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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 
 iV w
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAY 
 
 Cije <rtgtn of $nnting, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 M. DE LA SERNA, SANTANDER. 
 
 PRINTED BY AND FOR S. HODGSON, UNION-STREET ; 
 AND SOLD BY E. CHARNLEY, BIGG-MARKET. 
 
 MDCCCX1X.
 
 L 
 
 I 'St -6 
 
 L333et 
 
 TO 
 
 <&\)t cppogtapfrical Society 
 
 OF 
 
 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, 
 
 THIS TRANSLATION 
 
 or 
 
 santander's ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 PRINTING, 
 
 UNDERTAKEN AT THEIR REQUEST, 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 12746S1
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Amongst the many Essays which have been writ- 
 ten upon the History of Printing, few have acquired 
 a more merited celebrity than that which is prefix- 
 ed by M. De La Serna, Santander, to his Diction- 
 naire Bibliographique choisi du Quinzieme Steele.* 
 The estimation, in which it is held by all well in- 
 formed bibliographers, has long pointed it out to the 
 Translator as deserving of a more general diffusion 
 than it was likely to attain, whilst it remained con- 
 fined to a foreign language, and formed part of a 
 rather large and expensive publication. This opi- 
 nion meeting with the approbation, and coinciding 
 with the object, of the Typographical Society of 
 Newcastle upon Tyne, he has, at their request, been 
 
 * Published at Brussels, in 1805, in 3 vols. Bvo.
 
 VI 
 
 induced to undertake this translation of it, which is 
 now submitted to the decision and patronage of the 
 public. Of the manner, in which he has executed 
 the task he has undertaken, it is not for the Trans- 
 lator to speak ; but he may be permitted to state, 
 that it has been more his object to give a correct 
 transcript of the ideas and arguments of the Author, 
 than to make a studied display of his own powers 
 of composition. 
 
 T. H.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Intboduction, Page xi 
 
 Origin of Printing, 1 
 
 Printing, properly so called The secret of the art guarded 
 
 most sacredly hy the inventors, .... 13 
 Difficulty of fixing the era of the discovery of this art, . 3 
 
 Claim of Harlem not well founded, 4 
 
 Fabulous narrative of Junius, the foundation of the claim of 
 
 Harlem, 6 15 
 
 differently interpreted, and 
 
 fresh fables added to it by the partisans of this claim, 16 1 !) 
 
 Examination of the system of Mr. Meerman His genealogy 
 
 of Laurence Coster, 20 22 
 
 First typographical essays, gratuitously attributed to the said 
 
 Coster, 2427 
 
 The B'Mia Piiiijx-nim, the Speculum, and other works of this 
 kind, are not by Coster They were executed in Ger- 
 many 27 M 
 
 Guttenberg falsely accused of having stolen the types of the 
 
 pretended office of Coster, 30 3U 
 
 Ostentatious monuments erected to Coster, of Harlem, by the 
 enthusiasm of his countrvmen, .... 38 40 
 Coster was neither an engraver on wood, nor a printer, 40 4 1 
 b
 
 Vlll 
 
 The art of engraving on wood, for printing from, was disco- 
 vered in Germany. Image of St. Christopher, with date of 
 1423, 4244 
 
 The partisans of Harlem have no document in favour of them. 
 The ancient editions, without date and without the name 
 of place and of the printer, prove nothing, . . 44 45 
 
 Absurd chronology of the pretended works of Coster, forged 
 by Seiz and Mr. Meerman, 46 
 
 The unknown office of the descendants of Coster discovered 
 
 by Mr. Meerman Fable of the robbery committed by 
 
 Corsellis, 4748 
 
 Refutation of the means used by Mr. Meerman to support his 
 discovery of the Laurentian Printing-office, . . 49 -52 
 
 The history of Coster and his invention nothing but an empty 
 tale, 5255 
 
 More certain facts respecting the discovery of printing, 5557 
 
 John Guttenberg, of Mentz, makes the first attempts at the 
 art, about the year 1439, at Strasburg Documents which 
 clearly prove this, 57 70 
 
 Return of Guttenberg to Mentz, where he established a new 
 printing-office, in company with J. Fust, who afterwards 
 became the sole possessor of it, . . . . 70 73 
 
 J. Guttenberg forms a new typographical establishment, in 
 which he printed divers works until 1465, . . 73 77 
 
 After the death of Guttenberg, in 1468, his materials passed, 
 first into the possession of Conrad Humery, Syndic of Mentz, 
 and afterwards of Bechtermuntze, a printer at Elfeld, 77 78 
 
 Ungenerous conduct of Fust ; with the assistance of Peter 
 Schoeffer, he prints, with the cast metal types of Guttenberg, 
 the celebrated Psalmorum Codex, . . . .79 
 
 Peter Schoeffer invents a more easy method of casting types, 
 namely, the punches for striking the matrices, . 82 87
 
 IX 
 
 Fust gives his daughter in marriage to P. Schoeffer for this 
 
 discovery. First books printed at Mentz, . . 87 89 
 The printing of the Catltolicoii is the work of Guttenberg, as 
 
 well as the types used for that purpose, . . 89 90 
 
 The claim of Strasburg to the discovery of printing strongly 
 
 supported, 90 91 
 
 John Guttenberg is the true inventor of the art of printing, 
 
 conceived in the city of Strasburg, and perfected at Mentz. 
 
 Conclusion, ..,,,.. 92 93
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 J he number of books, which have been written 
 upon both the general and the local History of 
 Printing, is so great, that the mere enumeration 
 of them would almost fill a volume.* The con- 
 sideration of this circumstance had at one time en- 
 tirely deterred me from pursuing the design I had 
 formed, of writing upon this subject ; but when I 
 reflected, that, independent of the difficulty of pro- 
 curing these works, many of which are now very 
 rarely to be met with, the diversity of opinion which 
 prevails amongst their authors, the violent preposses- 
 sions of some in favour of their system, the errors 
 and mistakes of others, exacted from their readers 
 a continued attention and much study in order to 
 
 " The Author here gives in a note a short list of the principal 
 works on the History of Printing ; but as it is very incomplete, 
 it has not l>een thought necessary to insert it. A very com- 
 plete list will be found in Horn's Introduction to Bibl'wgraplnj, 
 vol. ii. page 469.
 
 Xll 
 
 arrive at a knowledge of the truth, I again adopted 
 my original design of publishing my thoughts upon 
 this interesting portii 1 of literary history. 
 
 The History of Printing being in fact one of the 
 most important branches of bibliography, it be- 
 comes absolutely indispensable for all those, who 
 desire to make any progress in the knowledge of 
 books, and more especially for the persons charged 
 with the care and preservation of libraries, to have 
 some precise ideas of its origin and of its progress ; 
 and at the same time to possess a knowledge of 
 the celebrated artists, who, by their talents, con- 
 tributed the most to the perfection of this art, which 
 is generally regarded as the most useful discovery 
 that has been produced by the genius of man.* 
 For we ought not to confound the utility of an art 
 with the abuse which may be made of it ; some 
 austere persons, some modern Catos struck with 
 the strange abuse, which has in this age been 
 made of printing, have at times declaimed against 
 this beautiful art; but this circumstance cannot 
 in any manner authorise others to decry the 
 
 Ars ilia ingeniosa, qua non alia unquam extitit caeteris 
 artibus promovendis et quibuscumque rebus peragendis utilior. 
 Maittaire, Annal. Typogr., vol. Hi. page 3. 
 
 Nulli nisi nauticse praxidi, nee utilitate, nee dignitate, nee 
 subtilitate secunda Cardanut do Subtilitatc, lib. xvii.
 
 XU1 
 
 art of Printing itself, the pervertion alone of which 
 ought to excite their ceLsin . The rapid progress, 
 which the arts and sciences have made since its disco- 
 very, is an unequivocal proof of its utility. Before 
 the invention of Printing letters were confined to 
 only a small number of rich monasteries and indi- 
 A'iduals, who were capable of paying a considerable 
 sum of money for a copy of a good work. Books 
 were at that time appreciated as highly as jewels ; 
 they were so rare and held in such estimation, that 
 they were left by will to the greatest favourites, and 
 conveyance was sometimes made of them from one 
 individual to another, by regular contract, as if they 
 had been real property.* 
 
 Many instances of the excessive price of books, before the 
 invention of printing, may be seen in La Caille's Hutoire dr 
 rimprimcric, pages 3 and 4, and in Schelhornius's Obscnat'wiics 
 ad Card. Quirini Librum de optim. Script. Edition. Rom. page 104, 
 note (A) ; but nothing, in my opinion, better shews the estima- 
 tion in which they were held, and the value which was attached 
 to these literary treasures, than the letter which the Doctors of 
 the Faculty of Medicine, in Paris, wrote to King Louis XI. 
 on the subject of the work of Rasis, which they had lent, by his 
 order, to the President Jean IK- La Driest-he; in this letter is 
 seen the singular precaution they took for the security of this 
 book. The letter is as follows : 
 
 Notre souverain Seigneur, tant et si trcs-humblenient que 
 nous pouvons, nous nous recommandons a voire bonne grfuv.
 
 XIV 
 
 As an historical essay, a rapid glance at the 
 origin and progress of Printing may be regarded 
 as a necessary introduction to this work (Diction- 
 naire Bibliographique), I resolved to draw out 
 this abridged view of what is most true and certain 
 in the History of Printing, taking for my guides, 
 not only die best authors, who have written on this 
 subject, but more especially authentic documents, 
 as well as the positive facts, resulting from the actual 
 existence of the first editions with dates, and bear- 
 ing the. name of the place where they were printed. 
 
 et vous plaise sjavoir, que le'Pre'sident Messire Jean De La 
 Driesche nous a dit que lui aves rescript, qu'il vous envoyast 
 Totum contiiiens m Rusii pour faire escrire ; et pource qu'il n'en a 
 point, sjachant que nous en avons un, nous a requis, que lui 
 voulussions bailler. 
 
 Sire, combien que nous avons garde tres-pre'cieusement ledit 
 livre, car c'est le plus beau et le plus singulier tre'sor de notre 
 faculte', et n'en trouve-t-on gueres de tel ; ne'anmoins nous, qui 
 de tout notre coeur de'sirons vous complaire, et accomplir ce qui 
 vous est agreable, comme tenus sommes, avons delivre' audit 
 President ledit livre pour le faire e'crire, moyennant certains 
 gages de vaisselle d'argent, et d'autres cautions, qu'il nous a 
 bailie' en seurete' de nous le rendre, ainsi que selon les status de 
 notre faculty faire ce doit, lesquels nous avons tous jurez aux 
 Saints Evangiles de Dieu garder et observer, ne autrement ne 
 les pouvons avoir ]>our nos propres affaires. Priant Dieu, Sire, 
 etc. Ce29 Nov. 1471.
 
 AN 
 
 JiMStorical ssav 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ORIGIN OF PRINTING. 
 
 I he first authors, or inventors, of printing,' who 
 probably did not foresee how materially thi9 happy 
 
 1 I speak here only of printing properly so called, that is, 
 with separate letters or types ; for we ought not to regard as 
 such the art of engraving writing upon stones, wood, and metals, 
 from which many writers have taken occasion to assert, that 
 the art of printing was known to the ancients. If I had a desire 
 to increase this volume, I could easily dilate upon this .sub- 
 ject, and report, at full length, in order to support this assertion, 
 the proofs afforded by Homer, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicar- 
 nassus, Cicero, Quinctilian, and other ancient authors ; but this 
 erudition, of no utility to our present object, would at most only 
 prove, what all the world knows, that the art of engraving letters 
 was known to all the nations of antiquity. It is, without doubt, 
 very surprising, that the Greeks and Romans, who carried the 
 art of engraving, both en creux and in relief, to the highest 
 degree of perfection, should not have arrived at the discover)' of 
 B
 
 discovery was destined to promote the diffusion and 
 advancement of letters, and still less, perhaps, the 
 honour and celebrity, which they were themselves 
 
 printing, which they may be said to have had almost within their 
 grasp, and of which, it seems, nothing was wanting to them 
 but the execution ; but this shews, that the finest inventions 
 are often owing more to chance than to the genius of artists. 
 The gems, the seals, the medals, the marbles, the inscriptions, 
 the laws engraven upon brass, and other remains of antiquity, 
 attest, and shew to us, that the ancients even had an actual 
 knowledge of printing with fixed characters. To prove this, I 
 shall only mention the metal stamp, or signet, found near Rome, 
 and now in the collection of the Duke of Richmond, and of 
 which a detailed description and figure may be seen in the 
 Philosophical Transactions, voL xL no. 450, art. xi. page 388. 
 This remarkable stamp, on the back of which is a ring for a 
 handle, is two inches long, and thirty-three fortieths of an 
 inch wide; the characters, which are Roman capital letters, 
 are seven fortieths of an inch high. It bears the following 
 inscription engraved in reverse and in relief: 
 
 I J I33ADIO 
 
 .ns .aAiMaaH 
 
 Which, on an impression being taken, expresses these words, 
 
 CICAECILI 
 HERMIAE. SN. 
 
 That is, Caii Julii Ccecilii Hermtce signum. 
 
 [It is observed, with great plausibility, by the describer of 
 this signet, in the Philosophical Transactions, that as the rim
 
 one clay to derive from it, always carefully endea- 
 voured to keep the art a secret, 7 being solely oc- 
 cupied with their pecuniary interests, and with the 
 means of deriving all the profit possible from their 
 invention. 
 
 II. Hence arises the difficulty of being able to 
 fix precisely the era of the discovery of this useful 
 invention, the glory of which many cities have 
 emulously strove to appropriate to themselves. 
 Mentz, Strasburg, Harlem, Dordrecht, Venice, 
 Rome, Florence, Bologna, Basle, Augsburg, &c. 
 have aspired to this honour ; and their respective 
 claims have occasioned warm disputes amongst men 
 
 and letters are all exactly of the same height, and as the field 
 of it, or that part which has been cut away, is very rough and 
 uneven in its depth, this curious stamp has evidently been used 
 for making an impression in ink on some even surface, and 
 not for l>eing impressed into wax or any other soft substance ; 
 for had it been intended for the latter purpose, the field would 
 certainly have been rendered as smooth and even as possible. 
 
 A somewhat similar stamp of bronze, bearing a Greek inscrip- 
 tion, is in the possession of the Antiquarian Society of New. 
 castle upon Tyne. Archaeologia JEliana, vol. i. appendix, page 6.] 
 
 * It appears certain, that they were obliged, even with an 
 oath, to guard the secret of their art : " Inventores primos id 
 clam habuisse omnesque secret i conscios, rcligione etiam .inju- 
 randi interposita exclusisse." 
 
 Maittairc, Annalet Typographiei, voL i. page 4. 
 
 b2
 
 of letters, in numerous controversial and critical 
 writings, which have successively appeared upon 
 this important point of literary history. 
 
 III. I shall discuss, in this Essay, the claims of 
 the cities of Harlem, Mentz, and Strasburg only, 
 which have the most warmly contended for the 
 honour of this invention, and the only ones which 
 can boast of producing striking and unequivocal 
 proofs in support of their pretensions. Yet, I 
 think, we must set aside the city of Harlem, the 
 claims of which, more noisy than solid, being found- 
 ed upon vague reports and hearsays only, are 
 really unworthy of belief; and certainly the claim 
 of Harlem, in spite of all the efforts of the cele- 
 brated and very learned Mr. Meerman to sustain 
 it, is regarded by the bibliographers of the present 
 day as a mere fable. Indeed, the result of the work 
 of Mr. Meerman (Origines Typographies ,- Hagce 
 Comitum, 1765, 2 torn. 4>to.), 3 notwithstanding the 
 learned researches which it contains, is nothing but 
 a typographical system, built almost entirely upon 
 
 3 This work of Mr. Meerman, and the incredible efforts, 
 which he has therein made, to defend the cause of Harlem and 
 of Coster, are so much the more remarkable, as some years before 
 he entertained a contrary opinion. In fact, in the month of 
 October, 1757, the celebrated Jan Wagenaar, by whom we have
 
 suppositions and conjectures, suggested by an exces- 
 sive love of his country, an excusable prejudice, 
 from which the greatest men have not been exempt. 
 
 an excellent history of Holland," wrote a letter to Mr. Meer- 
 man, in which, on sending to him some observations, which he 
 had made upon a Flemish edition of the celebrated Speculum 
 humana Salvationls, he expresses his desire to be made acquainted 
 with Mr. Meerman's opinion on the discovery of printing. To 
 this letter, Mr. Meerman makes a reply ,-f of which, as it is not 
 yet much known in the republic of letters, I here add a trans, 
 lation, for the gratification of the reader. 
 
 " To Mr. Jan Wagenaar. 
 " Sir, A few days after my arrival in this place, I received 
 with pleasure the letter, which you have done me the honour 
 to write to me ; and I feel extremely obliged to you, for what 
 you communicate to me concerning the difference between the 
 two editions of the Specylum humance Salvationls (Spifgel onser 
 Behoudenisse ). I perfectly agree with you about what relates to 
 the antiquity of one above the other ; yet I think it may be 
 shewn, that the Latin Speculum is more ancient than the two 
 Flemish editions ; this is apparent, amongst other things, 
 from the little Latin sentences, which are found engraved 
 under the wood cuts. Now if these cuts had been first used 
 
 Vaderlandsche Historie, tweede druk ; Amsterdam, Isaac Tirion, 
 1 752 ; 24 vols. 8vo. with plates. The first edition is much sought 
 after, on account of the proof impressions. 
 
 f This reply, as well as the letter which gave rise to it. will 
 be found at the end of the work entitled, Het Levcn tym Jan 
 Wagenaar; Amsterdam, by Yniema en Tiebocl, 1776 ; in 8vo.
 
