Caxton Quincentennial Set: The Game of Chess (c. 1483); The History and Fables of Æsop (1484); Le Morte D'Arthur (1485) by Caxton, William; Jacobus de Cessolis; Sir Thomas Malory - 1976

London: The Scolar Press, 1976. Limited edition. Hardcover. Fine. Three volumes, 4to. Issued in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the introduction of printing into England by William Caxton.

Each volume is bound in full calf in period-style by the Eddington Bindery. Spines in five compartments with raised bands. Titles in blind on the spines, boards also tooled in blind. Each is number XXXII of the 50 special copies on Barcham Green handmade paper (from a total edition of 500 copies each).

The Game of Chess is reproduced in facsimile from the copy at Trinity College, Cambridge, with an introduction by N. F. Blake. Illustrated.

The History and Fables of Æsop is reproduced from the unique copy in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, with an introduction by Edward Hodnet. It contains a Life of Æsop and is illustrated with woodcuts, the translation by Caxton from Macho's 1482 French edition.

The Morte d'Arthur, with an Introduction by Paul Needham, is a facsimile of the Pierpont Morgan Library copy of Caxton's Morte d'Arthur, the only surviving complete copy. (A nearly complete copy is housed at the Rylands Library, a single leaf is reported at Lincoln Cathedral and another single leaf is Bayerische Staatbibliotek.) The facsimile is preceded by a discussion of the watermarks in the Pierpont Morgan Library copy and are reproduced by betaradiography. A fine copy. This facsimile is your only opportunity to own the Caxton printing, barring the discovery of another original. Gaines A26. See Printing and the Mind of Man, 29.

Altogether three volumes from the limited edition of 50 copies and matching numbers XXXII.

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