The Game of the Chesse,

£1,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

first facsimile edition The first facsimile reproduction of this allegorical work from the press of William Caxton, the second book to be printed in the English language. The type was traced from the the 1482 Westminster Caxton edition housed in the (then) British Museum Library, and the work is bound in the publisher's blind-tooled calf in imitation of a period binding. The Game of Chesse derives from a popular mid-thirteenth century courtesy treatise by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis (fl.1250-1322) on the nature of the customs and duties that rank has allotted to commoners and men of noble birth. First facsimile edition; 4to (29 x 22 cm); 23 woodcut illustrations, 4pp ads to rear, publisher's panelled calf decorated in blind, edges stained red; [170], 13, [3], [4 ads]pp.

• Binding: Hardcover

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