In St Margaret’s Church at Westminster, among the usual symbols of ecclesiastical veneration, stands a stained-glass window of quite a different sort. Erected in memory of the newspaper magnate and ‘penny dreadful’ purveyor Edward Lloyd, it commemorates the glory of the printed word and its distributors. Among them is William Caxton, the man responsible for bringing the printing press to England from Europe in about 1476, thus igniting an industry that shaped communication, religious doctrine and even the dominant dialect throughout the kingdom.
This depiction (which is one of the only panels to survive following a Blitz raid) shows the publisher demonstrating his machine to Edward IV. He gestures to the hulking relief press being operated by an unknown printer, while holding up a resulting page ready for inspection. This meeting was probably apocryphal, but it effectively symbolises Caxton’s significance and considerable fame throughout the centuries, particularly within the romantic mythologies of the Victorian era.
In recent times, however, his name has faded from popular memory – something that a major exhibition at London’s Senate House Library hopes to correct. ‘Ask anyone over the age of 70 and they’ll know all about Caxton because they learned about him at school,’ says Dr Karen Attar, the co-curator. ‘But then the curriculum changed and he’s now at risk of being overlooked. Nevertheless, he remains a very important part of our national story and the idea of Englishness.’
The library is well placed to host an anniversary show as it holds remarkable examples of the publisher’s work, including two books he printed at Westminster. One of these, The Game and Playe of the Chesse, is a delightful manual adorned with woodcut illustrations and articulates both strategy and moral allegory. It was also one of the first titles to be printed in English. This push towards vernacular and thus far more accessible texts was key to Caxton’s success. Despite his associations with national identity he was an intrepid traveller, plying trades in textiles before moving on to printing and publishing in Cologne, Flanders and Bruges.
It was during these sojourns that he recognised the commercial possibilities of printing translations of less scholarly works back home. ‘He saw the speed at which things could be reproduced with a press, and the gap in the market for popular and fashionable texts in English,’ says fellow curator Michael Durrant. ‘He is often lauded as a great scholar and translator, but, ultimately, he’s just a businessman.’
The full scope of the pieces on display does much to demonstrate the breadth of his enterprise and its lasting legacy. There is the encyclopedia De Proprietatibus Rerum, an epic bestiary published while he was still in Cologne; his hugely popular edition of The Canterbury Tales; and the first English Bible authorised by Henry VIII, a key object in the history of the Reformation (it weighs over eight kilograms). There are also herbal recipe books and romances, news pamphlets and even an early example of the true-crime genre, proving that the rich history of early printing had no single narrative.
One final section in the show is given over to newer technologies, including a glorious text from 1848. The Miracles of Our Lord reimagines the illuminated manuscript as a densely hued, high Gothic printed book. Chromolithography was perfected only in the middle of the 19th century, but such an object has its roots in Caxton’s constant innovation and his willingness to push the boundaries of a new medium. ‘Ultimately Caxton is an acorn in England,’ says Attar, ‘out of which grows a mighty oak’.
The English Print Revolution: Caxton and Beyond runs at Senate House Library, University of London, 26 February – 1 July
A version of this story appeared in the March 2026 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers
