‘Oh, wonderful.’ Her hands clap together and she smiles. ‘You know Caxton. You’re going to enjoy this then.’ She pauses, clears her throat and looks at the sheet of paper. ‘So, Caxton, first English printer. Printed his first book in Bruges in 1473, then set up his printing press in Westminster in 1476. At some point, perhaps even at the very start of his English operations, Caxton knew he needed a master typographer, and he brought in a German who most commonly goes by the name Wynkyn de Worde. Now, this man is very significant. Many firsts – first to set up a bookshop in England, first to use italics in England, first printer on Fleet Street, the home of British newspapers. Many firsts.’ She makes a sweeping gesture with her hand. Many. ‘So, Caxton dies around 1491, and de Worde keeps the presses printing and eventually takes over the business. In May of 1493 – just weeks after Columbus’s return from his first voyage to the Americas, if you want a little historical context – de Worde prints this page.’ She taps the plastic with her finger. ‘On Caxton’s printing press.’

I hold the sleeve up to get a better look at it. Caxton’s printing press. A literal piece of history. The letters look truly old, and so do some of the punctuation devices – there are forward slashes in way more places than I would have expected – but the paper looks newer than novels from the nineties.

‘How does the paper look so good?’

She sighs and puts her hands on her hips. ‘You ask all the right questions. It looks so good because, guess what, it’s not paper.’ She says the last part loudly, pushing it all the way to the back of the classroom. ‘It’s paper, but not as we know it. Wood-pulp paper? Awful.’ She slashes the air with her hand. ‘This is almost certainly linen rag. And I’d guess Flemish. This leaf predates the first manufacture of paper in England by a year, so Flemish is the best bet.’ She stops to take a breath. ‘It’s for a retiring literature professor, a gift from an appreciative faculty. Apparently her particular interest is the transition from Middle English to Early Modern. And you know what was a significant factor in that transition?’ She pauses for effect, before jabbing her finger at the plastic sleeve again. ‘The exact machine that printed this.’

‘The perfect gift.’