it plese any man spirituel or
temporel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre comemoracions of Salisburi vse
emprynted, after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel and
truly correct, late hym come to Westmonester in to the Almonesrye at the
reed pole and he shal have them good chepe. Supplico stet cedula."
According to Bagford, Caxton's office was afterward removed to King
Street.

[Illustration: The First Sheet from Caxton's Press.]

From the evidence of Wynkyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition of
"Vitae Patrum," 1495, it appears that these "Lives of the Fathers" were
"translated out of French into English by William Caxton, of
Westminster, lately dead," and that he finished the work "at the last
day of his life." His death, however, seems fixed, by two or three
entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, to the
year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, "Item: atte bureyng of William
Caxton for iiij, torches vj^s viij^d. Item: for the belle at same
Bureyng vj^d." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this time.

Caxton, Mr. Warton observes, by translating, or procuring to be
translated, a great number of books from the French, greatly contributed
to promote the state of literature in England. In regard to his types,
Mr. Dibdin says he appears to have made use of five distinct sets, or
fonts, of letters, which, in his account of Caxton's works, he has
engraved plates in fac-simile. Edward Rowe Mores, in his "Dissertation
upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries," says Caxton's letter
was originally of the sort called Secretary, and of this he had two
fonts; afterward he came nearer to the English face, and had three fonts
of Great Primer, a rude one which he used anno 1474, another something
better, and a third cut about 1482; one of Double Pica, good, which
first appears 1490; and one of Long Primer, at least nearly agreeing
with the bodies which have since been called by those names. All of
Caxton's works were printed in what are called black letter.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS[9]

[Footnote 9: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

By A. R. SPOFFORD, LL.D.

(1436-1506)

[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.]

The discovery and the discoverer of America have furnished an almost
inexhaustible theme for the critic, the biographer, and the historian.
In the year 1892 there was celebrated an event which has come by common
consent to be regarded as a world-famous epoch, worth