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Title
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William Caxton
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Heading
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Exhibiting Caxton
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Description
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Commemorations for the 500th anniversary of English printing in the twentieth century resembled to a large extent those for the 400th anniversary in the nineteenth century. The year of celebration moved forward from 77 to 76, to commemorate the first printing in England as opposed to the first dated book. An opportunistic glut of publication appeared, some with ‘quincentenary’ in the title. Among the new books were three facsimiles of Caxton publications from the Scolar Press (Malory’s Morte Darthur, The Game of Chess, and Aesop), several biographies, and the appearance in Puffin of Cynthia Harnett’s The Load of Unicorn, a children’s book about Caxton and the resistance of scriveners to print. Westminster Abbey hosted a thanksgiving celebration, and Royal Mail issued a set of four commemorative stamps. Libraries across the United Kingdom held exhibitions: those privileged to hold editions by Caxton, such as the British Library, Cambridge and Glasgow University Libraries, and the John Rylands Library in Manchester, and some which did not (Manchester Polytechnic, now Manchester Metropolitan University).
The booklet shown is from the exhibition held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1975. It notes the conscious collecting of editions by Caxton by the antiquarian John Selden (1584-1654) in the first half of the seventeenth century and it retains the sense of national identity evident in the quartercentenary celebrations: "The fact that England was one of the few countries in Europe to which printing was first introduced by one of her own native craftsmen, will always be a matter of pride and interest to Caxton’s fellow-countrymen".
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Author
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Bodleian Library
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Place of Publication
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Oxford
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Publisher
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Bodleian Library
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Date of Publication
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1975
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Century
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20th
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Illustrations
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n/a
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Link on Alma Digital
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image available from within Senate House Library only
A National Hero
