DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30698#0198
MEMORAND UM.
It may be necessary lo premise a few words respectmg the present
department of tlie Work, which contains an account of Bqcks printed
by William Caxton. The reader will probabty be aware that, in this
department, much ground must be gone over which has been already
explored in the recent edition of our Typographical Antiquities. In order
therefore to avoid unnecessary repetitions, and to exhibit equally valuable
descriptions of such works, in this Library, as have been executed by the
Father of the Bkitish Press, it has been my object to compress the
bibliographicalpart witliin a comparatively narrow compass; and to substitute,
where necessary, copious and interesting extracts: faithfully printed from the
original text. In consequence, it is presumed that a Body of Caxtonian
Literature fifsuch an expression may be usedj witl be submitted to the
attention of the curious, from which no unpleasing information may be
derived.
I cannot however enter upon this department of tlie work, without
expressing a considerable degree of gratifcation at the task wliich is thus
pleasingly imposed upon me. The Collection of Volumes, printed by Caxton,
of which an account is noiv presented to tlie public, has never been
eq-ualled. The Noble Owner of the Harleian Library, in one of his
letters to Hearnef' seems to have felt no ordinary satisfaction on possessing
* forty two volumes printed by that good honest man' (Caxton). lt will
be seen that Lord Oxford is here eclipsed—in a department even in wliich
he had good reason to boast of his strength and superiority.
* Letters written by eminent Persons in the xvuth and xvmth Centuries, cjc. and Lives
of Eminent Men, by John Aubrey, Esq. 1813, 3 vols. See vol. ii. p. 85. This is a publica-
tion well deserving of a place in the library of every scholar to whom the memories of
the illustrious English dead are dear.
It may be necessary lo premise a few words respectmg the present
department of tlie Work, which contains an account of Bqcks printed
by William Caxton. The reader will probabty be aware that, in this
department, much ground must be gone over which has been already
explored in the recent edition of our Typographical Antiquities. In order
therefore to avoid unnecessary repetitions, and to exhibit equally valuable
descriptions of such works, in this Library, as have been executed by the
Father of the Bkitish Press, it has been my object to compress the
bibliographicalpart witliin a comparatively narrow compass; and to substitute,
where necessary, copious and interesting extracts: faithfully printed from the
original text. In consequence, it is presumed that a Body of Caxtonian
Literature fifsuch an expression may be usedj witl be submitted to the
attention of the curious, from which no unpleasing information may be
derived.
I cannot however enter upon this department of tlie work, without
expressing a considerable degree of gratifcation at the task wliich is thus
pleasingly imposed upon me. The Collection of Volumes, printed by Caxton,
of which an account is noiv presented to tlie public, has never been
eq-ualled. The Noble Owner of the Harleian Library, in one of his
letters to Hearnef' seems to have felt no ordinary satisfaction on possessing
* forty two volumes printed by that good honest man' (Caxton). lt will
be seen that Lord Oxford is here eclipsed—in a department even in wliich
he had good reason to boast of his strength and superiority.
* Letters written by eminent Persons in the xvuth and xvmth Centuries, cjc. and Lives
of Eminent Men, by John Aubrey, Esq. 1813, 3 vols. See vol. ii. p. 85. This is a publica-
tion well deserving of a place in the library of every scholar to whom the memories of
the illustrious English dead are dear.