[Chronicles of England], Wynken de Worde, 1497

Chronicles

[Chronicles of England.] Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 1497.

Chancery folio (240 x 185mm), a substantial fragment of the final 76 leaves (of 226) comprising quires x-z6 [con]6 A-H6 I4, double column, 41 lines plus headline, black letter, Caxton's woodcut device at end, nineteenth-century speckled calf, double gilt fillet border, occasional staining, x6 misbound before x1, loss of text on E5 and I3, numerous leaves with repaired tears and fraying (some with loss), final leaf silked (with left hand lower corner of device in facsimile and affecting part of the colophon), joints rubbed

The text in this section runs from the reign of Edward II to the accession of Edward IV, including the opening stages of the Wars of the Roses. The Chronicle is a continuation of the historical narrative known as the Brut, which was extended up to modern times by Caxton. It first appeared in print in 1480, then subsequently revised and "compiled in a booke and also enprynted by one somtyme scole mayster of Saynt Albons" (as stated by Wynkyn de Worde in the colophon here) in about 1486.

PROVENANCE:

John William Waterer (died 1978), bookplate; Sotheby's, London, 19 July 2022, lot 144

LITERATURE:

ISTC ic00482000 (including Higden's Description of England); STC 9996; Duff 102