
The first printed book in England to bear its date of issue inside the colophon of early publisher William Caxton (
see previously), the compendium of words of wisdom and collected quotations was introduced as an
incunabulum on this day in 1477 as a Middle English translation by Anthony Woodville, bibliophile and brother-in-law of Edward IV, based off the original work of eleventh-century scholar Al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik—with some attributions and biographies, mostly on Greek and legendary thinkers but later revisions included biblical words of wisdom, slightly dubious but long since established as canonical.