PRINTING 635 



The first book in -which Greek types occur is Cicero's ' Offices,' printed in the year 

 1465, in which the characters are so imperfect that the words are with difficulty 

 deciphered ; but the first work printed wholly with Greek types is a Greek Grammar, 

 written by the learned Constantino Lascaris, printed in Milan by Dionysius Paravi- 

 sinus, in 1476, in 4to. It went through several editions in Italy, France, and Switzer- 

 land. One of them, that of Aldus, printed in Venice in 1495, is the first Aldine book 

 printed with a date. One of the most elegant specimens of ancient Greek typography, 

 valued not Only for its beauty, but also for its rarity and the accuracy of its text, is 

 the ' Argonautica, Flor. ap Junta, 1500,' 4to. cditio princeps. 



It was not unusual for the early printers of Greek, as well as of other works, to 

 endeavour to imitate the characters of the MSS. of the age. In this they were more 

 or less successful. An exceedingly beautiful specimen of this kind of printing is the 

 editio princeps of Isocrates : ' Orat. a Demetrio Chalcondyla, Gr. Mecliol. ap. Henr. 

 Germanus et Sebastianus ex Pontremula,' 1493, folio. The text of this edition is said 

 to be remarkably accurate. Fabricius considers it more so than that of the Aldine 

 edition of 1513. 



The first Greek book printed in Some was the works of Pindar : 'Pindari Opera 

 Gr. cum Scholiis Callieggi.' Kome, 1515, 4to. This is also remarkable as the first 

 edition with the Scholia. The first Greek work printed at Cambridge was Plato's 

 ' Menexenus, sive Funebris Oratio, Exhortatio ad Patriam amandam ntque defendam. 

 Cantab.' Greek types were not introduced into Scotland till after the middle of the 

 16th century. In a 4to. volume printed in Edinburgh in 1563, entitled, ' The Confuta- 

 tion of the Abbote of Crosraguel's Masse,' there is an Epistle by the Printer to the 

 Reader, apologising for his want of Greek characters, which he was obliged to supply 

 by manuscript. 



The first work printed with Roman types was Cicero's ' Epistolae Familiares,' by 

 Sweynheym and Pannartz, at Rome, in 1467. Italic type was invented by Aldus 

 Manutius, about 1500. 



Italy has the honour also of having printed the first Hebrew Bible, at Soncino, a 

 small city in the Duchy of Milan, in 1488, under the superintendence of two Jewish 

 rabbins, named Joshua and Moses. The edition of Brescia, of 1494, was used by 

 Luther in making his German translation. But Hebrew types were not introduced 

 into England for many years after this period; for we find that in 1524, Dr. Robert 

 Wakefield, chaplain to Henry VIII., complains, in his ' Oratio de Laudibus,' &c., that 

 he was obliged to omit his whole third part, as the printer (Wynkyn de Worcle) had 

 no Hebrew types. Towards the end of the 16th century, various works were printed 

 in Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, and Coptic or modern Egyptian types ; some to 

 gratify the curiosity of the learned, and others for the liturgic uses of the Christians 

 in the Levant. 



In the 16th century the broils consequent on the Reformation, although that event 

 stimulated religious enquiry, did much to impede the progress of the art in England. 

 But the civil wars and the gloomy religious spirit which succeeded till the pedantry 

 and verbal criticism of the reign of James I., and which prevailed to the Restoration, 

 interrupted still more the production of works calculated to cultivate the under- 

 standing. Indeed, we cannot but regard this period as the least favourable to the 

 diffusion of knowledge of any period in the history of our literature. In the British 

 Museum is a collection of controversial and quibbling tracts amounting to the 

 enormous number of 30, 000, l while the impressions of new books printed during 

 these stormy times were very few. Dr. Johnson has well remarked that the nation, 

 from 1623 to 1664, was satisfied with two editions of Shakspeare's Plays, which, pro- 

 bably, together did not amount to a thousand copies. But during this period we 

 must not forget the present Authorised Version of the Bible, translated by the forty- 

 seven distinguished scholars appointed by James I., and printed in 1611, which is 

 allowed by competent judges to be one of singular merit, and indeed the most perfect 

 ever produced. An unfavourable effect was also produced on our national literature, 

 and on the progress of the press, by the licentiousness introduced by the literary 

 parasites and courtezans of the Restoration. Under such a state of mental depres- 

 sion, Milton could obtain only 151. for the MS. of his immortal ' Paradise Lost,' and 

 an Act of Parliament was actually in force enacting that only twenty printers should 

 practise their art in the whole kingdom ! Burton, who lived near this time, has 

 drawn a miserable picture of the abject condition of literary men when they had such 

 patrons tj rely upon : ' Rhetoric only serves them to curse their bad fortunes ; and 

 many of them, for want of means, are driven to hard shifts. From grasshoppers they 

 turn luimble-bees and wasps, plain parasites, and make the Muses mules, to satisfy 

 their hunger-starved paunches and get a meal's meat.' 



1 Tomlinson's Collection. 



