The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England's First Printer 2 Volume Set
The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England's First Printer 2 Volume Set
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GBPThis two-volume work on the life and activities of the printer William Caxton, a vital source for bibliographers, was written by another printer, William Blades, and published in 1861–3. Blades (1824–90), apprenticed into the family firm, developed a great interest in the history of his trade, collecting an extensive library of antiquarian books, and becoming an expert on early typefaces. He brings to his study of Caxton (which follows in the wake of works on incunabula by Ames, Herbert and Dibdin), his own practical experience of the craft of printing, largely unchanged, except for the addition of machine power, since Caxton's day. He examined more than 450 Caxton printings, in Britain, France and the Low Countries, while preparing the work. Volume 1 deals with Caxton's life, and Volume 2 offers an essay on Caxton's working practices and bibliographical details of all his books then known to exist.
Product details
April 2014Multiple copy pack
9781108073578
832 pages
297 × 210 × 25 mm
1.99kg
11 b/w illus.
Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC
Table of Contents
- Volume 1: Preface
- 1. William Caxton, the mercer
- 2. The state of literature in the fifteenth century
- 3. Scribes and printers
- 4. The Bruges press
- 5. Who taught Caxton to print?
- 6. Caxton at Westminster
- Authorities
- The original writings of Caxton
- Notes. Volume 2: Preface
- Part I. Essay's on Caxton's Printing Office:
- 1. The master printer
- 2. The paper
- 3. The types
- 4. The compositor
- 5. Presses, pressmen, and printing ink
- 6. The bookbinder
- 7. The illuminator, the rubrisher, and the wood-engraver
- 8. Results
- Part II. Of Books Printed with the Various Types of William Caxton
- Addenda
- Statistics and tables
- Index.
