188 



PRINTING AND PRINTERS. 



PRINTING AND PEINTEES, 



THE ART OF PRINTING. 



When, where, and by whom 

 printing was invented -are equally 

 unknown ; and it may, perhaps, be 

 matter of surprise to many that the 

 art of printing, which throws so 

 much light upon almost every other 

 subject, should throw little upon its 

 own origin. The most we know is, 

 that it was discovered either in 

 Germany or Holland, about 1440 

 only about four hundred years 

 ago ; that the first types were made 

 of wood, not metal ; and that some 

 of the earliest printed works were 

 passed off as manuscripts. 



The two principal cities which 

 lay claim to the invention are 

 Haerlem and Mentz ; and either 

 from one or the other, or perhaps 

 from both, it was conveyed to the 

 different cities and countries of 

 Europe. 



The introduction of printing into 

 England is undoubtedly to be as- 

 cribed to William Caxton, a modest, 

 worthy, and industrious man, who 

 went to Germany entirely to learn 

 the art; and having practised it 

 himself at Cologne, in 1471. brought 

 it to England two years afterwards. 

 He was not only a printer, but an 

 author; and the book which he 

 translated, called the Game at Chess, 

 and which appeared in 1474, is con- 

 sidered as the first production of 

 the English press. 



The seal-engravers were, how- 

 ever, the first printers; and the art 

 of printing with blocks was merely 

 an extension of the art, from im- 

 pressions on wax to impressions on 

 paper- or vellum. 



Though a variety of opinions 

 exist as to the individual by whom 

 the art of printing was first dis- 

 covered, yet all authorities concur 

 in admitting Peter Schoeffer to be 

 the person who invented cast-metal 



types; having learned the art of 

 cutting the letters from the Gut- 

 tembergs: he is also supposed to 

 have been the first who engraved 

 on copper-plates. 



The following testimony has been 

 preserved in the family, by Jo. 

 Fred. Faustus, of Ascheffenburg: 



"Peter Schceffer, of Gernsheim, 

 perceiving his master Faust's de- 

 sign, and being himself desirous 

 ardently to improve the art, found 

 out by the good providence of 

 God the method of cutting (inci- 

 dendi) the characters in a matrix, 

 that the letters might easily be 

 singly cast, instead of being cut. 

 He privately cut matrices for the 

 whole alphabet. Faust was so 

 pleased with the contrivance, that 

 he promised Peter to give him his 

 only daughter, Christiana, in mar- 

 riage a promise which he soon 

 after performed." 



PUNCTUATION. 



The dash, or perpendicular line, 

 thus, | , was the only punctuation 

 the first printers used. It was, 

 however, discovered, that "the craft 

 of poynting well used makes the 

 sentence very light." The more 

 elegant comma supplanted the long, 

 uncouth | ; the colon was a refine- 

 ment, " showing that there is more 

 to come." But the semicolon was 

 a Latin delicacy which the obtuse 

 English typographer resisted. So 

 late as 1580 and 1590, treatises on 

 orthography do not recognize any 

 such innovator ; the Bible of 1592, 

 though printed with appropriate 

 accuracy, is without a semicolon; 

 but in 1633, its full rights are esta- 

 blished by Charles Butler's English 

 Grammar. From this chronology of 

 the four points of punctuation, it is 

 evident that Shakspeare could never 

 have used the semicolon ; a circum- 

 stance which the profound George 