 6 
 
 IV. In fact, the work of Mr. Meerman, and those 
 of all the authors, who have written either before 
 
 for your Flemish edition, these sentences, as well as the text 
 printed below them, would certainly have been expressed in 
 the language of the country.* But the opinion of the pre- 
 tended discovery of printing, by Laurence Coster, begins more 
 and more to lose its credit. All that Seitz relates to us about 
 it, and all that has been adopted into the history of the country, 
 are mere suppositions ; and the chronology, respecting the dis- 
 coveries and performances of Coster, is a romantic invention, to 
 which I can oppose one much more probable in honour of 
 Guttenberg. It may be proved by plausible arguments, without 
 yet being able to give a formal demonstration of it, as I remem- 
 ber to have informed you verbally, that the printed text of the 
 Speculum is of a date long subsequent to that of the cuts, and 
 that it was, perhaps, printed a long time after 1470 ; which is 
 not surprising, since these same cuts were also made use of in 
 the Culemburg edition of 1483. Hence it appears, that if any 
 thing belongs to Coster, it is only the cuts, and thus, if we 
 would be indulgent, the invention of Coster will have consisted 
 in the knowledge of engraving letters in wood, or in some other 
 
 * Mr. Meerman has, in the sequel, destroyed his own ar- 
 gument, with the greatest facility, in saying that Coster had, 
 with his ordinary discernment, arranged it so, that he had been 
 able to avail himself of these blocks, for the Latin edition, which 
 he proposed to publish : " Dicendum potius est, (Orig. Typ. vol. 
 i. page 126,^ bene omnino rebus suis consuluisse prototypogra- 
 phum, dum a Belgica editione, quae magis per vulgus spargi 
 poterat, artis suae facturus periculum, Romano tamen sermone 
 
 argumenta includi tabellis voluit, ut has ipsae inservire post 
 
 modum Latinae editioni possent."
 
 or after him, in favour of the claim of Harlem, 
 contain only commentaries upon, and conjectural 
 
 material; but this differs, as the night from the day, from 
 printing with separate types. All the other known pieces 
 also, except the Speculum, are from simple wooden blocks with 
 letters engraved upon them ; but it yet remains to be proved 
 that they were done by Coster. Likewise, how could Fust, 
 who learned the art from Guttenberg, have been so impudent as 
 to state, in all his editions published after 1457, that printing 
 had been discovered in Germany ? And if the fact had been 
 otherwise, would there not have been found some Dutch printer, 
 or writer of a chronicle, who would have refuted that preten- 
 sion ? But so far is this from being the case, that the Dutch 
 chronicle, commonly called De Divisiechronyk, even in the edition 
 of 1517, places printing, not under the chapter of national, but 
 of foreign, discoveries. I fancy, indeed, that it is sufficiently 
 evident that the art is of foreign origin, and that the laurel 
 crown ought to be plucked from the head of Coster, since Pro- 
 fessor Schoepflin has found, in the archives of Strasburg, the 
 authentic papers of a process, from which it appears, (as Mr. 
 Schoepflin wrote to me a fortnight ago,) that Guttenberg had 
 discovered printing at Strasburg, in 1436. Therefore, if it be 
 true, that Coster printed with separate types, of which there is 
 not an iota of proof, can it be shewn to us that he exercised this 
 art before 1436 ? For if it took place afterwards, nay, if he even 
 then had practised the art, not acquiring it from hearing of what 
 had been done by others, but from his own invention, Gutten- 
 berg was the first inventor. These judicial papers will be pub- 
 lished by this learned professor, after the publication of the 
 second volume of his Alsatia lUuttratu, which will be in a year's
 
 interpretations of, the too celebrated story, related 
 in the work called Batavia, by Hadrian Junius, an 
 
 time. I ought not, perhaps, to publish my Essay, before that 
 period, in order that I may derive every advantage from the 
 matter contained therein ; and besides I yet expect much infor- 
 mation, and have the hope of acquiring 17 works printed by 
 Fust and Schoeffer, of which there is not such a collection in 
 the libraries of Paris, Vienna, the Vatican, and other places ; 
 these books will also probably throw some light upon the subject. 
 I shall be obliged to make, upon the works printed by Fust, 
 some observations suggested by certain verses by Schoeffer, 
 placed at the end of the Institution** Justiniani of 1468. In 
 short, I hope to be able to communicate some new observations, 
 and a list of 41 or 42 works printed by Fust and Schoeffer, of 
 which about the half were known to Maittaire, Marchand, &c. 
 Time, however, and more labour than would be believed, will be 
 necessary for all this ; but, when I meet with any thing 
 relating to this subject, I do not fail to take note of it. I ask 
 pardon for having interrupted you so long in your important 
 occupations ; but I know that you sometimes relieve your 
 mind by speculations of this nature. I have the honour to 
 subscribe myself, with much esteem, your's, &c. 
 
 " The Hague, Uth October, 1757." 
 
 Those, whb have read the Origines Typographicce of Mr. Meer- 
 man, in which he defends so pertinaciously the pretensions of 
 Harlem, will undoubtedly be astonished at the contents of this 
 letter. One is at first tempted to think, that Mr. Meerman, to 
 undergo such a change of opinion, must have found in his later 
 researches, some proof or authentic document in favour of 
 Harlem; but in examining his work with attention, one is
 
 author later by more than a century, than the 
 pretended discovery of printing, made in the city 
 of Harlem, by Laurence Coster.* 
 
 V. As this story, this fabulous narrative of Junius, 
 (who was settled in Harlem about the year 1560, 
 where, according to all appearances, he composed 
 his Batavia, published after his death at Leyden, in 
 1588,) is the only paper, the only testimony, the 
 only document, upon which the partisans of the 
 city of Harlem found their typographical system, 
 it is necessary to notice it particularly. The fol- 
 lowing is nearly the substance of this narrative : 5 
 
 much surprised to find therein, to make use of the expression 
 of the letter, not an iota of proof; on the contrary, he proves 
 there, as we shall see in the sequel, that the too famous proto- 
 typographer, the said Coster, has not even existed. 
 
 4 Hadrian Junius (de Jonghe), a native of Hoorn, in West 
 Friesland, after having long practised physic at Harlem, was 
 obliged, by the storm of war, to retire into Zealand, where he 
 died the 16th of June, 1575, of vexation at having lost his 
 library and manuscripts, by the pillage of Harlem, in 1573. It 
 appears, by the dedication of his Batavia, addressed to the States 
 of Holland, and dated the 6th of January, 1575, that this work 
 was then ready for press ; but his death, happening some months 
 after, probably retarded the publication of it till 1588, when it 
 was printed at Leyden, apud Francitcum Raphelengium, in 4to. 
 
 5 I here add Junius's own words from the Leyden edition 
 of 1588, 4to. pages 255 and 256 :_ 
 
 C
 
 10 
 
 VI. " It is now about 1 28 years," says Junius* 
 " since Laurence, the son of John, a citizen of 
 Harlem, and surnamed Coster (that is, sacristan or 
 
 " Habitavit ante annus centum duodetriginta Harlemi in 
 sedibus satis splendidis (ut documento esse potest fabrica quae 
 in hune usque diem perstat integra) foro imminentibus e re- 
 gione palatii regalis, Laurentius Joannes cognomento yEedituus 
 Custosve (quod tunc opimum et honorificum munus familia eo 
 nomine lara haereditario jure possidebat), is ipse qui nunc 
 laudem inventae artis typographicafe recidivam justis vindiciis 
 ac sacramentis repetit, ab aliis neferie possessam et occupatam, 
 summo jure omnium triumphorum laurea majore donandus. Is 
 forte in suburbano nemore spatiatus (ut solent sumpto cibo aut 
 festis diebus cives qui otio abundant) ccepit faginos cortices 
 principio in literarum typos conformare, quibus inversa ratione 
 sigillatim chartae impressis versiculum unum atque alterum 
 animi gratia ducebat, nepotibus generi sui liberis exemplum 
 futurum. Quod ubi feliciter successerat, ccepit animo altiora 
 (ut erat ingenio magno et subacto) agitare, primumque omnium 
 atramenti acriptorii genus glutinosius tenaciusque, quod vulgare 
 lituras trahere experiretur, cum genere suo Thoma Petro, qui 
 quaternos liberos reliquit omnes ferme consulari dignitate 
 functos (quod eo dico ut artem in familia honesta et ingenua, 
 haud servili, natam intelligant omnes) excogitavit, inde etiam 
 pinaces totas figuratas additis characteribus expressit : quo in 
 genere vidi ab ipso excusa Adversaria, operarum rudimentum 
 paginis solum adversis, haud opistographis : is liber erat verna- 
 culo sermone ab auctore conscriptus anonymo, titulum prae- 
 ferens, Speculum nottrce Salutu : in quibus id observatum fuerat 
 inter prima artis incunabula (ut nunquam ulla simul et reperta et
 
 11 
 
 church-warden, at that time an honourable office, 
 and whicli his family had long held by hereditary 
 right), amused himself, during his walks in the 
 
 absotuia est) uti paginse aversse glutine commissae cohaerescerent, 
 ne illse ipsse vacua; deformitatem adferrent. Fostea faginas 
 formas plumbeis mutavit, has deinceps staneas fecit, quo solidior 
 minusque flexilis esset materia, durabiliorque : e quorum ty- 
 porum reliquiis quae superfuerant connata oenophora vetustiora 
 adhuc hodie visuntur in Laurentianis illis, quas dixi, aedibus in 
 forum prospectantibus, habitatis postea a suo pronepote Gerardo 
 Thoma, quern honoris causa nomino, cive claro, ante paucos 
 hos annos vita defuncto sene. Faventibus, ut fit, invento novo 
 studiis hominum, quum nova merx, nunquam antra visa, emp- 
 tores undique exciret cum huberrimo qusestu, crevit simul 
 artis amor, crevit ministerium, additi familiae operarum mi. 
 nistri, prima maii labes, quos inter Joannes quidam, sive is 
 (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero suo 
 infidus et infaustus, sive alius eo nomine, non magnopere la- 
 boro, quod silentum umbras inquietare nolim, contagione con- 
 scientist quondam dum viverent tactas. Is ad operas excusorias 
 sacramento dictus, postquam artem jungendorum characterum, 
 fusilium typorum peritiam, quaeque alia earn ad rem spectant, 
 percalluisse sibi visus est, captato oportuno tempore, quo non 
 [intuit magis idoneum inveniri, ipsa nocte quae Christi nata- 
 litiis solennis est, qua cuncti promiscue lustralibus sacris 
 operari solent, choragium omne typorum involat, instrumento- 
 rum herilium ei artiticio comparatorum supellectilem convasat, 
 deinde cum fure domo se proripit, Amstelodamum principio 
 adit, inde Coloniam Agrippinam, donee Magontiacum perven- 
 tum est, ceu ad asyli aram, ubi quasi extra telorum jactum
 
 12 
 
 wood near that city, with forming letters of the 
 bark of the beech tree, by means of which he 
 printed upon paper some verses and short sentences, 
 for the instruction of his grand-children. With 
 the assistance of his son-in-law Thomas, the son of 
 Peter, he afterwards invented an ink, more viscous 
 and tenacious than common ink, which was found to 
 blot and fill the letters ; with this new ink he print- 
 ed, in the Flemish language, the Speculum nostrce 
 
 (quod dicitur) positus tuto degeret, suorumque furtorum aperta 
 officina fructum huberem meteret. Nimirum ex ea, intra 
 vertentis anni spacium, ad annum a nato Christo 1442, iis 
 ipsis typis, quibus Harlemi Laurentius fuerat usus, prodisse in 
 lucera certum est Alexandri Galli Doctrinale, quae grammatica 
 celeberrimo tunc in usu erat, cum Petri Hispani TractatHms, 
 prima foetura. Ista sunt ferme quae a senibus annosis fide 
 dignis, et qui tradita de manu in manum quasi ardentem taedam 
 in decursu acceperant, olim intellexi, et alios eadem referentes 
 attestantesque comperi. Memini narrasse mihi Nicolaum 
 Galium, pueritiae meae formatorem, hominem ferrea memoria 
 et longa canitie venerabilem, quod puer non semel audierit 
 Cornelium quendam bibliopegum, ac senio gravem, nee octo- 
 genario minorem (qui in eadem officina subministrum egerat) 
 . . . commemorantem rei gestae seriem, inventi (ut ab hero ac- 
 ceperat) rationem, rudis artis polituram et incrementum, 
 aliaque id genus .... Quae non dissonant a verbis Quirini Talesii 
 Cos. eadem fere ex ore librarii ejusdem se olim accepisse mihi 
 confessi, etc."
 
 IS 
 
 Salutis, a work composed of images and letters. 
 The leaves of this book being printed on one side 
 only, the pages, which were left blank, were after- 
 wards pasted together. After this, Coster aban- 
 doned the use of wooden letters, and adopted 
 metal ones ; forming them at first of lead, and 
 latterly of tin, which metal is rather harder than 
 the former ; some metal wine cups, made from the 
 remains of these letters, may yet be seen in the 
 dwelling house of his descendants. The great pro- 
 fits, which the inventor derived from this new art, 
 induced him to increase his establishment, and with 
 this view he took some workmen into his family. 
 One of these, who was called John, surnamed Fust, 
 as is suspected, or some other person bearing the 
 name of John, it is of no great consequence which, 
 after having learnt the art of arranging and casting 
 types, as well as all other matters relating to the 
 art of printing, in the knowledge of which he had 
 been initiated under the obligation of an oath, 
 seized the opportunity of his master being engaged 
 at mass, on the night of Christmas-eve, to carry 
 off all the types and implements used in the print- 
 ing office. He went with his plunder to Amsterdam 
 in the first instance, then to Cologne, and finally 
 settled at Mentz, where he established a printing
 
 14 
 
 office, in which were printed, in the year 1442, 
 with the types stolen from Harlem, the Doctrinal? 
 Alexandri Galli and the Tractatus Petri Hispani." 
 
 VII. In support of this romantic narrative, com- 
 posed of the hearsays of divers old men, Junius 
 adduces the testimony of Quirinus Talesius and 
 Nicolaus Galius, his old tutor, both of whom had 
 informed him, that they had, in their youth, heard 
 this same story related, more than once, by a cer- 
 tain bookbinder, nearly 80 years of age, named 
 Cornelius, who professed to have been one of 
 Coster's domestics. 
 
 VIII. Such is the substance of this celebrated 
 fable, the only authentic document which the 
 writers of Holland have to support them in so 
 emphatically advancing the pretensions of Harlem. 
 But it is very evident that Junius has had no other 
 object in view in narrating it, than merely to em- 
 bellish his description of the city where he then 
 resided, by the recital of a tale, which was un- 
 known before his time, and of which the report 
 had been but very recently promulgated. 
 
 IX. That such was the case is evident, since no 
 Dutch writer, nor any work of the 1 5th or of the 
 beginning of the 16th century, has made the least 
 mention of this fact, not eve_n the celebrated
 
 15 
 
 Erasmus, who, from having been born at Rotter* 
 dam, in the year 1467, could not be ignorant of 
 so remarkable an event, and one so glorious to his 
 native country. 6 
 
 X. But the love of their country, the prejudice 
 to which it naturally gives rise, and a desire to 
 flatter the self-love of their countrymen, have in- 
 duced some Dutch writers eagerly to adopt this 
 fabulous narrative of Junius, a narrative upon 
 which they have chosen to comment, according to 
 their fancy, adding new suppositions and conjec- 
 tures, in order to form a history of printing, which, 
 
 6 A remark of considerable importance may be made here. 
 Quirinus Talesius, the very person adduced by Junius in sup- 
 port of his famous narrative, was for many years the secretary 
 of Erasmus ; it cannot, therefore, be supposed that Erasmus 
 could have been ignorant of a fact, related with all its circum- 
 stances by his secretary to Hadrian Junius. If he knew of it, 
 it is very difficult to believe, that this learned writer could have 
 silently passed over so remarkable an event ; especially as he 
 had so many opportunities of speaking of the history of printing, 
 as he lived on terms of friendship with Thierry Martens of 
 Alost, a celebrated printer of Belgium, and as he had such an 
 interest, if the fact had been true, in preserving this honour 
 to his country. But so far is he from corroborating it, that 
 whenever he has spoken of the invention of printing, he has 
 always attributed it to Mentz and not to Harlem, respecting 
 which he does not say one word.
 
 16 
 
 without adducing any proof in support of it, they 
 have wished us to receive as an incontrovertible fact. 
 
 XL But the contradictions, which we find 
 amongst the narrators of this fable, and their dif- 
 ferent modes of interpreting the recital of it, evi- 
 dently demonstrate to us, that they have but 
 endeavoured to embellish it by fresh inventions. 
 
 XII. Thus Petrus Scriverius seriously narrates 
 to us, in his Laurecrans, 7 that Laurence Coster, 
 having found in the wood of Harlem the branch 
 of a beech, or rather of an oak tree, torn off by the 
 wind, he cut off a piece of it, which he wrapped 
 up in paper, after having, for amusement and pass- 
 time, formed or notched upon it some letters. 
 That having then fallen asleep, it happened, 
 that this piece of oak wood, being moistened by a 
 shower of rain, or some other fortunate accident, 
 communicated to the paper the colour of its sap or 
 juice, as it is the nature of this kind of wood to do, 
 and left imprinted on it the letters which he had 
 
 7 This tract will be found at the end of a work entitled, 
 Beschryving ende Lof der Stad Haerlam, door Samuel Ampzing ; 
 Haerlem, 1628, in 4to. It will also be found, translated 
 into Latin, in Wolfii Monumenta Typographica, vol. i. page 209, 
 et seq. Petrus Scriverius was born at Harlem in 1576, and 
 died in 1660.
 
 17 
 
 cut. This circumstance, being observed by Lau- 
 rence on his awaking, suggested to him the idea of 
 the art of printing ; first by means of letters cut, in 
 reverse order from right to left, on blocks of wood, 
 and afterwards by separate moveable letters cut 
 singly. 8 
 
 XIII. Never did a poet invent a more absurd 
 fable to embellish his subject, than this pretended 
 sleep of Laurence Coster, with its consequences ; 
 Mr. Meerman therefore rejects this tale, less, how- 
 ever, perhaps on account of its extravagance, than 
 of its not agreeing with the narrative of Junius, 
 which is the fundamental support of his darling 
 system. 
 
