The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England's First Printer: With Evidence of his Typographical Connection with Colard Mansion, the Printer at Bruges

by William Blades

Overview

This 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 the background, in England and Europe, to his innovatory work. Transcriptions of contemporary documents are also supplied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108073554
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/17/2014
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 11.69(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

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.