O46, 
—~ 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
their province to feize the invettigations. 
which the learned have made on the hiftery 
of this art ; on its birth, not very remote, 
and, neverthelefs, already involved in 
doubts and uncertainties ; and to draw 
from their conjectures, often contradic- 
tory, refults that. may afford fatisfaétion 
te curiofity, and, what is more difficult, to 
reafon. 
Citizen Daunovu has impofed upon 
himlelf this tafk, ma memoir confifting 
of three parts. In the firtt, he confiders 
the moft antient productions of the pre's, 
all thofe which are, or are believed to be, 
anterior to the year 1460, whether they 
are yet extant, or there only remain frag- 
ments of them,.or they are only known 
by the mention that writers make of them. 
He proceeds to examine the procefles em- 
picyed for the execution of thofe different 
produtions—-of thofe, at leaft, which have 
been defcribed and verified. 
The fecond part of the memoir is an 
examen of the teftimonies relative to the 
origin of printing. This word ¢e/fimonies 
here compreliends pubdiic aéts, particular 
writings, fubfcriptions or names of edi- 
tors, texts of contemporary writers, that 
is to fay, of thofe who lived in the fifteenth 
century ; the texts, alfo, of certain au- 
thors, who exified only in the fixteenth, 
but who are authorifed by certain parti- 
cular recitals that contemporaries have 
made tothem. Thefe teftimonies are very 
difcordant. Their number has been lately 
augmented by thofe which CitizenFifcher, 
bookifeller of Mentz, has recently difco- 
vered and publifhed. 
In the third part, Citizen Daunou dif- 
cufles the fj/fems fupported in the courfe of 
the feventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
on the origin of the typographical art ; 
fyftems, likewife, very numerous, even 
including thofe only which place the in- 
vention of printing either in Harlem, orat 
Strafburg, or at Mentz. The author 
analyfes what has been written for Harlem 
by Boxhorn, and efpecially by Meerman ; 
for S:trafburz, whether by thofe who, like 
Schoepflin think it was in this citythatGut- 
temburg executed the firft productions of 
this art, or by shofe who attribute the in- 
vention of it to Mentelun; and, laaly, 
for Mentz, by Salmuth, Naudé, Mal- 
 Hinckrot, Lacaille, Mattaire, Palmer,Prof- 
per Marchand, Schwarz, Fournier, He1- 
neken, Mercier de St. Leger, Ward- 
theiny Lambinet, &c. The writersof this 
third clafs, although agreed as to a fingle 
point, that is to fay, the place, are by no 
“means fo as to the precife term or epoch, 
to the inventors, the procefs, or the firkt 
attempts. 
[OSober Bj... 
The following are general conclufioris 
drawn from the memoir of Citizen Dau- 
nou :—r. That before the year 1400, 
graving in wood had been applied to the 
printing of books, and efpecially of the 
texts which accompanied the images.—2 
That before 1400, Guttenburg had con- 
ceived the idea or moveable types; but 
that this idea had only given rife to labo- 
rious, expenfive, and unproductive efforts; 
whilft the moveable letters were only by: 
graving, whether in wood or metal.—3. 
That we cannot particularly recognize any 
book, as printed at Strafburg, by Gutten- 
burg ; andthat the Dozats, and other little 
works, which are thought to have iffwed 
from his prefs at .Mentz, before 1450, 
are purely ylographical (block-«work) — 
4. That every book printed before 7457, 
has been fo, either with wooden plates, or 
with caft-metal characters, like ours; 
charaéters invented and brought to per- 
fection at Mentz, during the co-partner- 
fhip of Fauft and Guttenburg, from 31450 
to 1455, brought to perfection, doubtless,’ 
by Schoeffer, though invented, perhaps, 
by Guttenburg or by Fauft. And 5, 
That the frit productions, truly typogra-’ 
phical, that is to fay, in moveable charac- 
ters, were, the Bible, without a date, con- 
filting of 637 leaves, and a letter of Pope 
Nicolas V.; fruits of the partnerfhip of 
Guttenburg and Fauft; and, after the dif 
folution of that partnerfhip, the Pfalter of 
1457, to which Fauft and Schoeffer put 
their names. 
EL 
PHILOMATHIC SOCIETY OF 
PARIS. 
ITIZEN GeorFroy, Profeffor in the 
Mufeum of Natural Hiftory, lately 
read to this Society a notice on certain 
habits common to the fhark and to the 
fith called the pilot or pilot-fith. 
An opinion has long prevailed among 
mariners, that the fhark has fubjugated to 
its dominion a very fmall fith of the gadus 
genus ; and that this latter precedes his 
mafter in their voyages, points out to him 
fuch places in the fea as abound moft in 
fifth, difcovers by the track the prey of 
which he is the fondeft, and that, in recom- 
pence ror fuch fignal fervices, the fhark, 
notwithftanding his gluttonous dilpofi:ion, 
maintains the relations of peace and amity 
with fo ufeful a companion. Naturalitts, 
however, always on their guard againft 
the exaggerations of voyagers, who could 
not divine the reafons of fuch an affocia+ 
tion, have called the faé&t in queftion. “IT 
fhall fhew that this has been done ape: 
oully 
