First book printed in england 1477

William caxton education
William caxton first printed book
William caxton died

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William Caxton

1418–1492

GREATNOBLESVISITED CAXTON'SWORKSHOP

William Caxton was an Englishmen who lived for many years in Bruges, in Flanders. He was at first a merchant but later became a translator, and in this context became familiar with the new printing inventions of Gutenberg. In Bruges he produced the first printed book ever written in English, a translation of the story of the Trojan War. Shortly thereafter learned the printing business, acquired all that was necessary to set up his own shop, and returned to England where he worked for some time out of a monastery. For the following sixteen years he worked at a furious rate, translating many books and pamphlets to English, printing, and distributing them.

Caxton worked on a great variety of texts, but most of his famous works were written for purposes of entertainment rather than philosophical or religious works. His two most famous productions included the story of King Arthur, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, both of which, thereafter, became exceedingly widely read. He also published books of prov

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May 29 through September 20, 2015

About 1474 something never seen in print before rolled off the press: the English language. William Caxton, an English merchant and diplomat, had recently learned of the new technology of print invented by Johann Gutenberg twenty years before, and Caxton capitalized on the commercial opportunity offered by this revolutionary invention. William Caxton and the Birth of English Printing celebrates this foundational moment in the history of English literature and language. Caxton published key works of English literature, such as Chaucer and Malory, as well as short religious and didactic texts, many of which he translated from French or Latin. Through his publishing activity, Caxton also helped to stabilize the English language by promoting a single dialect, and through print this dialect became more prevalent and helped to form the basis of our modern language.

As artifacts of nationalistic importance, Caxton imprints have been choice prizes for collectors since the 18th century. Pierpont Morgan favored Caxton over Gutenberg as a founder of

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William Caxton and the introduction of printing to London

William Caxton depicted in a stained-glass window in the crypt of the Guildhall.

Until the latter part of the 15^th century all books had to be written by hand. In earlier centuries parchment was used but by the end of the 14^th century paper was being imported, some from Genoa and later from France and the Rhine region. The printing press is thought to have been invented in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450 and by the end of the century printed books were available in London. At the end of the 1460s the Earl of Worcester arranged for the Hanseatic League at the Steelyard – the Germanic traders who had their London base where Cannon Street station now stands – to acquire two printed bibles for him and some merchants began importing quite large quantities of books to England. Around the end of the 1470s Henry Frankenburgh was importing hundreds of historical books and Peter Actors was also shipping similar quantities.

The first person to bring printing to England was William Caxton. He was born in Kent,