578 PROTOTYPOGRAPHY, 



Haarlem ; but it developed itself very nearly to perfection at May 

 ence, the latter city really deriving tlie discovery in a crude state 

 from the former. The story as told by the typographical authorities 

 of Holland, but disputed, and supposed to be refuted by circum- 

 stantial evidence elsewhere, is as follows : Lourens or Lawrence 

 Janssoen was a well-to-do citizen of Haarlem ; according to some, a 

 licensed victualler ; according to others, a xylographer or block-book 

 printer, who prepared with his own hands the wooden tablets from 

 which, after duly tinting them with pigments, he took his one-side 

 copies, pressing down the paper or vellum on the charactors, or the 

 engraving, with the tips of his lingers. One day, idling away a leisure 

 hour in one of the gardens or public walks of Haarlem, in company 

 with his grandchildren, as he strolled along he fashioned with his 

 pocket-knife, for their amusement, out of a piece of fresh bark casually 

 picked up, a number of small letters, and then fastening them re- 

 versed on the surface of a piece of stiff paper, so as to form certain 

 words, and turning the whole over on another piece of paper, he 

 exhibited to his young friends a copy of these words produced by 

 the stain of the fresh bark. At this moment of time, we are told, 

 the notion of a wide application of the process just employed was 

 begotten in Lawrence Janssoen's mind. The query then and there 

 suggested itself to him : Instead of carving in solid mass the con- 

 tents of each page of a book, as had hitherto been done, might not 

 the letters be made separate and used in innumerable combinations ] 

 I pass over details ; but some sets of movable letters were speedily 

 constructed, first ui wood and then in lead, a,nd used with certain 

 rude results, a few specimens of which are said to be in existence. 

 The system adopted was kept secret in Lawrence Janssoen's house- 

 hold ; but at length an unfaithful employe, we are assured, purloined 

 the newly-contrived appliances, and made off with them, first to 

 Amsterdam • and then across the country to the Rhine, and so to his 

 former home, Mayence — having taken advantage, some say, of a holi- 

 day at Christmas time in the office at Haarlem, or, as others think, 

 of a temporary suspension of business when the death of Lawrence 

 Janssoen occurred in 1440. 



Now John Gensfleisch (better known as Gutenberg) appears on 

 ithe scene, who afterwards substituted copper and tin for wood and 

 lead in the cutting of type, who even succeeded in manufacturing 

 punches, and constructing moulds and matrices from which type was 



