1823.] 
Jean de Spise, several passages far 
more correct than in the celebrated 
edition, of. Le, Pere, Hardouin. .M. 
Mercier, Abbé de St. Leger, made it 
evident, inthe Memoirs of. ‘Trevoux, 
for June 1765,-that the edition of the 
fourth book of St. Augustine’s ‘ Doc- 
trina Christiana,’ printed at Mentz, 
by John Fust, about 1465 or 6, in folio, 
was infinitely more correct than that 
of the Benedictines of St.. Maur. 
Previous to the art of printing, the 
cultivation of literature was confined 
to a few rich monasteries, and to per- 
sons that could afford considerable 
sums for the copy of a good work. 
Books. were appreciated, in those 
times, as jewels; they were bequeathed 
in legacies as such, and occasionally 
alienations, or transfers, were made 
of them, by the contract of notaries, 
like fixtures attached to an estate. 
It is probable that the original 
inventors of printing did not foresee all 
the advantages, with respect to the 
progress of ‘letters, that its fortunate 
discovery would manifest, and stillless 
the celebrity that their own names 
would acquire in future ages. Atten- 
tive, only, to their pecuniary interests, 
they carefully preserved their secret ; 
and to this we may refer the difficulty 
of tracing, precisely, the epoch from 
which this useful invention dates its: 
discovery. 
Several cities,and towns have as- 
pired to this honour; Mentz, Stras- 
burgh, Harlem, Dordrecht, Venice, 
Rome, Florence, Bologna, Basle,Augs- 
burg; and others. But the two which 
can atone produce unequivocal proofs 
in support of ‘their. pretensions, are 
Mentz and Strasburgh; the claims of 
Harlem, though strenuously. main- 
tained, resting on oral evidence. As 
to the one written document, entitled 
‘ Batavia,’ of Hadrianus Junius, 
which claims a priority for the town of 
Harlem in favour of Laurent Coster, 
it was published at Leyden in 1588 
after the author’s death, who was pos- 
terior by more than a century. to the 
invention of printing. 
' »The whole of Junius’s testimony 
rests on the hear-say traditions of cer- 
tain aged persons, represented as wor- 
thy of credit, with the . additional 
evidence of two individuals, named 
*Quirinus.Talesius, and Nicolaus 
Galius, the latter having been ancient 
preceptor to Junius. From these he 
reports the story of Coster, as they 
remembered it from their childhood, 
Origin and early Progress of the Art of Printing. 
389 
and as told them by a certain book- 
binder, aged near eighty, whose name 
was Cornelius, and. who gaye it out 
that he had been one of Coster’s 
domesties. 
This is the only authentic written 
document to which the Dutch authors 
can refer in behalf of the pretensions 
which they announce for Harlem, We 
may add, that there is no Dutch work 
extant of the 15th century, or the 
beginning of the 16th, that makes any 
mention of the circumstance, not even 
of Erasmus, who was born at Rotter- 
dam in 1467, and who could not have 
been a stranger to an event so remark- 
able, and so much for the honour of his 
country. It appears, too, that Quirinus 
Talesius. was for several years the 
secretary of Erasmus, who, in his 
writings, frequently alludes tothe art 
of printing, and sometimes to. the 
invention of it, but it is ever in favour 
of Mentz, not giving the least hint con- 
cerning Harlem. 
Had Coster been an engraver in 
wood, such as he is represented, some 
account of him would have appeared 
in an historical production of ‘Carel 
Van Mander, a painter and engraver, 
who settled at Harlem in 1583, and 
there composed his biographical “ His- 
tory of Painters and Engravers,” 
publishing the same in 1603. The 
name, however, of Laurent Coster no- 
where appears therein, either as printer 
or engraver, or under any denomina- 
tion whatever, although the ‘ Batavia’ 
of Junius had then been printed nearly 
twenty years, and was well Known to 
the inhabitants of Harlem. Charles 
Van Mander considered them as con- 
jectures founded on tradition, and 
rejected them. Indeed, in one_pas- 
sage speaking of printing, he remarks, 
“Daer Haarlem met genoech,” &c. 
that is, ‘Of which Harlem, with no 
little presumption, claims the honour 
of the first invention.” 
Without any proofs, or appearance 
of probability, the first Essays in the 
art of printing, such as “ The Biblia 
Pauperum,” “the Speculum Humanze 
Salvationis,” “ the Ars Moriendi,” 
“ the Historia Apocalypsis,” “ the Ars 
Memorandi,” and “ the Historia 
Virginis, ex Cantico Canticorum,” 
including several ancient books of 
images, engraved in wood, have been 
referred to Harlem; but they must 
have proceeded out of Germany, and 
so passed into the Low Countries. 
The prodigious number of works of 
this 
