528 OKIENTAL ELEMENTS OF CULTUKE IN" THE OCCIDENT. 



have found proofs that the Ronians of the hiter periods of the Empire 

 were acquainted with the art of printing with mdvable tj^pes, or that at 

 least attempts in that direction were then made." I could lind no light 

 on this paragraph which is apt to stir up the emotion of the visitors. 

 The statement is made in such a timid manner that one suspects it 

 could stand th(> test no better than the analogous assertions discussed 

 above. But it is true that Gutenberg was not the first in the Occident 

 to conceive the idea of printing Avith movable types, foi" initials, 

 prefixed letters, seem to have been earh^ in use," and the Dominican, 

 Conrad Forster, born at Ansbach, was emploj'ing movable types at 

 Nuremberg ])etween 1437 and 1-157 in bindings, copies of Avhich are still 

 extant at Leipzig, Nurembei'g, and Wiirzburg.* Chinese sources name 

 as the inventor of printing with movable types of da}' the smith 

 Pi-Shr)ng between 101:1 and 1019 A. D.' Though we have no positive 

 indications of a migration of this art to the A^'est, still there recently 

 came to light books in East Asia which had been printed with movable 

 ty})es long before Gutenberg. The oklest east Asiatic print from types 

 which Satow personallv examined dates from the pei'iod between 1317 

 and 1321; whether it is of Korean origin or Chinese can not be decided 

 with certainty.'' In a supplement to his study just referred to Satow 

 describes Korean ])ooks printed from metal types, '^ which furnishes 

 another proof for the priority of printing from types in East Asia. 

 One of these, ])]'inted in 1409, contains, in an epilogue, an important 

 contribution to the history of tj^pe printing, for in it tlie King of 

 Korea relates how, having recognized the inadequac}" of printing from 

 wood plates, he had for the presei'vation of literature ordered the 

 manufacture of copper types at his personal expense and that of his 

 court and not at the expense of his subjects. The memorable epilogue, 

 which is dated between Deccm])er 11, 1403, and January 12, 1404, 

 closes with prayers for the future prosperity of the luidertaking. 

 Still, even tliis most important of all human inventions could not 

 thrive in its own home, since the Chinese ideographic writing recjuired 

 su(;h a large mass of type material that it almost outweighed the advan- 

 tages of the innovation. Only through our Semitic phonetic alphabet 

 could the idea become the factor in civilization that it now represents. 



«Schreil)er, Gutt'iiberg-Fi'^tsc-hrift, pp. 67-68; AVattenl)ach, op. fit., p. 269. 



''Conii). Franz Falk, Der 8teiiipel<lruck vor (iutriiberu; und SteiiiiK'ldriu'ke in 

 Deutsc'hland; (iutenberg-Festschrift, pp. 73-79. 



''Coiiip. Stanislas Julien, Documents sur I'art (riniprinirr ;\ raidc <\v ])lanclH'S en 

 bois, (le planclies en pieri-e et de types mobiles, invents en Chine lonj);temps avant_ 

 (]ue rKuroi)e en lit usage; extraits des livres chinois; Journal Asiatique, iv, 9, Paris, 

 1847, p. 511ff.=Comptes rendus des seances de ]'Acad6mie des Sciences, Tome 21, 

 Paris, 1847, p. lOOStf. (The Chinese types are given in the Journal Asiaticjue oidy.) 



<'Com]). Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan X Yokohama, 1SS2, p. (io. 



''Further notes on movable types in Korea and early Japanese printed books, 

 ibid., pp. 252-259. 



