Note 3 — INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER THE TYPES AND TYPEFOUNDING OF THE FIRST PRINTERS.

“Hic ego non mirer esse quemquam qui sibi persuadeat . . . . mundum effici . . . . ex concursione fortuitâ! Hoc qui existimet fieri potuisse, non intelligo cur non idem putet si innumerabiles unius et viginti formæ litterarum, vel aureæ, vel qualeslibet, aliquò conjiciantur, posse ex his in terram excussis, annales Ennii, ut deinceps legi possint, effici” (De Nat. Deor., lib. ii). Cicero was not the only ancient writer who entertained the idea of mobile letters. Quintilian suggests the use of ivory letters for teaching children to read while playing: “Eburneas litterarum formas in ludum offere” (Inst. Orat., i, cap. 1); and Jerome, writing to Læta, propounds the same idea: “Fiant ei (Paulæ) litteræ vel buxeæ vel eburneæ, et suis nominibus appellentur. Ludat in eis ut et lusus ipse eruditio fiat.”