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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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William Caxton
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(c.1422–91) The first English printer. He spent most of his life trading as a merchant (1442–76) on the Continent, mainly in Bruges, where he set up a press in about 1474. He brought the press to England in 1476, and began printing in Westminster. Some of his most successful books were The *Canterbury Tales (c.1478); The Mirrour of the World (c.1481), an encyclopedia which is also the first printed book in English with illustrations; the Fables of Esope (1484); and the *Morte d'Arthur (1485). After his death the business was carried on to increasingly high standards in *Fleet Street by Wynkyn de Worde (d. 1535), who had been his assistant since the first days in Bruges.
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