Editing William Caxton (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Caxton's family "fairly certainly" consisted of his parents, Philip and Dionisia, and a brother, Philip.<ref name=Hadlow/> However, the charters used as evidence there are for the manor of [[Little Wratting]] in [[Suffolk]]; in one charter, this William Caxton is referred to as "otherwise called Causton saddler".<ref>N. F. Blake. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_sioDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT56 "William Caxton"] in ''Authors in the Middle Ages'', Volume III.</ref>

One possible candidate for William's father is Thomas Caxton of [[Tenterden]], Kent, who was like William, a [[Mercery|mercer]]. He was one of the defendants in a case in the Court of Common Pleas<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H5/CP40no637/bCP40no637dorses/IMG_1293.htm|title=AALT Page|website=aalt.law.uh.edu|accessdate=2 May 2023}}</ref> in Easter term 1420: Kent. John Okman, versus "Thomas Kaxton, of Tentyrden, mercer", and Joan who was the wife of Thomas Ive, executors of Thomas Ive, for the return of two bonds (scripta obligatoria) which they unjustly retain.

Caxton's date of birth is unknown. Records place it in 1415–1424, based on the fact that his apprenticeship fees were paid in 1438. Caxton would have been 14 at the date of apprenticeship, but masters often paid the fees late.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Norman Francis |title=Caxton and his World |publisher=London House & Maxwell |year=1969 |isbn=9780233960937 |location=London |page=28 }}</ref> In the preface to his first printed work ''The [[Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye]]'', he claims to have been born and educated in the [[Weald]] of [[Kent]].<ref name=AC1859>{{cite journal |url=http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/002-1859/16/Arch%20Cant%202-16a.pdf |title=Notices of Kent Worthies, Caxton |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |publisher=Kent Archaeological Society |year=1859 |volume=2 |pages=231–33 |author=L.B.L.}}</ref> Oral tradition in [[Tonbridge]] claims that Caxton was born there; the same with Tenterden.<ref name=Hadlow/> One of the manors of Hadlow was Caustons, owned by the Caxton (De Causton) family.<ref name=AC1859/> A house in Hadlow reputed to be the birthplace of William Caxton was dismantled in 1936 and incorporated into a larger house rebuilt in [[Forest Row]], [[East Sussex]].<ref name=Hadlow>{{cite book | year = 2007| title = Hadlow, Life, Land & People in a Wealden Parish 1460 ~ 1600| editor = Joan Thirsk| pages = 107–109| publisher = Kent Archaeological Society| isbn = 978-0-906746-70-7| url = http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/publications/1460%20-%20Web%20edition%202007%20March.PDF}}</ref> Further evidence for Hadlow is that various place names nearby are frequently mentioned by Caxton.<ref name=AC1859/>

Caxton was in London by 1438, when the registers of the [[Worshipful Company of Mercers|Mercers' Company]] record his apprenticeship to [[Robert Large]], a wealthy London mercer or dealer in luxury goods, who served as Master of the Mercers' Company, and [[Lord Mayor of London]] in 1439. After Large died in 1441, Caxton was left a small sum of money (£20). As other apprentices were left larger sums, it would seem that he was not a senior apprentice at this time.

===Printing and later life===
[[File:Brut Chronicle.jpg|thumb|left|A page from the [[Brut Chronicle|''Brut'' Chronicle]] (printed as the ''Chronicles of England''), printed in 1480 by Caxton in [[blackletter]]]]
Caxton was making trips to [[Bruges]] by 1450 and had settled there by 1453, when he may have taken his Liberty of the [[Mercers' Company]]. There, he was successful in business and became governor of the [[Company of Merchant Adventurers of London]]. His trade brought him into contact with [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundy]] and it was thus that he became a member of the household of [[Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy]], the third wife of [[Charles the Bold]] and sister of two kings of England: [[Edward IV]] and [[Richard III]]. That led to more continental travel, including to [[Cologne]], in the course of which he observed the new printing industry and was significantly influenced by German printing.

He wasted no time in setting up a printing press in Bruges in collaboration with a [[Flemish people|Fleming]], [[Colard Mansion]], and the first book to be printed in English was produced in 1473: ''[[Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye]]'' was a translation by Caxton himself. In the epilogue of the book, Caxton tells how his "pen became worn, his hand weary, his eye dimmed" with copying the book by hand and so he "practiced and learnt" how to print it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Caxton|title=William Caxton {{!}} English printer, translator, and publisher|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=21 October 2017}}</ref> His translation had become popular in the Burgundian court, and requests for copies of it were the stimulus for him to set up a press.<ref>Duff, Edward Gordon, ''William Caxton'', p. 25.</ref>

[[File:Caxton's Canterbury Tales.jpg|thumb|Caxton's 1476 edition of Chaucer's ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'']]
Bringing the knowledge back to England, he set up the country's first-ever press in [[The Almonry]] area of [[Westminster]]<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Timbs|authorlink=John Timbs|title=Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis|url=https://archive.org/details/curiositieslond01timbgoog|year=1855|publisher=D. Bogue|page=[https://archive.org/details/curiositieslond01timbgoog/page/n19 4]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Victorian London&nbsp;– Districts&nbsp;– Areas&nbsp;– The Almonry|url=//www.victorianlondon.org/districts/almonry.htm|year=1850|first=Peter|last=Cunningham|title=Hand-Book of London|access-date=26 September 2020}}</ref> in 1476. The first book known to have been produced there was an edition of [[Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'' (Blake, 2004–07).<ref>Bordalejo, Barbara. “Caxton’s Editing of the Canterbury Tales.” ''The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America'' 108, no. 1 (2014): 41–60.</ref>  Another early title was ''[[Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers|Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres]]'' (''Sayings of the Philosophers''), first printed on 18 November 1477, translated by [[Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers|Earl Rivers]], the king's brother-in-law. Caxton's translations of the ''[[Golden Legend]]'' (1483) and ''[[The Book of the Knight in the Tower]]'' (1484) contain perhaps the earliest verses of the Bible to be printed in English. He produced the first translation of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' in English.<ref name="Blake 1990">{{cite book|last=Blake|first=N. F. |title=William Caxton and English Literary Culture|page=298}}</ref> His translation of the ''Golden Legend'' was based on the [[Old French|French]] translation of [[Jean de Vignay]].<ref>{{citation |author=Lenora D. Wolfgang |title=Vignay, Jean de |page=955 |editor1=William W. Kibler |editor2=Grover A. Zinn |editor4=John Bell Henneman, Jr. |editor3=Lawrence Earp |encyclopedia=Medieval France An Encyclopedia |publisher=Garland |year=1995}}.</ref>

