THE COMPARATIVE RARITY OF BOOKS PRINTED BY CAXTON,
Reading edition
SHOWING THE NUMBER OF COPIES OF EACH WORK KNOWN TO EXIST.
Quanta fuisti si tanta sunt Reliquia.
No. of Copies known.
Brass, Temple of frag.
Book of Courtesy, 2nd edit. frag.
Directorium Sacerdotum, 4to. frag.
Horæ, 1st edition frag.
Ditto, 2nd ditto frag.
Ditto, 3rd ditto frag.
Indulgence—Sixtus IV frag.
Anelida and Arcyte 1
Ars moriendi 1
Aymon, Four Sons of 1
Blanchardin and Eglantine 1
Book of Courtesy, 1st edition 1
Catho, Parvus et Magnus, 1st edition, 4to 1
Ditto, ditto, 2nd edition, 4to 1
Charles the Great 1
Chorle and the Bird, 1st edit. 1
Ditto ditto 2nd ditto 1
Commemoracio beatæ Mariæ 1
Death-Bed Prayers 1
Directorium Sacerdotum, folio, 1st edition 1
Ditto ditto ditto 2nd ditto 1
Fifteen Oes 1
Glass, Temple of 1
Horse, Sheep, and Goose, 1st edit. 1
Ditto ditto 2nd ditto 1½
Image of Pity 1
Infancia Salvatoris 1
Indulgence—Sixtus IV 1
Another, different 1
Meditacions sur les sept Pseaulmes 1
Paris and Vienne 1
Psalterium 1
Quatre derrennieres Choses 1
Reynard the Fox, 2nd edition 1
Stans Puer 1
Servitium de Transfiguratione 1
Sex Litteræ 1
Visitatio Mariæ Virginis 1
Advertisement, An 2
Arthur, Life of King 2
Catho, Parvus et Magnus, folio, 3rd edition 2
Curial, The 2
Gouvernal of Health 2
Indulgence, 1481 2
Propositio Johannis Russell 2
Saona, Gul. de 2
Æsop, Fables of 3
Art and Craft 3
Curia Sapientiæ 3
Dictes and Sayings, 2nd edition 3
Good Manners, Book of 3
Jason, Les fais du 3
Moral Proverbs 3
Saint Winifred, Life of 3
Book of Fame 4
Chivalry, Order of 4
Festial, The, 1st edition 4
Rhodes, Siege of 4
Statutes of Henry VII 4
Troilus and Creside 4
Vocabulary 4
Golden Legend, 2nd edition 5
Pilgrimage of the Soul 5
Four Sermons, 2nd edition 5
Reynard the Fox, 1st edition 5
Divers Ghostly Matters 6
Festial, The, 2nd edition 6
Jason, The Life of 6
Knight of the Tower 6
Recueil, Le 6
Chronicles of England, 2nd edit. 7
Dictes and Sayings, 3rd edition 7
Life of our Lady 8
Royal Book 8
Treatise of Love 8
Canterbury Tales, 1st edition 9
Ditto 2nd ditto 9
Doctrinal of Sapience 9
Four Sermons, 1st edition 9
Chess, Game and Play of, 1st ed. 10
Cordial 10
Golden Legend, 3rd edition 10
Katherine, Life of St. 10
Godfrey of Boloyn 11
Speculum Vitæ Christi 11
Caton 12
Chastising of God’s Children 12
Chess, Game and Play of, 2nd edit. 12
Chronicles of England, 1480 12
Description of Britain 12
Mirrour of the World, 2nd edit. 12
Dictes and Sayings, 1st edition 13
Mirrour of the World, 1st edit. 15
Boethius 16
Confessio Amantis 17
Eneydos 18
Recuyell, The 20
Fayts of Arms 21
Tully of Old Age, &c. 22
Polycronicon 30
Golden Legend, 1st edition 31
The reader who examines this list may well be astonished at the number here given of unique Caxtons. Out of 102 works above enumerated, no less than 38 are known to us by single copies, or by fragments only. The fact is almost incredible even to those most conversant with the rarities of the Westminster Press; and the question naturally arises—If about one-third of Caxton’s issue has been nearly destroyed, how numerous may have been the editions of which we shall never learn the existence? A glance at the titles of the uniques will show that the books most liable to destruction, probably owing in part to their being much used, and in part to the destructiveness of religious sectarianism, are those, directly or indirectly, of an ecclesiastical character—such as “Horæ,” “Psalters,” “Meditacions,” &c. School-books also, such as the “Stans Puer,” “Catho,” &c., are always difficult of preservation. On the other hand, there seems no especial reason for the almost total destruction of such works as the romances of “King Arthur,” “The Four Sons of Aymon,” “Blanchardin,” “Charles the Great,” the second edition of “Reynard,” or the various short poems in quarto.
The greatest number of copies ever brought together is 83, being the number now in the British Museum; but of these 25 are duplicates, leaving the number of works 58, of which three are mere fragments. The Caxtons in Earl Spencer’s Library, although numerically less than those of the National Library, make nevertheless a more complete collection, and embrace 57 separate works. Other Libraries come far behind these two. The Public Library, Cambridge, has 42 separate works, a total considerably augmented by the numerous unique pieces of poetry in quarto. The Bodleian has 34 separate works, and the Duke of Devonshire 25.