AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.

BECKMANN JOHN. A History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins. Translated by William Johnston. 12mo. 2 vols. London, 1846.

Berjeau J. PH. Biblia Pauperum. Reproduced in Fac-simile . . . . . . . with an Historical and Bibliographical Introduction. Folio. London, 1859.

—— —— Le Bibliophile Illustré for 1861. Imperial 8vo. London, 1862.

—— —— Book-worm for 1866. Imperial 8vo. London, 1866.

BERNARD AUG. De l’origine et des débuts de l’imprimerie en Europe. 8vo. 2 vols. Paris, 1853.

BIBLIOPHILE BELGE BULLETIN DU. 8vo. Vols. I TO IX. Brussels, 1845–1852.

BLADES WILLIAM. The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England’s First Printer, etc. Royal 4to. 2 vols. London, 1861–1863.

BREITKOPF JOH. GOTTL. IMMAN. Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einführung des Leinenpapieres, und den Anfang der Holzschneidekunst in Europa. 4to. 2 vols. in one. Leipsic, 1784.

CAMPBELL M.-F.-A.-G. Annales de la typographie Néerlandaise au XVe siècle. 8vo. La Haye, 1874.

CAMUS. Notice d’un livre imprimé à Bamberg en 1462. 4to. Paris, an VII.

CRAPELET G.-A. Études pratiques et littéraires sur la typographie. 8vo. Paris, 1837.

DAUNOU ——. Analyse des opinions diverses sur l’origine de l’imprimerie. 8vo. Paris, an XI.

DE LA BORDE LÉON. Débuts de l’imprimerie à Strasbourg, ou recherches sur les travaux mystérieux de Gutenberg dans cette ville, et sur le procès qui lui fut intenté en 1439 à cette occasion. 8vo. Paris, 1840.

—— —— Débuts de l’imprimerie à Mayence et à Bamberg, ou description des lettres d’indulgence du pape Nicholas V pro regno Cypri, imprimées en 1454. Royal 4to. Paris, 1840.

DE VRIES A. Éclaircissemens sur l’histoire de l’invention de l’imprimerie. 8vo. La Haye, 1843.

DIDOT M. AMBROISE FIRMIN. Essai sur la typographie. 8vo. Paris, 1851.

DOUCE FRANCIS. Holbein’s Dance of Death . . . with a Dissertation, etc. 12mo. London, 1872.

FALKENSTEIN KARL. Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst in ihrer Entstehung und Ausbildung. 4to. Leipsic, 1840.

FISCHER GOTTHELF. Essai sur les monuments typographiques de Jean Gutenberg, mayençais, inventeur de l’imprimerie. 4to. Mayence, an X.

FOURNIER le jeune P. S. Manuel typographique. 16mo. 2 vols. Paris, 1764–1766.

GRESSWELL WILLIAM PARR. Annals of Parisian Typography, etc. 8vo. London, 1818.

HAIN L. Repertorium Bibliographicum, in quo Libri Omnes ab Arte Typographica Inventa usque ad Annum MD. typis expressi, etc. 8vo. 2 vols. Stuttgardt, 1826–1838.

HALLAM HENRY. Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. 8vo. 2 vols. New-York, 1841.

—— —— View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. 8vo. 3 vols. Boston, 1853.

HANSARD T. C. Typographia: an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing, etc. 8vo. London, 1825.

HEINEKEN C. H. Idée générale d’une collection complette d’estampes, avec une dissertation sur l’origine de la gravure et sur les premiers livres d’images. 8vo. Leipsic and Vienna, 1771.

HELBIG HENRI. Une Découverte pour l’histoire de l’imprimerie. Pamphlet, 8vo. Brussels, 1855.

—— —— Notes et dissertations relatives à l’histoire de l’imprimerie. Pamphlet, 8vo. Brussels, without date. (From Vol. XVIII of the Bibliophile Belge.)

HOLTROP JOH. GUIL. Catalogus Librorum Sæculo XVº Impressorum, quotquot in Bibliotheca Regia Hagana asservantur. 8vo. Hagae-Comitum, 1856.

—— —— Monuments typographiques des Pays-Bas au quinzième siècle. Folio. La Haye, 1868.

HUMPHREYS H. NOEL. A History of the Art of Printing from its Invention, etc. Folio. Second Issue. London, 1868.

JACKSON JOHN and CHATTO W. A. A Treatise on Wood Engraving, etc. Second Edition. 8vo. London, 1861.

JACOB P. L. (Lacroix.) Curiosités de l’histoire des arts. 16mo. Paris, 1858.

JOHNSON J. Typographia, or the Printers’ Instructor, including an Account of the Origin of Printing. 24mo. 2 vols. London, 1824.

KONING JACQUES. Dissertation sur l’origine, l’invention, et le perfectionnement de l’imprimerie. 8vo. Amsterdam, 1819.

LACROIX PAUL (Bibliophile Jacob), E. FOURNIER et F. SERÉ. Histoire de l’imprimerie et des arts et professions, etc. Imperial 8vo. Paris, 1852.

LA CAILLE JEAN DE. Histoire de l’imprimerie et de la librarie où l’on voit son origine et son progrés jusqu’en 1689. 4to. Paris, 1689.

LAMBINET P. Recherches historiques, littéraires et critiques sur l’origine de l’imprimerie. 8vo. Brussels, an VII.

LANZI ABATE LUIGI. The History of Painting in Italy, etc. Translated by Thomas Roscoe. 12mo. 3 vols. London, 1852.

MADDEN J.-P.-A. Lettres d’un bibliographe. Series I to IV. Royal 8vo. Versailles and Paris, 1868–1875.

MAITTAIRE M. Annales Typographici ab Artis Inventæ Origine ad annum MDCLXIV. 4to. 5 vols. Hagae-Comitum, 1719–1741.

MARCHAND PROSPER. Histoire de l’origine et des prémiers progrès de l’imprimerie. 4to. La Haye, 1740.

MEERMAN G. Origines Typographicæ. 4to. 2 vols. Hagae-Comitum, 1765.

MERLIN R. Origine des cartes à jouer, etc. 4to. Paris, without date.

MOXON JOSEPH. Mechanick Exercises: or the Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the Art of Printing. Small 4to. London, 1683.

MUNSELL JOEL. A Chronology of Paper and Paper Making. 8vo. Albany, 1870.

NICHOLS ——. The Origin of Printing, etc. 8vo. London, 1774.

OTTLEY WILLIAM YOUNG. An Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving upon Copper and on Wood. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1816.

—— —— An Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing, etc., with an Introduction by J. Ph. Berjeau. 4to. London, 1863.

PASSAVANT J. D. Le Peintre-Graveur. 8vo. 6 vols. Leipsic, 1860.

RINGWALT J. LUTHER. American Encyclopædia of Printing. Imperial 8vo. Philadelphia, 1871.

SANTANDER SERNA DE LA. Dictionnaire bibliographique choisi du quinzième siècle. 8vo. 3 vols. Brussels, 1805–1807.

SAVAGE WILLIAM. Practical Hints on Decorative Printing. 4to. London, 1822.

SCHOEPFLIN JO. DANIEL. Vindiciæ Typographicæ. 4to. Strasburg, 1760.

SEIZ J. C. Annus Tertius Sæcularis Inventæ Artis Typographicæ. 8vo. Haarlem, 1743.

SISMONDI J. C. L. SIMONDE DE. Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe. 12mo. 2 vols. New-York, 1860.

SOTHEBY S. LEIGH. The Typography of the Fifteenth Century, etc., exemplified in a Collection of Fac-similes. Folio. London, 1845.

—— —— Principia Typographica. The Block-Books, or Xylographic Delineations, etc. Folio, 3 vols. London, 1858.

SKEEN WILLIAM. Early Typography. 8vo. Colombo, Ceylon, 1872.

THOMAS ISAIAH. History of Printing in America, etc. . . . with a concise view of the discovery of the art. 8vo. 2 vols. Worcester, 1810.

TIMPERLEY C. H. A Dictionary of Printers and Printing, etc. Royal 8vo. London, 1839.

TYMMS W. R. and WYATT, M. D. The Art of Illumination as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times. Royal 8vo. London, without date.

VAN DER MEERSCH P. C. Recherches sur la vie et les travaux des imprimeurs Belges et Néerlandais, etc. Royal 8vo. Gand et Paris, 1856.

VAN DER LINDE. The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster Critically Examined. From the Dutch by J. A. Hessels, with an Introduction, etc. 8vo. London, 1871.

WEIGEL T. O. and ZESTERMAN. Die Anfänge der Druckerkunst in Bild und Schrift, etc. Imperial 4to. 2 vols. Leipsic, 1866.

WETTER J. Kritische Geschichte der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst durch Johann Gutenberg zu Mainz. 8vo. 1836.

WOLTMANN ALFRED. Holbein and His Time. Translated by F. E. Bunnètt, 8vo. London, 1872.

WOLF JO. CHRISTIAN. Monumenta Typographica, qvæ Artis hujus præstantissimæ Originem, Laudem et Abusum posteris produnt, etc. 16mo. 2 vols. Hamburg, 1740.

INDEX

Abbreviations, excessive use of, 164, 525

— of Bible of 36 lines, 414

Abecedarium of Enschedé, 289, 290

Accuracy in types, importance of, 52

Accursius Mariangelus, 256

Acta Diurna of old Rome, 44

Adolph, count of Nassau, 438

— his patronage of Gutenberg, 440

Æneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II, 287

Aix-la-Chapelle, fair of, 394

Aldus Manutius, 291, 503, 540

Amman Jost, the artist, 61

Anachronisms, 206, 211, 218, 497

Andrieszoon Jan, of Haarlem, 320

Annunciation, print of, 72

Antichrist, the block-book, 231

Antimony, probable use of, 66, 519

Antwerp, early type-printing at, 500

— first block-printer at, 314

Apocalypse of St. John, block-book, 210

— evidences of its age, 214

— prices paid for, 211

Apostles’ Creed, the block-book, 228

Appeal against the Turks, 410

Arabic figures, first use of, 526

Ars Memorandi, the block-book, 233

Ars Moriendi, the block-book, 235

Association of printers at Milan, 504

— — — at Strasburg, 381

Assyrian Cylinders, 33

Augsburg, early printing at, 497

Babylon, bricks of, 33

Badius Jodocus, of Paris, 506

Bamberg, Bible of, see Bible of 36 lines.