Caxton produced chivalric romances (such as ''[[Fierabras]]''), the most important of which was Sir [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' (1485); classical works; and English and Roman histories. These books appealed to the English upper classes in the late 15th century. Caxton was supported by (but not dependent on) members of the nobility and the gentry. He may also have been paid by the authors of works such as Lorenzo Gulielmo Traversagni, who wrote the ''[[Epitome margaritae eloquentiae]]'', which Caxton published {{circa|1480}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=Blake|first=N. F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tO3UAwAAQBAJ&q=lorenzo+guglielmo+traversagni+caxton&pg=PA69|title=William Caxton and English Literary Culture|date=1 January 1991|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85285-051-7}}</ref>

The [[John Rylands Library]] in Manchester holds the second-largest collection of printing by Caxton,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/atoz/incunabulacollection/ |title=Incunabula Collection |access-date=25 February 2012 |publisher=The University of Manchester |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601041933/http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/atoz/incunabulacollection/ |archive-date=1 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> after the [[British Library]]'s collection.<ref>''Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester'' vol. 82, nos. 2 and 3, 2000, p. 89</ref> Of the Rylands collection of more than 60 examples 36 are complete and unsophisticated copies and four are unique.<ref>''A Guide to Special Collections of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester''. Manchester, 1999; p. 22</ref>

===Death and memorials===
[[File:Stained glass to William Caxton, Guildhall, London.JPG|thumb|left|Stained glass to William Caxton, [[Guildhall, London]]]]
[[File:Caxton 1.jpg|thumb|Stained glass, by [[Tiffany glass|Tiffany]], of William Caxton and [[Aldus Manutius]]. Shows printers device. [[Pequot Library]], [[Southport, Connecticut|Southport]]]]
Caxton's precise date of death is uncertain, but estimates from the records of his burial in [[St. Margaret's, Westminster]], suggest that he died near March 1492. However, [[George D. Painter]] makes numerous references to the year 1491 in his book ''William Caxton: a biography'' as the year of Caxton's death since 24 March was the last day of the year according to the calendar that used at the time and so the year change had not yet happened. Painter writes, "However, Caxton's own output reveals the approximate time of his death, for none of his books can be later than 1491, and even those which are assignable to that year are hardly enough for a full twelve months' production; so a date of death towards autumn of 1491 could be deduced even without confirmation of documentary evidence."<ref>p.&nbsp;188</ref>

[[Wynkyn de Worde]], a Fleming, became the owner of the printing plant after Caxton's death and carried it on for forty-three years. Wynkyn prospered, continuing to put out a steady succession of editions of the small popular pamphlets which were started in Caxton's time.<ref>{{cite book |last = Winship |first = George Parker |title = Gutenberg to Plantin: An Outline of the Early History of Printing |year = 1926 |publisher = Harvard University Press |location = Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref> 

In 1820, a memorial tablet to Caxton was provided in St Margaret's by the [[Roxburghe Club]] and its President, [[John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer|Earl Spencer]].<ref name="Thornbury">{{cite web |last1=Thornbury |first1=Walter |title=St Margaret's Westminster Pages 567–576 Old and New London: Volume 3. Originally published by Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London, 1878. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol3/pp567-576 |website=British History Online |access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref>

In November 1954, a memorial to Caxton was unveiled in [[Westminster Abbey]] by [[John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever|J. J. Astor]], chairman of the [[Press Council (UK)|Press Council]]. The white stone plaque is on the wall next to the door to [[Poets' Corner]]. The inscription reads:

{{blockquote|Near this place William Caxton set up the first printing press in England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/william-caxton/|title=William Caxton|first=PixelToCode|last=pixeltocode.uk|website=Westminster Abbey}}</ref>}}

In 1976 the ''Quincentenary of the Introduction of Printing into England'' exhibit was held at the British Library. <ref>Caxton, William, John Barr, Mirjam Foot, and Janet Backhouse. ''William Caxton : An Exhibition to Commemorate the Quincentenary of the Introduction of Printing into England :'' British Library Reference Division, 24 September 1976-31 January 1977. London: Published for the British Library by British Museum Publications, 1976.</ref> There were forty-five events during the quincentenary including the Caxton International Congress at the [[Printing Historical Society]],<ref>Ryder, John, R.D. Remley Collection, Printing Historical Society, and Caxton International Congress London, England) (1976): 1975. ''Caxton International Congress.'' London: Printing Historical Society.</ref><ref>Caxton International Congress, and Adrian Wilson. 1976. ''Papers Presented to the Caxton International Congress, 1976.'' London: Printing Historical Society.</ref> and exhibits at the John Rylands Library, Westminster Abbey, and Cambridge University Library.<ref>Barker, Nicolas, 1976. "Caxton's Quincentenary:  Retrospect." ''[[The Book Collector]]'' 25 (no 4) Winter: 455-480.</ref>