The historye of Reynart the foxe.

Accession number:

PML 20893

Uniform title:

Reinaert.

Published:

[Westminster] : [William Caxton], [after 6 June 1481]

Description:

[85] leaves ; 27 cm (fol.)

Credit Line:

Purchased by J.P. Morgan, Jr., 1919.

Notes:

Title from table incipit (leaf a2r): This is the table of the historye of reynart the foxe.
Translator and translation date from colophon (leaf l5v): And yf ony thyng be said or wreton herin / that may greve or dysplease ony man, blame not me / but the foxe / for they be his wordes [and] not myne, Prayeng alle them that shal see this lytyl treatis / to correcte and amende, Where they shal funde faute / for I have not added ne mynusshed but have folowed as nyghe as I can my copye which was in dutche, and by me Will[ia]m Caxton translated in to this rude [and] symple englyssh in thabbey of westmestre. fynysshed the vi daye of Juyn the yere of our lord .M.CCCC.Lxxxi. [and] the xxi yere of the regne of kynge Edward the iiiith/. Here endeth the historye of Reynard the foxe [etc.].
Printed in Caxton's type 2*:135B.
Collation: a-g⁸ h⁸⁽⁸⁺¹⁾ i⁸ k-l⁶: 85 leaves, leaves a1 and l6 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Translated by William Caxton from an edition in Dutch, now lost, presumably preceding that of Gerard Leeu, 1479, or from the Leeu edition (ISTC).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 26.5 x 18.2 cm, trimmed.

Binding:

19th-century English full brown goatskin with the gilt arms of Britwell Library (27 x 19 cm), sewn on 5 supports by William Pratt. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; decorative endbands; gilt edges.

Inscriptions/Markings:

Hand decoration: Rubrication unrealized. Annotations: No notations in text.

Provenance:

Maurice Johnson (1688-1755), of Spalding, Lincolnshire, engraved bookplate, 1735 (second front fly leaf recto), acquired before 1730 as part of a volume containing 6 Caxton imprints (see De Ricci, Needham, and BMC IX 126; see also PML 20891); his sale (with volume broken up), Sotheby's, 21 March 1898, lot [??]; Executors of W. H. Christie-Miller for the Britwell Court Library, purchased at Johnson sale; Christie-Miller sale, Sotheby's, 16 Dec. 1919, lot 78, to Quaritch (collation notes on rear pastedown) for £5900.0.0 for Morgan; J.P. Morgan, Jr., purchased Dec. 1919.

Classification:

Incunable Collection

Catalog Link:

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Genres:

Incunabula

Goatskin bindings (Binding)

Armorial bindings (Binding)

Department:

Printed Books