— early printing at, 485

— Missal, 495

Batavia of Adrian Junius, 335

— its authority considered, 336

Bearers of early printing press, 306

Bechtermüntz, Henry and Nicholas, 441

Beildick Lorentz, testimony of, 385

Bellaert Jacob, of Zierikzee, 319

Berlin print, 80

Bernard August, history of, 11

Bible, early translations of, 181

— first with wood-cuts, 498

— reading of prohibited, 182

Bible, Mazarin, see Bible of 42 lines.

Bible of 1462 (48 lines), 462

Bibles of Mentel at Strasburg, 491

Bible of 36 lines, description of, 412

— — — — its discovery, 411

— — — — not printed by Pfister, 484

— — — — peculiarities of, 414

— — — — possibly the first, 412

— — — — Schelhorn’s view of, 480

— — — — speculations about, 432

— — — — when printed, 415

Bible of 42 lines, description of, 419

— — — — annotations in, 424

— — — — cost of, 474

— — — — defects of, 422

— — — — ornamentation of, 422

— — — — prices paid for, 425

— — — — probably of slow sale, 425

— — — — two kinds of copies, 450

— — — — workmanship of, 421

Bible of the Poor, editions from types, 208

— — — — xylographic editions of, 199

— — — — description of, 200

— — — — Nordlingen edition, 208

— — — — prices paid for, 208

— — — — printing of, 203

Blemishes in books, how corrected, 271

Block-books, Antichrist, 230

— Apocalypse, 210

— Apostles’ Creed, 228

— Ars Memorandi, 233

— Ars Moriendi, 235

— Bible of the Poor, 198

— Book of Kings, 224

— Canticles, 215

— Chiromancy of Hartlieb, 239

— Dance of Death, 247

— Donatus, 254

— Eight Rogueries, 229

— Exercise Lord’s Prayer, 222

— German Planetarium, 241

— Grotesque Alphabet, 226

— Life of St. Meinrat, 246

— Pomerium Spirituale, 244

— Story of the Virgin, 219

— Temptations of Devil, 245

— Wonders of Rome, 243

— absurdities in, 222

— advantages of, 261

— definition of, 194

— disregarded by scholar, 251

— earliest date in, 245

Block-books, great number of, 194, 248

— inferiority of, 195

— literary merit of, 250

— made for priests, 248

— obscurity of, 260

— period of, 251

— permitted to people, 249

— popularity of, 238, 249

— where made, 252

Block-printers, many in number, 248

— faulty work of, 248

— unknown, 252

Block-printing an established trade, 253

— early notices of, 91

— in Holland, 256

— not Gutenberg’s secret, 395

— process of, 83

— slighted, 86, 184

Blocks used for engraving, 114

Bodies, irregularities of, explained, 519

Bodies of types, cuts of, 25, 56, 275, 406

— — — in Speculum, 275

— — — not made by rule, 518

— — — of Caxton, 293

— — — of unknown printer, 292

Bodman’s spurious documents, 436

Book of Kings, 224

Book of Trades, 61

Book-binding, Chinese, 116

— of middle ages, 153

— prices paid for, 168

— sumptuous forms of, 156

Book-collecting, a princely hobby, 167

Book-making, as done in old Rome, 42

— an ecclesiastical art, 148

— becomes a trade, 187

— given up to copyists, 159

— in Ireland, 147

— in monasteries, 148

— oriental method of, 136

Book of Four Stories, 481

Book of Fables, 482

Books, printed, changes in style of, 472

— Chinese, cheapness of, 119

— common in old Rome, 43

— demand for cheapness in, 187

— early printed, cheapness of, 511

— early printed, prices of, 512

— medieval, 150

— — character of, 162

— — cheap forms of, 154, 163

— — large size of, 156

— — made by artists, 166

— — made for the rich, 170

— — neglected by clergy, 159

— — obsoleteness of, 186

— — of romance, 165

— — sale of regulated, 160

— — sumptuousness of, 168

— of dark ages, 45

— of monasteries, 216

— of pictures, 163

— of unknown printer, 284

— number printed before 1500, 511

— the right of the educated, 251

— injudiciously selected, 512

— written and printed, 188

Book-sellers of Paris, 160

Book-selling restricted, 162

Boxhorn, Marcus Zuerius, 350

Branding in middle ages, 38

Brass moulds or matrices, 61

Brass stamps of middle ages, 38

Brass types impracticable, 65

Brethren of Life-in-Common, 177, 250, 443

Bricks, stamped, antiquity of, 30

Brito John, of Bruges, 321

Brotherhood of the Life-in-Common at Weidenbach, 250, 495

Bruges, early printing at, 499

— guild of book-makers at, 314

Brussels print, 78

Bull of Pope Pius II against the Turks, 464

Burnisher of engravers, 84

Calendar of 1457, 432

Calendar or Almanac of 1460, 436

Calico-printing, early, 127

Calligraphy, early, 148, 166

Cambray, record of, 312

Canticles, the block-book, 215

Card-makers, early, 91

Case of early compositors, 523

Castaldi Pamphilo, 28, 486

Catholicon of 1460, 434

Caxton William, of England, 507

Celebration of the Mass, 436

Cennini Bernard, 503

Chases of wood, 306, 527

Chinese printing, early method of, 111

— language not fit for types, 116

— paper, invention of, 133

Chiromancy of Dr. Hartlieb, 238

Cicero, his speculations on types, 36

Clog of England, 175

Codex Argenteus, 125

Cologne as a school for printers, 324, 495

Cologne Chronicle of 1499, 315

Cologne, early printing at, 494

Color work of Peter Schœffer, 456

Complaint against Death, 483

Composing rules, early ignorance of, 524

Composition as done in 1564, 523

— by dictation, 524

— double, indications of, 464

— in imitation of writing, 525

— imperfections of, 525

Composition of types in China, 118

— — — a test of age, 312

— — — cost of, 24

Compositors often men of education, 522

— sometimes women, 523

Condition of medieval society, 179

Confraternity of St. John the Baptist, 314

Consolation of the Sinner, 482

Constitutions of Pope Clement V, 461

Coornhert and Van Zuren, 320

Copper-plate printing, process of, 19

— — invention of, 27

Copyists, faults of, 539

— fond of pictures, 163

— of middle ages, 149

— of old Rome, 42

— of Paris, 162

Cornelis, the binder, 284, 332, 343

Correctors of the press, 540

Coster, Lourens Janszoon, 326

Coster, as described by Junius, 331

— — — by Koning, 356

— — — in archives, 365

— — — in chair book, 367

— — — in treasury book, 366

— as a printer, 339

— as a sexton, 338

— as a tallow-chandler, 365

— as a tavern keeper, 369

— confounded with Janszoon, 368

— alleged descendants of, 345

— portraits of, 371, 374

— statues of, 351, 359

— tablets to, 359, 360

Costerian Museum, 361

Counter-punch, use of, 54

Couplets of Cato 285, 288

Cuneiform inscriptions, 30

Cunio, the story of the two, 129

Cylinders of Assyria, 34

Dance of Death, Holbein’s designs, 183

— — — in Nuremberg Chronicle, 185

— — — popularity of, 184

— — — the block-book, 247

Decretals of Boniface VIII, 466

Desroches, his story about Ludwig, 315

De Vries Abraham, on Coster, 357

Dialogue between Cato, Hugo, et al., 436

Dictation, Madden’s theory of, 450, 524

Diether, Count of Isenburg, 438

Dissertation on Invention, Boxhorn’s, 350

Doctor Hartlieb, Chiromancy of, 238

Doctrinal of Alexander Gallus, 285, 288

— of Cambray, 312

Donatus noticed by Zell, 256, 315

— ascribed to Gutenberg, 258, 401

— imitations of type-work, 261

— of Gutenberg at Mentz, 404

— of Koning, 259

— suggested typography, 392

— of Sweinheym, 257

— of unknown printer, 284

— popularity of the book, 254

Dordrecht, tradition of printing at, 257

Dritzehen Claus, complaint of, 380

— Andrew, death of, 384

— — services of, 387

— Ennel, testimony of, 383

— George, 386

Dünne Hans, testimony of, 388

Education, state of in XIVth century, 172

Education of schools in middle ages, 176

— afforded by block-books, 249

