582 PROTOTTPOGRAPHY. 



be of interest to note the portraits or other representations of them, 

 that exist. 



A fine engraving by Houbraken of Lawrence Janssoen, the Sacris- 

 tan, may be seen in the Origines Typographicce of Gerard Meerman, 

 of Rotterdam. We behold a face slightly aged ; long, emaciate, and 

 smoothly shaven, with speaking thoughtful eyes, looking out at the 

 spectator; a benevolent, intelligent, somewhat clerical countenance, 

 surmounted by the soft four-cornered scholar's cap, iisually seen on 

 Erasmus. The authenticity of this portrait is not certain ; and the 

 heads of the statues erected to Janssoen at Haarlem have been 

 moulded from some other likeness. In Meerman's work is given a 

 fac-simile of a supposed early effort of Janssoen's with his movable 

 wooden or lead types ; a so-called Ilorarium, a little vade mecum for 

 children, containing first the Alphabet, and then the Creed and Lord's 

 Prayer, in Latin. The inscription placed by public authority in 

 Janssoen's house at Haarlem is also given ; Memorice sacrum. Typo 

 graphia, A7's Artium Omnium Conservatrix, hie primum inventa circa 

 annum mccccxxiix (14:23). Attempts have been made to show that 

 Lawrence Janssoen of Haarlem lived after the Gutenberg era, and was 

 not in any way connected with the art of printing. Advantage is 

 here probably taken, as in so many instances, of identity of name in 

 two different persons. The special pleading, having for its aim the 

 complete annihilation of the Haarlem tradition, which is old, per- 

 sistent and reasonable, rather overshoots the mark. 



Of Gutenberg's form and presence, posterity derives an ideal image 

 from the statue at Strasburg, where in one of the squares he is seen 

 raLsed aloft ; a thin spare figure in furred cap and ample furred gown ; 

 stepping forward with energy, the two hands holding out an open 

 scroll, on which is the inscription ^t la lumiere fut — " And there was 

 light." The face is long, care-worn and aged; a patriarchal beard 

 descends upon the breast. Tn a public place in Mayence, there is 

 another statue of Gutenberg, not so sti-iking perhaps as that at 

 Strasburg, notwithstanding the celebrity of the artist of the former, 

 namely, Thorwaldsen. Li Lacroix's Historic de V Imprimerie, is the 

 head by Julius in 1698, which is the prototype of the likeness pre- 

 sented by the statues. 



The faces of Schoeffer and Fust are familiar to us from a medal 

 struck in their honour, showing their profiles, conjointly with that of 

 Gutenberg. A small copy of this group is to be seen in Johnson's 

 Typograpliia, and in numerous other works. 



