THE PRINTING PRESS. 



produced, and so that the materials of the model of any one page 

 might be afterwards useful, in the formation of the models of 

 other pages. The discovery of the means of accomplishing this 

 object by movable types constitutes the most important epoch in 

 the history of printing, and is sometimes even regarded, in all 

 essential respects, as the"Snvention of printing itself. After it had 

 undergone some successive improvements, it resolved itself into 

 the production of models in relief of the letters of the alphabet, 

 formed upon the extremities of small bars of metal, which 

 being properly selected and placed in juxtaposition, formed the 

 words and letters of a page. Such are the types of the modern 

 printer. 



The honour of the invention of movable types has been disputed 

 by two cities, Haarlem and Mentz. The claims of Haarlem rest 

 chiefly upon a statement of Hadrien Junius, who gave it upon the 

 testimony of Cornelius, alleged to be a servant of Lawrence 

 Coster, for whom the invention is claimed. The claims of Mentz, 

 which appear to be more conclusive, are in favour of Peter 

 Schseffer, the assistant and son-in-law of John Faust, better 

 known as Dr. Faustus. The first edition of the Speculum humance 

 salvationis was printed by Coster at Haarlem, about the year 

 1440, and is one of the earliest productions of the press of which 

 the printer is known. The celebrated Bible, commonly known as 

 the Mentz Bible, without date, is the first important specimen of 

 printing with movable metal types. This was executed by Guten- 

 berg and Faust, or Fust, as it is sometimes spelt, between the years 

 1450 and 1455. The secret of the method then becoming known, 

 presses were speedily established in all parts of Europe, so that 

 before the year 1500 there were printing-offices in upwards of 

 220 different places in Austria, Bavaria, Bohemia, Calabria, the 

 Cremonese, Denmark, England, Flanders, France, Franconia, 

 Frioul, Geneva, Genoa, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, 

 Lombardy, Mecklenberg, Moravia, Naples, the Palatinate, 

 Piedmont, Poland, Portugal, Rome, Sardinia, Upper and Lower 

 Saxony, Sicily, Silesia, Spain, Suabia, Switzerland, Thessalonica, 

 Turkey, Tuscany, the Tyrol, Yenice, Yerona, Westphalia, 

 Wurtemberg, &c. 



This vast and rapid extension of the art, combined with the 

 skill which the earlier printers displayed in it, seems to be totally 

 incompatible with the date assigned to the invention, and it is 

 more probable, that the art having been long practised in private 

 under continued attempts at secrecy, it at length broke into 

 publicity after it had already attained a considerable degree of 

 perfection. 



7. When the page of a book is formed by properly combining 

 4 



