death in 1491 he printed ninety-three separate
works, some of these in several editions. His industry and scholarly
zeal as a publisher somewhat exceeded his technical skill as a printer.
Caxton's books, which are now much rarer than those of many continental
printers of the same period, are not so finely and beautifully done as
the best of theirs. But the peculiar interest of his work lies in the
striking variety of the works he chose for publication, the
conscientious zeal with which he conceived and performed his task, and
the quiet humor of his prefaces and notes. Let me illustrate briefly
these three points. First, his variety. We have observed that Aldus and
Froben published chiefly the Latin and Greek classics, Koberger the
Latin scriptures and theological works, and Stephanus a combination of
classics and theology. Caxton published few of the classics and very
little theology. His books consist largely of the works of the early
English poets, Chaucer, Gower, and others, of mediaeval romances derived
from English, French, and Italian sources, and of chronicles and
histories. The two most famous works that came from his press were the
first printed editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Malory's Morte
d'Arthur. His own English translation of the Golden Legend, a mediaeval
Latin collection of lives of the saints, is scarcely less in importance.
Among many other titles the following may serve to show how unusual and
unconventional were his selections:

The History of Reynard the Fox.
The History of Godfrey of Boloyne, or the Conquest of Jerusalem.
The Fables of Aesop.
The Book of Good Maners.
The Faytes of Armes and of Chyvalrye.
The Governayle of Helthe.
The Arte and Crafte to Know Well to Dye.

This is indeed humanism, but humanism in a different sense from that of
Aldus and Erasmus. Human life from the cradle to the grave, human life
in war and peace, human life in its gayer and its graver lights and
shadows, human life as embodied equally in famous writers and in
anonymous popular legends, was Caxton's field. He accounted nothing
human alien to his mind or to his great enterprise.

Again, Caxton was conscientious. He set great store by accuracy, not
only typographical accuracy in matters of detail, but also the general
accuracy of the texts or sources from which his own translations and his
editions of other works were made. For examp