s late as 1480, when Caxton first began the use of
signatures; but when we find that every known copy of this edition of
the 'Chess-Book' presents a thicker and more worn appearance than any
one copy of any other book, there is good reason for supposing that this
may have followed the 'Tulli' of 1481, and have been the last book for
which Type No. 2* was used."[6]

Mr. Blades describes nine known copies, so that even fewer exemplars
remain of the second edition than of its predecessor. The copy in the
King's Library in the British Museum is imperfect, wanting several
leaves, and is mended in many places. The copy in the Pepysian
Collection at Cambridge wants one-half of the last leaf. Trinity
College, Cambridge, has a perfect copy, "but a bad impression." The
Bodleian copy is defective in not having the last leaf. St. John's
College, Oxford, has a copy, from which one-half of _d iii_. has been
torn away. The Imperial Library at Vienna has an imperfect copy. The
Duke of Devonshire's copy is perfect, but it is "a poor impression, and
slightly stained." The Earl of Pembroke's copy is very imperfect. Earl
Spencer's is only slightly imperfect. The prices fetched by the second
edition have a sufficiently wide range. In 1698, at Dr. Bernard's sale,
a copy fold for 1s. 6d. Farmer's copy in 1798 fetched L4 4s. Ratcliffe's
copy was bought at his sale for L16 by Willett; and when his books came
to the hammer in 1813, it was purchased by the Duke of Devonshire for
L173 5s.[7] It is interesting to know that the copy of the second
edition in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana formerly belonged to Laurence
Sterne, who bought it for a few shillings at York![8]

In the present reprint, the text followed is that of the first edition,
transcribed from the copy in the British Museum; but the variations,
alterations, and additions made in the second issue are all recorded in
footnotes. The reader has, therefore, before him the work in all its
fulness. The same reasons that have led to the adoption of this course
have also decided the publisher to include facsimiles of the curious
woodcuts which appeared in the second edition. These, although
necessarily reductions in size, reproduce the quaint vigour of the
originals.

Caxton, we have seen, translated the "Game of the Chesse" from the
French. There were in effect two, if not three, from which he may have
taken his version. One of these is by Jean Faron, Perron, or Feron (as
the name is variou