— early, made difficult, 263

— modern, aided by types, 260

Eggestein Henry, of Strasburg, 491

Eight Rogueries, the block-book, 229

Eltvill, printing done at, 439

— a suburb of Mentz, 443

Embossed types of unknown printer, 280

— — of Codex Argenteus, 126

Endkrist, the block-book, 230

Engravers, early, jealousy of, 498

Engravers on wood, early, notices of, 184

Engraving an aid to the invention, 396

Engraving decadence of, 536

— large blocks of, 536

— often done on metal, 535

— of Pfister, 484

— at Augsburg, 498

— at Nuremberg, 496

— not mother of typography, 392

— not practised at Haarlem, 321

— of playing cards, 91

— of punches, 65, 514

— on wood, by the Cunios, 130

— — — Chinese practice, 116

— — — early forms of, 132

— — — rudeness of, 239, 536

— — — Italian practice of, 131

— — — merit of early work, 71

— — — neglect of, 278, 535

— — — of letters, 200

— — — origin considered, 75

— — — used by copyists, 124

Enschedé on wood types, 297, 355

Epitaphs of Pope Pius II, 287

Erasmus, his version of the invention, 345

— as a corrector, 540

Errata, first appearance of, 526

Errors of early books, 540

— typographical, frequency of, 458, 525

Eulogy on Lorenzo Valla, 287

Exercise on the Lord’s Prayer, 222

Fables, Book of, by Pfister, 482

Fables of Lorenzo Valla, 286

Faust John, as described by Junius, 331

Faustus Jo. Frid., testimony of, 478

Finiguerra Maso, 27

Flanders, early importance of, 178

Flemings, their skill in the arts, 178

Flemish block-printing, 215, 252, 314

Florence, early printing at, 503

Form, ambiguity of the word, 397

Formen, 397, 443, 466, 476, 522

Forms of metal, notices of, 387

— melted by Gutenberg, 397

— were probably matrices, 398, 443

Four pieces, the tool of, 398

Fraternity of St. John the Baptist, 314

— of St. Luke, 315

Friction, press-work by, 204

Frisket, early use of, 280

Frotton of engravers on wood, 83

— not used by block-printers, 204

Fust John, conflicting views about, 417

— — death of, 468

— — his suit against Gutenberg, 425

— — his victory over Gutenberg, 430

— — was not Faust, 416

— Conrad, 468

— Jacob, the judge, 428

Fust’s sale of Bible in Paris, 466

Gebwiler, testimony of, 489

Gelthus Adam, tablet of, 446

Gensfleisch John, not a printer, 404

— family of, 377

Gering Ulrich, 505

German Planetarium and Calendar, 241

Germany, its progress in education, 177

— — — in useful arts, 178

Getté en molle, meaning of the term, 313

Goldsmiths as punch-cutters, 514

Gothic character, popularity of, 516

Gothic letters, origin of, 150

— — popularity of, 516

— — varieties of, 406

— — Petrarch’s dislike of, 151

Grotesque Alphabet, the block-book, 227

Guilds of middle ages, 186, 390

— of book-makers, 187

Gutenberg, family of, 376

Gutenberg John, early life of, 377

— as a book-maker, 419

— as a courtier, 440

— as a financier, 379

— as an engraver, 395, 396

— as an inventor, 381, 416, 448

— as an organizer, 389

— books printed by, 433

— careless of fame, 434

— Catholicon of, 435

— courage of, 431

— death of, 442

— experiments of, 402

— memorials of, 446, 447

— partnership of, at Strasburg, 387

— partnership of, at Mentz, 418

— planned the Psalter, 459

— poverty of, 385, 402, 433

— probable marriage of, 379

— supplanted by Schœffer, 430

— trials of, at Strasburg, 379, 380

— — — at Mentz, 425

— unknown work of, 437

Gutenberg’s types, history of, 443

— defense against Fust, 427

— idea of typography, 445

— place in history, 448

Haarlem, first notice of legend of, 327

— known printers at, 319

— neglected printing, 345, 335

Hahn Ulrich, 501

Hanequis Conrad, 468

Hanseatic League, 179

Hasback of Haarlem, 320

Hauman Frederic, 443

Heilmann Anthony, testimony of, 387

Hessels J. H., writings of, 284

Holland, early printing of, 315, 256

— confounded with Netherlands, 316

— not the birthplace of invention, 318

Horarium of Scaliger, 257

— of Adrien Rooman, 260

Horn-book of England, 174

How to Die Becomingly, 235

How to Remember the Evangelists, 233

Humery Conrad, friend to Gutenberg, 431

— — acknowledgment of, 442

Ignorance, prevalence of in dark ages, 45

— of ecclesiastics, 147

Iliad of Homer, the school-book, 287, 288

Illuminated books of middle ages, 152

Illuminators and calligraphers, 166

Impression by different methods, 26

— doubling of, 278

— not typography, 50

— on bricks, 30

Impression on early hand press, 306, 530

— on paper and vellum, 538

— on textile fabrics, 127

Image prints all devotional, 85

— — Annunciation, 72

— — Berlin print, 80

— — Brussels print, 78

— — Indulgence print, 77

— — St. Christopher, 71

— — preceded books, 69

— — how printed, 83

— — made for stenciling, 70

— — merit of, 87

— — not done by friction, 84

— — not made by monks, 86

— — origin of, 69

— — popularity of, 86

— — where made, 82

Impositions of eight pages, 291

Initial letters of Italy, 122, 487

— — of early printers, 516

Inking balls, how made, 529

Inking of printing surfaces, 25

Ink Printing, affected by paper, 532

— — deterioration of, 534

— — early, faults of, 454

— — early, unstableness of, 533

— — inequality of, 532

— — Moxon’s criticism of, 534

— — of Bible of 42 lines, 421

— — of Donatus of Mentz, 404

— — of Jenson, 532

— — of Psalter of Mentz, 456

— — of the block-printers, 203

— — of the Psalter of 1457, 452

— — of the Ripoli press, 533

— — of unknown printer, 270, 278

— — the complement of types, 533

Ink writing, antiquity of, 39

— — useless in printing, 40

Invention, merit of, not in idea, 445, 487

Inventions not the work of experts, 395

Invention of paper in China, 133

Invention of press, not noticed, 304

— — — why neglected, 527

Invention of Printing,

— — — early notices of, 446

— — — a great discovery, 67

— — — came at the right time, 45

— — — different methods of, 28

— — — key of in the type-mould, 67

— — — merit of, not in the idea, 51

— — — — — in the type-mould, 445

— — — not perfect in 1439, 394

— — — probable causes of, 15, 28

— — — waited for readers, 45

— — — version of Bertius, 347

— — — — — Coornhert, 327

— — — — — De Vries, 357

— — — — — Erasmus, 318, 345

— — — — — Guicciardini, 329

— — — — — Jo. Frid. Faustus, 478

— — — — — Junius, 330

— — — — — Koning, 356

— — — — — Meerman, 353, 354

— — — — — Scaliger, 257

— — — — — John Schœffer, 473

— — — — — Scriverius, 348

— — — — — Seiz, 352

— — — — — Trithemius, 445, 474

— — — — — Van Zuren, 328

— — — — — Wimpheling, 393

— — — — — Zell, 315

Invention of printing ink, 40, 331, 533

Inventions of the middle ages, 177

Invention of types, not boasted of, 435

— — — alleged thefts of, 332, 342

Ireland, the book-makers of, 147

Italy, early printers of, 500

— its enthusiasm for the art, 505

Jan, the printer at Antwerp, 314

Janszoon not Janszoon Coster, 356, 368

Japan, paper of, 133

Jenson Nicholas, 465

— — as a type founder, 502

John of Gamundia, calendar of, 241

John of Westphalia, as a publisher, 498

Judgment of Man after Death, 483

Junius Hadrian, sketch of his life, 334

— — credulousness of, 336

— — history of, 335

Kepfer (or Keffer) Henry, 437, 495

Ketel Anthonis, of Haarlem, 320

Ketelaer and De Leempt, 498

Kerver Thielman, of Paris, 506

Keyser Peter, of Paris, 506

Knowledge, acquisition of, difficult, 263

Knowledge a monopoly, 146, 251

Koburger Anthony, of Nuremberg, 495

Koning’s book on the invention, 356

Koster Lourens Janszoon, see Coster.