 XIV. It may indeed be observed, that, although 
 Scriverius positively asserts, that he does but fol- 
 low the steps of Junius in his recital, he has, never- 
 theless, thought himself at liberty to depart from 
 them in many essential points. He does not, for 
 instance, agree with Junius in opinion, that the 
 Speculum humana Salvationis was printed by 
 Coster with the separate types, made of the bark 
 of the beech tree, the product of his first invention, 
 (as if it could ever have been possible to print with 
 
 8 Pages 9 et seq. and in Wolfli Monumenta Typographic J, 
 pages 222 and 223. 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 such types) ; Scriverius, on the contrary, maintains, 
 that the first essays in the art were made with fixed 
 characters engraven on blocks of wood. 9 He main- 
 tains also, that the Speculum humana Salvationist 
 the cuts of which are engraven on wood, has not 
 been printed with separate wooden, but actually 
 with fused metal, types ; and he charges Junius, 
 with either never having examined this work with 
 sufficient attention, or having been led into error 
 by false accounts of it. 10 
 
 XV. Scriverius is not the only author, who has 
 taken the liberty of dissenting from Junius on this 
 point. Pet. Bertius, Jos. Scaliger, under the 
 name of Janus Rutgersius, Buxhornius, and others, 
 although they copy the words of Junius, seem to 
 have had some particular reasons for not adopting 
 his opinion respecting the pretended productions 
 
 9 Non eo, qui hodie usitatus est, modo, typis scilicet ex 
 plumbo et stanno arte fusoria factis ; . . . . primtim haec 
 ars tractata est; sed liber imprimendus per partes sive folia 
 tabulis ligneis incidebatur. Wolfii Monumenta Typographical 
 vol. i. page 403. 
 
 10 Res enim aliter habet, et Junius accuratius ad haec atten- 
 dere debebat, si ad manum ipsi fuit Speculum : sin minus relata 
 sunt viro nobilissimo falsa ; atque adeo plures meo quidem 
 judicio, magis inscii quam conscii, in errorem perducti sunt 
 
 Wolf. vol. i. page 416.
 
 19 
 
 of Coster. In fact, we cannot but praise the mode- 
 ration of these celebrated authors, who, in simply 
 quoting in their writings the narrative of Junius, 
 have not endeavoured to increase the ridicule by 
 any new hearsays of certain aged persons, by the 
 discovery of any old parchment, or by fortunately 
 stumbling upon some remarkable passage of an 
 imaginary chronicle, deposited in the corner of 
 some old library; 11 for certainly these authors had 
 as much right as Junius or Scaliger to flatter their 
 countrymen by inventions of this kind. 
 
 XVI. Let us now examine the facts related in 
 the before-mentioned work of Mr. Meerman, and 
 let us see, if his interpretations and conjectures are 
 
 11 It is thus that Richard Atkyns, a learned Englishman, 
 astonished, without doubt, at the singular effect produced in the 
 republic of letters by the narrative of Junius, and at the facility 
 with which every thing, that authors of repute ventured to ad- 
 vance, was adopted without examination, imagined, after the 
 example of Junius, a little history in favour of his own country, 
 nearly in the same taste as his model, and which may serve as 
 a sequel to it. As in this fiction, Atkyns derives the history 
 of printing in England, from that of Harlem, Mr Meerman 
 has not failed to exert all his ingenuity to cause it to be regarded 
 as true, notwithstanding, that the learned Dr. Middleton, had 
 proved by the clearest evidence, that the document produced 
 by Atkyns was nothing but a fiction. 
 1)2
 
 20 
 
 any better founded. This celebrated author has 
 taken such pains, and has made such efforts, to 
 obtain belief for the narrative of Junius, that, by 
 force of hypotheses, inductions, and numerous as- 
 sertions purely gratuitous, and without the least 
 proof, he has formed, in favour of Harlem, a typo- 
 graphical system, of which no person before him 
 had been aware, very ingenious certainly, but which 
 has not even the merit of probability. The fol- 
 lowing is the manner in which he interprets, or 
 rather arranges, at his pleasure, the tale of Junius. 
 XVII. First then, according to Mr. Meerman, 
 there is no doubt, that Junius, Scriverius, and all 
 those who have followed these authors, have been 
 strangely mistaken in saying that Laurence Coster, 
 of whom they speak, (or Koster, a Flemish word, 
 signifying sacristan or churchwarden,) derived his 
 origin from the family of the Costers, so named 
 from having always held, by hereditary right, the 
 then honourable office of warden of the cathedral ; IZ 
 since this surname of Coster, says he, is not to be 
 
 ,2r * Ex premissis colligere est quam graviter lapsi fiierint 
 Junius, eumque secuti Scriverius ceterique ad unum omnes, 
 qui Laurentii originem e familia Costerorum repetunt nomen 
 hoc adepta ex munere seditui belgice Cotter quod hereditario 
 jure possederit." Orig. Typog. vol. . p. 48.
 
 21 
 
 found in any ancient charter, nor even in the pub- 
 lic registers of the town of Harlem, " gentilitium, 
 dignissimi viri nomen, neque in veteribus chartis, 
 neque in fastis Harlemensibus reperire est." Orig. 
 Typ. vol. i. p. 38. It is then very probable, that the 
 said Laurence Coster is only an imaginary person, 
 who has never existed, except in the tale of Junius 
 and those writers who have copied him ; since, as 
 appears from the avowal of Mr. Meerman, this 
 surname is not to be found in any contemporary 
 document. 13 It is true, indeed, that Mr. Meerman 
 afterwards adds, that our proto-typographer in 
 question is only simply designated, in these ancient 
 records, by the name of Laurence, son of John, 
 " simpliciter illic Laurentius Joannis Alius audit." 
 But who could tell Mr. Meerman, that the person, 
 
 whom, he says, he found designated under the 
 i 
 
 13 It is worthy of remark, that notwithstanding the duty of 
 churchwarden was discharged by one named Berthod, in ] 380, 
 and by Henry de Lunen, in 1396 and 1397 ; and notwithstanding 
 that, in the records, no churchwarden, bearing the name of 
 Laurentius Johannis filius, is to be found, Mr. Meerman always 
 believes that he performed the duties of this office : " Proba- 
 bile vero est, non diu post comitis largitionem (an. 1398), mu- 
 nus illud a magistratu in Laurentium nostrum collatum fuisse, 
 indeque appellationem Cotter a vulgo ipsi tributam." Orig. 
 Typ. vol i. p. 49.
 
 22 
 
 name of Lourverys Janssoen, or Laurentius Joannis 
 Jllius, in a charter of the year 1408, as an accom- 
 plice in a seditious offence, and afterwards, in the 
 records, as treasurer in 1434, is the person named 
 in the narrative of Junius, as exercising the office 
 of churchwarden ? Where is the proof of this ? 
 Ought we to receive the suppositions of Mr. Meer- 
 man as incontrovertible truths ? But this is not 
 all ; for, by a heap of such hypotheses, in a chapter 
 written expressly upon the feigned genealogy of 
 this Laurentius Johannis, Mr. Meerman makes 
 his hero to be descended from the illustrious house 
 of Brederode, and consequently from the ancient 
 Counts of Holland. 1 + We need not, therefore, be 
 any longer surprised at the boldness of those ge- 
 nealogists, who, by similar conjectures, have derived 
 the origin of certain families from times anterior to 
 the Flood." 
 
 ' 4 If to this ridiculous genealogy we also add the history of 
 the fine portrait of Coster, which Mr. Meerman has placed at 
 the head of his work, and which will be noticed hereafter, we 
 shall feel greatly surprised, that a man, so distinguished for 
 learning, should have seriously busied himself about things fit 
 only for a romance. 
 
 15 I remember to have seen, in an ancient monastery, the 
 genealogy of a house of Belgium that commenced with Adam !
 
 23 
 
 XVIII. After this beginning, which appears 
 better adapted for the refutation than the support 
 of his system, Mr. Meerman proceeds to examine 
 the facts detailed in the narrative of Junius. It is 
 there stated, upon the evidence of old Cornelius, 
 that Coster, during his walks to the wood near 
 Harlem, cut or formed letters with the bark of the 
 beech tree, with which he tried to print upon paper 
 some short verses or sentences, for the instruction 
 of his grand-children. Upon this passage, Mr. 
 Meerman acknowledges, that letters of bark could 
 not be used in printing, and thinks that we ought 
 to read letters of wood, instead of bark. Here is 
 thus, at the outset, a very remarkable variation sub- 
 stituted by Mr. Meerman ; and we must, therefore, 
 believe, that old Cornelius had either seen imper- 
 fectly, or ill understood what he had heard. I say 
 seen imperfectly, or ill understood, for he does not 
 say, whether he himself had, by accident, met his 
 future master in the wood of Harlem, whilst he 
 was occupied in forming letters of the bark of trees ; 
 or whether his master had afterwards amused him- 
 self, during the long nights of winter, by relating, 
 by the fireside, to his domestics, these curious de- 
 tails. However this may be, this historico-proto- 
 typographical fact may be classed with the sleep of
 
 24 
 
 Coster, invented by Scriverius, which has already 
 been mentioned. 
 
 XIX. As nothing is impossible to the researches 
 of Mr. Meerman, he discovers the first typogra- 
 phical essays of Coster ; namely, the verses or sen- 
 tences, of which we have just spoken, printed with 
 letters of bark or wood. He discovers them, three 
 centuries after they were printed, in a sheet of vel- 
 lum, printed on both sides (opistographe) in Gothic 
 letters. The sheet was found by Mr. Enschede, a 
 printer and bookseller, pasted on an old prayer- 
 book, and contained in 8 pages, 16mo. the alphabet, 
 the Lord's prayer, &c. &c. This little piece, simi- 
 lar to a hundred other little books of devotion, 
 printed at divers places in the Netherlands towards 
 the end of the 1 5th century, not having any date, 
 nor even the name of the place or the printer, was 
 precisely what Mr. Meerman wanted, to be enabled 
 to prove with certainty, that this identical sheet was 
 the first typographical essay of Coster. He then, 
 by various calculations, which he makes in his usual 
 way, decides, with an air of authority, that this 
 pretended essay was printed about the year 1430 ; 
 it is a wonder that he did not fix the precise 
 hour and day when it was finished. It must be 
 confessed, that by similar means, it would be very
 
 25 
 
 easy to fix the origin of printing at any time and 
 place that might be wished. 
 
 XX. Indeed, if frivolous conjectures are to 
 supply the place of facts, wherefore might not I 
 also assert, and even with more appearance of pro- 
 bability than Mr. Meerman, that this book, as well 
 as many others similar to it, which it would be 
 easy to name, was printed at Bruges, or more 
 probably at Antwerp ? Since it is evident, not 
 from hearsays or fictitious narratives, but from au- 
 thentic documents, that there were incorporated 
 companies of scribes, illuminators, "printers" 
 binders, &c. in these cities, before the middle of 
 the 15th century, which it is certain was not the 
 case at Harlem. Is it not, therefore, more pro- 
 bable, and much more natural, to believe, that the 
 celebrated Flemish Speculum, so highly boasted of 
 by Mr. Meerman, is the work of these " printers" 
 (or engravers of rude figures and images of saints 
 upon wood), rather than of the imaginary Coster ? 
 Undoubtedly : but this is only supposition, and can 
 be of no authority as proof of a historical fact. 
 
 XXI. In short, we may rest assured, that this 
 sheet of vellum, the pretended essay of Coster, 
 whatever Mr. Meerman may say to the con- 
 trary, was printed with letters which had been 
 
 E
 
 26 
 
 cast ; ,<s and I am even persuaded, that, so far from 
 having been executed about the year 1430, it is 
 not earlier than the year 1 480 ; the want of signa- 
 tures, folios, and catchwords, so much relied on to 
 prove its antiquity, being common to some thou- 
 sand other editions of the 1 5th century. Besides, it 
 really appears ridiculous to expect such typographi- 
 cal marks in a single sheet. Mr. Meerman, however, 
 takes such an interest in supporting the romantic 
 narrative of Junius, that he is desirous his para- 
 doxes should be received as proofs : his enthu- 
 siam wishes to make us perceive in his favourite 
 Coster, an extraordinary artist, who, contrary to 
 the natural order of discovery in art, begins his 
 pretended essay, by printing, with separate types, 
 a book printed on both sides of the leaf, next re- 
 trogrades towards elementary ideas, and finishes, 
 
 6 Notwithstanding the express testimony of Junius, who 
 attributes the invention and use of separate metal types to 
 Coster, Mr. Meerman, pretends that all the works printed by 
 him, were executed with separate wooden types only : " Pro- 
 totypographum nostrum ante epocham Moguntinam vivis erep- 
 tum, sejunctis Uteris non ex metallo, verum ligno usum fuisse 
 consequens erit." Orig. Typ. vol. i, page 81. It is really curi- 
 ous to find Mr. Meerman so often opposed to the narrative 
 of Junius, whilst this narrative is the sole support of his whole 
 system.
 
 27 
 
 where the art should have begun, by printing the 
 Speculum humance Salvationist the Figures Biblica?, 
 and other works of this kind, which are printed 
 on one side of the leaf only, and which Mr. 
 Meennan attributes, without foundation, to his 
 pretended prototypographer. 
 
 XXII. I say without foundation, for Baron 
 Heineken has since clearly proved, that all these 
 books, with images engraved on wood, were en- 
 graved and printed in Germany : we may consult 
 on this head the work entitled, Idee generate (Tune 
 Collection complette d'Fstampes , Leipsic, 1771, 
 Svo. in which will be found a very detailed account 
 of the Speculum humance Salvationist a book, 
 which the tide of Junius and the pretensions of 
 Harlem have rendered celebrated. 17 In this work 
 
 17 A copy of the Flemish edition of this Speculum, having 
 fallen into the hands of Junius, nothing more was wanting to 
 enable him to attribute the execution of it to his protege' 
 Coster ; which he did with so much the more earnestness, as it 
 came very opportunely to support his narrative, and as no per- 
 son could challenge, with certainty, a book, destitute of every 
 mark, which could in the least indicate the place, or date, of its 
 execution. Mr. Meerman, whose typographical system is en- 
 tirely built upon this narrative of Junius, takes infinite pains 
 to induce us to believe, that this Flemish edition, which is, 
 however, only a translation of the Latin one, was the first
 
 28 
 
 of Baron Heineken, it is clearly shewn, that there 
 are two editions of the Speculum, in Latin, without 
 a date ; another in Latin and German, printed at 
 
 edition. He asserts that it was executed by Laurence Coster, 
 and pretends, in consequence, that it was printed with separate 
 wooden characters.* But it has been proved by all the biblio- 
 graphers of the present day, that this position of Mr Meerman 
 is untenable, that the Flemish edition was printed with metal 
 types, and that so far from its being attributable to Coster, it 
 is even later than the first works printed at Mentz ; nay 
 more, there is great reason to believe that it is not earlier than 
 the year 1470, since the Latin edition, which, whatever Mr. 
 Meerman may say to the contrary, will always be regarded by 
 all enlightened bibliographers as the first edition, is itself partly 
 printed with metal types ; and it cannot be referred to a much 
 earlier date, for it is in fact one of the latest editions of this 
 kind of books of images. Besides, supposing for an instant 
 with Mr Meerman, that the Flemish edition of the Speculum 
 is the earliest, how is it certain that it was printed by Coster ? 
 Where is the proof of this ? Is it because it is in the Flemish 
 language ? But have we not a great number of works, in the 
 Flemish language, printed in the 15th century at Gouda, 
 Utrecht, Louvain, Antwerp, and other places, in the Low 
 Countries, by celebrated printers ? Why, then, is this book to 
 be attributed in preference to Coster, that is, to an unknown 
 person, whom not any writer has mentioned till more than a 
 century after his existence, if it be true that he ever did exist ? 
 
 See on this subject his letter to Mr. Wagenaar, given 
 before in note 3, and it will appear that Mr. Meerman is here 
 speaking contrary to his own conviction.
 
 29 
 
 Augsburg, in 1471 ; many editions in German, 
 some without date, and others with the dates of 
 1 476, 1492, and 1500 ; two editions in the Flemish 
 language without a date, and a third one printed 
 by J. Veldener, in 1483 ; and that there are others 
 
 Again, perhaps, it will be said, that this is a work with figures 
 and images engraved on wood ; this is very true, but without 
 repeating what has been said above in the text, respecting the 
 engravers of these images established at Bruges and Antwerp, 
 before the middle of the fifteenth century, were there not works 
 of this kind printed at Louvain, Utrecht, and other places, 
 by the celebrated John Veldener ? Every sensible and impar- 
 tial person will, I think, see much more reason to attribute the 
 printing of this Speculum to the latter artist, who, in 1483, printed 
 a little work of the same kind, containing a history of the holy 
 cross, in 65 vignettes engraved on wood ; and the probability, 
 that it was printed by him, is strengthened by the fact, that 
 this same Veldener also reprinted in the said year, 1483, the 
 very Speculum of which we are speaking, with the same wooden 
 blocks, as had been used in the preceding editions, after having 
 sawn them in two to adapt them to the 4to. page of this new 
 edition. I am well aware, that Mr. Meerman ingeniously 
 answers these arguments, by saying, that these very blocks, 
 which he pretends were engraved by Coster at Harlem, were 
 afterwards bought by Veldener ; but this is merely one of his 
 gratuitous suppositions, and a subterfuge of which he has avail- 
 ed himself more than once. I am well persuaded, that if all 
 these works of Veldener had not borne the name of their 
 printer, Mr. Meerman would not have failed to attribute them 
 to Coster.
 
 30 
 
 in French, as well as many ancient manuscript 
 ones preserved in the libraries of the cities, univer- 
 sities, and monasteries of Germany. 
 
 XXIII. But let us continue the examination of 
 the narrative of Junius, and of Mr. Meerman's 
 commentary upon it; and overlooking all that we 
 have read respecting the discovery of a more glu- 
 tinous ink and of metal types, as well as the cir- 
 cumstance of the wine cups afterwards made out 
 of their feigned remains, let us now take a view 
 of the principal incident in this celebrated proto- 
 typographical fable. 
 
 XXIV. It is stated, in the narrative of Junius, 
 that John Fust, father-in-law of the celebrated 
 Schoeffer, of whom mention will be made more 
 than once in the sequel of this work, was suspected 
 of being the author of the alleged robbery of the 
 types and implements of the too famous printing 
 office of Coster ; but as the partisans of the claim 
 of Harlem, notwithstanding the authority of Junius, 
 found it very difficult, not to say impossible, to 
 cause it to be believed, that so rich a man as Fust 
 should ever have been the domestic servant of a 
 churchwarden of Harlem, and that he should have 
 robbed his master, they have endeavoured to throw 
 the suspicion upon the true inventor of printing,
 
 31 
 
 John Gaensfleisch, called Guttenberg, whom Scri- 
 verius has the impudence to accuse of this theft. 
 Laurecrans, cap. x. in fine. 
 
