CAXTON, William (1421 - ) ‹ LBT 02731 ›
Badges
Floruit 1441 (B) — 1492 (B); Male, married
Life Events
| Event | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | c.1421 | Duff, E.G. (1905) = 1421 |
| Death | circa- 1492 STC | |
| Burial | O.D.N.B. |
Family Relationships
| LBTNumber | Name | Relationship | Occupation | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3019 | CAXTON, (Unknown) ‹ LBT 03019 › | spouse | ||
| 35257 | CAXTON, Elizabeth CROPPE ‹ LBT 35257 › | child | Duff, E.G. (1905) - obtained a separation from her husband, Gerard Croppe a tailor, in May 1496. |
Livery Companies
| Company | Source |
|---|---|
| Mercers' Company |
Occupations (1)
| Occupation | Comment |
|---|---|
| Printer | Duff, E.G. (1905); O.D.N.B. |
Was Apprentice to Master(s): (1)
| Name | Premium | Paid By | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| (unknown -- ref: Q) |
Addresses (2)
| Date | Address | Trade at Addr | Source | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1473, (1473-1476) | Belgium - Bruges | STC. vol.3, (1991) | ||
| 1476, (1476-1491) | Almonry | STC. vol.3, (1991) |
Events (2)
| Date | Event type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1438 | Bound | to Robert Large [Mercers' Company] - date of entry. |
| 11 Apr 1441 | Beneficiary | Will of Robert Large [his master] |
SOURCES & TRANSCRIPTIONS
Transcriptions
S.T.C., (1991), vol.3, pp.38-9
DUFF, E.G. (1905), pp.23-5
CAXTON (WILLIAM), printer in Westminster, was born in the Weald of Kent about the year 1421. In 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a leading member of the Mercers' Company and Lord Mayor in 1439-40. Large died April 4th, 1441, and in his will left a legacy of twenty marks to his youngest apprentice, Caxton. Caxton had still a few years of apprenticeship to run, but seems to have gone abroad almost at once, for, in 1471,he wrote, "I have contynued by the space of XXX yere for the most part in the contres of Braband, Flandres, Holand and Zeland." In 1450 Caxton was settled in Bruges and in the same year was a party in a lawsuit, which he lost. In 1453 he paid a visit to London and was received into the livery of the Mercers' Company. On returning to Bruges he carried on business with increasing success, and from 1463 to 1469 was Governor of the Merchant Adventurers.
In 1469 Caxton entered the service of the Duchess of Burgundy and, having more leisure, turned to literature and made several translations. On a visit to Cologne in 1471 Caxton saw the new art of printing being practised and, being struck with its obvious advantages, obtained some practical knowledge of the art by assisting to print an edition of Bartholomaeus de proprietatibus rerum, which was then in preparation. On returning to Bruges in 1471 and presenting his translation of the Recueil des histoires de Troyes to the Duchess, he found that many others of high rank wished for copies, and that the labour of transcribing them was very great.
On this account he determined to start a printing press, and about 1473-4 took as a partner Colard Mansion, an illuminator, and set to work to obtain the necessary material. When Caxton had learnt the art in 1471, Cologne was the nearest town to Bruges where it was practised, but in the interval presses had been set up in the nearer towns of Utrecht, Alost, and Louvain. A study of Caxton's first types clearly shows that they very strikingly resemble those of John de Westphalia who printed at Alost in 1473 and moved to Louvain in 1474. Between 1474 and 1476 Caxton and Mansion printed three books in partnership, but some time in 1476 Caxton, leaving his first fount of type with Mansion, who continued to use it at Bruges, set out for England with a newer fount, and on his arrival settled with his material in a house with the sign of the Red Pale in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, and started the first printing press in England.
From the Westminster accounts we learn that for his first shop Caxton paid a rent of ten shillings. In 1483 he paid for two houses, and in the next year for an additional room over the gateway to the Almonry. As Robert Copland tells us, Caxton began by printing small books, and examples of these are still in existence. It was not until November 18th, 1477, that he issued his first dated book, The dictes or sayengis of the philosophres. About 1480, owing, perhaps, to the rivalry of John Lettou's { (LBT/30041) } press, established in London in that year, Caxton introduced several improvements. He cut smaller and neater type, commenced to use signatures, and in 1481 issued a book with illustrations. In December, 1487, Caxton commissioned an edition of the Sarum Missal, which was printed for him at Paris by Guillaume Maynyal,who apparently printed also for him a Sarum Legenda, now known only from fragments.
In the Missal Caxton's mark occurs for the first time, no doubt added by Caxton after the book arrived in England. The device consists of his trade mark and initials, with a deep ornamental border at top and bottom, and it was evidently engraved in England. In 1489 Caxton issued an Indulgence in a very small type, but neither the Indulgence nor the type has been recorded by Blades.
The number of books actually printed by Caxton in England, counting separate editions, is ninety-six, and with the three printed at Bruges, and the Missal, he issued exactly one hundred books. There is no doubt, however, considering the number only known from fragments, that very many must have entirely disappeared. Blades, in his Life of Caxton, described ninety-nine books, but amongst these he includes two which were certainly printed at Bruges after Caxton had left, and three printed by W. de Worde after Caxton's death, so that the number of genuine books which he described is ninety-four.
The number of Caxton bindings which have been preserved is small. His usual method of ornamenting the sides was to make a large panel by means of a framework of dies. This panel was divided into lozenge-shaped compartments by diagonal lines running both ways from the frame, and in each compartment thus formed a die was impressed. The die most commonly found has the figure of a winged dragon, another a conventional flower. The border was often made up with a triangular die pointing alternately right and left, also having the figure of a winged dragon. These bindings are invariably of calf, no genuine Caxton binding in vellum being known.
The exact date of Caxton's death is unknown, but from the position of the entry in the parish registers it probably occurred towards the end of 1491. In a copy of Julian Notary's { NOTARY, Julian ‹ LBT 30071 › } edition of the Fructus Temporum of 1515, which belonged at one time to a Mr. Ballard, of Cambden, in Gloucestershire, there was written in an old hand the following epitaph: "Of your charitee pray for the soul of Mayster Willyam Caxton that in hys time was a man of moche ornate and moche renommed wysdome and connyng, and decessed fel crystenly the yere of our Lord M.CCCC.Lxxxxi.
- " Moder of Merci shyld him from thorribul fynd
- And bryng hym to lyff eternall that neuyr hath ynd."
This may very well be a copy of a genuine inscription. Caxton's will has never been discovered, nor is it among the huge collection of deeds in Westminster Abbey. We know, however, that he had a daughter, Elizabeth, who obtained a separation from her husband, Gerard Croppe a tailor, in May, 1496. In the records of St. Margaret's, Westminster, are entries relating to the burials of William Caxton in 1479 and Maud Caxton in 1490, and these entries are often supposed to refer to the printer's father and wife, but beyond the names there is no evidence to support the conjecture. Caxton apparently left no son, and on his death all his printing material passed to Wynkyn de Worde { (LBT/02669) }. [Blades, Life of Caxton. Duff, William Caxton. R. H. Blades, Who was Caxton. D.N.B.]