To the German triumvirate belongs the honor of having been the first to employ movable types, matrices, and punches in printing.

Trithemius, a contemporary, ascribes the invention of movable types jointly to Gutenberg and Faust, and an ancient chronicle at Cologne notes that, after ten years' preparation, the art of printing began to be practised in the year 1450. The former authority further states that the parties expended in the printing of the first twelve sheets of the Bible, 4,000 florins. The Bible in question is the Latin Vulgate, commonly known by the name of the Mazarin Bible, from a copy of it having been discovered, in the middle of the last century, in the Bibhothèque Mazarine.*

It is worthy of note that the advent of the "divine art" was sanctified by religion. It was fitting that it "should thus first be devoted to the Sacred Oracles, since no book had been so

* In Timperley's amusing volume on "Printers and Printing," it is stated that John Muller (surnamed Regiomontanus) who died at Rome, in the year 1476, was for some time suspected of being the inventor of printing.

frequently transcribed in earlier times, and none, we may add, has been so often reprinted in later. The majority of all the books ever published owe much of their essence and genius to its inspirations. The muse of Milton, Cowper, and a host of others in sacred song, have found in the Bible their Pie rian spring; and even the world's poet, Shakspeare, is no exception to the fact. Its lessons are the essence of religion, "the seminal truth of theology, the first principles of morals, and the guiding axioms of political economy." It has moulded the finest minds that have ever blessed humanity; it has sustained the heart alike of prince and peasant, under suffering and sorrow, shed a halo of glory around the grave, and lit up a pathway to a brighter world.

Gutenberg was the inventor of the art, and Faust, a goldsmith, furnished the necessary funds. Had it been a single page, or even an entire sheet, which was then produced, there might have been less occasion to have noticed it; but there was something in the whole character of the affair, which, if not unprecedented, rendered it singular in the usual current of human events. This Bible was in two folio volumes, which have been justly praised for the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register, and the lustre of the ink. The work contained twelve hundred and eighty-two pages, and, being the first ever printed, of course involved a long period of time, and an immense amount of mental, manual, and mechanical labor, and yet for a long time after it had been finished and offered for sale, not a human being, save the artists themselves, knew how it had been accomplished. Of the printed Bible, twenty-six copies are said to be in existence; some of them are printed on vellum. Of the known remaining copies, ten are in England, there being a copy in the libraries of Oxford, Edinburgh, and London, and seven in the collections of different noblemen. The vellum copy has been sold as high as $2,500. Thus, as if to mark the noblest purpose to which the art could ever be applied, the first book

printed with cut metal types was the Bible, in 14441460.

Faust displaced Gutenberg from the partnership in 1455, and subsequently carried on the business with Schoeffer; one of their first works was a Psalter, which appeared in 1457. Faust is supposed to have died of the plague in 1466. After his death, Schoeffer had the meanness to arrogate to his family the entire invention of the art of printing—and succeeded so far as to obtain from the Emperor Maximilian some lucrative privileges authenticating his pretensions. By this act of the Emperor, Gutenberg was robbed of his deserved reputation— his discoveries being attributed to his rival, and he regarded as a pretender. He was dead, however, before Schaeffer dared advance his claim. Upon quitting his partners, he had established a printing press at Mentz, under the patronage of Dr. Conrad Humbracht, who advanced the necessary funds. In 1460, he printed the great Latin dictionary, Catholicon Johannis de Balbus. In 1465, he was attached to the Count Adolphus, of Nassau; and is supposed to have died in 1468.

The Dutch have disputed with the Germans the honor of the invention of printing, claiming it in behalf of Laurence Coster, a citizen of Haarlem. Their claim will not, however, bear investigation, and vanishes beneath the scrutiny to which it has been subjected by rigid inquiries.

After these pioneer printers had dissolved partnership, in a few years the business began to expand itself to such an extent that, in 1530, there were upwards of 200 printingpresses in Europe.

Gutenberg at first took impressions from his types by fastening them upon a table-coloring them with writing-inkspreading the paper over them, and pressing it with a rubber of horn.

Faust invented printing-ink, and Gutenberg constructed a rude printing-press. Iron presses were earliest employed by Lord Stanhope.

Between the years 1467 and 1475, printing-offices were opened at Cologne, Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Lubec. Monks, called "Brothers of common life," founded printing establishments at Brussels and Louvain, in Belgium. In the year

1467, a press was transported to Rome; some years afterwards, to Venice, Milan, and Naples. The printing art came to Paris in 1469. It met with obstacles on the part of copyists, who feared to lose their means of subsistence; but the king, Louis XI., protected the printers.

The art was conveyed from Haarlem to England in 1468, and by Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. This prelate sent to Haarlem, Turner, master of the robes, and a merchant named William Caxton, to learn the art. Caxton prevailed with Corseilles to come over to Oxford, and there set up a press. But before he left the continent, he translated from the French, and in the year 1471 published at Cologne, the first book ever printed in the English language, entitled, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. "An imperfect copy of this work," says Duppa, in his notes to Johnson's Journal of a Tour to Wales, was put up to sale in 1812, when there was a competition amongst men eminent for learning, rank and fortune; and, according to their estimation of its value, it was sold for the sum of £1,060 10s." In the year 1474 (having in the meantime returned to England), he published the first book ever printed in England. It was entitled, "The Game and Playe of the Chesse: Translated out of the Frenche, and emprynted by me William Caxton. Fynysshid the last day of Marche, the yer of our Lord God a thousand four hondred, lxxiiij."

Caxton, who died at the age of 81, in 1491, and who, in addition to having had the honor of introducing into England the "divine art"-fitly styled "ars artium omnium conservatrix "-was an eminent instance of the successful cultivation of letters, combined with mechanical pursuits. Amidst the onerous charge of an extensive printing-office in one of the

chapelries of Westminster Abbey, containing twenty-four presses, with about a hundred workmen, this indefatigable man actually gave to the world no fewer than five thousand closely printed folio pages from his own pen, consisting chiefly of translations from the French, or the stock of his own vernacular literature. Several of his works have subsequently passed through successive editions, and about sixty of his books still exist. His just estimate of Chaucer, which he first printed, evinces his uncommon critical acumen. On more accounts than one, therefore, may Caxton be fitly styled the father of the English press. The well-known names of Pynson, who died 1529, Wynkin de Worde, in 1534, and Wyer, in 1542, although justly celebrated for the improvements they effected in the typographic art, the former having first constructed and introduced into use the Roman letters, claim a passing mention.

Printing hitherto had been for the most part in Latin; but the Italians in 1480 began to print with Greek and Hebrew types, and they were the first to use these.

In the sixteenth century, according to Dr. Gregory, there appeared various editions of books in Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Coptic or Egyptian, characters.

Anthony Koburger, of Nuremburgh, was a person eminent for his learning as well as for his elegance in printing. He was styled the prince of printers, and was likewise a very extensive bookseller. Besides a spacious warehouse at Lyons, he had agents in every important city in Christendom, and kept sixteen open shops, with a vast number of warehouses. He printed thirteen editions of the Bible in folio, which are esteemed as extremely beautiful specimens of the art; but his chef-d'œuvre was the German Bible, printed in 1483, folio, the most splendid of all the ancient German Bibles, being embellished with many curious wood-cuts.

About the year 1547, we find honorable mention made of the name of Robert Copland, formerly engaged in Caxton's