Labor, division of, by printers, 521

Latin language, why preserved, 147

— — abbreviations of, 164

— — key to all knowledge, 176

Laurecrans of Scriverius, 348

Lead used by Gutenberg, 380

Leads first used by Schœffer, 467

Lecturn of the middle ages, 156

Leeu Gerard, industry of, 500

Legend of Haarlem, 326

— — — began with pedigree, 362

— — — contradictions of, 358

— — — early meagreness of, 328

— — — echo of false history, 340

— — — exposure of, 363

— — — improbability of, 346

— — — unfixed dates of, 350, 357

Legend of Walchius about the sale of first printed books at Paris, 466

Letters engraved, peculiarities of, 262

— — imperfections of, 200

Lettres de somme or Round Gothic, 313

— de forme or Pointed Gothic, 313

Letter of Indulgence of 1461, 433

Letters of Indulgence of 1454, 405

— — — Holbein’s satire on, 407

— — — popularity of, 408

— — — translation of, 409

Libraries, early, neglect of, 159

— in France and Burgundy, 167

Life of St. Meinrat, 246

Literature, decline of in old Rome, 44

— neglect of by the Church, 147

— of popular books, 187

— of the romance books, 165

— revolutionized by printing, 186

— the privilege of a class, 170, 251

Lithography, process of, 20

— invention of, 27

Little Book of the Mass, 284

London, early printing at, 508

Louvain, early printing at, 498

Lyons, early printing at, 506

Making-up badly done, 525

Mansion Colard, of Bruges, 499

Manuscripts, faultiness of, 540

Manutius Aldus, 503

— as an editor, 540

Marco Polo does not notice printing, 120

Marks of notaries, 123

Martens Thierry, 499

Master printers, changes of, 522

Mastery of printing, how acquired, 522

Materials early, imperfections of, 530

Matrices, as described by Trithemius, 475

Matrices of lead, 301, 303, 517

— of copper, 517

— conjoined, 303

— early method of making, 517

— early trade in, 515

— made of soft metal, 302, 475

Matrix, description of, 55

— early use of, 63

Mechanics in middle ages, 178

Medals in honor of Coster, 353, 354

Meerman Gerard, book of, 353

Memorials to Coster, 359

— — Gutenberg, 446, 447

Mendicant friars, 158

Mentel John, memorial to, 488

— — alleged invention of, 489

— — as a printer, 490

— James, 490

Mentz, revolt of burghers at, 377

— capture and sack of, 439

Methods of printing, 18, 317

Mexico, first printers of, 508

Milan, early printing at, 504

Miniaturists of middle ages, 166

Mirror-making in Germany, 391

Mirror of Salvation, 264

Mirror of the Clergy, 436

Mould, modern, description of, 57

— adjustable, notice of, 399, 518

— early, description of, 62

— of Gutenberg, 398, 447

Music, types for, 451, 516

Neglect of early printing, 444

Netherlands, block-printers of, 314, 315

— type-printers of, 281, 323, 498

— block-printing of, 252

Newspapers of old Rome, 44

— — China, 116

Nope Cune, decision of, 388

Nummeister, John, 436, 500

Nuremberg, early printing at, 495

Nuremberg, Chronicle of, 496

Offices of Cicero, 467

Order of King of France to Jenson, 465

Origines Typographicæ, 354

Ornamentation of manuscript books, 152

Painting of printed letters, 456

Palimpsests, 143

Pandects of Justinian, 286

Paper approved by the people, 187

— as made in Japan, 134

— — — in middle ages, 140

— — — in Spain, 139

— came before its time, 143

— disliked by calligraphers, 144

— earliest notices of, 137, 142

— early, badly made, 144

— great price of, 537

— linen and cotton, 138

— made of many qualities, 536

— neglected by copyists, 144, 186

— of early typographic printers, 537

— preceded printing, 41

— preferred to vellum by printers, 538

— selected for block-books, 248

— sizes of, 537

Paper-making, growth of, 141

Paper-marks not a guide to age, 310

— of unknown printer, 308

— why made, 309

Paper-mills, early notices of, 141

Paper money of China, 121

Papillon’s story of the Cunios, 129

Papyrus not fit for printing, 41

Parchment, how made, 538

Paris, reception of printing at, 466

— first printers at, 505

Paul of Prague, testimony of, 486

Peculiarities of Criminal Law, 286

Pedigree of Coster family, 361

— — — — its exposure, 363

— — — — its forgery, 364

— — — — its insufficiency, 363

Pfister Albert, our first knowledge of, 481

— — as a block-printer, 484

— — as an inventor, 484

— Sebastian, 486

Pi-Ching, an early Chinese printer, 112

Pictures came before books, 69

— general fondness for, 182, 249

Pigouchet Phillipe, of Paris, 506

Platen, smallness of, 529

Playing Cards, Chinese, 98

— — date of introduction, 99, 108

— — denounced by clergy, 100

— — early, cost of, 96, 100

— — early forms of, 104

— — early notices of, 91, 95

— — manufacture of, 89

— — of France and Italy, 96, 97

— — of Germany, 91

— — popularity of, 95

— — preceded image prints, 107

— — rudely made, 107

— — strange games of, 101

— — suggestive of printing, 106

Pliny’s notice of portraits in books, 111

Points for making register, 531

Polishing of gems taught by Gutenberg, 390

Pomerium Spirituale, 244

Pope Pius II, treatises of, 287

Presswork, early method of, 529

— alters appearance of types, 300

— as done in China, 114

— daily performance of, 115, 531

— early, in colors, 531

— early practice of, 530

— imperfections of, 529

— of block-books, 248

— of Colard Mansion, 458

— of early type printers, 530

— of Gutenberg, 412, 421, 434

— of Schœffer, 454, 462

— of unknown printer, 305

— on textile fabrics of Italy, 127

— process of, 307

Prices of manuscript books in old Rome, 43

— of medieval books, 169

— of printed books, 512

— paid for printing, 504, 505

Print-coloring, early practice of, 94

Printers, early, activity of, 511

Printers, early names for, 486

— armorial shield of, 488

— at Mentz before 1500, 493

— earliest in Germany, 493

— — — Central Europe, 493

— — — Great Britain, 507

— — — France, 505

— — — Italy, 500

— — — New World, 508

— — — Spain, etc, 507

Printing, ambiguity of the word, 17, 315

— aided by painting, 456

— by friction, 83

— — — difficulties of, 204

— Chinese method of, 115

— depends on other aids, 47

— derivation of from China, 120

— different methods of, 18

— early, in Netherlands, 314

— early prejudices against, 450, 510

— from engraved stamps, 37

— German origin of, 508

— in clay, 34

— not always economical, 190

— not generally welcomed, 510

— of Psalter of 1457, 452

— on one side, reason of, 248, 291

— on textile fabrics, 128

— permanence of the art, 541

— benefit from, 541

— waited for readers, 172, 191

— with a brush, 115

Printing Press, construction of, 528

— — Lignamine’s notice of, 530

— — operation of, 529

Printing Presses, cost of, 498

Proof-planer, use of, 84

Proof-reading, early notice of, 469

— how done, 539

Psalter of 1457, beauty of, 452

— — — colophon of, 459

— — — editions of, 460

— — — the designer of, 459

Publishers of old Rome, 43

— in Italy, 505

Punch, description of, 55

Punch-cutters were goldsmiths, 514

Punch-cutting not done by printers, 514

— importance of, 54

Punches of steel, 517

— of wood, 301

— of Gutenberg, 435

Quadrats, substitutes for, 280

— proper use of, 305

Quintilian’s notice of stencils, 36

Rationale Durandi, 460

Register, means used for making, 531

— of colors, how done, 456, 531

— — — in Psalter of 1457, 458

Register of pages, early, how done, 531

Registrum chartarum, 526

Reimboldt, testimony of, 386

Religious dissensions, 180

Ripoli Press at Florence, 503

— — materials used by, 66, 533

Rome, early printing at, 501

Rooman Gillis and Adrien, 320

Rubricated books of middle ages, 152

— — of early printers, 531

Sahspach Conrad, testimony of, 384

Sand moulds, 301, 518

Savage on the Psalter of 1457, 456

Scaliger J. J., about Horarium, 257

Schœffer Peter, as a copyist, 449

— as a judge, 471

— as a printer, 458

— as a punch-cutter, 461, 470

— as a trader, 470

— as a type-founder, 461

— as an inventor, 469, 477

— borrows a book, 468

— descendants of, 494

— false claims of, 469, 472

— memory of, neglected, 477

— pupil of Gutenberg, 450

— succeeds Gutenberg, 430

— vanity of, 469

Schœffer John, testimony of, 473

Schoepflin Daniel, 353

Schott John, claims of, 488

School books of middle ages, 187

Schools of the middle ages, 177

Schultheiss Hans, testimony of, 384

Scriptorium of monasteries, 148

Scriverius Peter, 348

Secrets of printing stolen, 332, 342

Section, definition of term, 212

Seiz and his book, 350

Senefelder Alois, the lithographer, 27

Sensenschmidt John, 495

Seven Penitential Psalms, 285

Sewing of books, 154

Sidenneger Hans, testimony of, 384

Signatures, early use of, 526

Spacing out of lines, 291, 526

Specklin Daniel, 489

Speculum Salutis, a Dutch book, 275

— — as noticed by Junius, 331

— — blocks of destroyed, 280

— — description of, 264

— — translation of, 311

— — editions of, 269

— — its workmanship, 270

— — not an experiment, 282

— — printed from types, 274

— — probably printed at Utrecht, 311

— — teachings of the book, 267

— — variable letters of, 273

— — when printed, 311

Spira John de, of Venice, 501

Spyess Wygand, 441

Stamping of single letters, 126

— on textile fabrics, 127

Stamps of Babylon and Assyria, 30

— — copyists, 125

— — Egypt, 32

— — middle ages, 38

— — Romans, 37

— — printers of textile fabrics, 127

Stationers of Paris, 160

St. Bridget, print of, 74

St. Christopher, print of, 70

Steel-plate printing, process of, 18

Steinbach Thomas, testimony of, 385

Stencil-plates of old Romans, 93

— of card-makers, 94

Stereotype moulds, 300

Stereotyping, its advantages, 24

Stick of early compositors, 523

Stocker Mydehart, testimony of, 384

Story of the Blessed Virgin, 219

Strasburg, early printing at, 490, 494

St. Thomas of Aquinas, book of, 468

Suabia, abode of early engravers, 75

Surfaces, varieties of in printing, 18

Sweinheym and Pannartz, 501

Temptations of the Devil, 245

Thomaszoon Gerrit, 361, 367

Title-page, first appearance of, 526

Tool of four pieces, mysterious, 384

— — — — not a press, 397

— — — — not types nor pages, 398

— — — — probably a mould, 399

Torquemada on Health of Soul, 287

Torresani Andrew, 503

Trade-marks of middle ages, 124

Trades early, secrecy of, 390

Transferring, by Chinese method, 112

Transferring, process of, 276

Treatise on Celebration of Mass, 436

— on Love, 287

— on Necessity of Councils, 436

— on Reason and Conscience, 437

Trial of Gutenberg at Strasburg, 380

Trial of Gutenberg at Mentz, 425

Trithemius, testimony of, 474

Two pages printed in one form, 270

Tympan of hand press, 307

Type-casting, as done in 1564, 62

— as done in 1683, 59

— modern, by machine, 58

— slowness of hand-work, 60

Type-founding, relation of Trithemius, 474

— — of Faustus, 478

— an art of slow growth, 516

— in sand moulds, 301

— as done by Didot, 302

— as done by Franklin, 303

— by novices, 324, 517

— early notices of, 435, 459

Type-making a secret art, 61

— in China, 113, 118

Type-metal, ingredients of, 66, 519

Type-mould, the key to the invention, 67

Type-mould, adjustable, 399, 519

— made by goldsmiths, 514

— of early printers, 59, 517

— of Garamond, 399

— of Gutenberg, 401

— of sand, 300

Types of wood, Junius’s description of, 339

