Editing William Caxton (section)

===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>