30 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS, 
loom with the rarest treasures of English speaking people. It 
contains 351 printed leaves, and is nominally a history of the Trojan 
wars ; but mixed up with that history are love stories, myths, and 
tales of knight erranty, written by Raoul le Fevre, chaplain and 
secretary to Philip Duke of Burgundy. ‘These stories were popular 
at the ducal court. Blades says copies of Caxton’s Recuyell of the 
Histories of Troy are in fourteen libraries besides those of the 
British Museum, Oxford, Cambridge, Sion’s College, and the College 
of Physicians, London. In 1812, the Duke of Devonshire paid 
41,060 tos. for a copy of the Troy book. 
The early printers made their types to resemble the manuscripts. 
from which they printed, and the Histories of Troy were printed in 
a text similar to the handwriting of the time preserved in the records 
of the Mercers’ Company. A manuscript written by Colard Man- 
sion’s own hand is in the Paris National Library ; and an expert | 
says “‘it is in exactly the same character as the types of Caxton’s 
book.” Colard Mansion was a fine manuscript writer at Bruges, 
and a member of one of the guilds for transcribers. He learned the 
art of printing about the time it was learned by Caxton, and without 
doubt he founded the types used by them both for printing their 
earlier books. The manufacture of manuscript books employed 
many craftsmen before the invention of printing. These formed 
themselves into guilds called after St. John, St. Luke, and other 
appropriate names. One of these guilds was called ‘“‘ Les Fréres de 
la Plume.” Their work found its way into the homes of cultivated 
nobles, and into all the courts of Europe. Philip, the Good, was 
fond of learning, and the best artists of Europe found their way to 
Bruges. His library was considered to be the richest in Christen- 
dom. It consisted of nearly 2,000 volumes, chiefly in vellum. They 
were most tastefully written and illuminated, and were kept in rich 
bindings, studded with gems and decorated with clasps of chased 
and jewelled gold. Many of these Ducal books are yet in the 
Royal Library at Brussels. 
Caxton left his Governorship of the Merchant Adventurers, and 
for a time was a paid attache in the suite of the Duchess Margaret. 
From about 1472 to 1476 the Troy Book and the Chess Book, it is 
thought were printed at Bruges, by means of Mansion’s technical 
skill, and Caxton’s translations and money. Blades concludes that 
