Sir Thomas Malory finished compiling and translating his Arthurian narrative in the “ninth year of the reign of King Edward IV,” generally dated 1469–1470. This completion date anchors the start of the work’s transmission history (manuscript copying and, later, print).
The sole surviving medieval manuscript witness of Malory’s text (now British Library, Add MS 59678) was copied by two scribes in the late 15th century, typically dated c. 1471–1483. Its readings often differ from Caxton’s later print, making it crucial for textual scholarship.
Evidence of offset printer’s ink and impressions of Caxton’s types on the Winchester manuscript indicates it passed through (and was consulted in) Caxton’s shop while he was preparing his edition, even though it likely was not his sole setting copy.
William Caxton issued the first printed edition of Malory’s work in 1485, establishing the text’s early modern print tradition. Caxton’s edition also shaped how readers navigated the work by reorganizing it into books/chapters and providing paratexts (e.g., preface and chapter summaries).
Caxton’s colophon and presentation helped cement “Le Morte Darthur” as the title for the whole compilation (even though modern scholarship notes Malory likely intended a broader title for the entire work). This naming became standard for later printings and reception.
Caxton’s successor Wynkyn de Worde produced a new edition in 1498, extending Malory’s reach in early English print and beginning a sequence of reprints that largely descend from Caxton’s textual tradition.
A further de Worde edition appeared in 1529; surviving catalog records preserve its colophon dating, documenting continued demand for Malory into the 16th century.
In 1557, printer William Copland reissued Malory in London (with a retitled presentation on the title page), showing the romance’s continuing marketability in the mid-16th century.
Printer Thomas East produced further editions (folio and quarto), commonly dated c. 1585. These reprints mark the work’s survival and adaptation in a changing Elizabethan book trade.
In 1634, William Stansby (for stationer Jacob Blome) published what is widely treated as the last black-letter early modern edition before a long hiatus in major reprinting. Its format and added paratexts signal repackaging for a different 17th-century readership.
Assistant schoolmaster Walter Fraser Oakeshott identified the previously unrecognized manuscript of Malory at Winchester College in June 1934, transforming Malory textual studies by revealing a major witness independent of Caxton’s printed text.
The Winchester manuscript was acquired by the British Library on 1976-03-26, securing long-term preservation and broader scholarly access to the key manuscript witness of Malory’s text.
Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur and Its Manuscript/Print Tradition (c. 1469–1650)
