Caxton and his Time

William Caxton was the first English printer. He printed the first book in English (Troilus and Cresyde) in 1476.

The invention of printing enabled many copies of the same text to be produced from a single master page. This spread a text more widely than a hand written copy could do and, by making every copy identical, helped to standardise a standardised form of spelling. Although a universally accepted standard of spelling was still some way off, Caxton was the first to introduce standards based on his own practice. By mass producing texts he did in the 15th Century what the photocopier and the Internet would do in the 20th century. Mass communication started with the printing press.

Caxton also notes problems translating into English from other languages:

... And also my lorde abbot of westmynster ded do shewe to me of late, certayn euydences wryton in olde englysshe, for to reduce it in to our englysshe now vsid
And certaynly it was wreton in suche wyse that it was more lyke to dutche than englysshe: I coude not reduce ne brynge it to be vnderstonden
And certaynly our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne
and that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from a nother
Certaynly it is harde to playse euery man
by cause of dyuersite & chauge of langage.

* Consider the ideas about language which Caxton expresses here in 1490. Are they so very different from views expressed today?

* Go back to the timeline and read the texts written earlier than 1490. What changes can you see have taken place before Caxton writes this piece?