PROTOTYPOGRAPHT. 593 



by Yegetius, and in 1490, lie dedicates a translation of the jEneid 

 of Virgil to Henry's eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales. Henry VII. 

 had derived from his mother, " the saintly Margaret of Lancaster," a 

 love of books and learning. This royal lady, of whom I shall speak 

 again, patronized Caxton, and at her command, as he himself informs 

 us, conjointly with that of the Queen, he printed, also in 1490, the 

 Fifteen Oes, a volume of prayers. He had previously printed 

 two more translations by the hand of Lord Rivers, for whom he 

 printed the JDictes and Sayings. More than sixty books, besides 

 those named, from the press of Caxton, including the editio princeps 

 of Chaucer, are to be seen in the libraries of England or the Conti- 

 nent. For an account of these, recourse must be had to the usual 

 writers on bibliographical subjects. The particular spot in West- 

 minster where Caxton first set up his press is known from an extant 

 advertisement of his. It reads as follows : — " If it please any man, 

 spiritual or temporal, to buy any Pies [pica prayer-books] of two and 

 three Commemorations of Salisbury Use, imprinted after the form of 

 this present letter, which be well and truly corrected, let him come 

 to Westminster, into the Almonry, at the Red Pale, and he shall have 

 them good-cheap." He appends a brief request to the reader or 

 binder in Latin, Suppiico stet cedula {scheduler), " Don't destroy this 

 slip;" and then we have his cabalistic W. C, etc. The Pies were 

 Calendar-tables (also called Picas), with rubrical directions, relating 

 to church -services on saints' days ; and the " Two or Three Com- 

 memorations " spoken of were an accumulation, so to speak, of two 

 or three observances in one day, in which case certain combinations 

 and omissions of proper collects were, for brevity's sake, permissible. 

 The Red Pale was an escutcheon or shield bearing a conspicuous red 

 stripe drawn vertically down its middle, set up over the door as a 

 sign. The Almonry or Aumbry was a portion of the Abbey buildings 

 now destroyed, forming part of the precinct towards the western 

 entrance. It was the place where the doles of the monastery were 

 wont to be distributed to the poor. Some disused apartments here, 

 together with the dismantled chapel of St. Anne near by, were, it is 

 supposed, leased by the Abbey authorities to Caxton. The Abbot 

 of Westminster at the time was John Esteney. Caxton inscribes 

 none of the productions of his press to him ; but in his prologue to 

 the jEneid he mentions a reference made by the Abbot to himself 