 XXV. Finding it impossible, however, to make 
 this false assertion of Scriverius agree with the 
 authentic documents, discovered by the learned 
 Schoepflin, and published in his Vindicice Typo- 
 graphies, (which documents, by the bye, are quite 
 of a different character from all the hearsays of 
 Junius and the hypotheses of his commentators, 
 and from which, it is certain, that John Guttenberg 
 was settled at Strasburgh, from about the year 
 1430, and that he continued living there in 1444-,) 
 Mr. Meerman has had recourse to his inventive 
 faculty, which readily suggested to him an easy 
 means of embellishing the narrative of Junius, and 
 turning it into a finished romance. 
 
 XXVI. He assures us then, as of a positive and 
 incontrovertible truth, that the person bearing the 
 name of John, who was guilty of the alleged rob- 
 bery, could be no other than John Gaensfleisch, 
 senior, 1 * a native of Mentz, and brother of John 
 Guttenberg; who, although he was descended from 
 
 18 John Meidenbach, John Petersheim, John Fust, John 
 Guttenberg, John Gaensfleisch, &c. &c. all of whom were 
 artists well known about the era of the invention of printing,
 
 32 
 
 a noble family, was yet obliged, from his want of 
 fortune, to quit his native country, and to seek, like 
 
 have furnished Mr. Meerman with an excellent opportunity of 
 choosing, at his pleasure, amongst these Johns, the pretended 
 robber of Coster ; but he is disappointed in his expectations, and 
 all his hypotheses only render his pretensions more visionary. 
 For, deceived by the errors which have been committed by 
 Kohler, in his apology for Guttenberg ( Ehren-rettung Guten- 
 berg's), Mr. Meerman makes, of one and the same person, 
 two brothers, and both of them printers ; whilst it is certain, 
 that there never was any other Gaensfleisch a printer, than 
 John Gaensfleisch de Sulgeloch, called zum Guttenberg, the inventor 
 of printing; the same who, in 1443, hired the house at Mentz 
 called Zum Jungen, and who was not so poor, as Mr. Meerman 
 would wish us to believe (see note 39). If he is ever found 
 designated under the name of Guttenberg, senior, it is only 
 after the death of his uncle, and with reference to his cousin, 
 that he is so called ; as is thus shewn by Mr. Fischer, in his 
 Essai sur les Monumens Typographiques de Gutenberg, at page 33 : 
 
 1. Friele zum Gaensfleisch, 1. Henne Gaensfleisch, the 
 living at Elfeld in 1431 and elder, who died after 1440. 
 1432. 
 
 2. Elsechin, his wife, daughter 2. Kettgin, his wife, 
 of JeckelHirz, 1431. 
 
 3. Henne Gaensfleisch, de Sul- 3. Henne Gaensfleisch, his 
 geloch, called zum Gutten- son. 
 
 berg. 
 
 It was, therefore, only after the death of his uncle, Henne 
 Gaensfleisch, senior, that Henne Gaensfleisch de Sulgeloch, 
 called zum Guttenberg, became the elder.
 
 33 
 
 his brother, the means of subsistence by his labour 
 and industry : " Extra dubium mihi visum est, 
 infidum hunc famulum fuisse ipsum Joannem 
 Gaensfleisch seniorem, ortu Moguntinum . . . hie 
 enim, nobilis licet genere, attamen pauper, fratris 
 ad exemplum victum extra patriam quaesivisse vi- 
 detur." Origines Typog. vol. i, pages 90 and 91. 
 He adds, that this same Gaensfleisch, senior, hav- 
 ing heard of the establishment of printing at Har- 
 lem, went thither in consequence, and entered into 
 the service of the sacristan Laurence, with the 
 intent of acquiring a knowledge of an art, at that 
 time almost unknown, and from which he hoped, 
 on his return to his native country, to derive very 
 great advantages:' 9 That it was under these cir- 
 cumstances, and about the year 1435, (for Mr. 
 Meerman knows every thing, even to the most 
 minute details of facts, buried under the obscurity 
 
 19 " Senior, postquam de typographeio Harlemensi aliquid 
 rescivisset, illi se ut ministrum tradidit, hoc animo, ut incogni- 
 tam hueusque artem edoctus uberrimos exinde in patria fructus 
 colligeret." Orig. Typ. vol. i. pages 174, 175- It is a fact then, 
 according to Mr. Meerman, that, in 1434 and 1435, it was 
 already known at Mentz, that a printing-office existed at 
 Harlem. I do not believe that he will find any one so credu- 
 lous as to believe this.
 
 34 
 
 of many centuries,) that John Guttenberg, having 
 come, for purposes of trade, to the fair of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, determined to pay a visit to his pretended 
 brother, the servant of the sacristan Coster, in the 
 city of Harlem ; in this place he was himself 
 initiated into the knowledge of the art of printing, 
 which he afterwards practised in the city of Stras- 
 burg :* That, about the year 1440, the said John 
 Gaensfleisch, the servant of Coster, having stolen, 
 during mass on the night of Christmas-eve, all 
 the types and printing implements belonging to 
 his master, * betook himself, laden with these spoils, 
 
 10 m Verosimile ergo est, Jo. Gaensfleischium juniorem, 
 sive Gutenbergium, qui nundinas Aquisgranenses questus 
 gratia frequentare erat solitus, non longe dissitum ab hac urbe 
 Belgium circa ann. 1435 adiisse, fratremque suum Laurentii 
 ministrum cominus salutasse, a quo ex artis secretis nonnulla 
 hausit, atque Argentorati in usus convertere studuit suos." . 
 Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 198. We have seen above (note 18), that 
 Mr. Meerman has made of one person, two brothers ; we now 
 find that this was absolutely necessary for him, in order to 
 derive, from his pretended typography of Harlem, that of 
 Mentz by Gaensfleisch, senior, and that of Strasburg by Gaens- 
 fleisch, junior. It may be seen by note 11, that he is also de- 
 sirous of giving the same origin to the typography of England, 
 by means of the fable of Atkyns. Unfortunate Coster, robbed 
 and cheated on all sides ! 
 
 11 It is stated in the narrative of Junius, that the thief
 
 35 
 
 to Mentz, his native city, where about the year 
 1442, he printed with the wooden types, stolen 
 from Harlem, two litde works entitled, Alex. Galli 
 Doctrinale, and Petri Hispani Tractatus :** That 
 
 carried away all the typographical implements of his master : 
 " Choragium omne typorum involat, instrumentorum herilium 
 ei artiflcio comparatorum supellectilem convasat," &c. In 
 answer to the very just observations, which some sensible per- 
 sons have made, upon this passage, with regard to the difficulty 
 of being able to carry off", on such a night as that of Christmas- 
 eve, when every body was a stir, a mass of materials sufficient 
 for the load of a waggon, Mr. Meerman, the faithful organ of 
 the thoughts of Junius, replies, that this author has here only 
 spoken figuratively, in order to make the heinous nature of the 
 crime more evident ; for, adds he, the thief being already in- 
 structed in the art of printing, required only a few wooden types, 
 which might serve him as models. Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 87. 
 But if this was the case, what occasion had this faithless servant 
 to make choice of the night of Christmas-eve ? And if he took 
 away only a few types, how could this alleged robbery be per- 
 ceived even, from amongst the great number of types required 
 in a printing-office ? Besides what occasion had he to carry 
 away any at all ? For if, as Mr. Meerman says, this expert 
 servant was able to retain, in his memory, the shape of all the 
 parts of the press and of the other implements of the printing- 
 office, so perfectly as to be afterwards able to make them, it 
 would have been much more easy for him to remember the 
 form of the types also. 
 
 24 What has become of these celebrated little works, printed 
 with the wooden types, stolen from the work-shop of Coster ?
 
 36 
 
 Gaensfleisch, having perceived the imperfect nature 
 of wooden types, formed the design of replacing 
 them by metal ones ; but as the making of these 
 required a great deal of time and expense, he, in 
 the mean time, made a profitable use of his time 
 by printing with wooden blocks different works, 
 such as Donati Grammatical Tabula Alphabetical 
 the Catholicon, Confessionalia, tyc. And that at 
 last, about the year 1450, after many difficulties, 
 and with the help of his partners, Guttenberg, 
 Meidenbach, Fust, and others, 3 he printed, with 
 metal types, the famous Latin Bible, the subject 
 of a long discussion amongst bibliographers. 
 
 XXVII. It is in this manner that Mr. Meer- 
 man explains to us the romantic origin of the fa- 
 mous printing-office of Laurence Coster, and with 
 
 Let one copy of them at least be produced. In answer to this 
 demand, Mr. Meerman says, that having been printed for the 
 particular use of schools, the copies of them have been destroy- 
 ed, from their having been constantly in use Orig. Typ. vol. 
 i. page 94. But if Mr. Meerman has not seen any of these 
 feigned editions, how dare he assert, that they were printed 
 with separate wooden types ? 
 
 a3 This typographical partnership is quite different from that 
 which will be noticed hereafter. This is a partnership of Mr. 
 Meerman's own invention, respecting which no person before 
 him has said one word Orig. Typ. vol. i. page* 149 152.
 
 37 
 
 the aid of hypotheses and conjectures, comments, 
 at his pleasure, upon the fabulous narrative of 
 Junius. I think, that that most skilful romance 
 writer, the author of Don Quixote, supported by 
 all the documents of Cid Hamet Ben Engeli, could 
 not have succeeded so adroitly as Mr. Meerman, 
 in the composition and denouement of his typo- 
 graphical romance, which owes its origin entirely 
 to an extravagant desire to promote the glory of 
 his country. 
 
 XXVIII. Now if we examine all the authors, 
 without exception, who have written in favour of 
 the city of Harlem, we shall not find in their writ- 
 ings, the least proof, the slightest contemporary 
 document in support of their pretensions ; every 
 thing that they have written, every thing that they 
 have alleged, is reducible to the narrative of Ha- 
 drian Junius, composed itself from hearsays, and 
 upon which each writer comments according to 
 the dictates of his fancy. And, it is upon the sole 
 authority of this narrative of Junius, that it has 
 been thought fit to strike medals, to carve inscrip- 
 tions, and to erect statues and other monuments 
 to the glory of the immortal and incomparable 
 prototypographer, Laurence Janssoen, who is at 
 one time represented as a disturber of the public
 
 38 
 
 peace, and condemned as such, at another, as a 
 sacristan or church-warden, afterwards as consul, 
 then as a treasurer, and lastly, is described as 
 an illustrious scion of the House of Brederode, a 
 descendant, in a right line, from the ancient sove- 
 reigns of Holland/' 
 
 XXIX. Carried away by their patriotism, some 
 writers of Holland have employed all the means 
 in their power, to cause this great personage to be 
 regarded not only as the father of printing, but 
 also as the inventor of engraving on wood ; an 
 
 *+ A very long time after the publication of Junius's work, 
 the consular body of the city of Harlem, caused the following 
 inscription to be placed upon the front of the house, which it 
 was pretended had been inhabited by Laurence Coster : 
 
 MEMORISE SACEUM 
 
 TYPOGRAPHIA 
 
 ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM 
 
 CONSERVATRIX 
 
 HIC PRIMUM INVENTA 
 
 CIRCA ANNUM CID CCCCXL. 
 
 After Peter Scriverius, whom we have already mentioned, 
 had published his Laurecrans, in which he fixes, according to his 
 own fancy, the era of the discovery of printing at Harlem, in 
 the year 1428, the last line of this inscription was erased and 
 there was substituted for it the date of m. cccc xxiix.
 
 39 
 
 insupportable pretension, possessing less foundation 
 even than the former. 
 
 In 1722, the medical college of Harlem erected a statue of 
 stone to the prototypographer Coster, with this inscription : 
 
 AE. M. S. 
 LAURENTIO COSTERO 
 
 HARLEMENSI 
 VIRO CONSULARI 
 
 TYPOGRAPHIC 
 
 INVENTORI VERO 
 
 MOXUMENTUM HOC 
 
 EREGI CURAVIT 
 
 COLLEGIUM MEDICUM 
 
 ANNO. CI3 13 CCXXII. 
 
 I shall pass silently over the other monuments, as also the 
 six medals, struck in the year 1740, in honour of this ridiculous 
 hero of printing : of these medals the description and figures 
 may be seen in the extravagant work of John-Christ. Seiz, 
 entitled, Derde JubeUjaar, pages 100 et seq. ; and I shall conclude 
 this note with the history of the portrait of Coster which fi- 
 gures at the beginning of Mr. Meerman's work. Mr. En- 
 schede, a bookseller and printer at Harlem, having bought at 
 an auction, in the year 1724, an old picture, moderately well 
 painted, forthwith took it into his head that it must be the 
 portrait of the celebrated Coster, painted from life. Nothing 
 more was wanting to kindle the patriotic ardour of Mr. Meer- 
 man, to whom this idea of Mr. Enschede appeared quite 
 charming. It nevertheless struck him, after a particular
 
 40 
 
 XXX. For if there had existed in the city of 
 Harlem, an engraver in wood, such as they wish to 
 make us believe did exist in the person of the said 
 Coster, we should certainly find some account of 
 him in the work of Carel Van Mander, 15 a painter 
 and engraver, who was living, about the year 1583, 
 
 examination of the old portraits painted in that country, that 
 this identical portrait could not possibly be of so remote a date ; 
 but this circumstance is of no consequence, for if the copy, 
 says he, be exact, it deserves to have as much dependence 
 placed upon it as the original : " Copia vero si fuerit accurata 
 picturae originalis, eandem profecto fidem mereatur oportet." 
 Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 53 and note at. Consequently, with as 
 much certainty and assurance, as if the portrait was incon- 
 testably genuine, he causes it to be engraved by Houbraken, 
 a very skilful artist, and places it as the frontispiece of his 
 Origines Typographical, after having added to it the fictitious 
 coat of arms of his hero, accompanied with this boasting in- 
 scription : 
 
 LAURENTIUS JOHAN. FIL. 
 
 SCABINUS HARLEMENSIS, 
 
 TYPOGRAPHIC INVENTOR. 
 
 Bravo ! bravUrimo ! 
 
 15 Charles Van Mander, or Vermander, was born at Meu- 
 lebeecke, a village in Flanders, within the seignory of Cour- 
 tray, in 1548 ; he was settled at Harlem in 1583, and went 
 from thence in 1604, to Amsterdam, where he died on the 
 11th. of September, 1606, aged 58 years.
 
 41 
 
 in the city of Harlem. Here he composed his 
 History of the Lives of Painters and Engravers, 
 published in 1 603 ; and it cannot be doubted, that 
 for this work, he would make the most diligent 
 enquiries, particularly after every thing connected 
 with the history of the Flemish and Dutch artists. 
 Indeed nothing appears more natural than to ex- 
 pect to find, in a work of this nature, a precise 
 and detailed account of an artist so remarkable as 
 Laurence Coster, if he really had been the inven- 
 tor of engraving upon wood ; in the glory arising 
 from which, the city of Harlem, where he had 
 fixed his establishment, was so materially interest- 
 ed. Yet the name of the famous Laurence Coster 
 does not once appear therein, neither as a printer 
 nor an engraver, nor under any other denomina- 
 tion whatever ; although twenty years had elapsed 
 since the publication of the Batavia of Junius, and 
 since the history of Coster had been known by 
 heart to all the inhabitants of Harlem. The rea- 
 son of this omission, it is not difficult to divine : 
 Charles Van Mander, being well aware, that his- 
 torical facts, founded upon conjectures, and ad- 
 vanced on the authority of hearsays only, are quite 
 undeserving of belief, did not think it right to 
 allow a tale of this nature, however agreeable it 
 
 G
 
 42 
 
 might have been to his fellow citizens, to find its 
 way into his work. 16 
 
 XXXI. The art of engraving on wood, for 
 printing, which most probably owes its origin to 
 the makers of playing cards, was discovered in 
 Germany, as has been already mentioned (art. 
 xxi.) ; it is from thence that we derive the Biblia 
 Pauperum, the Speculum humance Salvationist the 
 Ars Moriendi, the Historia Apocalypsis^ the Ars 
 Memorandi, the Historia Virginis ex Cantico 
 Canticorum, and many other ancient books of 
 images printed from wooden blocks, which are 
 
 a6 If C. Van Mander has not made any mention of Laurence 
 Coster, it can only be because he regarded him as an imaginary 
 person. This author was acquainted with every thing that 
 Junius had related respecting him ; he knew very well the 
 pretensions of Harlem, for he speaks of them in his work, but 
 in such a manner as evinces very clearly, that he did not con- 
 sider them as well founded. For in speaking of printing, he 
 says, " daer Haarlem met genoech bescheyt, haer vermaet den 
 roem van d'eerste vindinge te hebben" that is, of which Har- 
 lem, with much presumption, arrogates to itself the honour of 
 the first invention. James de Jongh, in his new edition of 
 Van Mander's work, published in 1764, makes no scruple of 
 thus changing this passage " waar van Haarlem zich, op 
 genoegzamen grond, den roem der eerste vinding toeschrift ;" 
 that is, of which Harlem, with much reason, attributes to itself 
 the glorv of the invention. Tantus amor patriae !
 
 43 
 
 commonly considered as the first essays of the art 
 of printing, and which Mr. Meerman, without the 
 least proof or appearance of probability, attributes 
 to his sacristan or churchwarden of Harlem. 
 From Germany, this art was afterwards communi- 
 cated to the neighbouring countries, and especially 
 to Belgium. 27 
 
 XXXII. The great number of works of this 
 description, which are daily discovered, in the 
 greater part of the important libraries, both public 
 and private, belonging to the universities, cities, 
 
 t 
 
 27 It has been shown above (art. xx.), that before the middle 
 
 of the fifteenth century, there existed in the city of Antwerp 
 a corporation, part of the members of which, were engravers of 
 wooden images and printers (houte beeltsnyders, printers.) The 
 late Abbe* de Marolles, well known for his taste in the fine 
 arts, as well as for his rich and valuable collection of prints, 
 possessed one engraved on wood, bearing this inscription, also 
 engraved upon it, Glwprint VAntwcrpcit, by my PttUery, de Ji- 
 gursnider, that is, printed at Antwerp, by me Phikry, engraver of 
 images. This Philery was, without doubt, a member of the 
 said corporation ; he was, however, at any rate, an engraver of 
 images at Antwerp ; is it not, therefore, more probable, that 
 he, rather than the sacristan of Harlem, was the author of the 
 Flemish Speculum? But however this may be, Mr. Meer- 
 man, notwithstanding all his researches, has not been able to 
 produce one single similar image which has issued from the 
 pretended office of Coster.
 
