Farfel Notebook 03: Leaves 135-222

P.232 Carter Goodrich 2nd ed. In Korea itself the Type printing activity of the 15th C. continued until 1580. Then it lasped for nearly 2 C. except for one casting of bronze type in 1668. In 1772 a font of new type was made, and a few years later 6 others (1777,82,90,92,95 & 1779) the one of 1792 involving 320,000 largest small movable wooden type.

139 No. 20, 1982 California Book Auction Gallerius $440 (400) Sale 101 #54 Sold Swann Gallery auction June 84 - $600 sold 1974 - $285 Kurtz, Benjamin P. The Life + Works of William Caxton (c.1422-1491) with a Historical Rssinder of 15th C England. An original [inserted] Z 239 G72 1597 Gunst leaf liber Septimus CCCXXXIII 42 3 42 3 Calif Book Club liber Sextus CCLXXXVIII 3r 3 7 [end inserted]leaf from teh Polyeronicon printed by William Caston at Westminster in the year 1482. A Note by Oscar Lewis + an appreciation of Caxton by Edwin Grabharn. 53 pp, printed in red + black. 11 1/2 x9, half cloth + dec. boards. 1 of 297 by the Grabharn Press. San Francisco: Book Club of California 1938. (June 15) BCC #54, GB #292. Printed on mold made paper in Dupdene Text type with prospectus Leaf 10x7 1/8 72 r2 (Franciscan type) Liber primus xlix, 40 lines Higden, Randulphus (d. 1364) Black letter, no catchwords. Polycronicon [Westminster:] William Caxton [after 2 July 1482] f0 in eights. Type 4 [inserted] Hoe pt. 2 #1618 11 1/2 x 8 1/8" [end inserted]Goff H0267 HC8659 Duff172 BeR(C) 49 Cop HEHL, PML, NYPL (191x121mm) contained 430,000works [inserted] 450 leaves including 5 blanks S.T.C. 13438 Prorzheiner #489 [end inserted] (95B) Type 4 - a reduced version of his type 2, with shorter side flourishes + with a few capitals (A,C,D,G,S) resembling his type 3. With this smaller type Caxton could produce longer books without unduly increasing the expenditure on paper which made up about half the todal cost of printing. Th 1st dated book in Type 4 is the Chronicles of England (10 June 1480) The full fount consists of 194 sorts, substantially fewer than Type 2*, Caxton's larges fount (d. 1364) Higden, a Benedictine monk of St. Werbury's, Chester composed his universal history, the Polycronicon in the 1320's. More than 100 manuscripts of it are extant. The translator, John Revisa (1342-1402 1326-1412), was a vicar of Buckley in Gloucestershire. A number of continuations were added to Higden's text in the course of the 14th C; and the account of English history in Caxton's edition is extended down to Edward IV's reign; this continuation is taken mostly from

that in the Chronicles of England. Caxton considered that Treviasa's version, although made within 10 years of Chaucer's Boethise translation, headed morernizing; he therefore ' changed the rude and old English .... certain works which in these days be neither used he understanden.' -Very few perfect copies are known, + most of these have been made up from 2 or more imperfect copies. - An uncut copy must have meausred 11 1/8 x 8 1/2 ". - The Polychronicon may reasonably be considered on of the cornerstones of English prose. It is , of its kind, not a terribly rare book, though most uncommon complete + perhaps unknown in original state. De Rieci traced 46 copies fo which 9 are complete, + today one can assume that there are between 50 + 60 copies in existence. In the autumn of 1476 Caxton returned to England, + established his press within the precincts at Westminster, issuing some 80 books, many being his own translation from French originals, between 1477 - his death in 1491. -This celebrated work was the standard book on general history during the 14+15th C but its real interest is in the view it gives of the historical, geographical + scientific knowledge of the time in which it was written. The author Randulph Higden, was a monk of St. Werburg's, Chester, + his chronicle originally extended from the earliest time to 1352. It was translated into English in 1387 by J. Trevisa, who also continued it to 1360, + Caxton modernised the text + added another book (8th) - ' liber ultimus' covering the years 1358-1469 (very little of it can however be laid to Caxton's credit) -Caxton's editions of Chronicles of England + of Randulph Higden's Polychronicon both include continuations to year 1461 which hwave wrongly been taken as Caxton's own composition. In fact, he printed the Chronicles from a manuscript of an English translation which already had the continuation; and he reprinted much the same text in the Polychronicon.

