Caxton's Edition of
Gower's Confessio Amantis

International
John Gower
Society

MS Hunter 59 T-2-17 Portrait of Gower folio 6v John Gower Vox Clamantis Glasgow Univ Library www.lib.gla.ac.uk

William Caxton’s Edition of John Gower Confessio Amantis
Rare Book Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Incunabula 532.5

UNC-CH Catalogue Entry:

  • Published:  Westminster, William Caxton, 2 Sept. 1493 [i.e. 1483]
  • Description: [9], 2-ccxi [i.e. ccxiii], [1] l.; leaves [1], [8], [9] and last leaf are blank. fo. 30 cm.
  • Notes:
    • Capital spaces, guide-letters.
    • Gift of the Hanes Foundation, 1960.
    • Part of the Incunabula.
    • RBC Incunabula 532.5 supervised
    • c.1: Lacks leaves I (blank), vii, viii (blank), p. 2, 8, q 1, r 7, 8, s 1-3, 6, B 1, 8, C 1-6. u 8 misbound after t 6.
    • A number of leaves damaged at margins (repaired). Printing nearly intact. A few ms. notes. "Ih. Crofton" on ii r°. Capitals supplied by hand in red. In blind-stamped calf over wooden boards.
    • Cited in: Hain. Repertorium (with Copinger's Supplement) 7835. Duff. 15th cent. Engl. books, 166. Ricci. Census of Caxtons, 48; 18. Goff G-329.

Overview

William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491), widely considered the first printer in England, chose the Confessio Amantis to be one of the select volumes he was to publish. His Confessio edition was the first large volume he was to set in a two-column format (Driver 270), and represents a rare instance of Caxton integrating a table of contents for a literary work (Blake 283-284).

UNC-CH RBC Incunabula 532.5 is remarkable in a number of ways. It was gifted to UNC-CH in 1960 to serve as the one millionth volume of the UNC-CH Library. This copy contains the first printed leaf of the volume, which is missing in many other copies, and a number of marginal notes and drawings of some interest. This volume also retains the original Caxton binding “of the craftsman known as the first Caxton binder,” which is extant in only a handful of Caxton editions (Wells 10). During restoration of the volume, one of the pieces of reinforcement paper inside its cover was found to be a 1481 indulgence (collecting funds for a war against the Turks) also printed by Caxton (Wells 16).

Bibliography

  • Blake, N. F. “Caxton, William (1415x24–1492).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. David Cannadine. Jan. 2008. <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4963>.
  • Blake, N. F. "Caxton’s Copytext of Gower’s Confessio Amantis." Anglia 85 (1967): 282-293.
  • Blake, N. F. “Early Printed Editions of Confessio Amantis.” Mediaevalia 16 (1993): 289-306.
  • Driver, Martha W. “Printing the Confessio Amantis: Caxton's Edition in Context.” In Re-visioning Gower, edited by R.F.Yeager. Asheville, NC: Pegasus Press, 1998. 269-303.
  • Echard, Siân. “Gower in Print.” In A Companion to Gower, edited by Siân Echard. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004. 115-35.
  • Peck, Russel, ed. Confessio Amantis. Latin trans. Andrew Galloway. 2nd ed.. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000-2013. http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams.
  • Wells, William. “Gower and Caxton.” South Atlantic Bulletin 27.1 (1961): 9-10.
  • Wells, William. “The One Millionth Volume: The Poet and the Poem; the Printer and the Book.” Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Library. https://archive.org/details/onemillionthvolu0well

Online Images

  • Images are organized by Book. Images for Book 6 and Book 7 are combined, since the misbinding affects the order within these books.
  • Images are titled by their folio number within the volume.
  • All images are presented as originally photographed in order to preserve resolution of the image as much as possible. Scaling of the image size will allow for increased or decreased resolution
  • Line numbers referenced are fom Peck's edition.
Jump To: Table of Contents Prologue Book 1 Book 2
  Book 3 Book 4 Book 5 Book 6
  Book 7 Book 8 Cover Details
(marginalia, filler, Indulgence, etc.)

 

Table of Contents (000v-001r) - (005v-006r)
000v-001r 001v-002r 002v-003r 003v-004r
004v-005r 005v-006r    
Prologue (006v-007r) - (013v-014r)
006v-007r 007v-008r 008v-009r 009v-010r
010v-011r 011v-012r 012v-013r 013v-014r
Book 1 (014v-015r) - (034v-035r)
014v-015r 015v-016r 016v-017r 017v-018r
018v-019r 019v-020r 020v-021r 021v-022r
022v-023r 023v-024r 024v-025r 025v-026r
026v-027r 027v-028r 028v-029r 029v-030r
030v-031r 031v-032r 032v-033r 033v-034r
034v-035r      
Book 2 (035v-036r) - (054v-055r)
035v-036r 036v-037r 037v-038r 038v-039r
039v-040r 040v-041r 041v-042r 042v-043r
043v-044r 044v-045r 045v-046r 046v-047r
047v-048r 048v-049r 049v-050r 050v-051r
051v-052r 052v-053r 053v-054r 054v-055r
Book 3 (055v-056r) - (071v-072r)
055v-056r 056v-057r 057v-058r 058v-059r
059v-060r 060v-061r- 061v-062r 062v-063r
063v-064r 064v-065r 065v-066r 066v-067r
067v-068r 068v-069r 069v-070r 070v-071r
     