 44 
 
 monasteries, and illustrious persons of Germany, 
 furnish unequivocal proofs, that this art was dis- 
 covered there, and uninterruptedly exercised from 
 the time of its invention to the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century. Baron Heineken, an enlighten- 
 ed amateur, found in the Cistercian monastery of 
 Buxheim, near Memmingen, a very curious and in- 
 teresting wood engraving, representing the image 
 of St. Christopher, beneath which are the follow- 
 ing words, engraved and printed along with the 
 image : Cristoferi faciem die qudcunque tueris. 
 Ilia nempe die, morte mala non marieris. Mille- 
 simo CCCC. XX tertio. 
 
 XXXIII. This remarkable print clearly shews 
 us, that, in the year 1423, the engraving of letters 
 and images, upon wood, was practised in Germany. 
 It is at least a proof, a document, of quite another 
 description than the hearsays, reports, and hypo- 
 theses, contained in the romantic narrative of Junius 
 and the commentary of Mr. Meerman. 
 
 XXXIV. It is certain that the partisans of the 
 
 28 A copy of this print, taken with the greatest exactness 
 from the original, may be seen in the Journal of Mr. Murr, 
 printed at Nuremberg, vol. ii. page 104. [This very curious 
 print is now in the possession of Earl Spencer ; and a fac-simile 
 of it is given in that splendid publication, Bibliotheca Spcnceriam, 
 vol. i. page ii.]
 
 45 
 
 claim of Harlem, notwithstanding their great and 
 laborious researches, have not been able to produce, 
 even at the present moment, any thing to be put 
 in competition with this print. Not a passage, not 
 a word, which can be adduced in support of their 
 pretension, is to be found in the writings of any 
 of the illustrious authors, who, during the fifteenth 
 century, enriched, in so remarkable a manner, the 
 literature of Holland. This circumstance appa- 
 rently confirms the deeply rooted opinion, that 
 Laurence Janssoen Coster is merely a fictitious 
 personage, created by the pen of Junius. 
 
 XXXV. To supply the want of proofs, the 
 partisans of Coster have had recourse to the edi- 
 tions printed in the fifteenth century, of which 
 there are a great number, without any date or in- 
 dication of the place or name of the printer. Some 
 authors have discovered, in these ancient editions, 
 very convenient proofs for supporting their claims 
 to the origin and invention of printing, an honour, 
 which each has been particularly anxious to con- 
 fer upon his own native country. Mr. Meerman, 
 following this example, has not failed to take 
 advantage of so easy a means of establishing his 
 typographical system, and of thus securing, to the 
 city of Harlem, the honour of the invention.
 
 46 
 
 XXXVI. In fact, after having adopted all kinds 
 of hypotheses and conjectures, Mr. Meerman has 
 recourse for his proofs to the Speculum humance 
 Salvationist which has been before mentioned, par- 
 ticularly in art. xxu. and in note 17. He also 
 takes advantage of many other books without a 
 date, and without any indication of the name of 
 their printer, or of the place where they were ex- 
 ecuted, and arbitrarily attributes them to his hero 
 Laurence Coster, of Harlem. But this is not all,, 
 for after the example of John- Christ. Seiz, in his 
 celebrated work entitled, Het Derde Jubel-jaar der 
 Boeck-druk-konst, Mr. Meerman ranges, in chro- 
 nological order, according to the dictates of his 
 fancy, all these editions, as if they had been really 
 printed by Coster, between the years 1430 and 
 1448 ; and he does this with such an air of cer- 
 tainty, that one would really suppose, that the date 
 could be found marked upon them, in legible cha- 
 racters, by the printer himself. 19 
 
 19 John-Christ. Seiz, in the seventh chapter of his Derde Jubel- 
 jaar der Boeclc-druk-lconst, gives the following chronological list of 
 the works pretended to be printed by Coster, whose life he 
 prolongs till 1467 : The Ars Moriendi, printed in 1431 ; the 
 Historia veteris et novi Testamenti, in 1432 ; the Canttcum Canti- 
 corum, in 1433 ; the Apocahjpsis, in 1434 ; the Donatus, in 1435 ;
 
 _. 47 
 
 XXXVII. In a similar manner, Mr. Meerman 
 lias also made, in his typographical reveries, an 
 important discovery, which had been concealed, 
 during three centuries, from all his predecessors : 
 
 the Speculum humarue Salvationis, in the Flemish language, in 
 1439 ; the second edition of it, in 1443 ; the Latin edition, in 
 1444, &c. &c. so that if the printer had himself fixed the dates 
 of them, we could not have expected a greater precision. Mr. 
 Meerman remarks upon this subject, with a good deal of reason, 
 that Seiz has drawn from his imagination an absurd chronology 
 of the works of Coster : " Nostra setate Jo.-Christ. Seizius 
 integram et perquam absurdam operum Laurentianorum chro- 
 nologiam e cerebro suo contexuit." Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 245, 
 iwte cr. But he has failed to perceive, that the chronology, which 
 he has himself forged, exceeds, perhaps, even that of Seiz, in 
 ridicule and extravagance ; for he commences the list of the 
 works of Coster, by an Jlorarium, which, he says, was printed 
 about the year 1430 ; the Donatus, the Flemish Speculum, and 
 a second Donatus follow ; all of which were printed with separate 
 wooden types. Then from a caprice, contrary to the natural 
 order of invention in the arts, the great Coster, abandoning 
 the use of separate types, printed, with engraved wooden blocks, 
 the Canticum Canticorum, Ars Moriendi, Apocalypsis, S[c. c. which 
 works were printed in succession between the years ^430 and 
 1440, the era, according to Mr. Meerman, of Coster's death. I 
 shall now ask, which of these two typographical chronologies is 
 the best, or rather which is the most ridiculous and extrava- 
 gant ? It is really surprising, that men distinguished for their 
 learning and knowledge, could seriously occupy themselves with 
 such absurdities.
 
 48 
 
 lie has discovered, that the original printing-office 
 of Coster, which he calls the Laurentian Office, did 
 not cease to be in activity after the death of its 
 founder, which took place about the year 1440 ; 
 for according to him, from that period even till 
 the year 1472, the descendants of Coster, the sons 
 of his son-in-law Thomas, namely, Peter, Andrew, 
 and Thomas, continued the exercise of the art of 
 printing, and executed a great number of books, 
 notwithstanding the misfortune of having been rob- 
 bed, about the year 1459, (a fatality attached to this 
 establishment,) by an unfaithful servant named 
 Frederic Corsellis, who had been bribed by the 
 Court of England, to which country he carried 
 the knowledge of printing. 30 By this important 
 discovery of Mr. Meerman, which completes his 
 system, the city of Harlem, of which the most 
 ancient known impression, with a date, is only of 
 the year 1484, at once acquires the glory of hav- 
 ing given birth to printing, and of having seen 
 this art exercised within its walls, from the year 
 1430 until the present time. 31 
 
 30 geenote 11. 
 
 31 After this it is not surprising to find Mr. Meerman 
 dissatisfied with what Scriverius and other writers have stated, 
 that the great Coster, mortified at having been robbed, had
 
 49 
 
 XXXVIII. If we examine the proofs, to which 
 Mr. Meerman has had recourse, in order to es- 
 tablish the existence of the imaginary office of the 
 descendants of the pretended Coster, we shall find 
 that it is always the ancient editions, without date 
 and without notice of the name of the printer, of 
 which he avails himself; these are his constant re- 
 sort, and the only means he employs to give weight 
 to his ridiculous fancies. After having arbi- 
 trarily attributed to this fictitious printing-office 
 the Latin editions of the famous Speculum, and 
 that which he calls the second Flemish edition, 
 because they appeared to him too modern to be 
 assigned to Coster, he adds, that his descendants 
 afterwards changed the form of their characters, 
 causing more beautiful ones to be cut, with which 
 they printed, in folio, the Historia Alexandri de 
 Prceliis, Flavii Renati Epitoma de Re Militari, B. 
 Hieronymi Liber de Viris illustribus, and Thomce a 
 Kempis Opera varia. 3L 
 
 given up his printing-office : " Nollem itaque Scriverio nostro, 
 nollem aliis excidisset, furtum officinse suae illatum tantum 
 
 injecisse mcerorem Laurentio ut officinam suam mox 
 
 habuerit pro derelicto." Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 134. 
 
 31 " Officina Laurentiana, rejecto typi genere, quod Speculo 
 inservierat, alio deinde ad varia opera uti coepit. Huic quippe 
 H
 
 50 
 
 XXXIX. These works, executed with truly 
 extraordinary characters, which have not the least 
 resemblance to those of any other known artist of 
 the 1 5th. century, and destitute, besides, of all marks 
 indicative of the place where they were printed, 
 and the name of their printer, have furnished Mr. 
 Meerman with a very simple and very easy means 
 of asserting, with his usual tone of assurance, as if 
 the thing were indisputable, that the characters, 
 used in these works, were cut singly, (Mr. Meerman 
 is the only one who maintains this paradox, because 
 his system requires it also,) and that all these pub- 
 lications issued from the before-unheard of office 
 of the pretended descendants of his prototypo- 
 grapher Coster. On the strength of so important 
 a discovery, he has caused a plate to be engraved, 
 on which is represented the exact form of the cha- 
 racters used in these works. Grig. Typ. plate vii. 
 
 XL. It is to be regretted, under such circum- 
 stances, that Mr. Meerman was unacquainted with 
 the Sidonii Appollinaris Opera, Guidonis de Co- 
 lumna Historia Destructionis Troyae, Defensorium 
 Fidei contra Judeos, Claudiani Viri Siculi de 
 
 adscribenda editio est Historia Alexandri Magni de Pmliis, quae 
 folio minori, sculptoque charactere prodiit." Orig. Typ. vol. i. 
 pageUA.
 
 51 
 
 Raptu Proserpine? Tragcediae, B. Thomce Acqui- 
 natis de Rege et Regno, Eusebii Historia Eccle- 
 siastica, fyc. fyc. all of them printed with exactly 
 the same characters, and in the same manner, as 
 the editions which he adduces ; for in addition to 
 the list of the productions of Coster's successors, 
 he would have been enabled to embellish his work 
 with one plate more. Unfortunately the printing of 
 his Origines Typographic^ was already finished, 
 the plate, representing the form of the characters 
 of the supposed printing-office of the descendants 
 of his hero Coster, was engraved, the chain of his 
 typographical system was completed, when there 
 fell into his hands the Historia scholastica Novi 
 Testament^ printed at Utrecht, in 14-73, by Nic. 
 Ketelaer and Ger. de Leempt, in folio. He then 
 knew, though too late, that the works, which he 
 had attributed with so much assurance to the pre- 
 tended office of Coster's successors, had been all 
 printed with the types used by Ketelaer and De 
 Leempt in the above mentioned work. 
 
 XLI. This typographical relic most clearly 
 shews, that the so-much boasted office of the de- 
 scendants of the church-warden of Harlem, un- 
 known for three centuries, and discovered by Mr. 
 Meerman, is, after all, nothing but an ideal creation.
 
 52 
 
 Notwithstanding the evidence of this truth, Mr. 
 Meerman, whose work, as has just been said, 
 was already printed, appears to have been still de- 
 sirous of supporting his system, in order, probably, 
 that the result of his labours might not be lost; for 
 he decides by a stroke of his pen, and by a subter- 
 fuge similar to that which we have already noticed 
 (note 17), that Nic. Ketelaer and Ger. de Leempt, 
 printers, of Utrecht, had become the possessors of 
 the types of the Laurentian Printing-office. 33 
 
 33 The following is the note on this subject, which Mr. 
 Meerman added after his work was printed off; it is inserted 
 at page 8 of the first sheet of the second part of his Origincs 
 Topograph iae. 
 
 M Ad cap. vi. Orig. nostr. 8, addi velim, typos, quibus here- 
 des Laurentii Jo. fiL excuderunt Historiam Akxandri Magni, et 
 forte tria alia opera diet. cap. 7 recensita, posthac in manus 
 pervenisse Nicolai Ketelaer, et Gerardi Leempt, primorum 
 Ultrajecti impressorum ; ut pote qui iisdem usi sunt ad secun- 
 dam partem Historic? Scholasticce, qum est de Novo Testamento, editam 
 in Trajecto inferiori 1473, foL Eodemque charactere etiam 
 alios libros absque anni loci vel impressoris indicio vulgatos 
 videre licuit, qui num officinae Laurentiame, an vero his typo- 
 graphis Ultrajactensibus debeantur, definiri vix potest, &c." 
 
 Notwithstanding the difficulty which Mr. Meerman himself 
 appears to have met with, every well-informed bibliographer 
 has decided that all the editions of which he treats, have, without 
 exception, issued from the presses of Nicholas Ketelaer and
 
 53 
 
 XLII. I now leave the judicious reader to judge 
 of the value and importance of the means employed 
 by Mr. Meerman in support of his system ; and 
 yet, will it be believed ? he has regarded this series 
 of works without a date or the name of the printer, 
 as the finest record of the typography of Harlem ! 
 He has even dared to defy any other nation to 
 produce one like it, 3+ without having paid atten- 
 tion to the fact, that the most miserable hamlet in 
 Germany was enabled to claim these works as her 
 own, and even to add twenty similar lists, sup- 
 ported by far more plausible conjectures than those 
 which he has advanced. 
 
 XLIII. It is very singular, if Laurence Coster 
 exercised the art of printing in the city of Har- 
 lem, according to Mr. Meerman's system, from the 
 year 1430, when he first discovered it, and if his 
 grand-children and successors, Peter, Andrew, and 
 Thomas, who were not living in 1492, continued 
 the practice of it for more than thirty years after 
 
 Gerard de Leempt, and that the pretended Laurentian Office is 
 nothing but a dream. 
 
 3 f " Atque haec sylloge diplomatics, quum nulla alia natio 
 ei proferre similem possit, saltern quod ad prima rudiaque artis 
 tentamina, insigne pro inventione artis apud Batavos argumen- 
 turn prsebet." Orig. Typ. voL ii. page 217, note a-
 
 54 
 
 his death, it is very singular, I say, that there 
 cannot be produced, from the press of this famous 
 Laurentian Office, one single printed work, nay not 
 even a single sheet, in which the name of the prin- 
 ter and of the place where it was printed are men- 
 tioned. That the said Coster, or church-warden 
 of Harlem, should have wished most strictly to 
 guard the secret of his art at the very beginning 
 would be not at all surprising ; his interest even 
 would seem to demand such care ; but, after the 
 pretended theft of his types by his workman, the 
 before-named John, after the secret of his art had 
 been divulged, and after the publication of the 
 books printed subsequent to the year 1457, in 
 which the honour, arising from the invention of 
 printing, is so emphatically ascribed to Mentz and 
 to its citizens, that the grand-children and succes- 
 sors of Coster, Peter, Andrew, and Thomas, who 
 lived till 1492, should have persisted in the same 
 conduct, without once naming themselves in any of 
 their pretended editions, and what is more, with- 
 out shewing any desire to claim for their grand- 
 father the honour of the invention of this art, which 
 they saw attributed to others, is one of those things 
 which no person of good sense can ever bring them- 
 selves to believe.
 
 55 
 
 XLIV. Let us grant then, that the claim of 
 Harlem to this honour is only an idle fancy, to 
 which the fabulous narrative of Junius has given 
 rise, that the hypotheses and conjectures of his 
 commentators have rendered it even more vision- 
 ary, and let us candidly acknowledge that Lau- 
 rence Coster, an illustrious scion of the house of 
 the ancient Counts of Holland, a turbulent citizen 
 and one punished as such, a consul, a magistrate, 
 a treasurer, and lastly a sacristan or church-ward- 
 en," can only be regarded as the Don Quixote of 
 Mr. Meerman's typographical romance. 
 
 XLV. Let us now proceed to the examination 
 of more certain facts, by means of which, without 
 having recourse to hypotheses and conjectures fitter 
 to confuse than to elucidate history, we may expect 
 to be able to fix with greater precision the era of 
 the origin of the typographic art. 
 
 XLVI. It appears very certain, that printing 
 owes its existence to the art of engraving on wood. 
 The makers of playing cards, the origin of which 
 is attributed to the 14th. century, were the first 
 to engrave images of saints on wood; to these 
 
 35 This strange combination of characters and offices, is made 
 up from those of all the Laurences, having a John for their 
 father, to be found in the ancient charters.
 
 56 
 
 images they afterwards added some short verses 
 and sentences analogous to the subject, as is seen 
 in the print representing St. Christopher, of which 
 mention has already been made in article xxxn.'" 6 
 As the art advanced, they attempted the composi- 
 tion of historical subjects, with a text or explana- 
 tion engraved upon the same block of wood; in 
 this manner was formed that class of books of 
 images, known by the name of Biblia Pauperum, 
 Speculum humance Salvationist Ars Moriendi> fyc. 
 fyc. already noticed. 37 
 
 XLVII. It is therefore very probable that these 
 books of images, printed from engravings on wood, 
 
 36 The great number of impressions from engravings on wood, 
 with short verses or sentences, which Baron de Heineken saw 
 in many monasteries of Germany, of the same form and size as 
 playing cards, that is 3 inches long by 2 J broad, makes it evi- 
 dent that the idea of engraving the images of saints upon wood 
 was derived from the card-makers. Idee (Tune Collection <TEs- 
 tampes, page 249. 
 
 37 These books, being executed with blocks of wood engraved 
 in relief, ought not to be regarded as true printed works ; they 
 properly belong to the art of engraving ; for the letters of these 
 blocks being fixed, and not capable of being separated and ar- 
 ranged at pleasure, as metal types are, could only serve for the 
 printing of one and the same work. It has before been shewn, 
 (note 1,) that this mode of printing was also known to the 
 ancients.
 