1495 ed. by Wynokyn de Worde - printed in double col. 41 lines Has a more copious + differently arranged index, otherwise a reprint of the 1482 ed. [inserted] Caxton had no type for the music notes + merely left a space for them to be filled in by hand [end inserted] -1st attempt at printing musical notation in England. He combined quads (or perhaps reversed capitals) with roles to print notes + staves illustrative of the consonances of Pythagoras (fol. 101 recto) [inserted] folio in eithteen Black letters 389 leaves 11 1/4 x 7 3/4" Large woodcut of a battle, verso fol 182, 9 smaller illustrations from 6 blocks in the text. [end inserted] 1527 ed ( 16 May) Peter Treveris STC 13440. 3971 double columns a reprint of de Worde's ed. having the same number of folios, the same signatures, etc. In this ed. a blank space was left for the music to be filled in by hand. This music occurs on leaf 101 to illustrate what amounts probably to Pythagoras's greatest discobery, that of the dependence of the musical intervals on certian arithmetical ratios. Caxton device - consists of his initials divided by his merchants mark. Polycronicon - this book shares with the Golden Legend the position of being the commonest of Caxton's books + like it is unrepresented by a single absolutely perfect copy. The Welsh derive their name from the Anglo-Saxon Wallas, for "foreign". More apt is the native name Cymnu, for "the land of fellow countrymen" - since their Celtic forebears had already endured 3 centuries of Roman rule before the Anglo-Saxons overran England in the 5th C A.D. 1481 - Caxton's Mymour of the Worlde - The 1st illustrated book printed in Enngland. John Rylands a) 293x208mm b) sig 12 recto (40 lines 190x121mm. Without catchwords. With headlines + directors -The popularity of Higdens history was further enhanced when Caxton printed chapters form Trevisa's translation of the 1st book of the Polycronicon in 1480 under the title "Description of Britian". 2 yrs. later Caxton printed the whole of Trevisa's text with a continuation of his own (based in part on the Brit Chronicle) down to 1460.

The 1st book comprises a brief description of the countries of the known world and more particular account of Gt. Britain. -procured by the Calif BOok Club from a British dealer for 300 pounds (i.e. incomplete copy) 1921-66 Edwin + Robert Grabhorn (d. 1973) 1966 Andrew Hsyenn to 1875 - Anion press - The Polychronicon was the last of Caxton's 5 book printed under the noble protection of Edward IV, who had only a few months left to live. -The Polychronicon is printed in Caxton's type 4 an elegently flourished smaller version of his earlier type 2, modelled on Burgundian court manuscript hands (batarde) -paper watermark - gothic letter P with 4 leaves. b 8606 on B 8658-9 - from Champagne - France - often used by Caxton at Westminster from the Canterbury Tales of 1478 to the Art of Dying of 1490 a-b8, c4; I-28 8; 28*2; 29-48 8; 49 4; 50 4; 52-55 8; 450 leaves (26 lacking (224) preface + text (160) recto 26 - verso 449 (32) blank, 450. (40 lines, no catchwords. Fol. 84 is [inserted] Pforzheimeu copy [end inserted] numbered 85, 187-8 are both 177, 326 is 231, 227 is 233, 241 is 260, 242 is 262, + 337-8 are 226-7). 10 5/8 x 7 1/2"

-Caxton notes the invention of printing under the year 1456. -originally written about 1350.

Caxton printed some portion of the Biblical narrative in English in his translation of the golden Legend.