— — — as made in Japan, 53

Types of wood, experimental, 479, 489

— — — De la Borde’s theory of, 295

— — — limitations of, 53

— — — Specklin’s description of, 489

— as made by Conrad Winters, 520

— Chinese, early forms of, 112

— — modern — —, 117

— early, cast and not cut, 298, 476

— early faces of, 515

— early speculations about, 36

— engraved, impracticable, 53, 295

— Gothic, popularity of, 516

— how made, 521

— of Jenson, 502

— made by one method only, 53

— made in sand moulds, 301

— must be accurate, 52

— not made with system, 518

— of brass, notices of, 65

— of glass, 487

— of Gutenberg, 443

— of lead, as made by Blades, 300

— — — — — — Coster, 339

— of porcelain, 112

— of Schœffer, 470

— quantity of usually cast, 521

— smallest sizes in 15th century, 518

— unknown printer, 284

— variations of form explained, 298

Typography, advantages of, 23, 26

— cheapness of method, 23

— Chinese method of, 113

— claimants of invention, 27

— depends on other aids, 47

— erroneous ideas about, 49

— is a science, 375

— not fruit of engraving, 395

— period of its invention, 27

— why it was delayed, 39

Typothetæ, arms of, 488

Uneven spacing in early printing, 451

University of Paris, 160

Unknown printer of Netherlands, 282

— — period of, 325

Unknown printer, workmanship of, 324

Utrecht, early printing of, 498

— Speculum traced to, 311

Valdarfer Christopher, 505

Van der Linde’s Haarlem Legend, 11

— — — exposure of fraud, 374

Van Eyck Hubert, 41

Veldener John, 280, 281, 498

Vellum, how made, 538

— early scarcity of, 164

— not suitable for printing, 41, 538

Venice, early printing in, 501

— famous for printing, 503

— playing cards of, 89

— relations of with China, 120

— the school of typography, 503

Verard of Paris, 506

Vindiciæ Typographicæ, 353

Vocabularium ex quo, 441

Von Bischoviszheim, testimony of, 387

Von Seckingen, testimony of, 387

Von Zabern Barbel, testimony of, 383

Weidenbach, printing at, 495

William of Saliceto, Treatise of, 287

Wimpheling, testimony of, 393

Winaricky’s book on Gutenberg, 378

Wine-flagons of Coster, 340

Witnesses on trial at Strasburg, 388

Wittig Ivo, tablet of, 447

Witty Speeches of Great Men, 286

Wonders of Rome, the block-book, 243

Wood-cuts, early, merit of, 68

— difficult to print with types, 278

— dissimilarities of, 206, 239

— early, designed by artists, 227

— later, inferiority of, 536

— liability to warp, 535

— mutilations of, 207, 219, 280

— neglected by early printers, 535

— not printed with types, 271

Wood types, impracticability of, 295

— — Enschedé’s remarks on, 297

— — experiments with, 295

Wood used by early engravers, 203

Xylography, limitations of, 26, 263

— Chinese method of, 114

— first method of, 317

— not applicable to books, 263

— not Gutenberg’s art, 396

— not practised at Haarlem, 320

Zainer Gunther, 497

Zappe Paul, the ambassador, 407

Zarot Anthony, 504

Zell Ulric, about the Donatus, 315, 256

— — as a printer, 494

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

Page 24. In the second line of foot-note, change two-thirds to four-ninths.

27. The exact date of the complete invention of copper-plate printing is unfixed. Vasari says that Finiguerra’s discovery was made in 1450, but that the Italian practice of making plate prints began about 1460. It is obvious that the alleged discovery in 1450 of the fact that the blacking placed in incised lines could be transferred to paper by pressure was not the complete invention of copper-plate printing. Much more had to be done. The earliest dated Italian print by this method is of the year 1465. The earliest authentic German print is dated 1446. There are others attributed to the years 1422, 1430, 1440, but they are not accepted as genuine by Passavant. See Peintre-Graveur, vol. I, pp. 192–197. Senefelder’s first suggestion of lithography was entertained in 1796, but his vague notions about printing from stone did not assume a practical shape before 1798. He did not receive, and perhaps was not entitled to, his patent before 1800.

34. The exact size of the Assyrian cylinder illustrated on this page is seven inches high and three inches wide at each end.

64. On page 447, the date of the erection of this stone by Wittig is put down at 1508, which is the date given by Bernard and by many others. But Wetter, from whose book this statement was taken, knowing that Wittig was dead in 1507, altered the date to 1507. Helbig does not accept either date. He thinks that it should be 1504. Notes et dissertations, pp. 10, 11.

65. In foot-note, change exculptis to exsculptis.

77. I have followed De la Borde’s translation of this indulgence, which makes the time seventeen thousand years, but Holtrop’s translation is fourteen thousand years. The popes supposed to be associated with Gregory in the promulgation of this indulgence were the Anti-pope Benedict XIII at Avignon, and Pope John XXIII. Holtrop does not regard this as a print of 1418; he places it between 1455 and 1470.

82. It is possible that engraving on wood was done in England in the first half of the fifteenth century. Ottley, in his Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing, page 198, describes an English print of the crucifixion, with legend in English, which he says may be as old as the St. Christopher. This is the legend: “Seynt Gregor. with oyer [other] popes & bysshoppes yn seer, Haue graunted of pardon XXVI. mill yeer. To yeym yat befor yis fygur on yeir knees Devoutly say .v. pater noster .&.v. Auees.” Weigel has given other fac-similes of early English engraving.

96. Chatto says that Gringonneur was paid 56 sols about 1393. Passavant says 50 sols. Lacroix says 1392, and estimates the value of 56 sols in modern money at 180 francs.

98. In third line of second paragraph, change fifteenth to fourteenth.

104. In third line of foot-note, change printers to painters.

111. In foot-note, last line of small type, change chap. I to chap. II.

150. Change John I, 3, to John III, 1.

150. Lacroix gives the date of 1292 for the employment of the seventeen book-binders at the University of Paris.

177. In sixth line of note, change 1435 to 1430, and the word double to thrice.

180. In eleventh line, change 1385 to 1381.

218. The date of the termination of the Great Schism is usually put at 1447, but it was not fully ended until Pope Felix V abdicated the papal chair in 1449, and ordered the church to submit to Nicholas V.

250. Passavant (vol. I, p. 50) says that there is in the library at Heidelberg a copy of a xylographic edition of the Lord’s Prayer, a block-book of ten leaves, which may be attributed to the fifteenth century.

299. In last line but two of note, change 380 to 280.

319. Holtrop says that Bellaert’s name is first mentioned in 1485, as it appears in the fac-simile.

378. A document has been recently discovered at Strasburg which proves that Frielo Gensfleisch, the elder brother of John Gutenberg, was in Strasburg in 1429. This document is the signature of Frielo to a receipt for 26 florins due him on an annuity. See Book Worm for January, 1868.

397. It is not probable that this tool of four pieces was the press. Ottley, who thinks that Gutenberg’s secret was not that of printing (Inquiry concerning Invention, p. 41), says, “there can be no doubt that presses of different kinds were known long before the invention of typography” (p. 37), and that “five of the witnesses, none of whom were partners, knew all about the press” (p. 40). It may also be added that the repetition by different witnesses of the order to separate the four pieces and put them in a disjointed form in the press or on or under the press, is evidence that the four pieces did not constitute the press nor any part of it. Nor can it be supposed that Gutenberg had sent to his home a bulky press to have, as has been asserted, its “joinings renewed.” This work should have been done by Sahspach, the joiner who built it. Although I believe that Gutenberg afterward invented the printing press, I think that the press here mentioned was nothing more than the screw press of the carpenter—the wooden vise or press of a workman who needed it when using a file. A printing press would not be needed until the types were made, which it appears were not even then ready. The fact that Gutenberg, Dritzehen, Dünne, and Sahspach worked apart is proof that the proposed printing office was not furnished—that the men were making tools, and the tools were probably moulds and matrices. I have accepted Van der Linde’s translation of zurlossen as melting, for it is warranted by many evidences that the tool of four pieces and the formen were of metal. Ottley’s translation, making zurlossen mean a loosening or unjointing, or breaking-up, with a view to renewal or reconstruction, could also be accepted.

405. Bernard questions the accuracy of the date of the Donatus of 1451, but it is the belief of Fischer and of many others that it was printed in 1451.

412. In the last line of text, insert the word not before always.

413. Compare the spacing in the Bibles of Gutenberg with that of the Psalter of 1457, as shown in pages 453 and 455. In Gutenberg’s Bibles, there are some evidences of attempts to keep the lines even; in the Psalter, the nicety of full lines or of even spacing was disregarded.

451. Madden admits that Schœffer was a copyist at Paris, but doubts the inference that he was a student of the University. His doubt seems to be based on the faulty Latin of the colophon.

455. I am not entirely satisfied with the fac-simile of types on this page. It is a copy of the fac-simile made by Falkenstein, the only one accessible to me of the edition of 1457. It is, no doubt, a correct representation of form and of general appearance, but the outlines of the letters are suspiciously sharp. They do not accord in this feature with the types shown on page 453. In Falkenstein’s fac-simile, the ornamental work about the letter P is a dull bluish purple, so made by printing deep blue over lines previously printed in dull red. I have not attempted to imitate this dull purple color (of which I find no notice save in the book of Papillon), for I believe that this use of purple was exceptional. It was probably caused by an imperfect cleansing of the red block, the after application of the blue and the mixing on the block of both colors, forming a dull purple.

465. Madden doubts the genuineness of the record of the proposed mission of Jenson to Mentz.

467. I have accepted the statement of Bernard that leads were first used in 1465 in the Offices of Cicero, but a re-examination of the fac-simile in Sotheby’s Typography (No. 90) of the Treatise on Reason and Conscience convinces me that the types of this work were leaded. As Gutenberg abandoned printing in 1465, it is probable that the Treatise is really older than the Offices. If so, Gutenberg was the first to use leads.

498. Many bibliographers regard Martens as the predecessor of John of Westphalia, and as a graduate of one of the typographical schools at Cologne. Holtrop thinks that Martens was the pupil of John of Westphalia, his corrector and associate, but not his partner or predecessor.

