William Caxton and Vernacular Classicism

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the late fifteenth century, the printer and translator William Caxton produced a wide variety of vernacular works on classical subjects. While recent scholars have analysed these works in terms of “vernacular humanism”, this article suggests that “vernacular classicism” is a more inclusive description of the breadth of his output. From Ovidian allegoresis to Virgilian romance, Caxton’s works on classical subjects are drawn from a diverse range of literary traditions, many of which predate humanism and are only tangentially related to humanist influence. Through a bibliographic survey of Caxton’s classical publications, this article shows that Caxton’s engagement with humanism was just one example of his commitment to supplying English readers with the latest fifteenth-century literary fashions. A focus on humanism restricts an appreciation of the diversity and vibrancy of Caxton’s classicism and, indeed, vernacular classicism in the fifteenth century in general.