almighty god for your long lyf & welfare / which he preserve And sende
now thaccomplishment of your hye noble joyous and vertuous
desirs Amen:|:

Fynysshid the last day of marche the yer of our lord god a. thousand
four hondred and lxxiiii. *.:.:.*.]

The second edition ends thus:

[Blackletter: Thenne late every man of what condycion he be that redyth
or herith this litel book redde. take therby ensaumple to amend hym.
Explicit per Caxton.]

This copy came from the library of Mr. L.M. Petit.[4]

It will be noticed that Mr. Quaritch calls the _editio princeps_ of
Caxton's "Game and Play of the Chesse" the first book printed in
England. This was the general opinion of bibliographers before the
investigations of Mr. Blades. Dibdin, although he seems to have had some
doubt, pronounced in favour of that view. Yet it is clearly erroneous.
The only materials for judgment are those afforded by the colophon and
the prologue to the second edition, with the silent but eloquent
testimony of typography. Caxton ends the first edition with the
words:--"Fynysshid the last day of Marche the yer of our lord god a
thousand four hondred and LXXIIII." The word "fynysshid," as Mr. Blades
observes, "has doubtless the same signification here as in the epilogue
to the second book of Caxton's translation of the Histories of Troy,
'Begonne in Brugis, contynued in Gaunt and finysshed in Coleyn,' which
evidently refers to the translation only. The date, 1475-6, has been
affixed, because in the Low Countries at that time the year commenced on