Staff at the University of Reading have uncovered a rare William Caxton print from the 15th century valued at a potential £100k

Two precious pages from a medieval priest handbook valued at a potential £100,000 were found in the university archives by librarian Erika Delbecque.

The surprise find will go on display in the University’s Special Collections department on the London Road campus from May 9.

The librarian said: “This well preserved item is the only one of its kind and one of just two surviving fragments from this medieval Caxton book in existence.

“We understand it was rescued by a librarian at the University of Cambridge in 1820, who had no idea that it was an original Caxton leaf.

“I suspected it was special as soon as I saw it. The trademark black letter typeface, layout and red paragraph marks indicate it is very early western European printing.

“It is incredibly rare to find an unknown Caxton leaf, and astonishing that it has been under our noses for so long.”

The examples of Caxton's pioneering technique - written in Medieval Latin - are the only copies known to have survived and will be on show to the public until 30 May.

The page was part of a collection previously owned by typographer John Lewis and was purchased for £70,000 at auction in 1997 by the university.

Lotte Hellinga, an expert on Caxton, said: “It is very rare for an unknown piece of printing by William Caxton to be brought to light. The example found in Reading belongs to a different part of the book than those held in the British Library.

“The condition is good, considering it spent some 300 years bound in the spine of a book, and another 200 resting forgotten in an album of fragments rescued from other bindings.”