Book 4 (072v-073r) - (095v-096r)
072v-073r 073v-074r 074v-075r 075v-076r
076v-077r 077v-078r 078v-079r 079v-080r
080v-081r 081v-082r 082v-083r 083v-084r
084v-085r 085v-086r 086v-087r 087v-088r
088v-089r 089v-090r 090v-091r 091v-092r
092v-093r 093v-094r 094v-095r
Book 5

(096v-097r) - (134v-135r)

096v-097r 097v-098r 098v-099r- 099v-100r
100v-101r 101v-102r 102v-103r 103v-104r
104v-105r 105v-106r 106v-107r 107v-108r
108v-109r 109v-110r 110v-111r 111v-112r
112v-113r 113v-114r 114v-115r 115v-116r
116v-117r 117v-118r 118v-119r 119v-120r
120v-121r 121v-122r 122v-123r 123v-124r
124v-125r 125v-126r 126v-127r 127v-128r
128v-129r 129v-130r 130v-131r 131v-132r
132v-133r 133v-134r  
Book 6

(135v-136r) - (148v-149r)

  • Contains misbinding. See notes on misbinding.
  • 135v-136r: 135v ends with line 7080 of Book 5; 136r begins with line 58 of Book 6.
  • 145v-146r: 145v ends with line 1931 of Book 6; 146r begins with line 902 of Book 7
  • 146v-147r: 146v ends with line 1041 of Book 7; 147r begins with line 1932 of Book 6
135v-136r 136v-137r 137v-138r 138v-139r
139v-140r 140v-141r 141v-142r 142v-143r
143v-144r 144v-145r 145v-146r 146v-147r
147v-148r

 

   
Book 7

(149v-150r) - (186v-187r)

  • 155v-156r: 155v ends with line 901of Book 7; 156r begins with line 1042 of Book 7
149v-150r 150v-151r 151v-152r 152v-153r
153v-154r- 154v-155r 155v-156r 156v-157r
157v-158r 158v-159r 159v-160r 160v-161r
161v-162r 162v-163r 163v-164r 164v-165r
165v-166r 166v-167r 167v-168r 168v-169r
169v-170r 170v-171r 171v-172r 172v-173r
173v-174r 174v-175r 175v-176r 176v-177r
177v-178r 178v-179r 179v-180r 180v-181r
181v-182r 182v-183r 183v-184r 184v-185r
185v-186r      
Book 8
  • 191r: header mislabeled as Liber Septimus (Book 7)
186v-187 187v-188r 188v-189r 189v-190r
190v-191r 191v-192r 192v-193r 193v-194r
194v-195r 195v-196r 196v-197r 197v-198r
198v-199r 199v-200r 200v-201r 201v-202r
202v-203r 203v-204r 204v-205r  
Cover      
Cover1 Cover-2a Cover2b  
Details      

000v-001r-detail1
000v-001r

005v-006r-d1
005v-006r
006r: Notation: “John a kynaston wrote this to you sweet hart & cossen ywis.”

010v-011r-d1
010v-011r

010v-011r-d2
010v-011r

042v-043r-d1
042v-043r
Poem

062v-063r-d1
062v-063r

062v-063r-d2
062v-063r

067v-068r-d1
067v-068r

075v-076r-d1
075v-076r

085v-086r-d1
085v-086r

088v-089r-d1
088v-089r

091v-092r-d1
091v-092r

103v-104r-d1
103v-104r

103v-104r-d2
103v-104r

109v-110r-d1
109v-110r

109v-110r
109v-110r

110v-111r-d1
110v-111r

121v-122r-d1
121v-122r

121v-122r-d2
121v-122r
122v-123r-d1
122v-123r
154v-155r-d1
154v-155r
182v-183r
182v-183r
Spanish marginalia
182v-183r-d2
182v-183r
182v-183r-d3
182v-183r
182v-183r-d4
182v-183r
200v-201r-d1
200v-201r-d1
"This ys my boke . . ."
200v-201r-d2
200v-201r
 
Filler001
Binding filler removed during restoration with figures

Filler002

Binding filler
Closeup of drawn figure

Filler003
Binding filler
Closeup of partially cutout figure
 

Indulgence1

1481 Indulgence

Indulgence2

1481 Indulgence

   

Acknowledgement

I am extremely grateful to the Rare Book Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, for permission to host these images, and for their support and assistance in allowing me access to the volume to take take these images. - Brian W. Gastle, Western Carolina University

 

 

 


"I throw my darts and shoot my arrows at the world. But where there is a righteous man, no arrow strikes. But I wound those who live wickedly. Therefore let him who recognizes himself there look to himself."
Vox Clamantis

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