K 1 N T I N O. 



of 



,-l.t not by li -my their 



At what period printing WHI thus ;: <'<! -nt-illy in- 



>t been exactly ascertained. Laurentius 



: i IQ. I 1 1- |,iil)lihh. (1 the .S///0//H/// Kuslrac .S'- 



lutis, a* slate i MI! two editions of Donutus ; and 



the " s|HCiuttMi" mentioned in the ton 'going extract 



.ivered to be a IJonn imn containing the 



It-tiers of the alphabet, the Lord's prayer, the Apostles' 



.1, and three short prayers, in all only eig''>t pages. 



ThfHe works, considering the difficulties Lnurentiushad 



toencounu-r, and thai they were all printed with separate 



wooden types f.-sti-ncd together with thread, must have 



required years in the execution ; anil it has thus been 



conjectured tii.it the- invention took place about or soon 



alter 1 i:>0. L iiirentius, however, though we allow 



him the honour of the invention, cannot be regarded 



...iving brought the art to any high degree of im- 

 provement.' C)M the contrary, the tew works which 

 he piinted. are remarkable only for rudeness and in- 



_,mre. The pages are not numbered ; there are no 

 divisions at the end of lines; no direction-words; and 

 in the Ilprarium, his most clumsy performance, there 

 i- no punctuation ; the lines are uneven; and the pages 

 are not always of the same size or shape. Engravings 

 of this rude typography may be found, as already men- 

 tioned, in the celebrated work of Meerman, to which 

 v,e K'g leave particularly to refer. 



The city of Mentz, which next demands our atten- 

 tion, can lay no claim, if the above reasoning be cor- 

 rect, to the invention of printing. This distinction, in- 

 deed, can with no degree of plausibility be attributed 

 to any other place than to Ilarlaem. But it must not 

 be denied that Mentz made many important improve- 

 ments in the art : though it must, at the same time, be 

 confessed that the knowledge of it was transferred thi- 

 ther in a way that reflects honour neither on the city, 

 nor on the person by whom that knowledge was intro- 

 duced. Mentz is indebted for the introduction of 

 printing, not to the ingenuity of any of her citizens, 

 but to the knavery of one of the servants of Lauren- 

 tiua, who, emulims of the honour which, on account 

 of this invention, his master enjoyed, and the wealth 

 which his new profession promised to yield him, on 

 I nristmas eve, when Laurentius and his family were 

 engaged in the exercises of religion, basely stole the 

 types, and all the necessary apparatus, and, with an 

 accomplice, after visiting Amsterdam and Cologne, 

 settled at Mentz in the capacity of a printer. Who this 

 dishonest servant was, has been a question much agi- 

 tated. That his name was John, has been allowed 

 by all writers, and Mr. Aleernv-n seems to have at last 

 H><-ertained that it was John Geinsfleisch, probably a 

 nati\e tit' Mentz, who, both on at-couut of his knavery 

 to his muster, and his subsequent eminence as a printer, 



-ce in the am-al* .of typogra- Feinting 

 I'' 1 ) "" hi .iirnul m Mu.!/., lot no time 



n "' 'I' '' the implement* he h-d so <li- 



honour.iMy hrorght along with him; for in I +12, with, 

 in two year^ from the tim he absconded from IldrUem, 

 h<- paWwhed two Jittle work , th.- Doctrii ! .,t Ai- x- 

 ander (Jallus, and the Tracts of I'eter of Spam, which, 

 being both used a* school-book*, met, it u probable, 

 with a rapid sale. 



But (JeiiL-fleiscfi, long a servant, had not, as may be 

 supposed, wealth sufficient to carry on hi* profession, 

 to any great extent ; the profession, however, was ho- 

 nourable, and promised to become &o lucrative, that a 

 person of the name of John Faust, a wealthy citizen, wil- 

 ling to advance money, acquired a share of the business 

 in 1443. Meidenbachius, and others, were aKo about 

 the same time admitted as partners ; and in 14*4, Gut- 

 temberg, of whom we shall soon speak more fully, sup- 

 posed to be the brother of Geins-fleisch, lemoved thither 

 from S<ra>burg, where he had long resided. Ge.ns- 

 fleisch being thus patronised and supported, an improve- 

 ment was made in the art of printing which has con- 

 ferred immortality on those by whom it was effected, 

 and which, in point of utility, is inferior only to the 

 original invention. The insufficiency of wooden types, 

 particularly their want of durability, must have beeii 

 deeply felt. With such materials, indeed, printing must 

 have been an extremely tedious, clumsy, and expensive 

 operation ; and Geinsfleisch.with his brother Guttem berg, 

 thus instigated to attempt improvements, had the merit 

 of being the first that devised and usedtw/ metal type*. 

 This was a most important step in the progress of the 

 art, and something far greater than had yet been ac- 

 complished might now be expected. While these me- 

 tal types were preparing, a task of no ordinary labour, 

 several small books, chiefly for the use of school*, issued 

 from the Mentz press; and the first icsult cf the new 

 invention was an edition of the Bible, which, taking 

 seven or eight years to execute, was published in 1450, 

 and which, for accuracy and beauty, would do honour 

 to the art at any stage of its history. f 



A revolution now took place (1445) in the printing 

 establishment at Mentz. The partnership was di>1 

 solved. Geinsfleisch, now dim-sighted with age, seems 

 to have retired from business, though he survived till 

 14u'2. A new partnership was formed between Faust 

 andGuttemberg, which, however, from sume mi-under- 

 standing, was soon terminated ; and F.m>t, with Peter 

 Schoeffer, a native of Gensheim, whether as a partner 

 or assistant is not well known, continued to carry on 

 the business. In 1457 an edition of the Psalter was 

 published by them, remarkable for its elegance, but 

 chiefly distinguished as the iirst book printed with a 

 date. From this time, however, not only were the 

 dates given, but the name of the printer, and the town 



* Laurentiu*, who at the time of his death is supposed to have boon seventy years of a<;e, was succeeded as a printer cither by Thomas 

 I'eter, his M>n-<n-Uw, married to his only daughter i-ucia, or by their children Peter, Andrew, and Thomas. What works they printed 

 t :tnuot be ex. telly determined* as they prciixed to iheir books neither date nor names. They sue, however, known to have executed, with others 

 ^j.icilkd by Mr Itlcermiin, various editions of the Donatits and Sjii'culum* of which many copies yet remain. The last book they are said 

 to have printed, was an edition of the works of Thomas a Ktmpis, in 1472; soon after which period, having disposed of all thr mate. 

 rials, they relinquished the profession. They did not attain to great eminence ; for though their works are executed in a style considera- 

 bly more elegant than those of l,:uirentius, they made use of nothing but separate wooden types; nor do they seem ever to have heard of 

 die hii)x>rtaiit improvements in the art accomplished ut .Mentz. 1'ctcr und Andrew, the two eldest grandsons of Laurentius, perished in 

 tiie civil wars of 1 ' 



f It was not the iirst edition of this Bible, but the second, more beautiful and expensively printed in 1 i62, copies of which l-'aiut sold 

 in Paris as inanuscnjits. The price he at first obtained wa? from 500 to 600 crowns, though he was afterwards obliged to be content 

 with sixty, and at length with forty. The Parisians, who regarded this Bible as executed by magic, and who were not till some time 

 Jifter the period in question acquainted with the art of printing, atoned for this ignorance, by producing, in the subsequent century, Henry, 

 Robert, and Henry Stephens, the most learned and celebrated printer* that have yet appeared in Europe, .men by whom the progress of 

 la*sical literature was more promoted than by any other individuals. 



7 



