Sales catalogue 533: Maggs Bros

Date:
1930
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/88
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 533: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/294 page 29
    Westminster. Wynkyn de Worde: a.p. 1491-1500. SAINT JEROME—continued. of the Fathers. The translation was Caxton’s last piece of work, being finished on his death-bed, so the colophon relates: ‘‘. . . translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe by Wyllyam Caxton of Westmynstre late deed, and fynysshed it at the laste daye of his lyff. Enprynted in the sayd towne of Westmynstre be my Wynkyn de Worde the yere of our lorde, M.CCCC.XXXXYV. and the tenth yere of our souerayne lorde kyng henry the seventh.’’ As the tenth year of Henry VII ended 22nd August, 1495, and’ de Worde began his year on Ist January, the printing of this book must have been completed between these dates. That the book was not printed until four years after the death of Caxton is thought to be due to the time taken in preparing the woodcut illustrations. The recorded copies of this rare and important Westminster incunable are nearly all very defective:—The Morgan copy lacks eleven leaves, the Grolier Club copy lacks fifteen leaves, one of the British Museum copies lacks four leaves. The copy now offered is the Lord Amherst of Hackney copy, with his book-plate inside the front cover. This desirable copy, handsomely bound in morocco gilt, is of a good size, and complete but for the title-page, containing only the xylographical words ‘‘ vitas patrum,’’ which are supplied in facsimile; a few leaves have slight repairs to the blank margins. This book contains Caxton’s well-known woodcut device, the first printer’s device used in England. This device was taken over by De Worde on Caxton’s death and used in several of his productions. Gordon Duff, in his Wilkam Caxton, writes of the device as follows :— ‘* It consists of his initials, divided by his merchant’s mark, with a deep ornamental border at top and bottom. Many ingenious writers have attempted to read into this mark several items of information. The merchant’s mark they say is not a merchant’s mark at all, but the figure 74 significant of the time when he began to print. Two small ornaments shaped like an S and C stand for Sancta Colonia, where he learned the art of printing. The mark is, however, merely an ordinary merchant’s mark, which in some shape or another all printers introduced into their devices, and the letters S C merely ornamental flourishes.’’ [29 |
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