On his master's death in
1441 he went to Bruges, and lived there and in various other places in
the Low Countries for over 30 years, engaged apparently as head of an
association of English merchants trading in foreign parts, and in
negotiating commercial treaties between England and the Dukes of
Burgundy. His first literary labour was a translation of a French
romance, which he entitled _The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_, and
which he finished in 1471. About this time he learned the art of
printing, and, after being in the service of Margaret Duchess of
Burgundy, an English princess, returned to his native country and set up
at Westminster in 1476 his printing press, the first in England. His
_Recuyell_ and _The Game and Playe of Chesse_ had already been
printed--the first books in English--on the Continent. Here was produced
the first book printed in England, _The Dictes and Sayings of the
Philosophers_ (1477). C. obtained Royal favour, printed from 80 to 100
separate works--many of them translations of his own--and _d._ almost
with pen in hand in 1491. His style is clear and idiomatic.
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