Skip to content
William Caxton

File:William_caxton.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ94608· pop 47· linked from 438 articles

William Caxton

Sign in to save

English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer

OverviewAI-generated

William Caxton was a male linguist, translator, writer, and publisher from the Kingdom of England. Born in Hadlow in 1422, he died in London in either 1491 or 1492. He is buried at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. Caxton wrote in Middle English and was proficient in renaissance Latin. His translation work involved rendering texts from Middle French and medieval Latin into Middle English.

His notable works include *Here begynneth the Hystorye of reinard the Foxe*, *Foure sonnes of Aymon*, *Chronicles of England*, *The history of Reynard the Fox*, and *Polycronycon*. One of his recorded quotes is "He that wil wynne he muste laboure and aventure." His works are held in the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, Last.fm, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1422
Died
1491
Works
181

Top works

  • Here begynneth the Hystorye of reinard the Foxe ...
  • [Reynard the foxe.]
  • [Eneydos
  • Foure sonnes of Aymon
  • Chronicles of England

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
11
Total plays
78

Tags

free-improvisation

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/william+caxton">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · william caxton

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. VMD: Visual molecular dynamics

    · 1996 · cited 62,917x

  2. Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure

    · 1976 · cited 44,815x

  3. Comparison of simple potential functions for simulating liquid water

    · 1983 · cited 39,531x

  4. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data

    · 2010 · cited 30,942x

  5. Preparation of Graphitic Oxide

    · 1958 · cited 28,681x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

  • And thus love is founded otherwhile upon good prouffitable and this love endureth as longe as he seeth his prouffit. And herof men saye a comyn proverbe in England that love lasteth as longe as the money endureth and whan the money faylleth than there is no love.
  • The worshipful fader and first foundeur and enbelissher of ornate eloquence in our Englissh. I mene Maister Geffrey Chaucer.
  • He that wil wynne he muste laboure and aventure.
  • Al these thynges consydered, there can no man resonably gaynsaye but there was a kyng of thys lande named Arthur. For in al places, Crysten and hethen, he is reputed and taken for one of the nine worthy, and the fyrst of the thre Crysten men.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
c. 1422
Died
c. 1491 (aged c. 68–69 )
Resting place
St Margaret's, Westminster
Occupation
Merchant diplomat writer printer
Period
Late Plantagenet early English Renaissance
Notable work
Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres Brut Chronicles

via Wikipedia infobox

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Printer's mark of William Caxton, 1478. A variant of the merchant's mark William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.

His parentage and date of birth are not known for certain, but he may have been born between 1415 and 1424, perhaps in the Weald or wood land of Kent, perhaps in Hadlow or Tenterden. In 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a wealthy London silk mercer.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Caxton” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)