 57 
 
 and which are considered as the first attempts at 
 printing, led the way to the discovery of this im- 
 portant art, since nothing more was required than 
 to cut asunder the letters graven in relief on these 
 blocks, or rather to engrave them separately, in 
 order to render them moveable, and thus to allow 
 the printing of such word, sentence, or discourse, 
 as might be wished. 
 
 XL VII I. This was accomplished about the year 
 1438, by John Guttenberg, of Mentz, a very in- 
 genious artist, as is evident from the authentic 
 papers of a law-suit, published for the first time, 
 by Mr. Schoepflin, in his Vindiciaz Typographical, 
 and republished by Mr. Meerman. Origines Ty- 
 pographical vol. ii. p. 58 et seq. 
 
 XLIX. These judicial acts (documents, which 
 we owe to the literary researches of the learned 
 Schoepflin,) apprise us, that John Guttenberg, 8 
 a man of an inventive genius, and constantly occu- 
 pied with ingenious projects in the mechanical arts, 
 was a native of Mentz ; that he was born of noble 
 
 is John Guttenberg is found designated in these acts, under 
 the name of Johannes GuUmberg ; Johannes de Mogttntia, dictus 
 Gutenberg ; Johannes dictus Getuefle'uch, alias nuncupatus 
 llutaibcrg de Mogunt'ut, Johannes Gcmcjtchh, junior, dictus Gu- 
 i.nUrx; Johannes Gansileisch, dictus Sulgcloch, vel Sorgc>il<x>t. 
 I
 
 parents, and that he afterwards resided for a very 
 long time in the city of Strasburg, where he ac- 
 quired the right of citizenship ; 39 for it is under 
 
 3y From a letter, which John Guttenberg wrote to his sister, 
 a nun of St. Claire, in the city of Mentz, it is evident, that, 
 in the year 1424, he was living at Strasburg. As this letter 
 dispi-oves the assertions of Mr. Meerman, respecting the alleged 
 poverty of Guttenberg, as has been noticed in article xxvr. 
 I think it will not be foreign to my present purpose, to insert 
 a translation of it, as given by Mr. Oberlin in his Essal ff An- 
 nates de la Vie de J. Gutenberg, pages 3 and 4. 
 
 " To the worthy nun Bertha, in the Convent of St. Claire, 
 at Mentz, health and kind and brotherly wishes : Dear sister, 
 in answer to your remark, that the rents and money, which 
 were left you in his will by our dear brother Conrad, to whom 
 may God be merciful ! have often and for a long time not been 
 paid you, and that they are again due to you, and amount, as 
 you say, to a considerable sum, I hereby acquaint you, that you 
 may attach and take, on giving a discharge, the sum of twenty 
 gold florins of my rents and revenues placed, as you know, at 
 Mentz and other places, with John Dimgelter, the wax- 
 chandler, and with Veronique Merstersen, at Seilhoven, at 
 Mentz and many other places, as Pedirmann can tell you, at 
 Lorzwiller, Bodenheim, and Muminheym. I purpose, as I 
 hope, if it please God, to see you shortly, so to arrange the 
 business with Pedirmann, that your property may be promptly 
 delivered to you in the manner that it has been left and ap- 
 pointed. I expect, as below, your immediate answer. 
 
 M Given at Strasburg, the fifth day after Sunday, March 24, 
 hccccxxij Li. Signed Henne Gensfleisch, called Sulgeloch."
 
 59 
 
 the double capacity of nobleman and citizen, that 
 his name is found inserted in the register or list 
 of those liable, in 1437, to the wine duty in that 
 city ; a circumstance which, according to all ap- 
 pearances, has misled those who have fixed the 
 place of his birth at Strasburg. 
 
 L. John Guttenberg was cited in 14-37, before 
 the civil power of Strasburg, by Anne, called zur 
 Iserneji Thilr (iron-door), to whom he had made 
 a promise of marriage. It is commonly believed 
 that he married her, in consequence of this legal 
 proceeding, since in the before-mentioned register 
 we find recorded the name of Anne de Guttenberg, 
 which would appear to designate the above Anne 
 zur Isernen Thiir, surnamed de Guttenberg from 
 the name of her husband. 
 
 LI. But passing over this and reverting to the 
 subject of our present enquiry, let us now examine 
 the most essential part of the documents in ques- 
 tion, namely, the papers of the law-suit instituted, 
 in the year 1439, against John Guttenberg by 
 George and Nicholas Dritzehen, brothers, of Stras- 
 burg. These papers make us acquainted with the 
 
 The sentence given in this action, by the magistrates of 
 Strasburg, is dated the 12th. of December, 1439.
 
 60 
 
 first attempts at the art of printing which were 
 made in that city. 
 
 LI I. Being possessed of many secrets in the arts, 
 John Guttenberg discovered a part of them, for 
 the sum of 160 florins, to Andrew Dritzehen, 
 John Rifle, and Andrew Heilmann, with whom 
 he contracted a partnership, directed to certain 
 specific objects. 
 
 LI II. Andrew Dritzehen and A. Heilmann, 
 having one day called upon Guttenberg, at his 
 residence at St. Arbogaste, without the gate of the 
 city of Strasburg, perceived that he was par- 
 ticularly engaged with a wonderful and unknown 
 art, of which he had carefully reserved the secret 
 to himself; they, therefore, entreated him in the 
 most urgent manner to communicate it to them. 
 Guttenberg, having consented to this, entered into 
 a new partnership with them for five years, on the 
 two following conditions: namely, 1st. that his 
 partners should pay to him, John Guttenberg, 
 another sum of 250 florins, 1 00 of which should be 
 paid immediately, and the remainning 150 at a 
 certain fixed period ; 2d. that, if during the con- 
 tinuance of the co-partnership, any one of the 
 parties should die, the survivors should pay to his 
 heirs the sum of 100 florins, in consideration of
 
 61 
 
 which all the effects should become the common 
 property of the surviving partners. 
 
 LIV. Andrew Dritzehen remained indebted to 
 Guttenberg in the sum of 85 florins, when he died. 
 George and Nicholas Dritzehen, on the death of 
 their brother Andrew, demanded to be admitted as 
 his successors in the partnership ; this demand being 
 refused, they brought an action, before the magis- 
 trates of Strasburg, against John Guttenberg as 
 principal partner. Guttenberg, having grounded 
 his defence on the last contract, which he verified 
 by oath, was, together with his surviving partners, 
 relieved from the demand, by the judgment of the 
 magistrates, on the 12th. of December, 1439, on 
 paying to the heirs of A. Dritzehen the sum of 1 5 
 florins, in completion of the sum of 100 florins 
 stipulated in the contract, and of which 85 were 
 still due to him by the deceased. Schoepjliti, 
 Vind. Typog. Document. No. 3. 
 
 LV. I shall now shew from the depositions of 
 the witnesses examined in this cause, that the me- 
 chanical secret, which was the object of the above 
 noticed partnership, and which J. Guttenberg con- 
 cealed with so much care, was the discovery of the 
 art of printing. 
 
 LVI. Anne, wife of John Schultheiss, faggot-
 
 62 
 
 maker, declared that Laurence Beildeck, came one 
 day to their house to seek Nicholas Dritzehen, his 
 relation, and that he said to him, my dear Nicholas 
 Dritzehen, Andrew Dritzehen, of happy memory, 
 has left four pages arranged in a press, Guttenberg 
 requests you to remove them and take them to 
 pieces, so that no one may be able to see what they 
 are, for he does not wish any one to see them. 41 * 
 
 LVII. John Schultheiss, husband of the pre- 
 ceding witness, deposed to nearly the same effect.f 
 
 41 I shall insert here the original text and the Latin transla- 
 tion of Mr. Schoepflin. Vindic. Typog. Doc. No. 2. 
 
 Original Text. 
 
 * Frouwe Ennel Hanns Schult- 
 heissen frouwe des holtzmans hat 
 geseit das Lorentz Beildeck zu ei- 
 ner zil inn ir hus kommen sy zu 
 Claus Dritzehen irem vetter und 
 sprach zu ime, licber Claus Drit- 
 zehen, Andres Dritzehen setig hat 
 iiij stuckc in ciner pressen ligen, 
 do liatt Gutenberg gebettcn das ir 
 die usz der pressen ncment und die 
 -con cinander legent uff dm man 
 nit gewissen kiinc was es sy dann 
 er Juitt nit gcrne das das iemand 
 sihet. 
 
 f- Item Hannsz SchulHuAsz 
 halt geseit das Lorentz Beildeck 
 zu einer zit hcim inn sin hum 
 kommen sy zu Claus Dritzehen 
 
 Latin Translation. 
 
 * Anna Joh. Schultheissii 
 lignarii conjux, professa est, 
 Nicolaum Beildeck aliquando 
 domum suam ad Nicolaum 
 Dritzehen, suum cognatum, 
 venisse, eique dixisse : mi Ni- 
 colae Dritzehen ! Andreas 
 Dritzehen, beatae memoriae, 
 quatuor paginas prelo subjece- 
 rat, quas ut inde auferres atque 
 disjiceres, Gutenberg rogavit, 
 ne quis rem incognitam addis- 
 ceret, nolle enim se quenquam 
 mortalium earn videre. 
 
 -f- Item Johannes Schulthe- 
 iss dixit, Laurentium Beildeck 
 aliquando domum suam venisse 
 ad Nicolaum Dritzehen, mor-
 
 63 
 
 LVIII. Conrad Sahspach, turner, deposed that 
 Andrew Heilmann, came to him one day, in the 
 Merchants'-street, and said, Conrad, Andrew 
 Dritzehen is dead, and as you made the press and 
 are well acquainted with this business, go and take 
 the pages from the press, and make them fall to 
 pieces, so that no one may know what they are.* 
 
 LVIX. The evidence of Laurence Beildeck, 
 the servant of Guttenberg, is still more decisive ; he 
 
 als diser gezuge in heim gefurt 
 hette, als Andres Dritzehen sin 
 brudcr selige von todes wegen ab- 
 gangcn was, und sprach da Lo- 
 rentz Beildeck zu Claus Dritze- 
 hen, Andres Dritzehen uwer brn- 
 der selige had iiij stucke undenan 
 inn e'uier presscn ligcn, da hatt 
 uch Hanns Gutenberg gebetten 
 . das ir die darusz ncmcnt und uff 
 die presse legent von einander so 
 kan man nit gesehen was das ist. 
 * Item Cunrad Sahspach hatt 
 gcseit das Andres Heilmann zu 
 einer zit zu ime kotnmcn sy inn 
 Krcmcr gassc und sprach zu ime 
 lieber Cunrad als Andres Dritze- 
 lien abgangen ist da luistu die 
 presscn gemaht und weist umb die 
 sacfic do gang do hiu mid in/in 
 die st'uckc nsz der presscn und zcr- 
 lege su von einander, so wis nyc- 
 mand was es ist. 
 
 tuo jam Andrea Dritzehen, 
 hujus fratre, eundemque Lau- 
 rentium Beildeck Nicolao 
 Dritzehen sic locutum esse : 
 Andreas Dritzehen frater tuus 
 beata? memorise quatuor pagi- 
 nas prelo subjecerat, quas inde 
 auferres, prelo imponeres et 
 rumperes Johannes Gutenberg 
 rogavit, nequis rem introspi- 
 ceret. 
 
 Item Conradus Sahspach 
 dixit, Andream Heilmann ali- 
 quando ad se in plateam Mer- 
 catorum venisse atque dixisse : 
 mi Conrade, cum Andreas 
 Dritzehen mortuus sit, et tu 
 prelum confeceris, reique con- 
 scius sis, abi, exirne prelo pa- 
 ginas, disjice illas, et nemo 
 sciet, quid rei sit.
 
 64 
 
 declared, that John Guttenberg had sent him to 
 Nicholas Dritzehen's house, after the death of his 
 brother Andrew, to tell him to be particularly care- 
 ful not to let the press, which was in his house, be 
 seen by any person whatever. He also declared, 
 that Guttenberg had commanded him to go im- 
 mediately to the place where the presses were, and 
 open that which had two screws, in order that 
 the pages might fall in pieces, and then to put 
 these pieces either within or upon the press ; for, if 
 that was done, no one would be able to compre- 
 hend the secret.* 
 
 * Lorentz B.ildeck het gegeit 
 das Joliann Gutenberg in zu einer 
 zit geschickt liet zu Clans Uritze- 
 hen, nach Andres sins bruder se- 
 ligen dode und det Clausen Dritze- 
 hen sagen das er die presse die er 
 hunder im hett nieman oigete zoi- 
 gete y das ouch discr gezug det, 
 und rette ouch me und sprach er 
 solte sich bekumbern so vil und 
 gon uber die presse und die mit 
 den zxveyen wurbelin uff dun so 
 vielent die stucke von einander, 
 dieselben stucke solt er dann in die 
 presse oder uff die presse lege so 
 kunde darnach nieman gesehen 
 noch ut gemcrcken. 
 
 * Laurentius Beildeck dix- 
 it, se aliquando a Johanne Gu- 
 tenberg ad Nicolaum Dritze- 
 hen post mortem Andrese, fra- 
 tris ejusdem, missum esse, ut 
 ipsi nunciaret,ne prelum, quod 
 apud se haberet, cuiquam mon- 
 straret ; idque se curasse. Ad- 
 didit, Gutenberg ipsi insuper 
 mandasse, ut subito ad prela 
 se conferret, et illud prelum, 
 quod duabus cochleis munitum 
 esset, aperiret, ut paginae dila- 
 bantur in partes, easque par- 
 tes vel intra vel supra prelum 
 poneret. Ita neminem rem vel 
 inspecturum, vel aliquid ejus 
 intellecturum.
 
 65 
 
 LX. Anthony Heilmann, also declared, that he 
 knew very well, that Guttenberg had sent his ser- 
 vant to both the Andrews (Andrew Dritzehen and 
 Andrew Heilmann), to ask for all the forms, which 
 were thrown down in his presence, because there 
 were some corrections to be made in them. Heil- 
 mann added, that, as after the death of Andrew a 
 great number of persons had become curious to 
 see the press, Guttenberg repeatedly sent his ser- 
 vant to take it down, that it might thus be with- 
 drawn from observation.* 
 
 LXI. Lastly, John Dunne, goldsmith, said, that 
 about three years before he had received from 
 
 * Dirre gezuge hat ouch gezeit 
 das er wol wisse das Gutenberg un~ 
 lange vor witinahten sinen kneht 
 sante zu den beden Andressen, aUe 
 format zu holen, und wurdent zur 
 lossen das er ess sehe, und injoeh 
 cttliche formen ruwete. Do noch 
 do Andres selige abeginge, und 
 dirre gezuge wol wuste das lute 
 gern hettcnt die presse grscften, do 
 spreche Gutenberg sii soltcnt noch 
 dcr presscn senden er forhte das 
 man sii sclic, do sante er sinen 
 kneht harjn sii zur legen. 
 
 * Idem testis insuper dixit, 
 se probe scire, Gutenberg paulo 
 ante nativitatis testum famu- 
 lum suum ad utrumque An- 
 dream misisse.ut omnes formas 
 peteret, quae in conspectu ejus 
 disjectae, quod nonnulla in illis 
 emendanda reperiret Deinde 
 cum post mortem Andrea? hie 
 testis haud ignoraret, multos 
 curiosos esse praela videndi, 
 Gutenberg mandasse, ut quen- 
 dam mitterent, qui impediret, 
 nequis pra?la videret, suumque 
 famulum misisse ad ea disji- 
 cienda.
 
 66 
 
 Guttenberg nearly 100 florins, for articles required 
 in the art of printing.* 
 
 LXII. These depositions shew us so clearly and 
 precisely the first dawnings of the rising art of print- 
 ing, invented by the happy genius of John Gutten- 
 berg, that no one, I think, can reasonably entertain 
 any doubts on the subject. 
 
 LXIII. Indeed it may be said, that the opinion 
 of bibliographers is not divided upon it ; it is con- 
 ceded without hesitation, that the art of printing is 
 here spoken of, but the question in dispute is, whe- 
 ther John Guttenberg employed, in his attempts, 
 fixed characters on blocks of wood, or separate 
 letters. Many think, not without good grounds 
 for such an opinion, that printing with separate 
 letters, it little matters of what material, is the sub- 
 ject of these depositions ; and this opinion, notwith- 
 standing the objections which have been made to 
 it, is certainly supported by strong arguments. 
 
 LXIV. In fact, the depositions of these witnesses 
 seem to prove, that it is not printing with solid 
 
 * Item Hawns Dunne der golt. * Item Johannes Dunne 
 smyt fiat geseit, das er vor dryen aurifaber dixit, sejam ante tres 
 joren oder doby Gutenberg by den vel circiter annos, ad centum 
 hundert guldin dbe vcrdienet tiabe florenorum pretium pro rebus 
 alkine das zu dem trucken gchorct. ad impressionem pertinentibus 
 
 a Gutenbergio accepisse.
 
 7 
 
 blocks, but the true typographic art, printing pro- 
 perly so called, namely, with separate letters or 
 types, that is here spoken of. Whence otherwise 
 could arise the eagerness of Guttenberg to send his 
 servant to the house of the deceased, with an order 
 to go directly to the presses, " to open that which 
 had two screws, in order that the pages might fall 
 in pieces, and then to put those pieces either within 
 or upon the press ?" If the pages had been formed 
 of solid blocks, how could they have fallen to pieces, 
 or have become disarranged like separate letters, 
 on being loosened from the press ? Besides, what 
 advantage could result from placing them upon the 
 press, the better to conceal the secret? Such a 
 proceeding would, on the contrary, have been the 
 means of discovering it, for it would be very easy 
 to ascertain the purport of solid blocks on being 
 exposed to view, especially as the art of printing 
 images, with sentences or explanations, from en- 
 gravings on wood, had been for a long time known 
 in Germany, as has been already seen. 41 More- 
 over, the necessity is not apparent of having forms 
 and presses for printing with solid blocks, from 
 which the impression was taken by the rubber of 
 the card-makers. 
 
