he hands of
his chief workman, Wynkyn de Worde. From the letters of naturalisation
which this printer took out in 1496, we learn that he was a native of
Lorraine. It was suggested by Herbert that he was one of Caxton's
original workmen, and came with him to England, and this has recently
been confirmed by the discovery of a document among the records at
Westminster, proving that his wife rented a house from the Abbey as
early as 1480. In any case there is little doubt that Wynkyn de Worde
had been in intimate association with Caxton during the greater part of
his career as a printer, and when Caxton died he seems to have taken
over the whole business just as it stood, continuing to live at the Red
Pale until 1500, and to use the types which Caxton had been using in his
latest books. This fact led Blades to ascribe several books to Caxton
which were probably not printed until after his death. These are _The
Chastising of Gods Children_, _The Book of Courtesye_, and the _Treatise
of Love_, printed with type No. 6; but, in addition to these, two other
books, probably in the press at the time of Caxton's death, were issued
from the Westminster office without a printer's name, but printed in a
type resembling type 4*. These are an edition of the _Golden Legend_ and
the _Life of St. Catherine of Sienna_. Wynkyn de Worde's name is found
for the first time in the _Liber Festivalis_, printed in 1493. In the
following year was issued Walter Hylton's _Scala Perfectionis_, and a
reprint of Bonaventura's _Speculum Vite Christi_, the sidenotes to which
were printed in Caxton's type No. 7, which de Worde does not seem to
have used in any other book. Besides this, there was the _Sarum Horae_,
no doubt a reprint of Caxton's edition now lost. He used for these books
Caxton's type No. 8, with the tailless 'y' and the dotted capitals.
Speaking of this type in his _Early Printed Books_, Mr. E. G. Duff
points out its close resemblance to that used by the Paris printers P.
Levet and Jean Higman in 1490, and argues that it was either obtained
from them or from the type-cutter who cut their founts.[1]

To the year 1495 belongs the _Vitas Patrum_, the book of which Caxton
had finished the translation on the day of his death, and beside this,
there were reprints of the _Polychronicon_ and the _Directorium
Sacerdotum_. The reprint of the _Boke of St. Albans_, which was issued
in 1496, is noticeable as being printed in the type which De Worde
obtai