PROLOGUE.
Reading edition
The following Chapters, being intended as a popular summary of a very large and interesting subject, only profess to deal with the most important aspects of that subject, both on its historical and practical side.
Of late years the question, Who invented Printing? has assumed more than ever a prominent place in bibliographical criticism, and many books, large and small, have been published by opposing authors; notably by Dr. Van der Linde, in support of the claims of Gutenberg, of Mayence, and by Mr. Hessels on the side of Laurence Coster, of Haarlem.
The unrestrained abuse and the attribution of base motives in which both these writers indulge demands the strongest protest from all who wish to see the evidence treated with calmness and without prejudice. The question is not at all whether Dr. Van der Linde can or cannot read Dutch fifteenth century MSS., or whether Mr. Hessels, as a Costerian, is incapacitated from writing a true word: these mutual recriminations only raise a feeling of repulsion to the whole subject. We really want a fair and impartial criticism, based on acknowledged facts and historical evidence.
As to the various forged documents, we now know them, so let us treat them as incumbrances and throw them on one side. This has been the object aimed at by
THE AUTHOR.
July, 1888.
