The Folger is closing at 4:30pm on Sunday, February 23, for a staff training exercise. Normal hours will resume when the Folger opens on Tuesday, February 25, at 11:00am.
1472
First Edition
Incunabula
First Appearance in Print
This is the first book printed in the English language. William Caxton was an English merchant working in Bruges, Belgium who decided to create a book using the new craft of printing. He chose his own translation of a medieval romance—Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye—and in 1473, printed this, the first printed book in English. As Caxton shifted his career to focus on printing, he moved back to England, eventually setting up England’s first print shop. You can see another example of his printing, The Canterbury Tales, in the Out of the Vault gallery in this exhibition hall.
