Part 2 — CHAPTER IV. Concerning the infallible teaching of the Roman Pontiff: (continued 8)

Postal Communication, Past and Present (National Review; copied in Littell's Living Age, July 30, 1887).

"A penny post was established in London, in 1683, two years before the death of Charles II., for the conveyance of letters and parcels within the City, by Robert Murray, an upholsterer by trade, who, like a great many others, was dissatisfied with the Government, which, in its anxiety to provide for the postal requirements of the country, had entirely neglected the City and suburbs. The post, established by Murray at a vast expense, was ultimately handed over to a William Docwray, whose name is now well known in the annals of Post Office history. The arrangements of the new penny post were simple, and certainly liberal enough. All letters or parcels not exceeding a pound weight, or any sum of money not exceeding £10 in value, or parcel not worth more than £10, could be conveyed at a cost of one penny; or within a radius of ten miles from a given centre, for the charge of twopence. Several district offices were opened in various parts of London, and receiving houses were freely established in all the leading thoroughfares. … The deliveries in the City were from six to eight daily, while from three to four were found sufficient to supply the wants of the suburbs. The public appreciated and supported the new venture, and it soon became a great commercial success, useful to the citizens, and profitable to the proprietor. No sooner, however, did a knowledge of this fact reach the ears of those in authority over the General Post Office, than the Duke of York, acting under instructions, and by virtue of the settlement made to him, objected to its being continued, on the ground that it was an invasion of his legal rights. … The authorities … applied to the court of King's Bench, wherein it was decided that the new or so-called penny post was an infraction of the privileges of the authorities of the General Post Office, and the royal interest, and that consequently it, with all its organization, profits, and advantages, should be handed over to, and remain the property of, the royal establishment. … Post-paid envelopes were in use in France in the time of Louis XIV. Pelisson states that they originated in 1653 with M. de Velayer, who established, under royal authority, a private penny-post in Paris. He placed boxes at the corners of the principal streets to receive the letters, which were obliged to be enclosed in these envelopes. They were suggested to the Government by Mr. Charles Whiting in 1830, and the eminent publisher, the late Mr. Charles Knight, also proposed stamped covers for papers. Dr. T. E. Gray, of the British Museum, claimed the credit of suggesting that letters should be prepaid by the use of stamps as early as 1834."

W. Tegg, Posts and Telegraphs, pages 21-23 and 100-101.

"On the morning of the 10th of January, 1840, the people of the United Kingdom rose in the possession of a new power—the power of sending by the post a letter not weighing more than half an ounce upon the prepayment of one penny, and this without any regard to the distance which the letter had to travel. … To the sagacity and the perseverance of one man, the author of this system, the high praise is due, not so much that he triumphed over the petty jealousies and selfish fears of the post-office authorities, but that he established his own convictions against the doubts of some of the ablest and most conscientious leaders of public opinion. … Mr. Rowland Hill in 1837 published his plan of a cheap and uniform postage. A Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1837, which, continued its inquiries throughout the session of 1838, and arrived at the conviction that 'the mode recommended of charging and collecting postage, in a pamphlet published by Mr. Rowland Hill,' was feasible, and deserving of a trial under legislative sanction. … Lord Ashburton, although an advocate of Post-office Reform, held that the reduction to a penny would wholly destroy the revenue. Lord Lowther, the Postmaster-General, thought twopence the smallest rate that would cover the expenses. {2581} Colonel Maberly, the secretary to the post office, considered Mr. Hill's plan a most preposterous one, and maintained that if the rates were to be reduced to a penny, the revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years. … Public opinion, however, had been brought so strongly to bear in favour of a penny rate, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Spring Rice, on the 5th of July, 1839, proposed a resolution, 'that it is expedient to reduce the postage on letters to one uniform rate of a penny postage, according to a certain amount of weight to be determined—that the parliamentary privilege of franking should be abolished, and that official franking be strictly limited—the House pledging itself to make good any deficiency that may occur in the revenue from such reduction of the postage.' A Bill was accordingly passed to this effect in the House of Commons, its operation being limited in its duration to one year, and the Treasury retaining the power of fixing the rates at first, although the ultimate reduction was to be to one penny. This experimental measure reduced all rates above fourpence to that sum, leaving those below fourpence unaltered. With this complication of charge the experiment could not have a fair trial, and accordingly on the 10th of January, 1840, the uniform half-ounce rate became by order of the Treasury one penny. … In 1840 the number of letters sent through the post had more than doubled, and the legislature had little hesitation in making the Act of 1839 permanent, instead of its duration being limited to the year which would expire in October. A stamped envelope, printed upon a peculiar paper, and bearing an elaborate design, was originally chosen as the mode of rendering prepayment convenient to the sender of a letter. A simpler plan soon superseded this attempt to enlist the Fine Arts in a plain business operation. The plan of prepaying letters by affixing a stamp bearing the head of the ruler of the country, came into use here in May, 1840 [see, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1840]. The habit of prepayment by postage stamps has now become so universal throughout the world, that in 1861 the system was established in eighty different countries or colonies."

C. Knight, Popular History of England, volume 8, chapter 24.

The first postal system in the American colonies was privately established in New England in 1676, by John Heyward, under authority from the General Court of the colony of Massachusetts. "In 1683 the government of Penn established a postal system for the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1700 Colonel J. Hamilton organized 'his postal establishment for British America' including all the English colonies, but soon after disposed of his right to the English crown. In 1710 the English Parliament established by law the first governmental postal system with the general office at New York, which continued until in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted and set in action the postal system proposed by Franklin, who was appointed the first Postmaster General. The first law of the Federal Congress continued this system in operation as sufficient for the public wants, but the postal service was not finally settled until the act of 1792. This law (1792) fixed a tariff which with unimportant changes remained in force until the adoption of the system of Uniform Postage in the United States. Single, double and triple letters were charged 8, 16 and 24 cents respectively when sent to other countries, and four cents plus the internal postage when arriving from foreign countries. The internal postage between offices in the United States was 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 20, 22 and 25 cents for distances of 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 250, 350, or 400 miles respectively for single letters, and double, triple, etc., this for double, triple, etc. letters. A single letter was defined by the law to be a single sheet or piece of paper, a double letter, two sheets or pieces of paper, etc. … The earliest letters which we have seen, consist of single sheets of paper folded and addressed upon the sheet. An envelope would have subjected them to double postage."

J. K. Tiffany, History of the Postage Stamps, introduction.

By an act of March 3, 1845, the postage rates in the United States were reduced to two—namely, 5 cents for 300 miles or under, and 10 cents for longer distances. Six years later (March 3, 1851) the minimum rate for half an ounce became 3 cents (if prepaid) with the distance covered by it extended to 3,000 miles; if not prepaid, 5 cents. For distances beyond 3,000 miles, these rates were doubled. In 1856 prepayment was made compulsory; and by an act signed March 3, 1863, the 3 cent rate for half–ounce letters was extended to all distances in the United States.

J. Rees, Footprints of a Letter-Carrier, page 264.

In 1883 the rate in the United States was reduced to 2 cents for all distances, on letters not exceeding half an ounce. In 1885 the weight of a letter transmissible for 2 cents was increased to one ounce. The use of postage stamps was first introduced in the United States under an act of Congress passed in March, 1847. Stamped envelopes were first provided in 1853. The first issue of postal cards was on the 1st of May, 1873, under an act approved June 8, 1872. The registry system was adopted July 1, 1855. Free delivery of letters in the larger cities was first undertaken on the 1st of July 1863.

D. M. Dickinson, Progress and the Post (North American Review, October, 1889).

ALSO IN: Annual Report of the Postmaster-General of the United States, 1893, pages 543-558 (Description of all Postage Stamps and Postal Cards issued).

POSTAL MONEY-ORDER SYSTEM, The.

The postal money-order system, though said to be older in practical existence, was regularly instituted and organized in England, in its present form, in 1859. It was adopted in the United States five years later, going into operation in November, 1864.

D. M. Dickinson, Progress and the Post (North American Review, October, 1889).

ALSO IN: Appleton's Annual Cyclopœdia, 1887, page 687.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

Postal savings banks were first brought into operation in England in 1861. "One shilling is the smallest sum that can be deposited. The Government has, however, … issued blank forms with spaces for twelve penny postage-stamps, and will receive one of these forms with twelve stamps affixed as a deposit. This plan was suggested by the desire to encourage habits of saving among children, and by the success of penny banks in connection with schools and mechanics' institutes. No one can deposit more than £30 in one year, or have to his credit more than £150 exclusive of interest. When the principal and interest together amount to £200, interest ceases until the amount has been reduced below £200. {2582} Interest at two and a half per cent is paid, beginning the first of the month following the deposit and stopping the last of the month preceding the withdrawal, but no interest is paid on any sum less than a pound or not a multiple of a pound. The interest is added to the principal on the 31st of December of each year. … The English colonies … have established postal savings-banks of a similar character. … The Canadian system … went into operation in 1868. … Influenced by the success of the English system of postal savings-banks, the governments on the Continent of Europe have now nearly all made similar provisions for the investment of the surplus earnings of the people. The Italian system … went into operation February 20, 1876. … In France the proposal to establish postal savings-banks was frequently discussed, but not adopted until March 1881, although the ordinary savings-banks had for several years been allowed to use the post-offices as places for the receipt and repayment of deposits. … The Austrian postal savings-banks were first opened January 12, 1883. … The Belgian system has been [1885] in successful operation for more than fifteen years; that of the Netherlands was established some three years ago; while Sweden has just followed her neighbors, Denmark and Norway, in establishing similar institutions. In 1871 Postmaster-General Creswel recommended the establishment of postal savings depositories in connection with the United States post-offices, and two years later he discussed the subject very fully in his annual report. Several of his successors have renewed his recommendation;" but no action has been taken by Congress.