 2 See the articles xxn. xxxi. and xxxii.
 
 68 
 
 LXV. It need not be doubted, that, if the pages 
 here mentioned had been composed of fixed cha- 
 racters engraved on blocks of wood, Guttenberg 
 would have ordered his servant to conceal them 
 somewhere, or to bring them to his house, instead 
 of exposing them to the view of every one, by caus- 
 ing them to be placed upon the press ; but Gut- 
 tenberg had no occasion to take this precaution 
 with separate letters, which, on being once disar- 
 ranged and out of the form, could furnish to no 
 one the least idea of the art, at a time when print- 
 ing, properly so called, was completely unknown. 
 
 LXVI. Now, it must be confessed, that the se- 
 cret, alluded to in the extracts from the examina- 
 tions inserted above, cannot be otherwise explained 
 than by the mechanism of the art of printing with 
 separate letters, no matter of what material, whe- 
 ther of wood or of metal, 3 arranged in forms, and 
 fixed in their places by screws. 
 
 43 Some persons are of opinion that J. Guttenberg made use 
 of metal types ; they ground this opinion on the mention, which 
 is made in the minutes of the law suit, of a certain quantity of 
 lead, bought by his partner, Dritzehen, and also upon the de- 
 claration of the goldsmith, John Dunne, who deposed, that he 
 furnished Guttenberg with articles required in the art of print- 
 ing, to the amount of 100 florins. This opinion certainly ap- 
 pears well founded ; separate letters made of wood, (which I
 
 69 
 
 LXVII. It results then, from incontrovertible 
 documents, from authentic proofs, which are the 
 only true basis of history, that John Gaensfleisch, 
 alias Songerloch, alias Guttenberg of Mentz, the 
 first whose attention was occupied by the discovery 
 of printing, after many attempts, had, in the year 
 1439, made such progress as to establish in the city 
 of Strasburg a press and forms, as well as divers 
 other materials used in printing; 44 but in such a 
 
 very much doubt have ever been used,) could not be employed 
 in the execution of a typographical work, on account of their 
 fragility and the spongy nature of the material, subject to con- 
 tinual dilation and contraction. 
 
 44 Mr. Meerman, not being able to remain ignorant of the 
 truth resulting from the authentic documents discovered by 
 Mr. Schoepflin, concedes the fact : he acknowledges that print- 
 ing with moveable letters is there alluded to ; but, as he is al- 
 ways well provided with a stock of hypotheses and conjectures 
 to oppose to the most decisive proofs, he replies, that this cir- 
 cumstance does not necessarily imply that Guttenberg was not 
 the imitator of Coster, it not being at all probable that the 
 latter, who was born 30 years before Guttenberg, should have 
 delayed, till the last moment of his life (according to him 1 440), 
 to make this discovery, and thus allow all the gkory arising from 
 it to accrue to Guttenberg : " Laurentium itaque, qui triginta 
 fere annis remotior fuit, fingere haud licet extremo demum 
 vitse tempore detexisse artem, ut honori omnia cedant Guten- 
 bergio." Orig. Typ. vol. i.page 196. This reply shews the reason
 
 70 
 
 manner, that notwithstanding the efforts of Gutten- 
 berg and his partners, they had not the good for- 
 tune to succeed completely in their undertaking, 
 owing either to the imperfection of the newly in- 
 vented implements, or to other causes which are 
 quite unknown to us ; this, however, ought not to 
 prevent us from declaring, that the city of Strasburg 
 is the real birth-place of the typographic art. It 
 was at Strasburg, that printing, properly so called, 
 was, to make use of such an expression, rough- 
 hewn by J. Guttenberg, and afterwards polished and 
 perfected by himself, in his native city of Mentz, 
 by means of metal types, cast in moulds. 45 That 
 this was the fact I shall now proceed to shew. 
 
 LXVIII. The law suit between Guttenberg and 
 G. and N. Dritzehen being decided, it is evident 
 that the partnership with John Riff and Andrew 
 
 why Mr. Meerman opposes the opinion of Seiz, that Coster died 
 in 1467, that is, a year before Guttenberg. 
 
 - 5 In page 43 of Jac. Wvmphelingii Germania cis Rhcnum, 
 (printed at Strasburg, in 4to. in 1501,) we find the following 
 remark : " Urbs vestra (Strasburg) plurimum excellere videtur 
 impressoriae arjis origine, licet in Moguntiaco consummatae.'' 
 And in his Epitome Rerum Germanicarum (printed in 1505), 
 chapter lxv : " Is enim, Gutenbergius, primus artem impresso- 
 riam, quam latiniores excusoriam vocant, in urbe Argentinensi 
 jnvenit. Inde Moguntiam veniens eandem feliciter complevit."
 
 71 
 
 Heilmann, confirmed by the judgment of the magis- 
 trates of Strasburg, 6 was continued according to 
 the terms of the original contract ; but we are com- 
 pletely ignorant of the subsequent transactions of 
 this company, and of the advantages which they 
 derived from the secret of the art of printing. Mr. 
 Schoepflin is of opinion, that during its continuance 
 they printed divers books, without date, and with- 
 out the name of the city and of the printer ; but it 
 does not appear that there are good grounds for 
 this opinion. What he advances respecting the 
 ancient editions without date, adduced in support 
 of it, can only be regarded as a conjecture which 
 proves nothing, and by means of which, as we have 
 already said in article xviii. every one might fix 
 the origin of printing at such era, or at such place, 
 as he chose. 
 
 LXIX. It appears, however, certain, that John 
 Guttenberg, the head of this company, still resided 
 in Strasburg, in the year 1444; 7 but, as his name 
 
 <& " Nos praetor et senatus audita dicta actione et exceptione 
 .... jubemus ergo, standum esse conventioni." 
 
 Schoepflin, Docum. No. 3, page 26. 
 
 < 7 Although Guttenberg's name is found inserted in the re- 
 gisters of the wine duty, in 1444, in the city of Strasburg, it is 
 nevertheless certain, according to a document produced by
 
 does not occur after that period in the registers of 
 that city, it is probable that he soon after changed 
 his residence. The cause of this removal is not 
 known ; dissatisfied, perhaps, with his partners, 
 and with the bad success of his mechanical projects, 
 he formed the resolution of quitting Strasburg, 
 where he had lived more than twenty years, and 
 of returning to his native city Mentz, in the de- 
 sign, no doubt, of there continuing his typographi- 
 cal labours. 
 
 LXX. In fact, authentic deeds incontestibly 
 prove, that John Guttenberg, who had expended, 
 at Strasburg, a great part of his fortune in his me- 
 chanical pursuits, contracted at Mentz, in 1450, 
 with John Fust, a rich citizen of that place, a new 
 partnership for the establishment of a printing 
 office. 
 
 LXXI. The considerable sums of money ad- 
 vanced by Fust to Guttenberg, who was charged 
 with the management of this establishment, in which 
 was printed, for the first time, the famous Latin 
 
 Kohler (Ehrenrettung Gutenberg's), that, in 1443, he had al- 
 ready hired a house at Mentz. Guttenberg is called, in this 
 document, Gaensfleisch, the elder, because at that time his 
 uncle was dead, and consequently he was really the elder. See 
 note 18.
 
 73 
 
 Bible, which has created such an interest amongst 
 bibliographers, gave rise to another law-suit, by 
 which Fust sought to recover of Guttenberg the 
 sum of 2020 gold florins (which sum included 800 
 florins which had been advanced in virtue of the 
 deed of partnership), together with the interest. 
 Guttenberg, in his defence, submitted, that the first 
 800 florins had not been paid to him all at once, 
 according to the terms of the partnership-deed, 
 and that they had been expended in the prepara- 
 tions for the work ; as to the other sums, he offered 
 to render an account, but he did not think that he 
 was liable to the payment of interest. The judges 
 having tendered the oath to Fust, and he having 
 taken it, Guttenberg was adjudged to pay the in- 
 terest, as well as that part of the principal which his 
 accounts shewed had been applied to his own in- 
 dividual use ; for this Fust demanded and obtained 
 the act of the notary Helmasperger y on the 6th of 
 November, 1455. s 
 
 48 This act, passed in the city of Mentz, before the notary 
 Ulric Helmasperger and witnesses, will be found printed in 
 Scnkcnbcrg, Select. Jur. ct Anecdot. vol. i. no. 3 ; in Wolfii Monu- 
 menta Typographic/!, vol. i. page 472 ; in Schwarzii Prim. Docum. 
 vol. i. page 5, &c. Fournier also inserts a translation of it in 
 his Originc de V Imprimcrk. 
 
 L
 
 74 
 
 LXXII. The partnership being dissolved in 
 consequence of this law-suit, all the printing mate- 
 rials of Guttenberg, moulds, types, and newly invent- 
 ed implements fell into the hands of J. Fust. This 
 is proved by the fact, (as Mr. Fischer has clearly 
 shewn in his Essai sur lesMonumens Typographiques 
 de Gutenberg,) that the initial letters, of which Gut- 
 tenberg had before made use, were afterwards em- 
 ployed in the Psalters of 1457 and 1459, printed 
 by Fust and SchoefFer ; besides, in the beforemen- 
 tioned act of the 6th of Nov. 1455, Guttenberg 
 acknowledges, that he had mortgaged his materials 
 to Fust for the sums of money, which the latter had 
 advanced to him ; it is therefore more than pro- 
 bable, that when he found himself compelled, by 
 this judicial act to reimburse him, Guttenberg, 
 whose own means were exhausted by such great 
 expenses, abandoned his materials to Fust, in pay- 
 ment of his advances. 
 
 LXXIII. After this event, Guttenberg is repre- 
 sented to have travelled, from vexation, sometimes 
 to Strasburg and at others to Harlem ; but all that 
 has been said upon this subject, is nothing but idle 
 tales invented by system-mongers. On the con- 
 trary, an authentic deed (I am not here speaking of 
 conjectures), executed in the city of Mentz, in 1459,
 
 75 
 
 between this same Guttenberg, his brother, and a 
 sister, who was a nun in the convent of St. Claire, 
 in the same city," g incontestibly proves, that, far 
 
 " 9 The following is a translation of this deed as it is given in 
 the Essai d? Annates de la Vie de Jean Gutenberg, par J. J. Oberlin ; 
 Strasbourg, An IX. in 8vo. p. 4 et seq. : 
 
 " We, Henne (John) Genszfleisch de Sulgeloch, named Gu- 
 dinberg, and Friele Genszfleisch, brothers, do affirm and pub- 
 licly declare by these presents and make known to all, that, with 
 the advice and consent of our dear cousins, John and Friele and 
 Pedirmann Genszfleisch, brothers, of Mentz, we have renounced 
 and do renounce by these presents, for us and for our heirs, sim- 
 ply, totally, and at once, without fraud or deceit, all the property 
 which has passed by means of our sister Hebele, to the convent 
 of St. Claire of Mentz, in which she has become a nun, whether 
 the said property has come to it on the part of our father Henne 
 Genszfleisch, who gave it himself, or in whatsoever manner the 
 property may have come to it, whether in grain, ready money, 
 furniture, jewels, or whatever it may be, that the respectable 
 nuns, the abbess, and sisters of the said convent, have received 
 in common or individually, or other persons of the convent 
 (have received) from the said Hebele, be it little or much, and 
 we have promised and do promise by these presents, in good 
 faith, for us and for our heirs, that neither we, nor any person 
 on our part, nor yet our said cousins, nor any of their heirs, nor 
 any person on their part, shall neither demand again nor claim 
 of the said convent, nor of the abbess, nor of the convent in 
 general, nor of the persons who may be found therein indivi- 
 dually, the said property of whatever kind it may be, neither 
 wholly nor in part, and that we will never demand it again.
 
 76 
 
 from being discouraged by the misfortunes incident 
 to great geniusses, Guttenberg established a new 
 printing office, at Mentz, in which he printed many 
 
 either through an ecclesiastical or civil court, or without the 
 aid of the law, and that neither we nor our heirs will ever 
 molest the said convent either by words or deeds, neither se- 
 cretly nor publicly, in any manner. And as to the books, 
 which I, the said Henne, have given to the library of the con- 
 vent, they are to remain there always and for ever, and I, the 
 said Henne, propose also to give in future, without disguise, to 
 the library of the said convent, for the use of the present and 
 future nuns, for their religious worship, either for reading or 
 chaunting, or in whatever manner they may wish to make use 
 of them according to the rules of their order, all the looks which 
 I, the said Henne, have printed up to this hour, or which I shall fierc- 
 after print, in such quantities as they may wish to make use of;* and 
 for this the said abbess, the successors and nuns of the said con- 
 vent of St. Claire, have declared and promised to acquit me 
 and my heirs of the claim, which my sister Hebele had to 
 the 60 florins, which I and my said brother Friele had promised 
 to pay and deliver to the said Hebele, as her portion and share 
 arising from the house, which Henne, our father, assigned to 
 him for his share, in virtue of the writings which were drawn 
 up thereupon, without fraud or deceit. And in order that this 
 may be observed by us and by our heirs, steadfastly and to its 
 full extent, we have given the said nuns and their convent and 
 order these present writings, sealed with our seals. Signed and 
 
 * This passage is very positive; in 1459, Guttenberg had 
 then printed books and he purposed to print others in future ; 
 he had consequently an established printing-office at that time.
 
 77 
 
 works without interruption till 1465, when having 
 been admitted into the number of the gentlemen of 
 the household of the Elector Adolphus of Nassau, 
 with a handsome pension, 50 (which he does not ap- 
 pear to have long enjoyed, having died before the 
 24th of February, 1468,) he abandoned the prac- 
 tice of an art, which had been a source to him of so 
 many vexations and disputes. 
 
 LXXIV. It is quite true, that up to the present 
 time, not one printed work has been discovered, 
 bearing the name of John Guttenberg, but it is now 
 so well known, as not to admit of a doubt, that the 
 Catholicon Johannis de Balbis, printed at Mentz, 
 in 1460, is one of the productions of this inventor 
 of the art ; for the characters are exactly the same 
 as those which were afterwards used in the Voca- 
 bularium ex quo, printed in the office of Gut- 
 tenberg, in 1467; which office passed after his 
 death into the possession of Conrad Humery, syn- 
 dic of Mentz, who, from all appearances, had con- 
 tributed towards the expenses of its establishment. 
 
 LXXV. This is clearly shewn by a declaratory 
 
 delivered the year of the birth of J. C. 1459, on the day of St. 
 Margaret." 
 
 50 According to letters patent of the 17th of January, 1465. 
 Vide Georg. Ch. Jo, Scrip. Rcr. Mog. vol. iii. page 424.
 
 78 
 
 letter, dated the 24th of February, in the year 
 1468, which will be found in the third volume of 
 Script. Rer. Mog. at page 424, and in Sch'warzii 
 Primar. Docum. vol. i. pages 26 and 27. In 
 this letter Conrad Humery promises the Elector 
 Adolphus, archbishop of Mentz, that he will not 
 sell to foreigners the printing materials of John 
 Guttenberg, whereof he was the possessor, and 
 that he will always give the preference to the in- 
 habitants of the city of Mentz. 51 It in fact appears, 
 that a short time afterwards Humery sold the 
 printing materials in question to Nicholas Bechter- 
 muntze, a printer at Elfeld, where the elector resi- 
 ded, and which place consequently enjoyed the same 
 rights and privileges as the city of Mentz itself. 5 " 
 LXXVI. But let us now revert to John Fust, 
 
 s l This letter proves that John Guttenherg was dead at the 
 date of the 24th of February, 1468. 
 
 iZ This Nicholas Bechtermuntze reprinted, at Elfeld, in 
 1469, the Vocahilarium ex quo, which had before appeared there 
 in 1467. The characters, employed in the printing of these two 
 editions, are exactly the same as those which were used in print- 
 ing the famous Catholicon Joannis de Janita vel de Balbis of 1460, 
 of which this Vocabularium ex quo contains some extracts as well 
 as a part of the subscription. This victoriously demonstrates, 
 that the Catholicon, printed at Mentz, in 1460, without the 
 printer's name, issued from the press of J. Guttenberg.
 
 79 
 
 whom we left the master and possessor of all the 
 materials of the original establishment of Gutten- 
 berg, in consequence of the compromise or judicial 
 act of November 6th, 1455, already mentioned. 
 It appears, that he conducted himself in the sequel 
 of this affair with little generosity, for, without being 
 an artist himself, or without having done any thing 
 except furnishing money to Guttenberg, at a great 
 interest, for the establishment of the printing office, 
 he attributed all the honour of it to himself, in the 
 subscriptions of his editions, without making the 
 least mention of him, who had done every thing, 
 and who was the inventor of the art. 
 
 LXXVII. Fust, however, knew so well how to 
 derive advantage from it, that with the help of a skil- 
 ful scribe, named Peter Schoeffer de Gernsheim," 
 (a young man of considerable talent, extremely 
 
 M The name of this ingenious artist, is variously spelt in the 
 ancient editions as well as in the manuscripts of the time ; we 
 there indifferently meet with Scheffer, Schoffer, Schseffer 
 Schoiffer, Schoifher, Schoyffer, Schoyffher, and Schaefer. As 
 this word signifies in German a shepherd, it is also met with 
 latinised into Pctrus Opilio. Schoeffer is surnamed de Gernsheim, 
 the place of his birth, in the country of Darmstadt, but de- 
 pendent on the electorate of Mentz. This name of Gerns- 
 heim or Gernssheim is also found differently spelt in ancient 
 documents.
 
