William Caxton
.
He was the first English
printer, and was born in the Weald of Kent,
probably in 1412.
At the age of fifteen he was
apprenticed to a mercer in London, and on the
death of his master travelled in the Low
Countries for a short time.
While abroad he
was employed to continue and confirm a treaty
of trade and commerce between Edward IV.
and Philip, Duke of Burgundy.
During his
residence in Flanders he acquired a knowledge
of the new invention of printing, and the first
book he executed was the“Recueil des Histoires
de Troyes,” by Raoul le Fevre, 1465-67.
In
1472 he published his own translation of the
same work.
The time of his return to his
native country is not known with certainty,
but the usual supposition has been that he
brought the art of printing into England in
1474.
Shortly afterwards he was residing near
Westminster Abbey, where he set up his press.
A list of the works printed by him, sixty-seven
in number, is given in Lowndes’s “ Bibliographer’s Manual,”
ed. Bohn.
Caxton died
either in 1491 or 1492.