William Caxton (1422?-1491)

Published: Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 13-34.

Description: Summarizes the life of William Caxton and his place at the head of the English printing tradition, providing basic information about fifteenth-century printing, linguistic conditions, and orthographical practice. Focuses on the seven volumes of Chaucer material that Caxton printed, particularly his two editions of CT (1478 and 1483) and "The Book of Fame" (HF, 1483). Caxton's Prologue to his 1483 CT and his epilogue to HF provide perspective on how he treated texts, but, as much a publisher as a printer, he generally passed exemplars to his staff for production which involved "routine modernization" of language and orthography.

Chaucer Subjects: Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations; Manuscripts and Textual Studies