110

PRINTING.

J. Faust; in the advertisement to the said book, Nic. Car-bachus speaks to the same effect, as to the privilege men-tioned by Erasmus .

Respecting Guttemberg, Mentel, and Koster, Naunde re-marks, that the person is yet to be born who can say he hasever seen books printed by any of them, before or so early asthose of Faust; adds, all that is urged on their behalf, isonly founded on false reports, conjectures, probabilities,forged authorities, and the jealousies of cities against oneanother.

Salmuth, in his additions to Pancirollus, cites a publicact, by which it appears that Faust, after having inventedprinting, and sustained the expense a long time on his ownfooting, at length took in Guttemberg as partner, to contri-bute to tbe very great expense incurred, by reason of thefirst books being most of them printed on vellum or parch-ment, and after the Chinese w r ay.

The advocates for Koster, place him in the exact situationin which Faust is described. Mr. Ellis, in the Philosophi-cal Transactions , alleges Roster’s books are prior to any ofthose referred to Faust, even some as early as 1430 and1432. It appears certain, the citizens of Haerlem showprinted books of those dates, which agrees so well withwhat Theod. Scriverius and others have left, which leavesMr. Ellis little room to doubt whether the honour of theinvention be his or the other’s due. AH that belongs toFaust, according to this writer, is the honour of establish-ing the art in a greater lustre and perfection many yearsafter at another place.

It has been observed, that it was the custom with theearly printers to print more on vellum than paper. Thismethod was, however, soon changed, and paper was intro-duced for the major part of the impressions, when a fewonly were printed on vellum for curiosities, and the purposeof being illuminated.

With regard to the claims of Strasburg, it appears, thatGuttemberg had endeavoured to introduce printing there,but without success. The first actual printers at Strasburgwere Mentilius and Egglestenius. There is no proof of asingle book having been printed there till after 1462, whenthe dispersion of the Mentz printers in that year, occasionedthe art to spread rapidly through Europe . In 1490, it evenreached Constantinople , where, however, the jealousy of thegovernment has prevented its ever succeeding.

It has been observed by Mr. Bradford, and with an ap-pearance of likelihood, that it is not improbable the origin