I might support the view that Caxton printed at Cologne by other
arguments which would make the matter tolerably certain (see _Life of
Caxton_, p. 125., &c.); but as the excellent little work to which I am
indebted for these particulars is so well known, and so easily
accessible, I should not be justified in occupying more of your space,
and I will therefore conclude with noting that the parochial library at
Shipdham, in Norfolk, is said to contain books printed by Caxton and
other early printers. Perhaps some one of your correspondents would
record, for the general benefit, of what they consist.
Arun.
Dr. Rimbault has evidently not seen a short article on Caxton's printing
at Westminster, which I inserted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for
April, 1846, nor the reference made to it in the magazine for June last,
p. 630., or he would have admitted that his objections to Dr. Dibdin's
conjectures on this point had been already stated; moreover, I think he
would have seen that the difficulty had been actually cleared up. In
truth, the popular misapprehension on this subject has not been
occasioned by any obscurity in the colophons of the great printer, or in
the survey of Stow, but merely by the erroneous constricted sense into
which the word abbey has passed in this country. Caxton himself tells us
he printed his books in "th' abbay of Westminstre," but he does not say
in the church of the abbey. Stow distinctly says it was in the almonry
of the abbey; and the handbill Dr.
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