D. B. King, Postal Savings-Banks (Popular Science Monthly, December, 1885).

POSTAL TELEGRAPH, The.

"The States of the continent of Europe were the first to appreciate the advantages of governmental control of the telegraph. … From the beginning they assumed the erection and management of the telegraph lines. It may be said that in taking control of the telegraphs the monarchical governments of the Old World were actuated as much by the desire to use them for the maintenance of authority as by the advantages which they offered for the service of the people. To a certain extent this is doubtless true, but it is none the less true that the people have reaped the most solid benefits, and that the tendency has been rather to liberalize government than to maintain arbitrary power. … The greatest progress and the best management have alike been shown in those countries where the forms of government are most liberal, as in Switzerland and Belgium. … In Great Britain the telegraph was at first controlled by private parties. … In July, 1868, an act was passed 'to enable Her Majesty's Postmaster-General to acquire, work, and maintain electric telegraphs.' … The rate for messages was fixed throughout the kingdom at one shilling for twenty words, excluding the address and signature. This rate covered delivery within one mile of the office of address, or within its postal delivery." The lines of the existing telegraph companies were purchased on terms which were commonly held to be exorbitant, and Parliament, changing its original intention, conferred on the post-office department a monopoly of the telegraphs. Thus "the British postal telegraph was from the first handicapped by an enormous interest charge, and to some extent by the odium which always attaches to a legal monopoly. But notwithstanding the exorbitant price paid for the telegraph, the investment has not proved an unprofitable one."

N. P. Hill, Speech in the Senate of the United States, January 14, 1884, on a Bill to Establish Postal Telegraphs, ("Speeches and Papers," pages 200-215).

POSTAL UNION, The.

The Postal Union, which now embraces most of the civilized and semi-civilized countries of the world, was formed originally by a congress of delegates, representing the principal governments of Europe, and the United States of America, which assembled at Berne, Switzerland, in September, 1874. A treaty was concluded at that time, which established uniform rates of postage (25 centimes, or 5 cents, on half-ounce letters), between the countries becoming parties to it, and opening the opportunity for other states to join in the same arrangement. From year to year since, the Postal Union has been widened by the accession of new signatories to the treaty, until very few regions of the globe where any postal system exists lie now outside of it. The late accessions to the Postal Union have been North Borneo, the German East African Protectorate, and the British Australasian Colonies, in 1801; Natal and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1802; the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1803. By the action of an international postal congress, held at Vienna, in 1801, a kind of international clearing-house for the Postal Union was established at Berne, Switzerland, and the settlement of accounts between its members has been greatly facilitated thereby.

POSTUMIAN ROAD.

One of the great roads of the ancient Romans. It led from Genoa to Aquileia, by way of Placentia, Cremona and Verona.

T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 4, chapter 11.

POTESTAS.

The civil power with which a Roman magistrate was invested was technically termed potestas.

W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity., chapter 5.

POTESTAS TRIBUNITIA, The.

The powers and prerogatives of the ancient tribunitian office, without the office itself, being conferred upon Augustus and his successors, became the most important element, perhaps, of the finally compacted sovereignty of the Roman emperors.

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 30.

POTIDÆA, Siege of.

The city of Potidæa, a Corinthian colony founded on the long peninsula of Pallene which projects from the Macedonian coast, but which had become subject to Athens, revolted from the latter B. C. 432, and was assisted by the Corinthians. This was among the quarrels which led up to the Peloponnesian War. The Athenians reduced the city and expelled the inhabitants after a siege of three years.

Thucydides, History, books 1-2.

See, also, GREECE: B. C. 432; and ATHENS: B. C. 430-429.

POTOMAC, Army of the: Its creation and its campaigns.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY-NOVEMBER); 1862 (MARCH-JULY), and after.

POTOSI, The Spanish province of. Modern Bolivia.

See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.

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POTTAWATOMIES.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, AND OJIBWAS.

POUNDAGE.

See TUNNAGE AND POUNDAGE.

POWHATANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: POWHATAN CONFEDERACY.

POYNING'S ACTS.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1494.

PRÆFECTS. PREFECTS. PRÉFÊTS.

See ROME: B. C. 31-A. D. 14; and PRÆTORIAN PRÆFECTS.

PRÆMUNIRE, Statute of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1306-1393.

PRÆNESTE, Sulla's capture of.

Præneste, the ancient city of the Latins, held against Sulla, in the first civil war, by young Marius, was surrendered after the battle at the Colline Gate of Rome. Sulla ordered the male inhabitants to be put to the sword and gave up the town to his soldiers for pillage.

W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 7, chapter 19.

PRÆNOMEN. NOMEN. COGNOMEN.

See GENS.

PRÆTOR.

See ROME: B. C. 366.

—————PRÆTORIANS: Start————

PRÆTORIAN GUARDS. PRÆTORIANS.

"The commander–in-chief of a Roman army was attended by a select detachment, which, under the name of 'Cohors Praetoria,' remained closely attached to his person in the field, ready to execute his orders, and to guard him from any sudden attack. … Augustus, following his usual line of policy, retained the ancient name of 'Praetoriae Cohortes,' while he entirely changed their character. He levied in Etruria, Umbria, ancient Latium, and the old Colonies, nine or ten Cohorts, consisting of a thousand men each, on whom he bestowed double pay and superior privileges. These formed a permanent corps, who acted as the Imperial Life Guards, ready to overawe the Senate, and to suppress any sudden popular commotion."

W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapter 12.

The Prætorian Guard had been quartered, during the reign of Augustus, and during the early years of the reign of Tiberius, in small barracks at various points throughout the city, or in the neighboring towns. Sejanus, the intriguing favorite of Tiberius, being commander of the formidable corps, established it in one great permanent camp, "beyond the north-eastern angle of the city, and between the roads which sprang from the Viminal and Colline gates." This was done A. D. 23.

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 45.

See, also, ROME: A. D. 14-37.

PRÆTORIANS: A. D. 41. Their elevation of Claudius to the throne.

See ROME: A. D. 41.

PRÆTORIANS: A. D. 193. Murder of Pertinax and sale of the empire.

See ROME: A. D. 192-284.

PRÆTORIANS: A. D. 193. Reconstitution by Severus.

Severus, whose first act on reaching Rome had been to disarm and disband the insolent Guard which murdered Pertinax and sold the empire to Julianus, had no thought of dispensing with the institution. There was soon in existence a new organization of Prætorians, increased to four times the ancient number and picked from all the legions of the frontiers.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 5.

PRÆTORIANS: A. D. 238. Murder of Balbinus and Pupienus.

See ROME: A. D. 192-284.

PRÆTORIANS: A. D. 312. Abolition by Constantine.

"By the prudent measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Prætorians were insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished, and their place supplied by two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to perform the service of the imperial guards. … They were old corps stationed at Illyricum; and, according to the ancient establishment, they each consisted of 6,000 men. They had acquired much reputation by the use of the plumbatæ, or darts loaded with lead."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 13, with foot-note.

Restored and augmented by Maxentius, during his brief reign, the Prætorians were finally abolished and their fortified camp destroyed, by Constantine, after his victory in the civil war of A. D. 312.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 13.

—————PRÆTORIANS: End————

PRÆTORIAN PRÆFECTS.

"As the government degenerated into military despotism, the Prætorian præfect, who in his origin had been a simple captain of the guards, was placed not only at the head of the army, but of the finances, and even of the law. In every department of administration he represented the person, and exercised the authority, of the emperor. The first præfect who enjoyed and abused this immense power was Plautianus, the favourite minister of Severus. … They [the Prætorian præfects) were deprived by Constantine of all military command as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Prætorian præfect; and, after the monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he still continued to create the same number of four præfects, and intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already administered.

1. The Præfect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction" from the Nile to the Phasis and from Thrace to Persia.

"2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, acknowledged the authority of the Præfect of Illyricum.

3. The power of the Præfect of Italy" extended to the Danube, and over the islands of the Mediterranean and part of Africa.

"4. The Præfect of the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and Spain, and … to the foot of Mount Atlas.

… Rome and Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the Prætorian præfects. … A perfect equality was established between the dignity of the two municipal, and that of the four Prætorian præfects."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapters 5 and 17.

See, also, ROME: B. C. 31-A. D. 14.

PRÆTORIUM, The.

"In the very early days of Rome, before even Consuls had a being, the two chief magistrates of the republic bore the title of Praetors. Some remembrance of this fact lingering in the speech of the people gave always to the term Prætorium (the Praetor's house) a peculiar majesty, and caused it to be used as the equivalent of palace. So in the well-known passages of the New Testament, the palace of Pilate the Governor at Jerusalem, of Herod the King at Caesarea, of Nero the Emperor at Rome, are all called the Praetorium. From the palace the troops who surrounded the person of the Emperor took their well-known name, 'the Praetorian Guard.'"

T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 1, chapter 3 (volume 1).

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PRAGA, Battle of (1831).

See POLAND: A. D. 1830-1832.

—————PRAGMATIC SANCTION: Start————

PRAGMATIC SANCTION.

"No two words convey less distinct meaning to English ears than those which form this title: nor are we at all prepared to furnish an equivalent. Perhaps 'a well considered Ordinance' may in some degree represent them: i. e. an Ordinance which has been fully discussed by men practised in State Affairs. But we are very far from either recommending or being satisfied with such a substitute. The title was used in the Lower [the Byzantine] Empire, and Ducange ad v. describes 'Pragmaticum Rescriptum seu Pragmatica Sanctio' to be that which 'ad hibitâ diligente causæ cognitione, ex omnium Procerum consensu in modum sententiæ lecto, a Principe conceditur.'"

E. Smedley, History of France, part 1, chapter 15, footnote.

"Pragmatic Sanction being, in the Imperial Chancery and some others, the received title for Ordinances of a very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes, in affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons his own rights."

