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Limited edition of 100 numbered copies bound in full morocco. Full black crushed morocco gilt, Pepys's arms in gilt on both boards, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, dentelles, 8vo, in publisher's slipcase, 23 cm [151] pp A splendidly produced facsimile of Caxton's 1481 Reynard, reproduced from Samuel Pepys' copy and handsomely bound. From the short essay by "Caxton the printer, who began life as a mercer and a merchant adventurer, always had an eye on profit. His books were modernisations, translations, or adaptations of older works and were designed to attract the steadily growing literate public. His thirty years in the Low Countries had made him aware . of a ready market for books of beast-fables. .Hence . his choice of the Reynard, a Dutch version of which, Die Hystorie van Reynaert du Vos, Gerard Leeu had printed at Gouda in 1479. . Caxton, then, could reasonably expect that there would be a ready sale for an English version of the Dutch work, rich as it was in moral, satiric and parodic elements. He completed his translation on 6 June 1481, and probably printed it before the end of that year. .The [first edition] was apparently successful enough to justify a second edition eight years later. But of that edition only the Pepysian copy, now reproduced for the first time, survives, and even this is incomplete. The changes introduced in the second edition are all minor, though some are not without interest." In his preface Caxton amusingly states, 'If anything be written herein that may grieve or displease man, blame me not, but the fox, for they be his words and not mine.' Copy No. 37. Fine in Near Fine slipcase. Seller Inventory # ABE-51772
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