506. La Caille and Santander say that Gering died in 1510; Van der Meersch says 1520.

529. The weakness of the early press is abundantly proved by the smallness of the forms and the absence of large and black wood-cuts in all books printed before 1800. The inability of the hand-press (even when made of iron, as it was in 1824) is set forth by Johnson in his Typographia, vol. II, p. 548. It is there stated that an engraver who had been at work for three years on a wood-cut 11 1 ⁄ 2 by 15 inches, was dismayed by the discovery, after a fair trial, that his block was too large to be properly printed on any variety of English press then in common use. The Clymer press, just introduced, was then tested. By lengthening the bar, and getting two men to pull, a few fair impressions were obtained, but the block soon broke under pressure. This wood-cut was only about half the size of the two-page cuts which are now regularly and easily printed for the popular illustrated papers on machines at the rate of 1,000 an hour.

530. The most admirable feature of the best early printing is its simplicity. The types were uncouth, but they were made with single purpose, to be easily read, not to show the skill of the punch-cutter. This object would have been fully accomplished if the compositor had refrained from abbreviations and had spaced his words with intelligence. The pressman did his part of the work fairly, and honestly impressed the types on the paper with unexceptionable firmness and solidity. The readable method of doing presswork is, unfortunately, out of fashion. A perverted taste requires the modern printer to use thin types, dry glossy paper, as little ink and as weak an impression as is consistent with passable legibility. This general fondness for delicacy is not at all favorable to the production of readable books.

ENDNOTES, quondam FOOT-NOTES.

Assurbanipal, the great king, the powerful king, king of nations, king of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria; according to the documents and old tablets of Assyria, and Sumri and Akkadi, this tablet in the collection of tablets I wrote, I studied, I explained, and for the inspection of my kingdom within my palace I placed. Whoever my written records defaces, and his own records shall write, may Nabu all the written tablets of his records deface.

Mr. Smith of the British Museum is translating some of these tablets.

He who fancies that a number of solid and invisible bodies could be kept together by weight [gravitation?], and that a world full of order and beauty could be formed by their accidental juxtaposition—from such a man I cannot understand why he should not also believe that if he threw together, pell-mell, a great number of the twenty-one letters, either of gold or of some other material, the Annals of Ennius could be legibly put together from the forms scattered on the ground. De Natura Deorum, book II, chap. 20.

This is, perhaps, the most curious and interesting series of cuts, exhibiting the various ranks and employments of men, that ever was published. Among the higher orders . . . . . . are the Pope, Emperor, King, Princes, Nobles, Priests and Lawyers; while almost every branch of labor or trade then known in Germany, from agriculture to pin-making, has its representative. There are also not a few which it would be difficult to reduce to any distinct class, as they are neither trades nor honest professions. Of these heteroclytes is the Meretricum procurator, or, as Captain Dugald Dalgetty says, the captain of the queans. Jackson and Chatto, A Treatise on Wood Engraving, p. 409.

Jost Amman was one of the many famous German designers on wood. The publishers of Nuremberg and Frankfort esteemed his ability highly and gave him constant employment.

According to the legend, it was the occupation of Saint Christopher to carry people across the stream on the banks of which he lived. He is accordingly represented as a man of gigantic stature and strength. One evening a child presented himself to be carried over the stream. At first his weight was what might be expected from his infant years; but presently it began to increase, and kept increasing, until the ferryman staggered under his burden. Then the child said, “Wonder not, my friend; I am Jesus, and you have the weight of the sins of the whole world on your back.” St. Christopher was thus regarded as a symbol of the church.

It would be improper to omit the notice of a new invention. We have been accustomed to preserve in our libraries, in gold, silver, or bronze, the personages whose immortal spirits speak to us from distances of leagues and centuries. We create statues of those who are no longer living. Our regrets invest them with features which have not been given to us by tradition, as, for example, is shown in the bust of Homer. The idea of making a collection of these portraits is due to Asinius Pollio, who was the first to throw open his library, and to make these men of genius the property of the public. That the love for portraits has always existed is sufficiently proven by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who published a book on the subject, and also by Marcus Varro, who had the enlarged idea of inserting in his numerous books not only the names, but, by the aid of a certain invention, the images of seven hundred illustrious persons. Varro wished to save their features from oblivion, so that the length of centuries would not prevail against them. As the inventor of a benefit which will fill even the gods with jealousy, he has clothed these persons with immortality. He has made them known over the wide world, so that everywhere one can see them as if they were present. Pliny, book XXXV, chap. I. [anc111]

This invention has never been clearly explained. A new invention, which exhibited in books the features of seven hundred men, which multiplied them so that they were known over the wide world, and preserved them for posterity, should have been the invention of printing. Pliny speaks of it as a well-known fact, but no other writer of his age makes any mention of it. Why did not Pliny describe the new art instead of praising it?

He transferred the bark of the mulberry-tree into something resembling sheets of paper, and these into money, which cost him nothing at all: so that you might say he had the secret of alchemy to perfection. And these pieces of paper he made to pass current universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and whithersoever his power and sovereignty extended. And nobody, however important he thought himself, durst refuse them on pain of death. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian. Translated and edited by Henry Vale, London, 1871.

With all his power, the Great Khan met the fate which comes to every financier who tries to fill up a depleted treasury by the issue of paper money. In a very short time the notes were worth but one-half of their original value. But the Emperor was equal to the emergency: when the notes fell to one-fifth of the nominal value, he called them in, and exchanged five old for one new note of the same denomination.

His writing is not labored and tortured. It is suitable for our age, and, indeed, for all ages. Young people, always giddy, admirers of frivolity, despisers of useful things, have adopted the fashion of writing in bristling and undecipherable letters, of which accomplishment they are very proud. To me, these medleys and jumbles of angled letters, riding one on another, make nothing but a mess of confusion which the writer himself must read with difficulty. Whoever buys work of this character, buys not a book, but an unreadable farrago of letters.

(The text as printed.)

(With words in full.)

Sicut hic est fal­la­cia se­cun­dum quid ad sim­pli­ci­ter. A est pro­duc­i­bile a Deo. Ergo A est. Et sim­i­li­ter hic. A non est. Er­go A non est pro­du­ci­bile a Deo.

In 1498, John Petit, of Paris, published a dictionary which professed to be A Guide to the Reading of Abbreviations. It was not published too soon, for the practice of making contractions had increased to such an extent that books with abbreviations were legible only to experts.

To Jacques Plastel, for sketching the designs for forty-eight pictures, 45 livres; to Jehan Pichou, illuminator, for coloring the designs, 80 livres; to workmen of Jehan Pichou, 50 sols, and for vin du marché (in colloquial English, treating or drink money) with illuminator Pichou, 24 sols; to Jean de Béguines, priest, for engraving the ballads, 12 livres; to Guy-le-Flamenc, for illuminating the large initial letters, 13 livres, 3 sols; for vellum, 3 livres, 12 sols; for the binding, expenses of presentation to Louise of Savoy, and the journey to Amboise, 68 livres, 8 sols. Sum total, 366 livres. Lacroix, Histoire de l’imprimerie, p. 47.

Whereas our mother tongue, to wit, the English language, hath in modern days begun to be honorably enlarged and adorned, for that our most excellent King Henry V hath, in his letters missive, and in divers affairs, touching his own person, more willingly chosen to declare the secrets of his will; and, for the better understanding of the people, hath, with a diligent mind, procured the common idiom, setting aside others, to be commended by the exercise of writing; and there are many of our craft of brewers who have the knowledge of writing and reading in the same English idiom, but in others, to wit, the Latin and French, before these times used, they do not in any wise understand; for which causes, with many others, it being considered how that the greater part of the lords and trusty commons have begun to make their matters to be noted down in our mother tongue, so we also, in our own craft, following in some manner their steps, have decreed in future to commit to memory the needful things which concern us.

The third estate of man is that of such as are not free; and these are not all of one condition, for some are so subject to their lord, that he may take all they have, alive or dead, and imprison them whenever he pleases, being accountable to none but God; from others the lord can take nothing but the customary payments, though at their death all they have escheats to him.

Except the Waldensian translation in the Provençal language, this version is, consequently, the most ancient in existence, in the vernacular, and must have preceded by a century the versions of Raoul de Presles, of John Trevisa or the Hermit of Hampole. . . . . . The British Museum had another manuscript in prose, of parts of a Bible in Flemish, written in the fifteenth century. It is part of a translation made in the early part of the fourteenth century, and was the text used for the Bible printed in Delft in 1477. Sotheby, Principia Typographica, vol. III, p. 123.

The British Museum has, also, a manuscript in Flemish of five books of the Old Testament, made in the fourteenth century.

No small multitude of laymen and women, having procured the translation of the Gospels, Epistles of St. Paul, the Psalter, Job and other books of Scripture to be made for them into French, meet in secret conventicles to hear them read and to preach to each other, and having been reprimanded for this by some of their parish priests, have withstood them, alleging reasons from the Scriptures why they should not be so forbidden. Some of them, too, deride the ignorance of their ministers, and maintain that their own books teach them more than they can learn from the pulpit, and that they can express it better. Although, Innocent proceeds, the desire of reading the Scriptures is rather praiseworthy than reprehensible, yet they are to be blamed for frequenting secret assemblies, for usurping the office of preaching, for deriding their own ministers, and for scorning the company of those who do not concur in their novelties. He presses the bishop and chapter to discover the author of this translation, which could not have been made without a knowledge of letters. He wished to know what were his intentions, and what degree of orthodoxy and respect for the holy see those who used it possessed. In another letter Innocent complains that some of the members of this association continued refractory, and refused to obey either the bishop or the pope. Hallam, Middle Ages.

