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William Caxton

(born c. 1422, Kent, Eng. — died 1491, London), first British printer. While in Bruges he printed his second book, 'Game and playe of the Chesse', translated by himself from French, it is Caxton’s first dated work, completed on 31st March 1474.

(See Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10672 )

The book was popular at the Burgundian court, an allegory of fixed social structures where each rank has its allotted role. This edition was dedicated to George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV and, perhaps more importantly, of Margaret of York, who promoted the cause of her favourite brother, the ‘false, fleeting, perjured Clarence’, as he is described in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Not surprisingly, given Clarence’s fall from grace, the dedication does not appear in the second edition printed in Westminster c.1483. This is notable as the first reprint of an English text.

'Liber de ludo scacchorum' by Jacobus de Cessolis, a Dominican Friar, was the first major European work on chess. It was written some time between 1275 and 1300. The author gave detailed instructions concerning the rules of chess as it was played in the 13th century. It was translated from the original Latin into French in the 14th century by both Jean Faron and Jean de Vignay, Caxton used these two versions as sources for his translation.