New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-05-02
The Rirvt RunII.h Pripter,

Its victim into certain paths OF 1nvestlgR~
ton never before explored by his feet, and
to bring to his attention q variety Of facts,
either entirely new to him or never care
fully noted and remembered. One of his
earliest discoveries is that William Cax-
ton, the first English printer, is charac-
ter of the highest consequence in the an
mails of book making, and one in whose life
and works he is bound, if be would be a
true bibliophile, to take deep and alb
sorbing interest. A Caxton Society has
lately been formed in London, and its
first meeting, presided over by Dean
Stanley, and held on the seventeenth of
February, was the opening Of a celebra-
ton organized to commemorate the four
hundredth anniversary of the issue of the
first book printed in England. Papers
were read, the authenticity of works at
tributed to Caxton was discussed, and
many rare and priceless productions OF
his press were exhibited.
The purveyors and buyers of old books
are not, however, the only persons who
take an interest in Caxton. He is a nota-
BILE figure in the history of the English
language and literature. Both owe much
to his industry, intelligence and zeal in
his double vocation of author aud printer.
He started his printing press in forma-
tive and progressive period, when
slowly ripenipg civilization, of which it
became both the stimulus and the instru-
ment, was beginning to mold society into
its present shape. Long and bitter wars
had given even the ignorant mobiles and
cavaliers taste for the arts of peace and
for learning, whose blessings were already
enjoyed to considerable degree by the
middle class. In such time of mental
quickening Caxton gave to the English
language the instrument of its power and
perpetuation, the chief agent of human
progress.
Lite is known of CAY toms life
out Iide of what he himself has left us
in the gossip of his books. He was bern
in Kent in 14l2, near the close of the
reign of King Henry ". He had more
schooling than was usual for boys of his
class at that time, and when about fifteen
years old was apprenticed TO a London mel
chsnt, afterward Lord Mayor. He be-
came successful and prominent mer-
chant, and in 1864 was selected by King
Edward ". to confirm treaty with
Philip, Duke of Burgundy. Later, he
shared Edwards exile in Holland. He
must have been man of literary tastes
and a student during his commercial
career. for in 1471, when he first appears
as a writer, he was familiar with English,
French, and Dutch. In that year he COM
pleted translation of a French history
of Troy for the pleasure of the Duchess
of Burgundy, whose familiar acquaintance
he enjoyed. This work was done at
Bruges, where Collard Mansion about that
time set up printing press. OF b N
| Caxton learned the art, and between 1472
and 1875 he issued the "Recueil of the
Histories of Troye" and the "Game and
| the Playe of the Cheese, which were the
first books printed in the English tongue.
Both were translated from the French by
Caxton. Some time previous to the year
! 1477 he returned to London, and founded
a printing Office near Westminster Abbey.
In the year mentioned his press sent forth
the first book ever printed in England
with the name Of the place and the date.
! This was the "Dictes and Sayings of the
| Philosophers.
From this time till his death, in 1891,
Caxton was diligently engaged in trans
lating and publishing. Acquaintance with
| the learned tongues was confined to the
| ecclesiastics, but Cations knowledge OF
| French enabled him to issue English ver-
sions of the "Bneid, of Cicero's writings,
and of many Latin theological works.
He was, besides, the publisher of Chaucer
and Cover, and fed the pride of his noble
patrons with several romances of chivalry
and, of course, history of King Arthur's
| doings, though he himself, a simple and
| sensible person, could have found little
| pleasure in that class OF literature. We
know nothing Of his presses or mechanical
| appliances, except by the results shown in
his prints His types were gothic or old
English black letter characters, cast in
close imitation of the letters of the manu-
| scripts of the day. Indeed, at its birth,
the grand invention of printing was dis
| owned, and the first books printed by
| Gutenberg and Faust were sold as produc-
tions of the manuscript cbpyists. Had
| Caxton voyaged to Italy and seen the
| clear and beautiful work of the presses
of Venice, his great common sense would
undoubtedly have led him to adopt the
| Roman letters at once. 1t is supposed
that he printed about sixty-four different
works, most Of the copies of which have
| persisted Those that remain fetch enor.
NOUS prices The British Museum has
the largest and finest collection. There
are about twenty copies in this country,
| of which Mr.. Lenox has half q dozen.
The 'Polycronicon," supposed to have
been printed in 1882, is the most highly
| priced of Cations works. gentleman
in this city has copy, for which he gave
| SG050. CaXtons are not unfrequently sold
in England for thousand pounds. One,
in the recent Menzies sale in this CITY,
fetched $1,000. But these prices seen
common when compared with that of the
| Mazarin Bible, printed by Gutenberg anC
Faust OF Mainz, sin l455, copies of which
have sold for $4,000.
Cations books are of great interest tC
the student of language, as giving excel
lent examples of English at time wher
it was crystalizing into the form it bears
to-day. The orthography is unsettled
and not like ours, but when this is cor
rected by present standards it is surprising
| how trivial are the differences that sepa
-ate this language of four hundred YEAR
ago from modern English. Beyond {
few words which were then obsolescent
there is nothing to record except the
| quaintness of the idiom. Il is quitt
modern compared with Langland's Eng
lish in 'Piers Plowman's Vision, writer
a hundred years earlier, and has none O
the half foreign lock OF Chaucer. Caxto1
himself remarks the great change in th,
language wrought in his life-time w
may well feel an ancestral pride in tn,
antiquity of our language, for the French
had not fairly shaken off its destinations
and other debris Of the Latin until tn,
middle of the fifteenth century, and Ger
man was fixed in its modern form, created
| Ona u,iuhk SOW hy MarIf,, Tntl,a.. l., Ia;