632 PRINTING 



his presses and moveable types, Gutenberg succeeded in printing an edition of the 

 Vulgate, the Mayence or Mazarin Bible, so called from a copy having been discovered 

 in the library of Cardinal Mazarin in Paris. The work was dono between the years 

 1450 and 1455, and was printed on vellum; but there are several paper copies in 

 England, France, and Germany. The partnership between Gutenberg and Fust 

 having been dissolved, and the former being unable to repay part of the capital 

 advanced by the wealthy goldsmith, the whole of the printing apparatus fell into the 

 hands of Fust, who 'printed off a considerable cumber of copies of the Bible, to 

 imitate those which were commonly sold as MSS. ; and he undertook the sale of them 

 at Paris. It was his interest to conceal this discovery, and to pass off his printed 

 copies for MSS. But, enabled to sell his Bibles at sixty crowns, while the other 

 scribes demanded five hundred, this raised universal astonishment; and still more 

 when he produced copies as fast as they were wanted, and even lowered his price. 

 The uniformity of the copies increased the wonder. Informations were given in to 

 the magistrates against him as a magician ; and in searching his lodgings a great 

 number of copies were found. The red ink, and Fust's red ink is peculiarly 

 brilliant, which embellished his copies, was said to be his blood; and it was 

 solemnly adjudged that he was in league with the infernals. Fust at length was 

 obliged, to save himself from a bonfire, to reveal his art to the Parliament of Paris, 

 who discharged him from all prosecution in consideration of the wonderful in- 

 vention.' ff Israeli, Curiosities of Literature. 



This Bible was printed with large cut metal types; but in 1457 a magnificent 

 edition of the ' Psalter ' appeared, printed by Fust and his assistant and son-in-law, 

 Peter Schceffer, who had been taken into partnership. In this book the new inven- 

 tion was announced to the world in ' a boasting colophon,' though certainly not 

 unreasonably bold. Another edition of the 'Psalter,' one of an ecclesiastical 

 book, Durand's account of Liturgical Offices, 1 one of the Constitutions of Pope 

 Clement V., and one of a popular treatise on general science, called the Catholicon, 2 

 filled up the interval till 1462, when the second Mayence Bible proceeded from the 

 same printers. This, in the opinion of some, is the earliest book in which cast metal 

 types were employed; those of the Mazarin Bible having been cut by the hand. 

 But this is a controverted point. In 1465 Fust and Schceffer published an edition 

 of Cicero's ' Offices,' the first tribute of the new art to polite literature. Hallam, 

 Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 470. 



After the lapse of a few years the pupils and workmen of Fust and Schceffer, 

 dispersed into various countries by the sacking of Mayence, under the Archbishop 

 Adolphus, the invention was thereby publicly made known, and the art spread over 

 all parts of Europe. Before the year 1 500, printing presses had been set up in 220 

 places, and a multitude of editions of the classical writers given to the world. 

 Santander (Dictionnaire Bibliographique ckoisi du quinzieme Siecle, &c., Bruxelles, 

 1805, 3 vols.), in his interesting and masterly work, gives at the end of his first 

 volume a chronological table of 200 places where the art was practised during the 

 15th century, with the names of the* printers and of the first productions of their 

 presses. We cannot afford room for this list ; but must be content to state that from 

 Mayence the art was transplanted to Haarlem and Strasburg ; from Haarlem to Rome, 

 in 1466, by Sweynheym and Pannartz, who were the first to make use of Roman types ; 

 to Paris in 1469 ; to England in 1474 ; and to Spain in 1475 ; and spread so rapidly 

 that, between the years 1469 and 1475, most towns in Germany, Italy, and the 

 Netherlands had made successful attempts in the production of printed copies of the 

 most valued authors of the time. 



Printing in England. Until about the period of the Restoration, William Caxton 

 was universally acknowledged to have introduced the art of printing into this country. 

 in or about the year 1471. But, in 1664, a Mr. Richard Atkyns, in a work called 

 ' The Original and Growth of Printing,' &c., brought before the notice of the 

 curious a little book, printed at Oxford, bearing the date 1468, three years before the 

 period usually assigned to the labours of Caxton. This work took literary men by 

 surprise, and gave rise to the most violent discussions. It is related by Atkyns that 

 a Dutchman of the name of Frederic Corsellis was induced to desert his employers 

 in the Low Countries, and that one Richard Tumour, an agent of King Henry VI., 

 assisted by William Caxton, who was well known in Holland as a merchant, and 

 therefore likely to throw the jealous possessors of the new art off their guard, 

 brought him to England, where at Oxford he was set to work by Archbishop 

 Bourchier, ten years before the date of Caxton's first book.* But the silence of Caxton 



1 ' national Divinorum Officiornm ' of William Durnnd, 1459. 



' Catholicon Jannensis,' 1460, in the Kind's Library. 



Tlje title of this volume of Corsellig is, ' Exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in Simbolnm Apostolornm ad 

 Papam Laurentiam,' and at the end, ' Explicit E.vposicio, &c. Impress* Oxonis, et fiuitu Anno 

 Domini MCCCci.xvui., xvii die Deccmbris." 