 80 
 
 ingenious, and of an inventive mind, and who, 
 during the partnership, was probably more than 
 initiated into the secret operations of the art,) he 
 published, a short time after his separation with 
 Guttenberg, namely, in the month of August, in 
 the year 1457, the beautiful edition of the Psal- 
 morum Codex, the first printed book, as yet known 
 to the world, with the name of the place where 
 printed, that of its printers, and the date of the 
 year in which it was executed. 54 
 
 54 In the year 1766, Mr. Schelhorn, an intelligent literary 
 character, discovered a copy, printed upon vellum with cast 
 types of metal, of the letters of indulgence of Pope Nicholas V. 
 to those who would go to the succour of the King of Cyprus 
 against the Turks; these bear date in the year 1454. Mr. 
 Hoeberlin, who has reprinted them in his Anakcta medii Mvi, 
 observes, that these letters were printed in the same year in 
 which they were issued, namely, in 1454, although neither the 
 name of the place in which they were printed, nor that of their 
 printer, is designated on them. This opinion of Mr. Haeberlin 
 has been adopted by most bibliographers; but for my part I 
 can not accede to it ; as, on the contrary, I think that this 
 work, printed with the characters used, for the first time, by 
 Fust and Schoeffer in the Rationale Durandi of 1459, is of a 
 date long subsequent to that of 1454, and it is certainly later than 
 the Psalter of 1 457. We have, amongst many others, a similar 
 instance in the Bulla Retractation um Pii Papa: II. the successor 
 of Calixtus V. dated on the 5th of the kalends of May, in the
 
 81 
 
 LXXVIII. The short space of time, which in- 
 tervened between the separation of Fust and Gut- 
 tenberg and the date of the publication of this 
 Psalter, has furnished grounds for supposing, that 
 the types, used in the execution of it, were entirely 
 prepared and completed by John Guttenberg, be- 
 fore his rupture with Fust; in fact, it does not 
 appear probable, that in eighteen months Peter 
 Schoeffer, who perfected, it is true, according to 
 the evidence of Trithemius, the art of casting letters, 
 should have been able to prepare all the types ne- 
 cessary for the printing of so considerable a work, 
 as well as the implements used in casting them, 
 which it would be equally necessary to invent and 
 make. The contrary is moreover proved by the 
 circumstance, that the large initial letters of this 
 edition of the Psalter, which the curious admire 
 even at the present day, were before employed in 
 the earlier works, which, beyond all doubt, were 
 
 year 1463 ; and although this Bull is addressed to the rector 
 and members of the University of Cologne, and was printed in 
 that very city by Ulric Zell, the first who introduced the art 
 of printing there, (a remarkable circumstance, which, to all ap- 
 pearances, proves that it was submitted to the press immediately 
 after its receipt,) it is nevertheless thought that it was not 
 printed till some years after the date of its dispatch, in 1403. 
 M
 
 82 
 
 printed by Guttenberg. See on this subject Fis- 
 cher's Essai sur les Monumens Typographiques de 
 Gutenberg, pages 44 and 74. 
 
 LXXIX. The supposition, that the types, used 
 in this edition of the Psalter, were formed of wood, 
 is untenable ; how, in fact, could types of that ma- 
 terial have lasted through three other editions which 
 were afterwards printed from them ? For Fust and 
 Schoeffer reprinted this Psalter in 1459 ; after die 
 death of Fust, Schoeffer published a third edition 
 of it in 1490, and a fourth in 1502, and always 
 with the same types. It is, however, a singular 
 circumstance, that Fust and Schoeffer never used 
 these types in the printing of any other work ; it is 
 probable, that, from their great size, they were only 
 found fit for the printing of such kinds of church 
 books as were used in the choir. 
 
 LXXX. But, however this may be, it is now no 
 longer doubted, that except the initial letters, which 
 are of wood, all the rest of the Psalter is printed 
 with cast metal types, of which some authors have 
 attributed the invention to Peter Schoeffer, but 
 without any foundation. The evidence of Trithe- 
 mius ( Annal. Hirsang. vol. ii. page 421^, upon 
 which they advance such an assertion, clearly proves 
 the contrary ; for Trithemius, who had this fact
 
 83 
 
 from Schoeffer himself, positively asserts, that John 
 Guttenberg and Fust discovered the art of casting 
 metal types, which they were before obliged to cut 
 with the hand ; but that Peter Schoeffer afterwards 
 invented a more easy mode, which gave to this art 
 a new degree of perfection. I shall here insert 
 Trithemius's own words : " Post haec inventis suc- 
 cesserunt subtiliora, inveneruntque (Joh. Gutenberg 
 et Joh. Faustus) modum fundendi formas omnium 
 latini alphabeti litterarum, quas ipsi matrices no- 
 minabant, ex quibus rursum aeneos sive stanneos 
 characteres fundebant ad omnem pressuram suffi- 
 cientes, quos prius manibus sculpebant. Et revera 
 sicuti ante xxx ferme annos ex ore Petri Opi- 
 lionis de Gernsheim civis Moguntini, qui gener 
 erat primi artis inventoris, audivi, magnam a primo 
 inventionis suae haec ars impressoria habuit difficul- 
 
 tatem Petrus autem memoratus Opilio, 
 
 tunc famulus, postea gener, sicut diximus, invento- 
 ris primi Johannis Fust, homo ingeniosus et pru- 
 dens, faciliorem modum fundendi characteres ex- 
 cogitavit, et artem, ut nunc est, complevit." 
 
 LXXXI. This evidence is very clear, exact, 
 and positive; it is moreover that of a contem- 
 porary author, who learned the fact from the 
 mouth of Schoeffer himself. But notwithstanding
 
 84- 
 
 all this, (as it is not too favourable to the system of 
 Mr. Meerman, who absolutely requires, that the 
 characters, employed in the printing of this Psalter, 
 should have been cut with the hand upon pieces of 
 cast metal, and that it should have been Schoeffer, 
 who discovered the art of casting letters,) he pre- 
 tends, that a considerable omission has been made 
 in the text of Trithemius, through the fault of those 
 who copied it. This omission he ventures to sup- 
 ply as best suits his fancy, and by such means ex- 
 tracts from this passage a forced sense, analogous 
 to his own ideas, and of which Trithemius had never 
 dreamed. It is in the' following manner that he 
 reads and interprets the above quoted passage : 
 " Post hcec inventis successerunt subtiliora, invene- 
 runtque modum fundendi formas (id est corpora) 
 omnium latini alphabeti litterarum ex lis, quas ipsi 
 matrices nominabant, ex quibus rursum (h. e. post- 
 modern, sive successu temporis, ut opponatur se- 
 quenti particulee priiis) ceneos sive stanneos charac- 
 teres (id est literas corporibus impositas ; hoc enim 
 sensu vocem characteres supra jam adhibuit^mrff- 
 bant ad omnem pressuram siifficientes, quos priiis 
 (quando scil. non nisi corpora fundebantur) manibus 
 sculpcbant" (Orig. Typ. vol. ii. pages 4>6 and 47.) 
 I leave the sensible reader to examine the whole of
 
 85 
 
 this far-fetched interpretation. I will only say, 
 that Mr. Meerman pretends, without justice, that, 
 by the word Jbrmas, Trithemius has intended to 
 signify the bodies, or pieces of metal, upon which 
 the letters were cut ; for it does not seem probable, 
 that this author would have used the words Jbrmas 
 and matrices as synonimous ; as if the matrices were 
 any thing but the real moulds m which the letters 
 were cast. Trithemius, therefore, very properly ap- 
 prises us, that these moulds were called by their 
 inventors matrices, a name, which they still pre- 
 serve in the typographic art ; for it would not have 
 been very easy to comprehend the meaning of the 
 word matrices, in this passage, at a time when the 
 art was little known, if the author had not taken 
 the precaution to tell us, that it signified moulds 
 for casting types in. Mr. Meerman adds, that 
 Trithemius could not say, without committing an 
 error, that the artists, of whom he speaks, cast ma- 
 trices, because the matrices, says he, are not cast. 
 This is true, as regards the practice of the art in 
 the present day ; but I cannot conceive, how Mr. 
 Meerman ventures to tell us, contrary to the evi- 
 dence of Trithemius, 55 that the matrices were not 
 
 5 s The passage of Trithemius could not be clearer : Gutten- 
 berg and Fust, according to him discovered the means of casting
 
 86 
 
 til en cast ; for this was the imperfection of the art, 
 which Schoeffer removed by the invention of 
 punches. The necessity they were under, of cast- 
 ing the matrices was precisely the cause of the pro- 
 gress of the art being retarded, and of the artists 
 being obliged to occupy so much time, and to take 
 such pains in providing the requisite quantity 
 of types. This was the defect in the art to which 
 Trithemius alludes in this passage, in order to render 
 more conspicuous the talent of Peter Schoeffer, 
 who corrected it by the invention of punches for 
 striking the matrices ; by this happy invention, he 
 facilitated and perfected the art of casting types ; 
 " faciliorem modum fundendi caracteres excogitavit, 
 et artem, ut nunc est, complevit." 
 
 LXXXII. It is therefore manifest, that the art 
 of casting types was known to John Guttenberg, to 
 whom we are also indebted for the invention of 
 them ; it was afterwards perfected by Peter Scho- 
 effer, by means of punches for striking the matrices. 
 This perfection given to the art, by Schoeffer, is 
 
 moulds forall the letters of the alphabet, which they called matrices, 
 serving in their turn,for casting the metal letters or types : " In- 
 veneruntque modum fundendi formas omnium latini alphabet i 
 litterarum, quas ipsi matrices nominabant, ex quibus rursum 
 aeneos sive stanneos caracteres fundebant."
 
 87 
 
 clearly pointed out in Jo. Frid. Faust, de Aschaffen- 
 burg, llelatio de Origine Typographic ; apud Wolf. 
 Monum. Typ. vol. i. page 468, by these words : 
 " Petrus Schoefferus Gernsheimensis, singulari Dei 
 instinctu rationem invenit, qua characteres matrict, 
 ut vocant, inciderentur, et ex ea funderentur." 
 
 LXXXIII. It was by the discovery of punches, 
 that Peter Schoeffer acquired the glory of being 
 regarded as the father of the true art of printing ; 
 it was also for this discovery, that he was thought 
 deserving of the honour of becoming the son-in-law 
 of his master ; for we are told, in the relation of J. 
 Frid. Faustus, of AschafFenburg, drawn up from the 
 family documents and papers, that Schoeffer, having 
 secretly struck a complete alphabet of matrices, 
 presented it one day to his master, with the types 
 which he had cast from them ; with these I. Fust 
 was so highly pleased, that he gave him his only 
 daughter in marriage : " Hie (P. Schoefferus) 
 clam matricem abecedariam incidit, et cum charac- 
 teribus inde fusis hero suo Johanni Fausto ostendit, 
 qui huic adeo placuerunt, ut gaudiorum plenus ei 
 protinus filiam unicam Christinam desponderet, ac 
 paulo post in uxorem daret." Wolf. Mon. Typ. vol. 
 i. pages 468 and 469. This circumstance is con- 
 firmed by the evidence of John Schoeffer, Peter's
 
 88 
 
 son, who in the colophon of Trithemius's Brev. 
 Histor. Francorum, which he printed at Mentz, in 
 1515, asserts, that Fust gave his daughter in marriage 
 to Schoeffer, as a recompense for his laborious and 
 important discoveries : " Cui etiam filiam suam 
 Christinam Fusthin, pro digna laborum multarum- 
 que adinventione remuneratione, nuptui dedit. 56 
 
 LXXXIV. The types, cast from the new ma- 
 trices struck by Peter Schoeffer, were used, for 
 the first time, in the printing of the Durandi Ra- 
 tionale divin. OJjic. finished on the 1 6th day of Oc- 
 tober, 1459, nearly three months after the publica- 
 tion of the second edition of the Psalter, of the 
 29th of August, 1459, executed, as has before been 
 said, with the same types as were employed in the 
 first edition of the 14th of August, 1457. 
 
 LXXXV. In the year 1460, Fust and Schoeffer 
 printed the Const itutiones dementis V. ; and in 
 1462, the celebrated Latin Bible, so well known in 
 the republic of letters. The above five books are 
 
 S6 This marriage, as is well observed in the Journal des Savans, 
 of the year 1741, must have occurred between the years 1462 
 and 1465; for in the subscription of the Latin Bible of 1462, 
 Schoeffer is styled ckricus (copyist, scribe), whilst in the edition 
 of the Ciceronis Officvi of 1465, Fust calls him his son-in-law, 
 "pair meus."
 
 89 
 
 the earliest printed works, at present known, in 
 which the date, the name of their printers, and the 
 place where they were printed, are found distinctly 
 indicated. 
 
 LXXXVI. If to these five works we also add 
 the Catholicon Johannis de Janua, or de Balbis, 
 printed at Mentz, in 1 460, without the name of the 
 printer, but which all well-informed bibliographers, 
 now attribute without hesitation to John Gutten- 
 berg, 57 we shall have the six earliest printed books 
 known, bearing a date and indication of the place 
 where they were printed. These six really exist- 
 ing books the city of Mentz (to make use of such 
 an expression), places before our eyes, to prove, that 
 that was the first place in the world in which the 
 
 57 The subscription of the Catholicon of 1640 is in quite a 
 different style from those in the impressions of J. Fust and P. 
 Schoeffer, in which they are usually printed in red ; besides the 
 characters, with which the Catholicon is printed, are entirely 
 different and very unequal in shape. This work, therefore, can 
 only be attributed to Guttenberg, who, after his separation with 
 Fust, in 1455, continued to practise the art at Mentz, as is 
 evident from the act given at length in note 49. The perfect 
 conformity also of the characters, used in this Catholicon, with 
 those of the Vocabularium ex quo, of 1467 and 1469, of which we 
 have spoken in the art. lxxiv and lxxv, and in note 52, proves 
 the truth of this assertion.
 
 90 
 
 art of true printing was exercised in perfection. 
 These proofs are incontestable, they are unanswer- 
 able ; they are positive and speaking proofs, which 
 indubitably secure to Mentz the glory of the first 
 establishment of the most interesting and useful of 
 the arts ; a glory which many cities have enviously 
 strove to claim, but their pretensions, supported by 
 vague conjectures and frivolous arguments, do not 
 merit discussion. I ought, however, to except the 
 city of Strasburg, the claims of which, being 
 founded upon authentic acts, will be always duly 
 appreciated and held in consideration by all the 
 friends of truth, in spite of the efforts of system- 
 mongers, who make it a point of honour to main- 
 tain paradoxes. 
 
 LXXXVII. If to the proofs, which have been 
 brought forward in support of its claims, the city 
 of Strasburg could also add that of a single well 
 authenticated book printed by Guttenberg, even 
 should it be without a date, 58 it is very certain, 
 that this city would have attracted to its side the 
 
 58 The ancient works, without a date and the name of the 
 place or their printer, brought forward by Schoepflin, in his 
 Vindicice Typographic^, prove nothing. He attributes them to 
 Guttenberg and his partners, in the city of Strasburg, through 
 pure conjecture, and without any other reasons than those, which,
 
 91 
 
 generality of the suffrages of literary men, and have 
 torn from Mentz the merit of this admirable dis- 
 covery. 
 
 LXXXVIII. That such would have been the 
 result is evident, since notwithstanding the want of 
 such proof, Mr. Meerman has not hesitated to at- 
 tach himself to the party of Strasburg, in opposition 
 to the pretensions of Mentz ; 59 but the arguments 
 advanced by the learned Schoepflin, in his Vindicice 
 Typographic^, founded upon the judicial acts be- 
 fore mentioned, have failed to draw over also to 
 the same party that celebrated literary character, 
 Schelhorn : " Ex illisque (actis authenticis) col- 
 legit (Joa.-Dan. Schopflinus) auream artem non 
 Moguntiae, sed Argentorati, a laudato Gutenbergio 
 esse inventam. Fateor, parum abfuisse, quin mihi 
 quoque rem istam persuaserit vir disertissimus, nisi 
 scrupuli quidam animum meum adhuc suspensum 
 detinerent." Obs. I. de Typ. Mog. inventa, pag. 6. 
 
 under similar circumstances, influenced Mr. Meerman, some 
 time afterwards, to adduce them in favour of Coster. 
 
 59 " Quarto loco disquirere juvat, num Gutenbergius typo- 
 graphiae primus inventor extiterit, atque ita Argentoratum vin- 
 dicare sibi hanc gloriam jure possit. Et sane, si soli hie sese 
 opponerent Moguntini, ego quidem a parte starem Argentinen- 
 sium, quoniam hi, licet per integrum quinquennium, quo illis
 
 92 
 
 LXXXIX. From every thing that has been 
 hitherto said, on consulting only authentic proofs 
 and unequivocal testimony, we may conclude with 
 the greatest confidence: 1st. That John Gaens- 
 fleisch, alias Songerloch, alias Guttenberg, was the 
 inventor of printing, for without any other assistance 
 than his own ingenuity, he had, before the year 
 1439, made such progress as to establish in Stras- 
 burg presses, forms, and other implements used in 
 the art of printing; 2d. That on his return to 
 Mentz, his native place, he there, in 14-50, con- 
 tracted a partnership with John Fust, for the esta- 
 blishment of a printing-office, which, after being 
 completed and perfected by the said Guttenberg, 
 passed into the possession of J. Fust, in consequence 
 of the judicial and notarial act of the 6th of No- 
 vember, 1455 ; 3d. That the said Fust, having be- 
 come the proprietor of this office, caused to be print- 
 ed in it, for the first time, with the assistance of 
 Peter Schoeffer, a very ingenious young man and 
 of great talent, the famous Psalmorum Codex, 
 finished on the 14th of August, 1457 ; 4th. That 
 
 praeivere artem ipsam exsequi non potuerint, ea tamen jam 
 praestitere, nempe preli typorumque solutilium compositione, 
 per quae facilior patebat aliis ad intima artis penetralia aditus." 
 Orig. Typ. vol. i. page 196.
 
 93 
 
 the said John Guttenberg invented the art of casting 
 metal types, which perfected the attempts in the 
 typographic art, which he had before made at 
 Strasburg; 5th. That Peter Schoeffer gave the 
 last degree of perfection to the art of casting types, 
 by the invention of punches, for striking the ma- 
 trices, which they had before been obliged to cast ; 
 and 6th. That John Fust, having only furnished 
 the necessary capital for the establishment of the 
 printing-office, and for the execution of the books 
 printed in it, ought only to be considered, in this 
 admirable undertaking, as a sleeping partner, or, 
 if it is thought preferable, as a patron of the ty- 
 pographic art. 
 
 XC. It results from all these facts, that the pre- 
 tended discovery of printing by Laurence Coster, 
 of Harlem, is nothing but an idle fancy, a gossip's 
 tale, first invented by Hadrian Junius, corrected 
 and greatly augmented with many fables, even more 
 visionary, by Scriverius, Seiz, and lastly by Mr. 
 Meerman, who by his new and fictitious details, 
 injurious to the family of Gaensfleisch, respecting 
 the pretended robbery at Harlem, has converted 
 it into a finished romance, of which Laurence 
 Janssoen Coster is the Don Quixote. 
 
 THE END.
 
 Newcastle: Printed by 
 S. Hodgson, Union-street.
 
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