Christian Works : [Image of pity]

Catholic Church

Christian Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This ghostly impression is the only surviving evidence of the printing of an indulgence issued by William Caxton. This is not a true impression, but rather a trial print on the last page of an entirely unrelated book. The woodcut was set with letterpress, then the whole was daubed with a brown substance, and a trial impression taken on a blank leaf of a book printed in Antwerp, presumably lying around in Caxton’s printing house awaiting sale. Multiple impressions would subsequently have been taken using printer’s ink and clean paper, but none of these survive.</p>