FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
lt>3
T. F. Dibdin, firom who6e works we are indebted for the above infonnation, thus relates the cir- cumstance in his Bibliographical Decameron, Tol. II. page 288. " Would you beliere it, a portrait of Burchiello, an Italian of the XlVth century, was most wickedly foisted into the pub- lic notice, by Ames, as that of William Cazton ? Yet Ames, on second thoughts, must not be too sererely criticised. As an antiquary in the art of ennarinE, his knowledge was exceedingly limitM ; and it was su£Bcient for him that the name of Faithome was subscribed to a book of drawings in the Harleian Collection, punwrting to be portraits of printers — in which this identical portrait appeared ! and so, a draped head (as the phrase is), of Master Burchiello, aforesaid, came forth as that of the venerable and our well be- loved William Caxton !"
The first biography of Caxton appeared under the following title : — " The Life of Mayiter Wyllytm Caxton of the Weald in Kent ;* the firtt Printer in England. In lohich M given an Aeeotmt of the Rite and Progreu of the Art of Pryntyng tn EngUmd, during hit Time, till 1493. Collected by John Lewit,Minitler ofMer- gate m Kent. London: Printed in the Year mjtecjexxvii." B«yal 8vo. 160 copies. To the title-page succeed these verses — To the Rev. Mr. Lewis, upon bis writing the Life of Caxton:
Imhubtoiu Caztom's name in time to come Bad bmied been in dirk oUlTion'i tomb, Bad yon wtthbeld your generous aid to aave niat name which now will never find a grave. Sacred the labour, lighteoua \» yoor paina. Thus to collect the artlst*B troe reniauu, Kent owes to tod her thanks apon thli ecore : And not on this alone, bat many more. More WBtchfnl you than Egypt's boasting seers t For there a pyramid now hoge appears } Tet lost for ever is its bnild^^ name. To our sniprlse, and Okttr eternal shame. W. H.
Ames records the following, as written in a very old hand, in en edition of ^nicftw Temportan, — Of your charite pray for the soul of Myster Wyllyam Caxton, that in hys tyme was a man of moche ornate and moche renommed wysdome and cynnyng, and^lecesed full crystenly the yere of our Lora mcccclxxxxi
- Moder of Merd shyld bym tram thoixtbol fynd.
And Inryng faym to lylT etemaU that neayr hath ynd."
" But these superstitions," says Mr. Hansard, " may rather be considered as characteristic of the age in which Caxton lived, than as pecu- liarities exclusively applicable to himself. The books which he published were almost wholly of a moral tendency, and the prefaces to several, that he occasionally wrote, partook of the same spirit," His attachment to the doctrines and ceremonies of the church of Rome, seemed always to partake of sincerity. In the crusades he found much to commend, and little to blame ; and to the pilgrimages of bis day, and to those of his ancestors, he was much devoted.
Notwithstanding that Caxton had printed for the use of Edward IV. and Henry VII. there are no grounds for the notion which Palmer takes up, that the first printers, and particululy Caxton, were sworn servants and printers to the crown ; for Caxton gives not the least hint of any such character or title : however, it seems to have been instituted not long after his death ; for of his two principal workmen, Richard Pyn- son, and Wynkyn de Worde, the one was made printer to the king ; the other to the king's mo- ther, the lady Margaret.
If, however, the art, or those who practised it, sought die royal favour and countenance, it was a privilege which monarchs might gloiy to confer. The benevolent of mankind, and more especially kings, as the fathers of their people, cannot b«stow more valuable gifts on their wide extended family, than by encouraging among them the exercise of an investigation so adapted to their instruction ; so calculated for their im- provement in social and in public virtue.
None of our English printers, during this cen- tury, attempted to print the Bible, eiUier in the Latin, or the vernacular tongue. In the appli- cation of printing to the purposes of sacred lite- rature, the palm must be yielded to Germany, which as it had the honour of die invendon of printing, so it was the first to apply it to the dif- nision of biblical knowledge. For not only were numerous edidons of the Latin BibU, and seve- ral of the German version printed there, but edidons also were published in the Saxon and Bohemian dialects. And, in reply to what has been urged by some writers, agamst Caxton not printing the Bible, it is sufficient to remark, that the danger attending it in his dme, was such, that it would have required the utmost religious intrepidity to have attempted it ; and that it is therefore highly probable, that what- ever preference our printer might have for the scriptures, he would not place his life in jeo- pardy for its publicadon. Sir Thomas More, in nis Eh/aloget, 1529, thus defends the early prin- ters in England for not prindng the Bible : " That an account of the penaldes ordered by archbishop Arundel's constitution, though the old translations that were before Wiclif's days remayned lawful and were in some folkys handys had and red, yet he thought no prynter would lyghdy be so bote to put any bybie in prent at hys owne charge, whereof the loss should lie wholly on his own necke, and then hange upon a doubtfull tryal why the fyrst copy of his trans- lacyon was made before Wiclif's dayes or synnes.
For yff yt were made synnes, yt must be ap-
But such an ap- probauon, Sir Thomas intimates, was not to be
proued byfore the prjmtyng." But such an ap
- Oaiter, in his Hiitory of Camiridgakire, gays, " Caz-
ihire man, born at Caxton, in that
ton was a OambridgesI
covnty, firom which he takes his name.
tn abaurdity Mcfa proof as this >
What can exceed
had.
Dr. Dibdin, with that genius and talent which ever marks his veneration for our first printer, observes : — *' That our typographer met death with placidity and resignadon there is every reason, from the testimony of his own pious ejaculadons, but more from the evidence of a usefully spent life, to believe. If his funeral
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