THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. Zales 
Official records of the time throw but a glimmer of light on the 
early history of printing. ‘There is, however, record of the fact that 
Fust lent money to Gutenberg in 1449, and made a second advance 
three years after that date ; that as surety for his loan he held claims 
on certain eftects ; that in November, 1455, he sought to recover 
with interest the monies advanced, and that the case was adjudged 
in his favor. The record of the suit refers to vellum, paper, ink, 
tools, the book, and workmen’s wages. ‘The chroniclers who wrote 
accounts of the doings of that day, content themselves with nar- 
rating concerning printing what was verbally told them by some of 
the German printers, who, after the siege of Mainz in 1462, carried 
their art throughout Europe. One of these most interesting para- 
graphs of hearsay evidence comes from William Fichet. He 
was not only a good scholar who had been elected rector of the 
University of Paris, but was an astute man of the world, whom 
Louis the XI employed in important negotiations, and who receiyed 
credit for concluding peace with the Duke of Burgundy. He was 
an earnest patron of the new art of printing, and through his 
influence Gering, Krantz and Friburger, three German printers, 
established an office in Paris within the walls of the Sorbonne. In 
one of the early books from their press put in operation in 1470, 
there is printed a communication from Fichet, who says the friends 
of literature will be benefited by these new sort of printers, who, 
like warriors from the Trojan horse, are scattered abroad. And he 
adds; “In France the story is that a certain John Gutenberg, not 
far from Mainz, was the first inventor of the printing art by means 
of which books are made, not with a reed as of old, nor with a pen 
as in our days, but with metal letters, and that rapidly, evenly and 
elegantly.” 7 
The Cologne Cfronzcle contains a similar but more specific 
account. In a narrative comprising eighty lines of his book, the 
chronicler states that John Gutenberg, who was born at Strasburg, 
was the inventor of printing, at Mainz, in 1440 ; that after ten years 
experimenting and preliminary work, he commenced, at Mainz, in 
1450, to print a Bible in Missal types; that while the art of printing 
in common use was invented at Mainz, a first prefigurement of that 
art was invented in Holland, in the JDonatuses, formerly printed 
there; and though many wrongheaded men may say books were 
