“And for as moche as in the wrytyng of the same [book] my penne is worn / myn hande wery & not stedfast myn eyen dimmed with ouermoche lokyng on the whit paper / and my corage not so prone and redy to laboure as hit hath ben.”

From Caxton’s Epilogue to Book III of The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.

 I first came across this quote while writing on Caxton for my master’s dissertation at Oxford and as I struggled through the final days of writing that, these sentiments remained uppermost in my mind.  They’ve come back to me again as I make the final push towards completing my scrivening of this project ahead of my meeting with my bookmaking instructor Tuesday, when I will finally makes the cover boards for the codex and sew the binding.