nov 18, 1477 - First dated publication in Britain: Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers

Description:

The first printed book in English was published by William Caxton and Colard Mansion in Belgium in 1473

Caxton returned to his native England and set up the first movable type press there in 1476. The first book from his Westminster press was an edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. But because it is printed with a date, his November 18, 1477 edition of Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers often gets the credit as the first English published book in England. Translated by the King’s brother-in-law, the Sayenges shot right up to the top of the (rather short) best-seller list. It’s a collection of quotations originally sourced in an 11th-century Arabic compendium. The book is also the first English edition to have a colophon, or publisher’s device, name, and place of publication.

https://daily.jstor.org/first-english-books/

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