T. Carlyle, History of Frederick II., book 5, chapter 2.

"This word [pragmatic] is derived from the Greek 'pragma,' which means 'a rule.'"

E. de Bonnechose, History of France, volume 1, epoch 2, book 1, chapter 5, foot-note.

The following are the more noted ordinances which have borne this name.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION: A. D. 1220 and 1232. Of the Emperor Frederick II.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1250-1272.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION:A. D. 1268 (?). Of St. Louis.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1268.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION: A. D. 1438. Of Charles VII. of France, and its abrogation.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1438; and 1515-1518.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION:A. D. 1547. Of the Emperor Charles V. for the Netherlands.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1547.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION: A. D. 1718. Of the Emperor Charles VI.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1718-1738; and 1740 (OCTOBER).

—————PRAGMATIC SANCTION: End————

—————PRAGUE: Start————

PRAGUE: A. D. 1348-1409. The University and the German secession.

See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL: GERMANY; and BOHEMIA: A. D. 1405-1415.

PRAGUE: A. D. 1620. Battle of the White Mountain. Abandonment of crown and capital by Frederick.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1620.

PRAGUE: A. D. 1631. Occupied and plundered by the Saxons.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.

PRAGUE: A. D. 1648. Surprise and capture of the Kleinsite by the Swedes. Siege of the older part of the city. The end of the Thirty Years War.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1646-1648.

PRAGUE: A. D. 1741. Taken by the French, Saxons and Bavarians.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1741 (AUGUST-NOVEMBER).

PRAGUE: A. D. 1742. The French blockaded in the city. Retreat of Belleisle.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1742 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

PRAGUE: A. D. 1744. Won and lost by Frederick the Great.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743-1744; and 1744-1745.

PRAGUE: A. D. 1757. Battle. Prussian victory Siege. Relief by Count Daun.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1757 (APRIL-JUNE).

PRAGUE: A. D. 1848. Bombardment by the Austrians.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

—————PRAGUE: End————

PRAGUE, Congress of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (MAY-AUGUST).

PRAGUE, Treaty of (1634).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.

Treaty of (1866).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.

PRAGUERIE.

The commotions produced by John Huss, at Prague, in the beginning of the 15th century, gave the name Praguerie, at that period, to all sorts of popular disturbances.

PRAIRIAL, The month.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER) THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.

PRAIRIAL FIRST, The insurrection of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (APRIL).

PRAIRIAL TWENTY-SECOND, Law of the.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (JUNE-JULY).

PRAIRIE GROVE, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

PRAKRITA.

See SANSKRIT

PRATO, The horrible sack of (1512).

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1502-1569.

PRECIANI, The.

See AQUITAINE: THE ANCIENT TRIBES.

PRECIEUSES.

See RAMBOUILLET, HÔTEL DE.

PRECIOUS METALS, Production of.

See MONEY AND BANKING: 16-17TH CENTURIES, and 1848-1893.

PREFECTS. PRÉFÊTS. PRÆFECTS.

See ROME: B. C. 31-A. D. 14; and PRÆTORIAN PRÆFECTS.

PREMIER. PRIME MINISTER.

See CABINET, THE ENGLISH.

PREMISLAUS, King of Poland, A. D. 1289-1296.

PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER.

This was the most important branch of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, founded by St. Norbert, a German nobleman, who died in 1134. It took its name from Pre-montre, in Picardy, where the first house was established.

E. L. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, chapter 3.

ALSO IN: J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, section 243 (volume 2).

See AUSTIN CANONS.

PRESBURG, OR PRESSBURG, Peace of (1805).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806.

—————PRESBYTERIANS: Start————

PRESBYTERIANS, English, in the Civil War.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JULY), and (JULY-SEPTEMBER); 1646 (MARCH); 1647 (APRIL-AUGUST); (AUGUST-DECEMBER); 1648.

PRESBYTERIANS: At the Restoration.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1658-1660; 1661; and 1662-1665.

PRESBYTERIANS: In Colonial Massachusetts.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1646-1651.

PRESBYTERIANS: Scotch-Irish.

See SCOTCH-IRISH.

PRESBYTERIANS: Scottish.

See CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

—————PRESBYTERIANS: End————

PRESCOTT, Colonel William, and the battle of Bunker Hill.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (JUNE).

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PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress [and these electors, meeting in their respective States, shall vote for President and Vice-President, transmitting certified lists of their votes to the President of the Senate of the United States, who shall count them in the presence of the two Houses of Congress; and if no person is elected President by a majority of all the votes cast, then the House of Representatives shall elect a President from the three persons who received the highest numbers of the votes cast by the electors, the representation from each State having one vote in such election]. … No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. … The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Constitution of the United States, article 2, and article 12 of amendments.

The provisions of the Constitution regarding the Presidential succession, in case of the death or resignation of both President and Vice-President, are: 'In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed or a President shall be elected.'

(Article II, Section 6.)

In pursuance of the power thus granted to it in the last half of this section, Congress in 1792 passed an act declaring that in case of the death, resignation, etc., of both the President and Vice-President, the succession should be first to the President of the Senate and then to the Speaker of the House. This order was changed by the act of 1886, which provided that the succession to the presidency should be as follows:

1. President. 2. Vice-President. 3. Secretary of State. 4. Secretary of the Treasury. 5. Secretary of War. 6. Attorney General. 7. Postmaster General. 8. Secretary of the Navy. 9. Secretary of the Interior.

In all cases the remainder of the four-years' term shall be served out. This act also regulated the counting of the votes of the electors by Congress, and the determination of who were legally chosen electors.

Statutes of the United States passed at 1st Session of 49th Congress, page 1.

ALSO IN: E. Stanwood, History of Presidential Elections, chapter 27.

J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, book 3, chapters 36-37 (volume 3).

The Federalist, numbers 66-76.

J. Bryce, The American Commonwealth, chapters 5-8 (volume 1).

PRESIDIO.

See TEXAS: A. D. 1819-1835

PRESS, The.

See PRINTING.

PRESSBURG, or PRESBURG, Treaty of (1805).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1800.

PRESS-GANG.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812.

PRESTER JOHN, The Kingdom of.

"About the middle of the eleventh century stories began to be circulated in Europe as to a Christian nation of north-eastern Asia, whose sovereign was at the same time king and priest, and was known by the name of Prester John. Amid the mass of fables with which the subject is encumbered, it would seem to be certain that, in the very beginning of the century, the Khan of the Keraït, a tribe whose chief seat was at Karakorum, between Lake Baikal and the northern frontier of China, was converted to Nestorian Christianity—it is said, through the appearance of a saint to him when he had lost his way in hunting. By means of conversation with Christian merchants, he acquired some elementary knowledge of the faith, and, on the application of Ebed-Jesu, metropolitan of Maru, to the Nestorian patriarch Gregory, clergy were sent, who baptized the king and his subjects, to the number of 200,000. Ebed-Jesu consulted the patriarch how the fasts were to be kept, since the country did not afford any corn, or anything but flesh and milk; and the answer was, that, if no other Lenten provisions were to be had, milk should be the only diet for seasons of abstinence. The earliest western notice of this nation is given by Otho of Freising, from the relation of an Armenian bishop who visited the court of pope Eugenius III. This report is largely tinctured with fable, and deduces the Tartar chief's descent from the Magi who visited the Saviour in His cradle. {2586} It would seem that the Nestorians of Syria, for the sake of vying with the boasts of the Latins, delighted in inventing tales as to the wealth, the splendour, and the happiness of their convert's kingdom; and to them is probably to be ascribed an extravagantly absurd letter, in which Prester John is made to dilate on the greatness and the riches of his dominions, the magnificence of his state and the beauty of his wives, and to offer the Byzantine emperor, Manuel, if he be of the true faith, the office of lord chamberlain in the court of Karakorum. In 1177 Alexander III. was induced by reports which a physician named Philip had brought back from Tartary, as to Prester John's desire to be received into communion with the pope, to address a letter to the king, recommending Philip as a religions instructor. But nothing is known as to the result of this; and in 1202 the Keraït kingdom was overthrown by the Tartar conqueror Genghis Khan. In explanation of the story as to the union of priesthood with royalty in Prester John, many theories have been proposed, of which two may be mentioned here: that it arose out of the fact of a Nestorian priest's having got possession of the kingdom on the death of a khan; or that, the Tartar prince's title being compounded of the Chinese 'wang' (king) and the Mongol 'khan,' the first of these words was confounded by the Nestorians of Syria with the name John, and the second with 'cohen' (a priest). … The identification of Prester John's kingdom with Abyssinia was a mistake of Portuguese explorers some centuries later."

J. C. Robertson, History of the Christian Church, book 6, chapter 11, with foot-note (volume 5).

ALSO IN: Colonel H. Yule, Note to 'The Book of Marco Polo,' volume 1, pages 204-209.

PRESTON, Battle of (1648).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1648 (APRIL-AUGUST).

Battle of (1715).

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1715.

PRESTON PANS, Battle of (1745).

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1745-1746.

PRESTONBURG, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY: KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE).

PRETAXATION.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152.

PRETENDERS, The Stuart.

See JACOBITES.

PRICE'S RAID.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).

PRIDE'S PURGE.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1648 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

PRIEST'S LANE, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.

PRIM, General, Assassination of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1866-1873.

PRIMATES. METROPOLITANS. PATRIARCHS.

In the early organization of the Christian Church, the bishops of every province found it necessary "to make one of themselves superior to all the rest, and invest him with certain powers and privileges for the good of the whole, whom they therefore named their primate, or metropolitan, that is, the principal bishop of the province. … Next in order to the metropolitans or primates were the patriarchs; or, as they were at first called, archbishops and exarchs of the diocese. For though now an archbishop and a metropolitan be generally taken for the same, to wit, the primate of a single province; yet anciently the name archbishop was a more extensive title, and scarce given to any but those whose jurisdiction extended over a whole imperial diocese, as the bishop of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, &c."

T. Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, book 2, chapters 16-17 (volume 1).

See, also, CHRISTIANITY; A. D. 312-337.

PRIME MINISTER, The English.

See CABINET, THE ENGLISH.

PRINCE, Origin of the title.

See PRINCEPS SENATUS.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

"Prince Edward's Island, the smallest province of the Dominion [of Canada], originally called St. John's Island, until 1770 formed part of Nova Scotia. The first Governor was Walter Patterson. … The first assembly met in 1773." In 1873 Prince Edward Island consented to be received into the Confederation of the Dominion of Canada—the latest of the provinces to accede to the Union, except Newfoundland, which still (1894) remains outside.

J. E. C. Munro, The Constitution of Canada, chapter 2.

See, also, CANADA: A. D. 1867; and 1869-1873.

PRINCE OF THE CAPTIVITY.

See JEWS: A. D. 200-400.

PRINCE OF WALES.

See WALES, PRINCE OF.

PRINCEPS SENATUS.

"As the title of imperator conferred the highest military rank upon Augustus and his successors, so did that of princeps senatus, or princeps (as it came to be expressed by an easy but material abridgment), convey the idea of the highest civil preeminence consistent with the forms of the old constitution. In ancient times this title had been appropriated to the first in succession of living censorii, men who had served the office of censor; and such were necessarily patricians and senators. The sole privilege it conferred was that of speaking first in the debates of the senate; a privilege however to which considerable importance might attach from the exceeding deference habitually paid to authority and example by the Roman assemblies. … The title of princeps was modest and constitutional; it was associated with the recollection of the best ages of the free state and the purest models of public virtue; it could not be considered beyond the deserts of one who was undoubtedly the foremost man of the nation. … The popularity which the assumption of this republican title conferred upon the early emperors may be inferred from the care with which it is noted, and its constitutional functions referred to by the writers of the Augustan age and that which succeeded it. But it was an easy and natural step in the progress of political ideas to drop the application of the title, and contract it from prince of the senate, to prince merely. The original character of the appellation was soon forgotten, and the proper limits of its privileges confounded in the more vague and general prerogative which the bare designation of first or premier seemed to imply."

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 31.

ALSO IN: E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 3, note by Dr. W. Smith.

PRINCETON, Battle of (1777).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777 WASHINGTON'S RETREAT.

PRINCIPES.

See LEGION, THE ROMAN.

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—————PRINTING AND THE PRESS: Start————

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1430-1456. The invention of movable type. Rival claims for Coster and Gutenberg. The first Printed Book.

"Before arriving at the movable type placed side by side, and forming phrases, which appears to us to-day so simple and so ordinary, many years passed. It is certain that long before Gutenberg a means was found of cutting wood and metal in relief and reproducing by application the image traced. … Remembering that the numerous guilds of 'tailleurs d' images,' or sculptors in relief, had in the Middle Ages the specialty of carving ivories and of placing effigies on tombs, it can be admitted without much difficulty that these people one day found a means of multiplying the sketches of a figure often asked for, by modelling its contour in relief on ivory or wood, and afterwards taking a reproduction on paper or parchment by means of pressure. When and where was this discovery produced? We cannot possibly say; but it is certain that playing cards were produced by this means, and that from the year 1423 popular figures were cut in wood, as we know from the St. Christopher of that date belonging to Lord Spencer. … It is a recognised fact that the single sheet with a printed figure preceded the xylographic book, in which text and illustration were cut in the same block. This process did not appear much before the second quarter of the 15th century, and it was employed principally for popular works which were then the universal taste. The engraving also was nothing more than a kind of imposition palmed off as a manuscript; the vignettes were often covered with brilliant colours and gold, and the whole sold as of the best quality. … An attempt had been made to put some text at the foot of the St. Christopher of 1423, and the idea of giving more importance to the text was to the advantage of the booksellers. … At the epoch of the St. Christopher, in 1423, several works were in vogue in the universities, the schools, and with the public. … To find a means of multiplying these treatises at little cost was a fortune to the inventor. It is to be supposed that many artisans of the time attempted it; and without doubt it was the booksellers themselves, mostly mere dealers, who were tempted to the adventure by the sculptors and wood-cutters. But none had yet been so bold as to cut in relief a series of blocks with engravings and text to compose a complete work. That point was reached very quickly when some legend was engraved at the foot of a vignette, and it may be thought that the 'Donatus' [i. e. the Latin Syntax of Ælius Donatus] was the most ancient of books so obtained among the 'Incunabuli,' as we now call them, a word that signifies origin or cradle. The first books then were formed of sheets of paper or parchment, laboriously printed from xylographic blocks, that is to say wooden blocks on which a 'tailleur d' images' had left in relief the designs and the letters of the text. He had thus to trace his characters in reverse, so that they could be reproduced as written; he had to avoid faults, because a phrase once done, well or ill, lasted. It was doubtless this difficulty of correction that gave the idea of movable types. … This at least explains the legend of Laurent Coster, of Haarlem, who, according to Hadrian Junius, his compatriot, discovered by accident the secret of separate types while playing with his children. And if the legend of which we speak contains the least truth, it must be found in the sense above indicated, that is in the correction of faults, rather than in the innocent game of a merchant of Haarlem. … Movable type, the capital point of printing, the pivot of the art of the Book, developed itself little by little, according to needs, when there was occasion to correct an erroneous inscription; but, in any case, its origin is unknown. Doubtless to vary the text, means were found to replace entire phrases by other phrases, preserving the original figures; and thus the light dawned upon these craftsmen, occupied in the manufacture and sale of their books. According to Hadrian Junius, Laurent Janszoon Coster (the latter name signifying 'the discoverer') published one of the celebrated series of works under the general title of 'Speculum' which was then so popular, … the 'Speculum Humanæ Salvationis.' … Junius, as we see, attributes to Laurent Coster the first impression of the 'Speculum,' no longer the purely xylographic impression of the 'Donatus' from an engraved block, but that of the more advanced manner in movable types [probably between 1430 and 1440]. In point of fact, this book had at least four editions, similar in engravings and body of letters, but of different text. It must then be admitted that the fount was dispersed, and typography discovered. … All the xylographic works of the 15th century may be classed in two categories: the xylographs, rightly so called, or the block books, such as the 'Donatus,' and the books with movable types, like the 'Speculum,' of which we speak. … The movable types used, cut separately in wood, were not constituted to give an ideal impression. We can understand the cost that the execution of these characters must have occasioned, made as they were one by one, without the possibility of ever making them perfectly uniform. Progress was to substitute for this irregular process types that were similar, identical, easily produced, and used for a long time without breaking. Following on the essays of Laurent Coster, continuous researches bore on this point. … Here history is somewhat confused. Hadrian Junius positively accuses one of Laurent Coster's workmen of having stolen the secrets of his master and taken flight to Mayence, where he afterwards founded a printing office. According to Junius, the metal type was the discovery of the Dutchman, and the name of the thief was John. Who was this John? Was it John Gænsefleisch, called Gutenberg, or possibly John Fust? But it is not at all apparent that Gutenberg, a gentleman of Mayence, exiled from his country, was ever in the service of the Dutch inventor. As to Fust, we believe his only intervention in the association of printers of Mayence was as a money-lender, from which may be comprehended the unlikelihood of his having been with Coster, the more so as we find Gutenberg retired to Strasbourg, where he pursued his researches. There he was, as it were, out of his sphere, a ruined noble whose great knowledge was bent entirely on invention. Doubtless, like many others, he may have had in his hands one of the printed works of Laurent Coster, and conceived the idea of appropriating the infant process. {2588} In 1439 he was associated with two artisans of the city of Strasbourg, ostensibly in the fabrication of mirrors, which may be otherwise understood as printing of 'Speculums,' the Latin word signifying the same thing. … Three problems presented themselves to him. He wanted types less fragile than wooden types and less costly than engraving. He wanted a press by the aid of which he could obtain a clear impression on parchment or paper. He desired also that the leaves of his books should not be anopistograph, or printed only on one side. … Until then, and even long after, the xylographs were printed 'au frotton,' or with a brush, rubbing the paper upon the forme coated with ink, thicker than ordinary ink. He dreamed of something better. In the course of his work John Gutenberg returned to Mayence. The idea of publishing a Bible, the Book of books, had taken possession of his heart. … The cutting of his types had ruined him. … In this unhappy situation, Gutenberg made the acquaintance of a financier of Mayence, named Fust, … who put a sum of 1,100 florins at his disposal to continue his experiments. Unfortunately this money disappeared, it melted away, and the results obtained were absolutely ludicrous. … About this time a third actor enters on the scene. Peter Schoeffer, of Gernsheim, a writer, introduced into the workshop of Gutenberg to design letters, benefited by the abortive experiments, and taking up the invention at its dead-lock, conducted it to success. John of Tritenheim, called Trithemius, the learned abbot of Spanheim, is the person who relates these facts; but as he got his information from Schoeffer himself, too much credence must not be given to his statements. Besides, Schoeffer was not at all an ordinary artisan. If we credit a Strasbourg manuscript written by his hand in 1449, he was a student of the 'most glorious university of Paris.'" How much Schoeffer contributed to the working out of the invention is a matter of conjecture; but in 1454 it was advanced to a state in which the first known application of it in practical use was made. This was in the printing of copies of the famous letters of indulgence which Pope Nicholas V. was then selling throughout Europe. Having the so far perfected invention in hand, Fust and Schoeffer (the latter now having married the former's granddaughter) wished to rid themselves of Gutenberg. "Fust had a most easy pretext, which was to demand purely and simply from his associate the sums advanced by him, and which had produced so little. Gutenberg had probably commenced his Bible, but, in face of the claims of Fust, he had to abandon it altogether, types, formes, and press. In November, 1455, he had retired to a little house outside the city, where he tried his best, by the aid of foreign help, to establish a workshop, and to preserve the most perfect secrecy. Relieved of his company, Fust and Schoeffer were able to take up the impression of the Bible and to complete it without him. … One thing is certain: that the Bible of Schoeffer, commenced by Gutenberg or not, put on sale by Fust and Schoeffer alone about the end of 1455 or beginning of 1456, proves to be the first completed book. … It is now called the Mazarine Bible, from the fact that the copy in the Mazarin Library was the first to give evidence concerning it. The book was put on sale at the end of 1455 or beginning of 1456, for a manuscript note of a vicar of St. Stephen at Mayence records that he finished the binding and illuminating of the first volume on St. Bartholomew's Day [June 13], 1456, and the second on the 15th of August. … All these remarks show that the printers did not proclaim themselves, and were making pseudo-manuscripts. … Many of the copies are illuminated with as much care and beauty as if they were the finest manuscripts. … Copies are by no means uncommon, most of the great libraries having one, and many are in private collections."

