. 



PRINTING. 



tuimd the moil illustrious patronage. Guttcmberg 

 * p ^f-*-' rnailf a coiiiiM-lloi i if state by the Elector 



mid WHS distinguished by an annual pension ; the 

 prnir .Maximilian srfiin-d to Srlioclii-r the exclusive 

 right of punting Livy ; and Frederick III., instead of 

 runliTriiig exclusive privileges on Metelius, granted 

 the same privileges to printers in every part of his do- 

 minions. " TypothKis scil. a(]uilae, typographis au- 

 ti-m fjryphi, pecle altero pilam tinctoriam unguibus te- 

 Mtis, rcutuin donavit, cum aperta galea et superim- 

 ta ei corona." -An old chronicle of Strasburg in 

 favour of Metelius has also been triumphantly quoted. 

 The authority of this paper, however, (at best but 

 doubtful,) has been completely destroyed by the contra- 

 ry authority of a similar document at Cologne, as well 

 as by Wimphelingius and various other writers. 



Such are the claims of these cities to the invention 

 of printing. We have investigated their several pre- 

 tensions to this honour, with the irost rigid impar- 

 tiality. And from the discussions in which we have 

 been engaged, it is evident, we think, first, that the 

 art of printing was invented and first practised in 

 Ilarlaem ; secondly, that the knowledge of it was 

 early introduced thence into Mentz, where it was as- 

 siduously cultivated, improved, and brought nearly to 

 that state in which we now find it ; and, thirdly, that 

 the claims of Strasburg, being unsupported by evi- 

 dence, seem to be entirely false. These points being 

 established, the remainder of this article shall be em- 

 ployed in tracing the progress of the art in various 

 quarters of the world till its introduction into Eng- 

 land and Scotland. 



pid pro. Faust and Schoeffer, when they had made the im- 

 s of portant discovery of casting the types in a matrix in- 

 stead of cutting them, afraid that the knowledge of this 

 improvement might become public throughout Europe, 

 ami prevent that monopoly which they expected to se- 

 cure to themselves, administered an oath of secrecy to 

 fill their workmen. The precaution might well have 

 been spared. For, Mentz having been sacked by the 

 Archbishop Adolphus in 146'2, their servants were dis- 

 persed into different countries, and carried with them 

 the knowledge they had acquired under their former 

 masters. From this perod printing made rapid pro- 

 gress in most of the principal towns in Europe. It 

 had, even before the sacking of Mentz, been in- 

 troduced into Bamberg in Franconia ; and in the 

 national library of Paris there is part of a Bible in 

 German, in large Gothic characters, published at 

 Bamberg in May 1462, and executed with metal types 

 as improved by Scboeffer. In 1465 the art had reach- 

 ed Naples, for, in that year, Lactantius's Institutes were 

 printed in Monasterio Sublacensi in that kingdom. 

 Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, names fami- 

 liar to every reader, settled in Rome in 14C? ; men 

 whose passion for multiplying books, or rather whose 

 zeal in the cause of letters, induced them to carry on 

 their profession to an extent that involved them in ruin 

 and in poverty. * In 1472, Theodore Martens esta- 

 blished himself at Alost in Holland. About this time 

 also the art had become known in Venice, Milan, Bern, 



(heart in 

 Europe. 



Antwerp, and all the important cities of the Continent. Printing 

 In 14<)0, it had reached Constantinople, and, according ~~ 

 t Mr. Palmer, it had extended, by the middle of next 

 century, to Africa and America. It wa* introduced 

 into l!ii--i:i in \r>(>(>; but, from the most illiberal and 

 mistaken motives, it was feoon suppressed ; nor did it, 

 till the time of Catherine II., C-XJM -rii-nce, in that coun- 

 try, any favour or patronage. Printing, however, Boon 

 found its way even into countries more barbarous and 

 inhospitable than any we have yet considered : for Mr. 

 Bryant (Observations and Inquiries relating to tariotu 

 parts r/ Ancient Hisli.ry, p. 277.) proves that a work 

 written by a native of Iceland was printed in Hla in 

 that island so early as lGl2. " I believe," says he, 

 " it is the farthest north of any place where arts end 

 sciences have ever resided." 



For thirty years after the invention of printing, the 

 uniform character was the old Gothic or German, 

 whence our black was afterwards derived. The Ro- 

 man type, as now used, was introduced by Sweynheim 

 and Pannartz of Rome, in an edition of Cicero's Epit- 

 tolce Farhiiiares. The Italic character was, at a subse- 

 quent period, invented by the celebrated Aldus. The 

 first printed books were either in Latin, or in the lan- 

 guage of the respective countries in which they were 

 published. The first attempts at Greek printing took Greek 

 place in a few sentences, very rudely executed which printing- 

 occur in the famous edition of Cicero de Officiit by 

 Schoeffer, in 1465. Various attempts of a similar kind, 

 though considerably more successful, were made about 

 the same time by other enterprising printers ; but the 

 first complete Greek work yet discovered, is a grammar 

 of that language by Lascaris, printed at Milan in 1476 ; 

 and, to overlook various minor attempts at Greek print- 

 ing, a splendid edition of Homer issued, in 1488, from 

 the press of Demetrius of Florence, a native of Crete. 

 Works in this tongue were rapidly multiplied ; but the 

 first Greek edition of the Bible printed at Complutium, 

 was not finished till 1517. It was not, however, pub- 

 lished till five years afterwards, and therefore the edi- 

 tion of Venice in 1518 may be regarded as having pre- 

 ceded it. The Greek Psalter had often been printed 

 before this time. And Erasmus had published a Greek 

 edition of the New Testament in 1516*. Aldus baa 

 been by some reckoned the first Greek printer ; but 

 though this opinion, as is evident from the foregoing 

 statements, is incorrect, yet Aldus, it must be allowed, 

 for the beauty, correctness, and number of his works 

 in that language, far eclipsed his most distinguished 

 predecessors, and earned a name known wherever let- 

 ters are cultivated. Nor in the mean time was the He- Hebrew 

 brew language overlooked. The Pentateuch was print- printing, 

 ed so early as 1482 ; and afterwards at short intervals, 

 the prior prophets, the posterior prophets, and the Ha- 

 giographa, the whole terminating in 1487. And in 

 the subsequent year the whole New Testament was 

 published, with vowel points, in one volume folio, at 

 Soncino, duchy of Milan, by a Jewish Rabbi. The 

 first Polyglot Bible was printed at Genoa in 1516, by 

 Porrus, containing versions in Hebrew, Arabic, Chal- 

 daic, Greek, Latin, t 



* In a petition for assistance and relief addressed (1472) by these printers to the Pope, " \Ve were the first cf the Germans," they say, 

 " who introduced this art with vast labour and cost into your holines&'s territories in the time of your predecessor ; and encouraged, by our 

 example, other printers to do the same. If you peiuec the catalogue of the books printed by us, you will admire how and where we could 

 procure a sufficient quantity of pojicr, or even ofiogM, for such a number of volumes. The total of these books amount! to 12,475, a pro- 

 digious heap, and intolerable to us. your Holiness'* printers, by reason of those un&o'd. We are no longer able to bear the great expence 

 of houjc-kei'jiiny for want of buyeis ; of which there cannot be a more flagrant pi oof ihan that our house, though otherwise spacious enough, 

 is full of qtiireJxtdkSy but void of every necessary of life." (Palmer's Iltst. of Printing, p. 130.) 



f In the early history of the ait of printing, the most leained men were proud to act as correctors of the press; and printers not unfre- 

 VOL. XVII. PART I. X 



