Note 30 — II. THE BLOCK-BOOKS.

The composition of the poem which forms the text of the Speculum has been attributed to Vincent de Beauvais, who could not have written it, and to Conrad d’Altzheim, who might have written it; the designs have been attributed to various artists, particularly to Steurbout, but on the slightest grounds; the printing has been assigned to Lawrence Coster, in whose doubtful if not fabulous name no confidence can be placed, and to Veldener, Faust and Scheffer, Thierry Martens d’Alost, and other early German and Flemish printers.