Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/517

Rh publishers, and their competitors in Italy complained with reason of their piratical editions. They made liberal use of engravings on wood and copper-plate illustrations. They were also the first printers to sell cheap books in showy bindings.

The first book printed in English, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, a stout folio of 351 leaves, does not contain the date of printing, nor the name and place of the printer, but it appears from the introduction that it was translated from the French by William Caxton between the years 1469 and 1471. When and where it was printed is a vexed question.

The monogram which was exhibited by Caxton in his later books——is interpreted by Madden as William Caxton, 1474, Sancta Colonia. It is an indication that a notable event in his life was represented by the year 1474 and the city of Cologne, and it seems to authorize the conjecture that at this time and place he published his first book. In 1475, Caxton printed, in the office of Mansion at