H. Bouchot, The Printed Book, chapter 1.

"The general consent of all nations in ascribing the honour of the invention of printing to Gutenberg seems at first sight a very strong argument in his favour; but if Gutenberg were not the first to invent and use movable types, but the clever man who brought to perfection what already existed in a crude state, we can quite imagine his fame to have spread everywhere as the real inventor. As a master in the art of printing, Gutenberg's name was known in Paris so early as 1472. … Mr. Hessels … believes that the Coster mentioned in the archives as living in Haarlem, 1436-83, was the inventor of types, and that, taken as a whole, the story as told by Junius is substantially correct. Personally I should like to wait for more evidence. There is no doubt that the back-bone of the Dutch claim lies in the pieces and fragments of old books discovered for the most part in the last few decades, and which give support to, at the same time that they receive support from, the Cologne Chronicler. … These now amount to forty-seven different works. Their number is being added to continually now that the attention of librarians has been strongly called to the importance of noting and preserving them. They have been catalogued with profound insight by Mr. Hessels, and for the first time classified by internal evidence into their various types and classes. But, it may well be asked, what evidence is there that all these books were not printed long after Gutenberg's press was at work? … The earliest book of Dutch printing bears date 1473, and not a single edition out of all the so-called Costeriana has any printer's name or place or date. To this the reply is, that these small pieces were school-books or absies and such-like works, in the production of which there was nothing to boast of, as there would be in a Bible. Such things were at all times 'sine ulla nota,' and certain to be destroyed when done with, so that the wonder would be to find them so dated, and the very fact of their bearing a date would go far to prove them not genuine. These fragments have been nearly all discovered in 15th-century books, printed mostly' in various towns of Holland. … Mr. Hessels quotes forty-seven different books as 'Costeriana,' which include four editions of the Speculum, nineteen of Donatus, and seven of Doctrinale. The Donatuses are in five different types, probably from five different Dutch presses. Compared with the earliest dated books of 1473 and onwards, printed in Holland, they have nothing in common, while their brotherhood to the Dutch MSS. and block-books of about thirty years earlier is apparent. Just as astronomers have been unable to explain certain aberrations of the planets without surmising a missing link in the chain of their knowledge, so is it with early typography. That such finished works as the first editions of the Bible and Psalter could be the legitimate predecessors of the Costeriana, the Bruges, the Westminster press, and others, I cannot reconcile with the internal evidence of their workmanship. But admit the existence of an earlier and much ruder school of typography, and all is plain and harmonious."

W. Blades, Books in Chains, and other Bibliographical Papers, pages 149-158.

ALSO IN: J. H. Hessels, Gutenberg: was he the Inventor of Printing?

C. H. Timperley, Encyclopœdia of Literature and Typographical Anecdote, pages 101-120.

H. N. Humphreys, History of the Art of Printing, chapters 3-4.

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PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1457-1489. Progress and diffusion of the art.

After the Mazarine Bible, "then follows the Kalendar for the year 1457, most probably printed at the end of 1456. Then again the printed dates, August 14, 1457 and 1459, with place (Mentz) in the colophons of the Psalter issued by Fust and Schoeffer; the printed year 1460 (with Mentz added) in the Catholicon [a Latin Grammar and Dictionary]. &c. &c. So that, with the exception of 1458, there is no interruption in Mentz printing from the moment that we see it begin there. As regards the printed psalter, its printers are mentioned distinctly in the book itself; but the other books just mentioned are assumed to have been issued by the same two Mentz printing-offices which are supposed to be already at work there in 1454, though the 1460 Catholicon and some of the other works are ascribed by some to other printers. By the side of these dates, we find already a Bible completed in 1460 by Mentelin at Strassburg, according to a MS. note in the copy preserved at Freiburg. … Assuming then, for a moment, that Mentz is the starting-point, we see printing spread to Strassburg in 1460; to Bamberg in 1461; to Subiaco in 1465; in 1466 (perhaps already in 1463) it is established at Cologne; in 1467 at Eltville, Rome; in 1468 at Augsburg, Basle, Marienthal; in 1469 at Venice; 1470 at Nuremberg, Verona, Foligno, Trevi, Savigliano, Paris; 1471 at Spire, Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pavia, Treviso; 1472 at Esslingen, Cremona, Mantua, Padua, Parma, Monreale, Fivizano, Verona; 1473 at Laugingen, Ulm (perhaps here earlier), Merseburg, Alost, Utrecht, Lyons, Brescia, Messina; 1474 at Louvain, Genoa, Como, Savona, Turin, Vicenza; 1475 at Lubeck, Breslau, Blaubeuren, Burgdorf, Modena, Reggio, Cagli, Caselle or Casale, Saragossa; 1476 at Rostock, Bruges (here earlier?), Brussels; 1477 at Reichenstein, Deventer, Gouda, Delft, Westminster; 1478 at Oxford, St. Maartensdyk, Colle, Schussenried, Eichstadt; 1479 at Erfurt, Würzburg, Nymegen, Zwolle, Poitiers; 1480 at London [?], Oudenaarde, Hasselt, Reggio; 1481 at Passau, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Treves, Urach; 1482 at Reutlingen, Memmingen, Metz, Antwerp; 1483 at Leiden, Kuilenburg, Ghent, Haarlem; 1484 at Bois-le–Duc, Siena; 1485 at Heidelberg, Regensburg; 1486 at Munster, Stuttgart; 1487 at Ingolstadt; 1488 at Stendal; 1489 at Hagenau, &c."

J. H. Hessels, Haarlem the Birth-place of Printing, not Mentz, chapter 4.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1469-1515. The early Venetian printers. The Aldine Press.

"One of the famous first race of German printers, John of Spires, arrived at Venice in the year 1469, and immediately brought his art into full play; producing within the first three months his fine edition of the 'Letters of Cicero.' a masterpiece of early printing. … The success of John of Spires as a printer was at once recognized by the Venetian Republic; and Pasquale Malipiero, the reigning Doge, granted a patent conferring upon him the sole right of printing books within the territory of Venice. … But the enterprising printer did not live to enjoy the privilege," and it was not continued to any of his family, "On the withdrawal of the monopoly several new printers set up their Presses in the city, among whom was the celebrated Jenson, the ingenious Frenchman who was sent by Charles VII. to acquire the art at Mayence. … John Emeric, of Udenheim, was another of the German printers who immediately succeeded John and Vindelin of Spires; and still more successful, though somewhat later, in the field, was Erard Ratdolt. … He [Ratdolt] is said to have been the first to adopt a regular form of Title at all approaching our modern conception of a Book-Title; and he also took the lead in the production of those beautifully-engraved initials for which the books printed in Italy towards the close of the 15th century are famous. His most splendid work is undoubtedly the 'Elements of Euclid, with the Commentaries of Campanus.' … Nicholas Jenson was the most renowned of those who followed the earliest German printers in Venice, until his works were partially eclipsed by those of the Aldi. … In 1470 he [Jenson] had … completed his preparations, and the first four works which issued from his Venetian press appeared in that year. … These works were printed with Roman characters of his own engraving, more perfect in form than those of any previous printer. His types are in fact the direct parents of the letters now in general use, which only differ from them in certain small details dependent solely on fashion. … This celebrated printer died in September of the year 1481. … Andrea Torresani and others continued Jenson's Association, making use of the same types. Torresani was eventually succeeded in the same establishment by the celebrated Aldo Manuccio, who, having married his daughter, adopted the important vocation of printer, and became the first of those famous 'Aldi,' as they are commonly termed, whose fame has not only absorbed that of all the earlier Venetian printers, but that of the early printers of every other Italian seat of the art. … It was Manuccio who, among many other advances in this art, first invented the semi-cursive style of character now known as 'Italic'; and it is said that it was founded upon a close imitation of the careful handwriting of Petrarch, which, in fact, it closely resembles. This new type was used for a small octavo edition of 'Virgil,' issued in 1501, on the appearance of which he obtained from Pope Leo X. a letter of privilege, entitling him to the sole use of the new type which he had invented." The list of the productions of the elder Aldus and his son Paul "comprises nearly all the great works of antiquity, and of the best Italian authors of their own time. From their learning and general accomplishments, the Aldi might have occupied a brilliant position as scholars and authors, but preferred the useful labour of giving correctly to the world the valuable works of others. The Greek editions of the elder Aldus form the basis of his true glory, especially the 'Aristotle,' printed in 1405, a work of almost inconceivable labour and perseverance."