The misery and unhappiness which at this period more than any other visited the nations of the West, increased more and more the ascetic views on the subject of death. The great aims and ideas of medieval life had passed away, and the ideas of the new period were now fast beginning to form themselves. . . . . Licentiousness prevailed in all lands; immoderate festivity and boundless excesses of sensuality gained more and more the upper hand. . . . . Upon this life of self-will and self-indulgence, of riot and revelry, the terrors of death burst all the more fearfully. In addition to the constant wars, the acts of violence and the shedding of blood which prevailed among men, we find the most various alarms in nature. Famine and desolating pestilences, and in the middle of the fourteenth century the Black Death, made their fearful and triumphal progress through Europe. To escape the dread and thought of this misery, men gave themselves up on the one side all the more passionately to the intoxication of the senses; but on the other they believed themselves struck by the vengeance of God, and sought for safety in contrition and repentance, which often led them into the most repulsive forms of ecstasy. But the most forcible sermons exhorting to repentance, the sermons that spoke to the people in the most intelligible form, were the figurative representations which proclaimed the almighty power of death. Holbein and his Time (Bunnèt’s translation), p. 248.

2. An edition in German, of forty pages, by Friedrich Walther and Hans Hürning, at Nordlingen, 1470.

3. An edition in German, attributed to Sporer, at Erfurth, in 1475.

Willet copy, 1813 245 guineas.

Inglis copy, 1826 36l. 15s.

Willet copy, 1833 36l. 15s.

Lucca copy, 1848 89l. 5s.

Stevens copy, 1849 11l. 12s.

Sykes copy, 1824 18l. 17s. 6d.

Rendorp copy, 1825 17l. 8s. 6d.

Devonshire copy, 1815 210l.

Gaignat copy 300 francs.

La Vallière copy 800 francs.

Crevenna copy 510 florins.

Wilks copy, 1847 74l.

Brienne-Laire copy 600 francs.

Lang copy, 1828 45l.

Verdussen copy 240 florins.

Corser copy, 1873 (Quaritch) 550l.

Inglis copy 47l. 5s.

British Museum copy, 1845 160l.

Quaritch’s, 1873 200l.

Stowe copy, 1849 91l.

Antichrist is born in Babylon. He yields himself to lust of women at Bethsaida. He is circumcised, and announces himself as the Messiah. He is instructed in magic and all sorts of evil. Elias and Enoch come down from Heaven and preach against him. Antichrist deceives the world by superior eloquence; he performs miracles; his apostles preach to the kings of Lybia and Ethiopia, and “the queen of the Amazons, and the Red Jews.” All the kings of the world are converted to Antichrist; he condemns unbelievers to strange tortures; he kills Elias and Enoch. He repeats the history of the resurrection; he bids the whole world witness his ascent to Heaven from the Mount of Olives. The Almighty then gives the order—“Michael, strike him dead; I will no longer bear with the unjust.” Antichrist is carried to Hell, where he is received by the Devil and his allies. Antichrist being dead, princes and people become Christians, and there is only one faith. But the people fear the Day of Judgment. These are some of the signs of the great and terrible day: The sea shall rise forty ells above the mountains; it shall then sink away and vanish. The sea shall burn. Trees and plants shall sweat blood. There will be earthquakes. Buildings and trees shall fall down in hopeless ruin. Stones shall fly up in the air. Wild beasts grow tame with fright, and run to men for help. The dead arise. Stars fall from Heaven. Heaven and earth are burnt up and chaos comes again. At this point the imagination of the designer was exhausted: he had done his best. The page following, which should have been filled with an illustration, is judiciously left blank. The last engraving is that of the resurrection of the blessed.

Antichrist is instructed by adepts, who teach him to make gold, the art of magic, and all sorts of evil. And this takes place at the city named Corosaym. And this stands also written in the Compendium Theologiæ. And our Lord curses the said city in his gospel, and says thus: “Woe to thee, Corosaym!”

Here, we see Antichrist goes from Capernaum to Jerusalem, and he there announces himself as holy. And hereof is also written in the book Compendium Theologiæ. And our Lord, in the gospel, also curses this city, and speaks thus concerning it: “Woe to thee, Capernaum!”

In Belgium it is still continued, and, I believe, also in France, Germany and Italy. The figures, however, are not generally impressions from wood blocks, but are, for the most part, wholly executed by means of stencils. One of the latter class, representing the shrine of Notre Dame de Hal, colored in the most wretched taste with brick-dust red and shining green, is now lying before me. It was given to a gentleman who visited Halle, near Brussels, in 1829. It is nearly of the same size as many of the old devotional wood-cuts of Germany, being about four inches high by two and three-quarters wide. Treatise on Wood Engraving, pp. 57, 58.

The amusing insolence manifested by authors, scholars and readers toward the early development of literature in any new field, or by a new method, is a subject that could be amply illustrated. The city of New-York furnishes a comparatively recent example in the field of journalism. The daily newspapers of 1835, which were then sold for six cents each, refused to recognize the rightful existence of the new daily then sold for one cent. So strong a prejudice was created against “the penny paper,” that many timid men were afraid to be seen with the despised sheet in their hands: the six-penny papers were respectable, and the penny paper was vulgar. The same contemptuousness was manifested when duodecimos supplanted the folios and quartos—when books bound in cloth took the place of books bound in leather. The despised forms of printing have had their revenge. The rod of Aaron has swallowed its rivals.

I look with melancholy respect at an Abecedarium, a little octavo of four leaves, Il Sillabario, printed in our time in 1862, at Asti. Beneath the heading, Jesus Maria, the Alphabet follows, and after that the Pater noster, Ave, and Credo. Beside the Sillabario, I have a little grammar entitled Donato ad uso delle scuolle secondarie. Nuova editione accresciuta e riformata. Pinerola, &c., 1865. . . . The esteem in which these Catholic school-books, those foul springs from which, for instance, Erasmus drew the first elements of Latin, were held, was so great that the first efforts of the humanists to improve them were regarded as heresy, and heaven and earth were moved against such dangerous destroyers. . . . Donatuses were printed in every place where schools were established, and where the art of printing was introduced. The Haarlem Legend, p. 3.

The book was written for the instruction of the traveling mendicant friars who had, since the thirteenth century, gradually monopolized preaching and the pastoral work of the settled clergy. Provided with nothing but a little Church Latin, and therefore too ignorant to derive their discourses from original sources, they felt the want of homiletic and catechetical assistance as an aid to their understanding and memory. Picture books, with a brief explanatory text, were the best means of supplying this want. Hence originated representations of the mystic relation between the Old and the New Testament, of which the Biblia Pauperum is the first fruit. Van der Linde, Haarlem Legend, p. 3.

“I have exercised printing for about fifty years, and I have cut letters and figures for my father’s and my own printing office in wood of palm, pear, and medlar trees; I have now been a type-founder for upwards of thirty years; but to do such things as those learned gentlemen [Junius and Meerman] pretend that Laurens Coster and his heirs have done, neither I nor Papillon [the most clever wood-engraver of France] are able to understand, nor the artists Albrecht Durer, De Gray, and Iz. Van der Vinne either; but such learned men who dream about wooden movable letters make Laurens Janzoon Coster use witchcraft, for the hands of men are not able to do it. To print a book with capitals of the size of a thumb, as on placards, House and Ground, which are cut in wood, and which I have cut myself by hundreds, would be ridiculous; to do it with wooden letters of the size of a pin’s head is impossible. I have made experiments with a few of a somewhat larger size. I made a wooden slip of Text Corpus [a body about the size of Long-primer], and drew the letters on the wood or slip; thereupon I cut the letters. I had left a space of about the size of a saw between each letter on purpose, and I had no want of fine and good tools; the only question now was to saw the letters mathematically square off the slip. I used a very fine little saw, made of a very thin spring of English steel, so cleverly made that I doubt whether our Laurens Janszoon had a saw half as good; I did all I could to saw the letters straight and parallel, but it was impossible; there was not a single letter which could stand the test of being mathematically square. What now to do? It was impossible to polish or file them. I tried it, but it could not be done by our type-founder’s whetstones, as it would have injured the letters. In short, I saw no chance, and I feel sure that no engraver is able to cut separate letters in wood, in such a manner that they retain their quadrature, for that is the most important part of the work of type-casting. If, however, I wished to give my trouble and time to it, I should be able to execute the three words, Spiegel onzer Behoudinis, better than the Rotterdam artist has done in the Latin works of M. Meerman; but it is impossible, ridiculous, and merely chimerical, to print books in this manner.” Van der Linde, Haarlem Legend, pp. 72, 73.

“Our printing house often wanted sorts, and there was no letter-foundry in America; I had seen types cast at James’s in London, but without much attention to the matter; however, I contrived a mould, and made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all deficiencies. I also engraved several things on occasion; made the ink; I was warehouse-man, and, in short, quite a factotum.”

“This forgetfulness of Coornhert has always seemed to me one of the most striking peculiarities of the Haarlem legend. How can it be! Here is a man, very learned, very patriotic, who appreciates the importance of the discovery, who contends with zeal to establish for his country the honor of being the cradle of the greatest of modern inventions. He knows the name, the family name and the family of the inventor, and he does not divulge them to his fellow-citizens! This surpasses belief. And what shall we say of the burgomaster Van Zuren? He writes a special treatise to retrieve the glory of the invention to the honor of the city of which he is a magistrate, but it never occurs to him that he should honor the memory of the inventor—I will not say by a monument of some kind, for that might be demanding altogether too much—but at least by a mention, by some souvenir, by giving his name to some street, or still less, by a simple record in a book. It is not possible to find another example of a forgetfulness so incredible.” C. Ruelens, Bibliophile Belge, vol. III, 1868.

