Wynkyn de Worde's edition has a more
elaborate index of ninety pages in which each of the eight books is
indexed in a separate alphabet.
Apart from the interest attaching to this "Liber ultimus" as the only
original work of any length from Caxton's pen, the Polychronicon is next
to the Golden Legend his largest book, and in the Prohemye they are
grouped together as the "twoo bookes notable" which treat of history. It
happens also, probably because of larger editions printed, that of these
two books many more copies have survived than of any of his other books,
about one-fourth of which are now represented only by single copies. Of
the Polychronicon, Seymour de Ricci's "Census of Caxtons" (1909)
enumerates forty known copies (very few of them entirely complete),
evenly divided between public and private libraries. To this list he
adds, under the heading "Present owners untraced," forty-eight copies
(nos. 41-88) which appeared at sales between 1698 and 1901, some of them
possibly identical with copies already described as "known." In this
second division is found the present copy (no.
Pages:
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