H. N. Humphreys, History of the Art of Printing, chapter 8.

{2590}

"Aldus and his studio and all his precious manuscripts disappeared during the troubled years of the great Continental war in which all the world was against Venice [see VENICE: A. D. 1508-1500]. In 1510, 1511, and 1512, scarcely any book proceeded from his press. … After the war Aldus returned to his work with renewed fervour. 'It is difficult,' says Renouard, 'to form an idea of the passion with which he devoted himself to the reproduction of the great works of ancient literature. If he heard of the existence anywhere of a manuscript unpublished, or which could throw a light upon an existing text, he never rested till he had it in his possession. He did not shrink from long journeys, great expenditure, applications of all kinds.' … It is not in this way however that the publisher, that much questioned and severely criticised middleman, makes a fortune. And Aldus died poor. His privileges did not stand him in much stead, copyright, especially when not in books but in new forms of type, being non-existent in his day. In France and Germany, and still nearer home, his beautiful Italic was robbed from him, copied on all sides, notwithstanding the protection granted by the Pope and other princes as well as by the Venetian Signoria. His fine editions were printed from, and made the foundation of foreign issues which replaced his own. How far his princely patrons stood by him to repair his losses there seems no information. His father-in-law, Andrea of Asola, a printer who was not so fine a scholar, but perhaps more able to cope with the world, did come to his aid, and his son Paolo Manutio, and his grandson Aldo il Giovane, as he is called, succeeded him in turn."

Mrs. Oliphant, The Makers of Venice, part 4, chapter 3.

Aldus died in 1515. His son Paul left Venice for Rome in 1562.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1476-1491. Introduction in England. The Caxton Press.

"It was probably at the press of Colard Mansion, in a little room over the porch of St. Donat's at Bruges, that William Caxton learned the art which he was the first to introduce into England. A Kentish boy by birth, but apprenticed to a London mercer, Caxton had already spent thirty years of his manhood in Flanders as Governor of the English gild of Merchant Adventurers there, when we find him engaged as copyist in the service of Edward's sister, Duchess Margaret of Burgundy. But the tedious process of copying was soon thrown aside for the new art which Colard Mansion had introduced into Bruges. … The printing-press was the precious freight he brought back to England in 1476 after an absence of five-and-thirty years. Through the next fifteen, at an age when other men look for ease and retirement, we see him plunging with characteristic energy into his new occupation. His 'red pale' or heraldic shield marked with a red bar down the middle invited buyers to the press he established in the Almonry at Westminster, a little enclosure containing a chapel and almshouses near the west front of the church, where the alms of the abbey were distributed to the poor. … Caxton was a practical man of business, … no rival of the Venetian Aldi or of the classical printers of Rome, but resolved to get a living from his trade, supplying priests with service books and preachers with sermons, furnishing the clerk with his 'Golden Legend' and knight and baron with 'joyous and pleasant histories of chivalry.' But while careful to win his daily bread, he found time to do much for what of higher literature lay fairly to hand. He printed all the English poetry of any moment which was then in existence. His reverence for that 'worshipful man, Geoffrey Chaucer,' who 'ought to be eternally remembered,' is shown not merely by his edition of the 'Canterbury Tales,' but by his reprint of them when a purer text of the poem offered itself. The poems of Lydgate and Gower were added to those of Chaucer. The Chronicle of Brut and Higden's 'Polychronicon' were the only available works of an historical character then existing in the English tongue, and Caxton not only printed them but himself continued the latter up to his own time. A translation of Boethius, a version of the Eneid from the French, and a tract or two of Cicero, were the stray first-fruits of the classical press in England. Busy as was Caxton's printing-press, he was even busier as a translator than as a printer. More than four thousand of his printed pages are from works of his own rendering. The need of these translations shows the popular drift of literature at the time; but keen as the demand seems to have been, there is nothing mechanical in the temper with which Caxton prepared to meet it. A natural, simple-hearted taste and enthusiasm, especially for the style and forms of language, breaks out in his curious prefaces. … But the work of translation involved a choice of English which made Caxton's work important in the history of our language. He stood between two schools of translation, that of French affectation and English pedantry. It was a moment when the character of our literary tongue was being settled, and it is curious to see in his own words the struggle over it which was going on in Caxton's time. 'Some honest and great clerks have been with me and desired me to write the most curious terms that I could find;' on the other hand, 'some gentlemen of late blamed me, saying that in my translations I had over many curious terms which could not be understood of common people, and desired me to use old and homely terms in my translations.' 'Fain would I please every man,' comments the good-humoured printer, but his sturdy sense saved him alike from the temptations of the court and the schools. His own taste pointed to English, but 'to the common terms that be daily used' rather than to the English of his antiquarian advisers. 'I took an old book and read therein, and certainly the English was so rude and broad I could not well understand it,' while the Old-English charters which the Abbot of Westminster lent as models from the archives of his house seemed 'more like to Dutch than to English.' To adopt current phraseology however was by no means easy at a time when even the speech of common talk was in a state of rapid flux. … Coupling this with his long absence in Flanders we can hardly wonder at the confession he makes over his first translation, that 'when all these things came to fore me, after that I had made and written a five or six quires, I fell in despair of this work, and purposed never to have continued therein, and the quires laid apart, and in two years after laboured no more in this work.' He was still however busy translating when he died [in 1491]. {2591} All difficulties in fact were lightened by the general interest which his labours aroused. When the length of the 'Golden Legend' makes him 'half desperate to have accomplished it' and ready to 'lay it apart,' the Earl of Arundel solicits him in no wise to leave it and promises a yearly fee of a buck in summer and a doc in winter, once it were done. 'Many noble and divers gentle men of this realm came and demanded many and often times wherefore I have not made and imprinted the noble history of the San Graal.' … Caxton profited in fact by the wide literary interest which was a mark of the time."

J. R. Green, History of the English People, book 5, chapter 1 (volume 2).

"Contemporary with Caxton were the printers Lettou and Machlinia, … who carried on business in the city of London, where they established a press in 1480. Machlinia had previously worked under Caxton. … Wynkyn de Worde … in all probability … was one of Caxton's assistants or workmen, when the latter was living at Bruges, but without doubt he was employed in his office at Westminster until 1491, when he commenced business on his own account, having in his possession a considerable quantity of Caxton's type. Wynkyn de Worde, who was one of the founders of the Stationers' Company, died in 1534, after having printed no less than 410 books known to bibliographers, the earliest of which bearing a date is the 'Liber Festivalis,' 4to, 1493."

J. H. Slater, Book Collecting, chapter 9.

ALSO IN: C. Knight, William Caxton.

C. H. Timperley, Encyclopœdia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, pages 138-194.

T. C. Hansard, History and Process of Printing ("The Five Black Arts," chapter 1).

Gentleman's Magazine Library: Bibliographical Notes, and Literary Curiosities.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1496-1598. The Estienne or Stephanus Press in Paris.

"With the names of Aldus and Elzevir we are all acquainted; the name of Estienne, or Stephanus, has a less familiar sound to English ears, though the family of Parisian printers was as famous in its day as the great houses of Venice and Leyden. The most brilliant member of it was the second Henry, whose story forms a melancholy episode in French literary history of the 16th century. … The Estiennes are said to have come of a noble Provençal family, but nothing is exactly known of their descent. The art of printing was not much more than fifty years old when Henry Estienne, having learnt his trade in Germany, came to Paris, and set up his press [about 1496] in the Rue Saint Jean de Beauvais, opposite the school of Canon Law. There for some twenty years he laboured diligently, bringing out in that time no less than 120 volumes, chiefly folios. The greater number of these are theological and scholastic works; among the few modern authors on the list is the name of Erasmus. Henry Estienne died in 1520 leaving three sons. Robert, the second of them, was born probably in 1503. The boys all being minors, the business passed into the hands of their mother, who in the following year married Simon de Colines, her late husband's foreman, and perhaps partner. … Robert worked with De Colines for five or six years before he went into business on his own account in the same street." It was he who first gave celebrity to the name and the press. "The spell of the Renaissance had early fallen upon the young printer, and it held him captive almost till the end of his life." He married "the daughter of the learned Flemish printer Jodocus Badius, notable for her culture and her beauty. Latin was the ordinary language of the household. The children learned it in infancy from hearing it constantly spoken. … At one time ten foreign scholars lived in Estienne's house to assist him in selecting and revising his manuscripts and in correcting his proofs. … Both Francis [King Francis I.] and his sister Marguerite of Navarre had a great regard for Robert, and often visited the workshop; to that royal patronage the printer was more than once indebted for his liberty and his life." His danger came from the bigoted Sorbonne, with whom he brought himself into collision by printing the Bible with as careful a correction of the text as he had performed in the case of the Latin classics. After the death of Francis I., the peril of the printer's situation became more serious, and in 1550 he fled to Geneva, renouncing the Roman Catholic faith. He died there in 1559.

H. C. Macdowall, An old French Printer (Macmillan's Magazine, November 1892).

The second Henry Estienne, son of Robert, either did not accompany his father to Geneva, or soon returned to Paris, and founded anew the Press of his family, bringing to it even more learning than his father, with equal laboriousness and zeal. He died at Lyons in 1598.

E. Greswell, A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1535-1709. Introduction in America. The first Spanish printing in Mexico. The early Massachusetts Press. Restrictions upon its freedom.

"The art of printing was first introduced into Spanish America, as early as the middle of the 16th century. The historians whose works I have consulted are all silent as to the time when it was first practiced on the American continent; … but it is certain that printing was executed, both in Mexico and Peru, long before it made its appearance in the British North American colonies. [The precise date of the introduction of printing into Mexico was for a long time in doubt. … When Mr. Thomas wrote his 'History of Printing in America,' early works on America were rare, and it is probable that there was not one in the country printed in either America or Europe in the 16th century, except the copy of Molina's dictionary; now many of the period may be found in our great private libraries. The dictionary of Molina, in Mexican and Spanish, printed in Mexico, in 1571, in folio, was, by many, asserted and believed to be the earliest book printed in America. … No one here had seen an earlier book until the 'Doctrina Christiana,' printed in the house of Juan Cromberger, in the city of Mexico, in the year 1544, was discovered. Copies of this rare work were found in two well known private libraries in New York and Providence. For a long time the honor was awarded to this as the earliest book printed in America. But there is now strong evidence that printing was really introduced in Mexico nine years before that time, and positive evidence, by existing books, that a press was established in 1540. Readers familiar with early books relating to Mexico have seen mention of a book printed there as early as 1535, … the 'Spiritual Ladder' of St John Climacus. … It seems that no copy of the 'Spiritual Ladder' has ever been seen in recent times, and the quoted testimonials are the only ones yet found which refer to it.

