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Letter: Caxton's first

William Hale
Sunday 03 May 1998 23:02 BST
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CHAUCER'S Canterbury Tales was not the first book printed in England (report, 1 May). The first dated book which Caxton produced at his shop in Westminster was the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophers, completed in November 1477. The first known item of any kind printed in England, a letter of indulgence, precedes it by almost a year, being printed by Caxton in December 1476. The first printed edition of The Canterbury Tales bears no date but is generally thought to have been printed in 1478.

WILLIAM HALE

Assistant Librarian (Retroconversion)

John Rylands University Library of Manchester

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