interesting manner. Since 1484 Caxton had not used woodcuts; but just at this time, 1487, he appears to have found some one for the purpose, and the “Royal Book” and the “Speculum” appeared with numerous cuts. The same artist was probably employed to design and engrave the new “trade mark.”
The only known copy is in the possession of W. J. Legh, Esq., M.P., and was first made known in the Athenæum, March 21st, 1874.
Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum.
This work is supposed to have been printed by Caxton, at Cologne, on the strength of a statement by Wynken de Worde. As, however, this printer has perpetrated the most curious contradictions and mis-statements in many of his prologues and colophons, it seems more than probable that he blundered here also, as no connection whatever can be traced between the typographical customs of Caxton and those of the Cologne school; nor does any copy of “Bartholomeus” exist which can, with any show of reason, be attributed to Caxton’s press.
For further remarks on this subject, see page 64.
The Metamorphoses of Ovid.
In the Pepysian library, Cambridge (2124) is an English manuscript of the fifteenth century, not improbably Caxton’s autograph, and consisting of the Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Books of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Each book in the manuscript begins with a red-ink title, the first being:—
“Here followeth the ‖ xth booke of Ouyde ‖ wherof the first fa ‖ ble is of the mari ‖ age of Orpheus ‖ and Erudice his lo ‖ ue. Cap° p’m°.”
For an imitation of this paragraph see Dibdin’s Typ. Ant., vol. i, page 14. At the end of the volume is the following colophon:—
“Translated and fynysshed by me William Caxton at Westmestre the xxij day of Apryll / the yere of our lord m. iiijc iiijxx And the xx yere of the Regne of kyng Edward the fourth.”
Now Caxton, from what we know of his disposition, would never have begun a translation in the middle of a book. He therefore, no doubt, translated the former nine books also. But all Caxton’s translations, and especially in the busy time of 1480, were made for the press. There seems, therefore, good reason to believe that the Metamorphoses were printed also by Caxton, although unfortunately no fragment of such a work is at present known.
It seems not unlikely that the Pepysian MS. is in Caxton’s own autograph.
The Life and Miracles of Robert Earl of Oxford.
In the preface to “The Four Sons of Aymon,” Caxton says, “Therefore late at the request and commandment of the right noble and virtuous Earl, John, Earl of Oxford, my good singular and especial lord I reduced and translated out of French into our maternal and English tongue the life of one of his predecessors named Robert Earl of Oxford tofore said, with divers and many great miracles which god showed for him as well in his life as after his death as is showed all along in his said book.”
Having translated this Life, it is not improbable that Caxton also printed it.
A Ballad.
“The small fragment of an unknown work,” preserved among some old ballads in the British Museum (643. m.) and described by Sir Henry Ellis, and Dr. Dibdin in Typ. Ant., vol. i, page 359, is a portion of the “Cook’s Tale,” from Caxton’s first edition of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”
Several works, such as “Statuta” (probably Machlinia’s), “Lyndewode’s Constitutiones,” “The Lucidary,” “An Accidence,” and others, have been by various writers included among the books issued by Caxton, but in all cases erroneously.
