Caxton the Businessman: A New Glimpse

This article examines a newly-discovered reference to William Caxton, apparently acting as an intermediary for the London grocer, Richard Nunneley (d. 1497) for an order of books from the Parisian printer, Pierre Levet. The entry, which occurs within some fragmentary pages of a daybook of Nunneley, provides further evidence of Caxton’s activities in 1488, in a period when his presses seem largely to have been silent. However, the entry, with another one a week later, may also provide tantalizing information on the importation and dissemination of Caxton’s Legenda Sarum, published by Caxton on 14 August 1488 but printed for him by Guillaume Maynyal in Paris.