Note by Hon. John R. Bartlett, appendix A., giving a 'List of Books printed in Mexico between the years 1540 and 1560 inclusive.'

{2592}

… In January, 1639, printing was first performed in that part of North America which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Frozen ocean. For this press our country is chiefly indebted to the Rev. Mr. Glover, a nonconformist minister, who possessed a considerable estate. … Another press, with types, and another printer, were, in 1660, sent over from England by the corporation for propagating the gospel among the Indians in New England. This press, &c., was designed solely for the purpose of printing the Bible, and other books, in the Indian language. On their arrival they were carried to Cambridge, and employed in the printing house already established in that place. … The fathers of Massachusetts kept a watchful eye on the press; and in neither a religious nor civil point of view were they disposed to give it much liberty. … In 1662, the government of Massachusetts appointed licensers of the press; and afterward, in 1664, passed a law that 'no printing should be allowed in any town within the jurisdiction, except in Cambridge'; nor should any thing be printed there but what the government permitted through the agency of those persons who were empowered for the purpose. … In a short time, this law was so far repealed as to permit the use of a press at Boston. … It does not appear that the press, in Massachusetts, was free from legal restraints till about the year 1755 [see PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1704-1729]. … Except in Massachusetts, no presses were set up in the colonies till near the close of the 17th century. Printing then [1686] was performed in Pennsylvania [by William Bradford], 'near Philadelphia' [at Shackamaxon, now Kensington], and afterward in that city, by the same press which, in a few years subsequent, was removed to New York.

See PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1685-1693; also PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1692-1696.

The use of types commenced in Virginia about 1681; in 1682 the press was prohibited. In 1709 a press was established at New London, in Connecticut."

I. Thomas, History of Printing in America, 2nd edition. (Translated and Collection of the American Antiquity Society, volume 5), volume 1, pages 1-17.

ALSO IN: J. L. Bishop, History of American Manufactures, volume 1, chapter 7.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1612-1650. Origin of printed newspapers. The newspaper defined. Its earliest appearances in Germany and Italy.

"Lally-Tollendal, in his 'Life of Queen Elizabeth,' in the 'Biographie Universelle' (vol. xiii, published in 1815, p. 56) … remarks that 'as far as the publication of an official journal is concerned, France can claim the priority by more than half a century; for in the Royal Library at Paris there is a bulletin of the campaign of Louis XII. in Italy in 1509.' He then gives the title of this 'bulletin,' from which it clearly appears that it is not a political journal, but an isolated piece of news—a kind of publication of which there are hundreds in existence of a date anterior to 1588 [formerly supposed to be the date of the first English newspaper—see PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702], and of which there is no doubt that thousands were issued. There is, for instance, in the British Museum a French pamphlet of six printed leaves, containing an account of the surrender of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella on the 'first of January last past' (le premier jour de janvier dernierement passe), in the year 1492; and there are also the three editions of the celebrated letter of Columbus, giving the first account of the discovery of America, all printed at Rome in 1493. Nay, one of the very earliest productions of the German press was an official manifesto of Diether, Archbishop of Cologne, against Count Adolph of Nassau, very satisfactorily proved to have been printed at Mentz in 1462. There is among the German bibliographers a technical name for this class of printed documents, which are called 'Relations.' In fact, in order to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion with regard to the origin of newspapers, it is requisite, in the first place, to settle with some approach to precision what a newspaper is. Four classes of publications succeeded to each other from the 15th to the 19th century, to which the term has by different writers been applied:

1st. Accounts of individual public transactions of recent occurrence.

2nd. Accounts in one publication of several public transactions of recent occurrence, only connected together by having taken place about the same period, so as at one time to form the 'news of the day.'

3rd. Accounts similar to those of the second class, but issued in a numbered series.

4th. Accounts similar to those of the second class, but issued not only in a numbered series, but at stated intervals.

The notices of the surrender of Granada and the discovery of America belong to the first class, and so also do the last dying speeches, which are in our own time cried about the streets. These surely are not newspapers. The Times and Daily News [London] belong to the fourth class, and these, of course, are newspapers. … Are not, in fact, all the essentials of a newspaper comprised in the definition of the second class, which it may be as well to repeat: 'Accounts in one publication of several public transactions of recent occurrence, only connected together by having taken place about the same period, so as at one time to form the news of the day'? Let us take an instance. There is preserved in the British Museum a collection of several volumes of interesting publications issued in Italy between 1640 and 1650, and containing the news of the times. They are of a small folio size, and consist in general of four pages, but sometimes of six, sometimes only of two. There is a series for the month of December, 1644, consisting entirely of the news from Rome. The first line of the first page runs thus:—'Di Roma,' with the date, first of the 3rd, then of the 10th, then the 17th, then the 24th, and lastly the 31st of December, showing that a number was published every week, most probably on the arrival of the post from Rome. The place of publication was Florence, and the same publishers who issued this collection of the news from Rome, sent forth in the same month of December, 1644, two other similar gazettes, at similar intervals, one of the news from Genoa, the other of the news from Germany and abroad. That this interesting series of publications, which is well worthy of a minute examination and a detailed description, is in reality a series of newspapers, will, I believe, be questioned by very few; but each individual number presents no mark by which, if separately met with, it could be known to form part of a set. … {2593} The most minute researches on the history of newspapers in Germany are, as already mentioned, those of Prutz, who has collected notices of a large number of the 'relations,' though much remains to be gleaned. There are, for instance, in Van Heusde's Catalogue of the Library at Utrecht (Utrecht, 1835, folio), the titles of nearly a hundred of them, all as early as the sixteenth century; and the British Museum possesses a considerable quantity, all of recent acquisition. Prutz has no notice of the two that have been mentioned, and, like all preceding writers, he draws no distinction between the publications of the first class and the second. The view that he takes is, that no publication which does not answer to the definition of what I have termed the fourth class is entitled to the name of a newspaper. There was in the possession of Professor Grellman a publication called an 'Aviso,' numbered as '14,' and published in 1612, which has been considered by many German writers as their earliest newspaper, but Prutz denies that honour to it, on the ground of there being no proof that it was published at stated intervals. In the year 1615 Egenolph Emmel, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, issued a weekly intelligencer, numbered in a series, and this, according to Prutz, is the proper claimant. Its history has been traced with some minuteness in a separate dissertation by Schwarzkopf, who has also the credit of having published in 1795 the first general essay on newspapers of any value, and to have followed up the subject in a series of articles in the Allgemeine Litterarische Anzeiger. … The claims of Italy have yet to be considered. Prutz dismisses them very summarily, because, as he says, the Venetian gazettes of the sixteenth century, said to be preserved at Florence, are in manuscript, and it is essential to the definition of a newspaper that it should be printed. These Venetian gazettes have never, so far as I am aware, been described at all; they may be mere 'news-letters,' or they may be something closely approaching to the modern newspaper. But I am strongly inclined to believe that something of the second class of Italian origin will turn up in the great libraries of Europe when further research is devoted to the subject. … The existence of these 'gazettes' in so many languages furnishes strong ground for supposing that the popularity of newspapers originated in Italy."

T. Watts, The fabricated "Earliest English Newspaper" (Gentleman's Magazine, 1850, reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine Library; Bibliographical Notes, pages 146-150).

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1617-1680. The Elzevirs.

"Just as the house of Aldus waned and expired, that of the great Dutch printers, the Elzevirs, began obscurely enough at Leyden in 1583. The Elzevir's were not, like Aldus, ripe scholars and men of devotion to learning. Aldus laboured for the love of noble studies; the Elzevirs were acute, and too often 'smart' men of business. The founder of the family was Louis (born at Louvain, 1540, died 1617). But it was in the second and third generations that Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir began to publish at Leyden their editions in small duodecimo. Like Aldus, these Elzevirs aimed at producing books at once handy, cheap, correct, and beautiful in execution. Their adventure was a complete success. The Elzevirs did not, like Aldus, surround themselves with the most learned scholars of their time. Their famous literary adviser, Heinsius, was full of literary jealousies, and kept students of his own calibre at a distance. The classical editions of the Elzevirs, beautiful, but too small in type for modern eyes, are anything but exquisitely correct. … The ordinary marks of the Elzevirs were the sphere, the old hermit, the Athena, the eagle, and the burning faggot. But all little old books marked with spheres are not Elzevirs, as many booksellers suppose. Other printers also stole the designs for the tops of chapters, the Aegipan, the Siren, the head of Medusa, the crossed sceptres, and the rest. In some cases the Elzevirs published their books, especially when they were piracies, anonymously. When they published for the Jansenists, they allowed their clients to put fantastic pseudonyms on the title pages. But, except in four cases, they had only two pseudonyms used on the titles of books published by and for themselves. These disguises are 'Jean Sambix' for Jean and Daniel Elzevir, at Leyden, and 'for the Elzevirs of Amsterdam, 'Jacques le Jeune.' The last of the great representatives of the house, Daniel, died at Amsterdam, 1680. Abraham, an unworthy scion, struggled on at Leyden till 1712. The family still prospers, but no longer prints, in Holland."

