THE ART OF PRINTING. 89 



It is hoped their still adhering to this name is not in any way con- 

 nected with a newly set up claim for the honour of this invention 

 for one of their countrymen. The claim of Manutius to this 

 honour is so clearly made out, that it will require very strong facts 

 to be produced,, ere the illuminati of the present day will consent to 

 strip him of laurels, worn with the consent of more than half Europe 

 for nearly three centuries. 



It has been contended by some writers, that the art of impression 

 was well known to the ancients ; in confirmation of this, they in- 

 stance the stamps of iron and other metals, with which bales of goods 

 and various articles of their manufacture were marked, throughout 

 Italy and other parts of Europe, during the low ages ; and that the 

 art of taking impressions from engraved blocks of wood is nothing 

 more than a principle familiarly known to the ancients from time 

 immemorial ; consequently it is not worthy the appellation of a dis- 

 covery : even printing itself is considered by them as scarcely de- 

 serving the name of an invention. It appears that the ancient artists 

 used separate letters, similar to our bookbinders' tools, for the pur- 

 pose of stamping the inscriptions upon their lamps, their vases, and 

 their bassi relievi of clay ; which being first cast, were finished by 

 the hand of the modeller. 



The invention of printing has not, perhaps, multiplied books, but 

 only the copies of them, and if we believe (says Sir Wm. Temple) 

 there were six hundred thousand volumes in the library of Ptolemy, 

 we shall hardly pretend to imitate it by any one in the present day, 

 not perhaps by all put together; I mean so many originals, that 

 have lived at any time, and thereby given testimony of their having 

 been thought worth preserving, for books, like proverbs, received 

 their chief value from the esteem of ages through which they have 

 passed. 



" Fine Printing" was first introduced by the ingenious Basker- 

 ville, who happily succeeded in producing a type of superior elegance, 

 and an ink which gave additional beauty to the type. The peculiar' 

 excellence attached to Baskerville, and the consequent celebrity he 

 obtained, gave a stimulus to the exertions, and drew forth the emu- 

 lation of many of our countrymen, among whom we are too happy in 

 being enabled to mention the illustrious names of Ballantyne, Bens- 

 ley, Bulmer, Whittingham, and Davison, from whose presses have 

 issued some magnificent specimens of typography, indeed the best 

 that are to be found in this country or in Europe. 



The daily publication of reports is one of the most remarkable cir- 

 cumstances in the history of these times. It is truly astonishing to 

 think that a debate, which has commenced at five o'clock in the 

 evening and lasted until five the next morning, shall be taken down 

 in short-hand, written out, corrected, printed, struck off by thousands 

 after correction for press, distributed by the newsmen, and on every 

 breakfast-table in London before mid-day, nay, before the speakers 

 have left their beds, and within twenty-four hours, read in Devon- 

 shire and Yorkshire. 



Thus, in a brief, but impartial manner, I have traced the rise and 

 progress of an invention, the " practice and improvement" of which 



M.M. No. 97. N 



