William Caxton - Quick facts
William Caxton was born in the Weald of Kent and was apprenticed to a London mercer.
He was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer.
As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England. He was also the first English retailer of printed books (his London contemporaries were all Dutch, German or French).
From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers', which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the king.
From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers', which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the king.
He translated 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' from French to English.
Caxton's own translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' was the first book printed in the English language.
He set up a printing press in Bruges in collaboration with a Fleming, Colard Mansion, on which the first book to be printed in English was produced in 1475: Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.
He set up a press at Westminster in 1476 and the first book known to have been issued there was an edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Blake, 2004–7)
Another early title was Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres (Sayings of the Philosophers), first printed on 18 November 1477, written by Earl Rivers, the king's brother-in-law. Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend, published in 1483, and The Book of the Knight in the Tower, published 1484, contain perhaps the earliest verses of the Bible to be printed in English.
Some works printed by Caxton were Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, Le Morte d'Arthur and works of Christine de Pizan all translated from French, and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which was the first work published in England.
Caxton produced chivalric romances, classical-authored works and English and Roman histories.