A. Lang, The Library, chapter 3.

"Though Elzevirs have been more fashionable than at present, they are still regarded by novelists as the great prize of the book collector. You read in novels about 'priceless little Elzevirs,' about books 'as rare as an old Elzevir.' I have met, in the works of a lady novelist (but not elsewhere) with an Elzevir 'Theocritus.' The late Mr. Hepworth Dixon introduced into one of his romances a romantic Elzevir Greek Testament, 'worth its weight in gold.' Casual remarks of this kind encourage a popular delusion that all Elzevirs are pearls of considerable price."

A. Lang, Books and Bookmen, chapter 6.

ALSO IN: J. H. Slater, Book Collecting, chapter 8.

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702. The first printed Newspaper and the first daily Newspaper in England.

"Up to 1839 (when Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, exposed the forgery) the world was led to believe that the first English newspaper appeared in 1588." Mr. Watts "ascertained that 'The English Mercurie,' which Mr. George Chalmers first discovered on the shelves of the British Museum, and which was said to have been 'imprinted in London by her highness's printer, 1588,' was a forgery, for which the second Earl of Hardwicke appears to be answerable." As to the actual date of the appearance of the first printed newspaper in England, "Mr. Knight Hunt, in his 'Fourth Estate,' speaks confidently. … 'There is now no reason to doubt,' he says, 'that the puny ancestor of the myriads of broad sheets of our time was published in the metropolis in 1622; and that the most prominent of the ingenious speculators who offered the novelty to the world, was one Nathaniel Butter.' As the printing press had then been at work in England for a century and a half, Caxton having established himself in Westminster Abbey in 1471, and as manuscript news-letters had been current for many years previous to 1622, one cannot help wondering that the inventive wits of that age should have been so slow in finding out this excellent mode of turning Faust's invention to profitable account. {2594} Butter's journal was called—'The Weekly Newes,' a name which still survives, although the original possessor of that title has long since gone the way of all newspapers. The first number in the British Museum collection bears date the 23rd of May, 1622, and contains 'news from Italy, Germanie,' &c. The last number made its appearance on the 9th of January, 1640; a memorable year, in which the Short Parliament, dismissed by King Charles 'in a huff,' after a session of three weeks, was succeeded by the Long Parliament, which unlucky Charles could not manage quite so easily. … It was nearly a century after 'The Weekly Newes' made its first appearance, before a daily newspaper was attempted. When weekly papers had become firmly established, some of the more enterprising printers began to publish their sheets twice, and ultimately three times a week. Thus at the beginning of last century we find several papers informing the public that they are 'published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning.' One of the most respectable looking was entitled 'The New State of Europe,' or a 'True Account of Public Transactions and Learning.' It consisted of two pages of thin, coarse paper … and contained altogether about as much matter as there is in a single column of the 'Times' of 1855. The custom at that period was to publish the newspaper on a folio or quarto sheet, two pages of which were left blank to be used for correspondence. This is expressly stated in a standing advertisement in the 'New State of Europe,' in which the names of certain booksellers are given 'where any person may have this paper with a blank half sheet to write their own private affairs.' … The first number of the 'Daily Courant' [the first daily newspaper in England] was published on the 11th of March, 1702, just three days after the accession of Queen Anne. … As regards the form and size of the new journal, the 'author' condescends to give the following information, with a growling remark at the impertinence of the 'Postboys,' 'Postmen,' 'Mercuries,' and 'Intelligencers' of that day:—'This "Courant" (as the title shows) will be published Daily, being designed to give all the Material News as soon as every Post arrives, and is confined to half the compass to save the Publick at least half the Impertinences of ordinary Newspapers.' In addition to the Prospectus we have quoted, the first number of the 'Daily Courant' contains only nine paragraphs, five of which were translated from the 'Harlem Courant,' three from the 'Paris Gazette,' and one from the 'Amsterdam Courant.' They all relate to the war of the Spanish Succession then waging, or to the attempts making by diplomats to settle the affairs of the Continent at some kind of Vienna or Utrecht Conference. After adhering for several weeks to the strict rule of giving only one page of news, and those entirely foreign, the 'Courant' begins to show certain symptoms of improvement. The number for April 22, contains two pages of news and advertisements. … The alteration in the getting-up of the 'Courant' was owing to a change of proprietorship. The paper had now come into the hands of 'Sam Buckley, at the Dolphin, Little Britain.' … Mr. Samuel Buckley, who continued to publish and conduct the 'Daily Courant' for many years, was a notable man among London publishers, as we find from various references to him in the fugitive literature of that age."

The London Daily Press (Westminster Review, October, 1855).

PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1631. The first printed Newspaper in France. Dr. Renandot and his "Gazette."

"The first Frenchman to found a printed newspaper was Dr. Théophraste Renaudot, who obtained the King's privilege for the 'Gazette de France' in 1631. … He was a shrewd man, born at London in 1567, brought up in Paris, but graduate of the Faculty of Montpellier. In 1612, being then twenty-six, he returned to the capital, and somehow got appointed at once doctor to the King. But there was no salary attached to this post, which was in his case purely honorary, and so Renaudot opened a school, though the fact that he, a mere provincial doctor, had obtained a medical appointment at court, was very sore to the Paris Faculty of Medicine, who began to annoy him from that moment. Renaudot, however, was a man far ahead of his contemporaries in sagacity, patience, learning and humanity. Petty spite did not disturb him, or at least it did not deter him from executing any of the numerous plans he had in mind for the welfare of his contemporaries. … This extraordinary man not only inaugurated in France an Estate, Professional and Servants' Agency, as well as an office for private sales and exchanges, but further laid the basis of the Poste Restante, Parcels Delivery, Post-Office Directory, Tourist's Guide and Money Order Office; besides affording an outlet to troubled spirits like those who correspond through the agony column of 'The Times.' It is not surprising that his office in the Rue de la Calandre should soon have been all too small for its multifarious duties and that his original staff of six clerks should, in less than three months, have swelled to fifty. Richelieu, in sheer admiration at the man, sent for him and thanked him for the services he was rendering the King's subjects. He also offered him money to extend his offices, and this Renaudot accepted, but only as a loan. It was his custom to levy a commission of six deniers per livre (franc) on the sales he effected, and by means of these and other receipts he soon repaid the Cardinal every penny that had been advanced to him. But he did more than this. Finding that his registers were not always convenient modes of reference, by reason of the excessive crowds which pressed round them, he brought out a printed advertiser, which is almost the exact prototype of a journal at present well known in London. It was called 'Feuille du Bureau d'Adresses,' and appeared every Saturday, at the price of 1 sou. Opinions differ as to whether this paper preceded the 'Gazette de France,' or was issued simultaneously with it. Probably it was first published in manuscript form, but came out in print at least six months before the 'Gazette,' for a number bearing the date of June 14th, 1631, shows a periodical in full organisation and containing indirect references to advertisements which must have appeared several weeks before. At all events this 'Feuille' was purely an advertisement sheet—a forerunner of the 'Petites Affiches' which were reinvented in 1746—it was in no sense a newspaper. … It is clear that from the moment he started his 'Feuille du Bureau d'Adresses,' Renaudot must have conceived the possibility of founding a news-sheet. … The manuscript News Letters had attained, by the year 1630, to such a pitch of perfection, and found such a ready sale, that the notion of further popularising them by printing must have suggested itself to more than one man before it was actually put into practice. {2595} But the great bar was this, that nothing could be printed without the King's privilege, and this privilege was not lightly granted. … Renaudot, who had no wish to publish tattle, had no reason to fear censorship. He addressed himself to Richelieu, and craved leave to start a printed newspaper under royal patronage. The politic Cardinal was quite shrewd enough to see how useful might be to him an organ which would set information before the public in the manner he desired, and in that manner alone; so he granted all Renaudot wished, in the form of 'letters patent,' securing him an entire monopoly of printing newspapers, and moreover he conferred on his protégé the pompous title of Historiographer of France. The first number of the 'Gazette de France' appeared on Friday, May 30, 1631. Its size was four quarto pages, and its price one sol parisis, i. e. ½d., worth about l½d. modern money. … The first number contained no preface or address, nothing in the way of a leading article, but plunged at once in medias res, and gave news from nineteen foreign towns or countries, but oddly enough, not a line of French intelligence. … The bulk of the matter inserted was furnished direct by Richelieu from the Foreign Office, and several of the paragraphs were written in his own hand. … The publication of the 'Gazette' was continued uninterruptedly from week to week but the press of matter was so great that Renaudot took to issuing a Supplement with the last number of every month. In this he condensed the reports of the preceding numbers, corrected errors, added fresh news, and answered his detractors. … At the end of the year 1631 he suppressed his monthly Supplement, increased the 'Gazette' to eight pages, and announced that for the future he would issue supplements as they were needed. It seems they were needed pretty often, for towards the beginning of the year 1633 Renaudot published Supplements, under the title of 'Ordinaries and Extraordinaries,' as often as twice, and even three times in one week. In fact whenever a budget of news arrived which would nowadays justify a special edition, the indefatigable editor set his criers afoot with a fresh printed sheet, shouting, 'Buy the "Extraordinary," containing the account of the superb burial of the King of Denmark!' or, 'Buy and read of the capture of the beautiful island of Curaçoa in the Indies by the Dutch from the Spaniards!' Renaudot understood the noble art of puffing. He dressed his criers in red, and gave them a trumpet apiece to go and bray the praises of the 'Gazette' on the off days, when the paper did not appear. … On the death of Renaudot, he was succeeded by his sons Eusèbe and Isaac, who in their turn bequeathed the Gazette' to Eusèbe junior, son of the elder brother, who took orders and consequently left no progeny. After this the 'Gazette' became Government property. … In 1762 the 'Gazette' was annexed to the Foreign Office Department. … The 'Gazette de France' continued to appear under royal patronage until May 1st, 1792, when its official ties were snapped and it came out as a private and republican journal with the date 'Fourth Year of Freedom.' The 'Gazette' has flourished with more or less brilliancy ever since, and has been for the last fifty years a legitimist organ, read chiefly in the provinces."