The accusation of unfair practice, is frequently made by men who have been defeated in a fair contest. Whenever such an accusation is accompanied, as it was in this instance, with dramatic details, it effects a lodgment in the popular belief, from which it is not easily removed. Junius was not the first, nor the last, to use this discreditable but effective method of making-up a case. There is an old French record which narrates how Nicholas Jenson was sent from Paris to Mentz in the year 1458 to get a knowledge of the German invention. Jenson did acquire this knowledge, and became an eminent printer. His detractors say that he stole the secret; his eulogists say that he learned nothing, that he was the real inventor.—The story of Richard Atkyns about the English theft is too full of absurdities for criticism.—Sometime between 1520 and 1570, Daniel Specklin wrote a chronicle of Strasburg, in which he relates that printing was invented at that city in the year 1440, by John Mentel; that Mentel’s unfaithful servant, one John Gensfleisch, stole the secret, not the punches, and took it to Mentz.—There is a popular legend in Italy that Pamphilo Castaldi invented printing types at Feltre in the year 1450; that John Fust, who happened to be in the town, abstracted the knowledge of the invention, carried it to Mentz, and arrogated all the honors of the rightful inventor.

The most amusing imitation was that of an amateur artist of the last century, C. Van den Berg, who wished to play the collector J. Marcus a trick. He engraved a small wood-cut after the portrait of Van Campen, with the name Laur’ Jassoe, in old-fashioned style, underneath. With a little soot and dirt, he gave the copies an antique appearance, and made Marcus happy for a few weeks. The poet Langendijk, the type-founder Enschedé, and other amateurs, each got a copy. Van den Berg was too honest to mean anything more than fun; he told afterward to Marcus himself the value of that antique wood-cut. Although every investigator could and ought to have known these things, yet Jacobus Koning was bold enough, in the second nomenclature of his collection of rare books and manuscripts, to describe a copy of this portrait as “printed by, or at the time of, Lourens Janszoon Koster.” . . . . . . The Haarlem painter L. Van der Vinne, in his youth, painted, in the beginning of the former century, a study, after a drawing of Van Campen. But lo! in 1762, this picture is offered for sale by Van Damme at Amsterdam (the same who produced the false inscriptions respecting the imaginary Corsellis of Oxford), provided at the back with a very old inscription, Lours Jans to Harlem MCCCCXXXIII, and the monogram A O, which was explained to mean Albert Van Oudewater. Excellent discovery! Here was a genuine contemporaneous portrait by a painter of the fifteenth century! A trifle, however, was wanted to make the joy perfect. Albert Van Oudewater, who had painted the celebrated inventor of printing in 1433, was born in 1444! This history is full of despairing irony from beginning to end. Just as the sheriff Lourens Janszoon invents the art of printing after his death; just as Cornelis works at Donatuses before his birth; just as the chandler Lourens Janszoon Koster entirely forgets his invention during his lifetime; so the painter Albert Van Oudewater becomes a zealous Costerian “long before he was born.” Van der Linde, The Haarlem Legend, p. 145.

The portrait given by Scriverius was painted from a sketch or study made after Coster’s death, and was, necessarily, gloomy and cadaverous; but no portrait, however beautiful, unless it was a true and genuine likeness, could satisfy the truth-loving Scriverius. The truth was to be well founded if he endorsed it. The cadaverous hue and the marks of death in Van Campen’s picture are strong evidences for the genuineness and faithfulness both of the original representation and of Van Campen’s copy!

The ease with which Gutenberg relinquishes his monetary claim, and which at once shows him to be a better knight than financier, exhibits a trait of character which explains much in his later fate. Van der Linde, Haarlem Legend, p. 13.

“Early German mirrors were made by pouring melted lead or tin over a glass plate while yet hot as it came from the furnace. In and around Nuremberg, convex mirrors were made by blowing with the pipe in the glass bubble while it was still hot a metallic mixture with a little salts of tartar. When the bubble had been covered and cooled, it was cut in small round mirrors. These small convex mirrors were called ochsenaugen, or ox-eyes. They were set in a round board, and had a very broad border or margin. One of them in my possession is two and a half inches in diameter. . . . This art is an old German invention, for it is described by Porta and Ganzoni, who both lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and who both expressly say that the art was then common in Germany. Curious foreigners often attempted to learn it, and imagined that Germans kept it a secret.”

M. de Berny showed me one of these primitive mechanisms in his own foundry. This mould, which is still [1853] in use, is constructed with two kinds of knees [or squares] enabling the type-maker to adjust it in various ways so as to cast any body desired. De l’origine, etc. vol. I, p. 44, note.

. . . . It was thought necessary to find the wooden letters of the imagination, and hence bibliography presents the dismal spectacle that almost all monuments of the excellent invention, that fruit of a vigorous mind, of a simple, but ample and grand idea, have been declared by would-be connoisseurs one by one to be xylographic. This caused the double trouble of first making out, with much verbosity and an air of perspicuity, incontrovertibly typographical masterpieces to be wood, and then afterward putting aside this pedantry and returning to the simple truth. The origin of typography presents nowhere anything narrow-minded, worthless, or trifling, for it belongs to the grand facts of history, but trifling minds have soiled it with their own littleness. Haarlem Legend, p. 77.

The partnership between Gutenberg and Fust should be for five years, in which time the work projected by Gutenberg should be completed.—For the purposes of this partnership, not specified, Fust should advance to Gutenberg 800 guilders, at 6 per cent. interest. The tools and materials made by Gutenberg for the uses of the partnership should remain mortgaged to Fust, as security for this loan of 800 guilders, until the whole sum should be paid.—When the aforesaid tools and materials should be made, Fust should, every year, furnish Gutenberg with 300 guilders to provide for the payment of the paper, vellum, ink, wages and the other materials that would be required for the execution of the work.—For these advances Fust should have one-half of the profits made from the sale of the products of the partnership.—Fust should be exempted from the performance of any work or service connected with the partnership, and should not be held responsible for any of its debts.

The Carthusian Friars near Mentz, through the liberality of John Gutenberg, own this book, which was made by his wonderful art, and by the skill of John Nummeister, clerk. In the year of our Lord 1463, on the 13th calend of July [June 19].

Helbig doubts the genuineness of this annotation, and intimates that it may be the work of Bodmann, a librarian at Mentz, who has been suspected of attempts to foist spurious documents on those who were eager to know more of the life and labors of Gutenberg. In his treatise on the Typographic Monuments of Gutenberg, Fischer, on the authority of Bodmann, printed the copy of a verbose document which set forth that John Gutenberg and Frielo Gensfleisch assented to the action of their sister Hebele in conveying to the Convent of Saint Clare, of which she was then a nun, her share in the paternal inheritance. It also recites that John Gutenberg will give to the convent a copy of every book to be printed by him. This document, which is dated 1459, is not accepted as genuine by discreet bibliographers.

Helbig gives a list of seven books, of little value, printed by Hauman, in these types of Gutenberg. He expresses his astonishment that they had not before been identified, but he offers no explanation of the singular fact that these types were not used by any printer between 1469 and 1506.

It is a curious fact that, under Fust and Gutenberg, the process [of printing in colors] should be carried nearly to perfection; for some of the works they printed, both in the quality of the ink and in the workmanship, are so excellent that it would require all the skill of our best printers, even at the present day, to surpass them in all respects: and I do not hesitate to say, that, in a few years after, the printers were actually superior to us in the use of red ink, both as to color and as to the inserting of a great number of single capital letters in their proper places in a sheet, with a degree of accuracy and sharpness of impression that I have never seen equaled in modern workmanship. Decorative Printing, London, 1822, pp. 6 and 7.

After a closer inspection, Savage discovered that the red was painted.

Papillon declared that the red ink was of the most perfect beauty. Chatto said that this earliest known production [of the press of Fust and Schœffer] remains to the present day unimpaired as a specimen of skill in ornamental printing. The art of printing was perfected by Fust and Schœffer. Jackson and Chatto, Wood Engraving, p. 168.

On some of the leaves where music is given there is an appearance as if the oil in the ink had penetrated through the vellum and tinged the opposite side of the leaf with a dingy yellow. This had been supposed to be the case, but I find that the original tune had been printed with a dull yellow ink, and that subsequently a different one had been written in over the first, with black ink to match the color of the text; and so exactly is this effect produced that, if it were not for the remains of the printing of the original tune, it might pass unsuspected of being any other than the production of the press. Practical Hints on Decorative Printing, pp. 49 and 51.

Florence 300

Milan 629

Bologna 298

Rome 925

Venice 2835

London 130

Paris 751

Cologne 530

Nuremberg 382

Leipsic 351

Basle 320

Strasburg 526

Augsburg 256

Louvain 116

Mentz 134

Deventer 161

If allowance be made for the books that are lost, these numbers are too small, but the list will give a correct idea of the comparative activity of the early printers at different places. During this period were published 291 editions of Cicero, 95 of Virgil, 57 of Horace, 91 of the Latin Bible and many hundreds of the decretals and digests of canon law.

Although, by a certain divine art of printing, abundant and easy access is obtained to books in every science . . . yet we have perceived that certain men, led by the desire of vainglory or money, do abuse this art; and that which was given for the instruction of human life is perverted to purposes of mischief and calamity. For, to the dishonoring of religion, we have seen in the hands of the vulgar certain books of the divine offices and the writings of our religion translated from the Latin into the German tongue. . . . Some volumes on this subject, certain rash unlearned simpletons have dared to translate into the vulgar tongue, whose translation . . . many learned men have declared unintelligible, in consequence of the very great misapplication and abuse of words. . . . Let such translators, if they pay any regard to truth, say whether the German language be capable of expressing that which excellent writers in Greek and in Latin have most accurately and argumentatively written on the sublime speculations of the Christian religion and the knowledge of things. They must acknowledge that the poverty of our idiom renders it insufficient, . . . they must corrupt the sense of the truth in the sacred writings . . . which, from the greatness of the danger attendant upon it, we greatly dread; for who would leave it to ignorant and unlearned men and to the female sex, into whose hands copies of the Holy Scriptures may have fallen, to find out the true meaning of them?

This was not the first restriction imposed on the liberty of the printers, for the University of Cologne in 1479 had assumed the right to control the printing of books by Quentell and Winters.