PRINTING.
Tabs, Chaps, AL, BIND. Imprvnta, . . . . Sr. Impression, . . . FR. 1 :tithe T ix Drucker. . . . GEN. ? Bums. . . . . Teat:.
Impressions, . . . Ir.
Sir John Davis is of opinion that the art of printing, the composition of gunpowder, and the magnetic compass, which are justly considered as three of the most important inventions or dis coveries, had their first origin in China. Their printing is by a system of stereotype, the types being made from the pear-tree wood, called by them ly-mo. In the beginning of the 10th century their printing was invented, and in A.D. 932 that mode of multiplying copies of books received the imperial sanction, a printed imperial edition of all the sacred works having been then published. The art was not invented in Europe till 500 years after this. Marco Polo speaks much of the stamped paper money of the Chinese ; and he must have seen their printed books. Printing with moveable types (made of terra-cotta) was invented in China by a smith named Pishing, before the middle of the llth century, but the invention does not seem to have been followed up. Their wood-printing was known at least as early as A.D. 581 ; and about 904 engraving on stone for the press was introduced. Paper in China is made from bamboo, from the bark of mulberry, of a hibiscus (Rosa Sinensis), and of the tree called chu (Bronssonetia papyrifera). All bark paper is strong and tough ; it has rays crossing it, so that when torn you would think it was made of silk fibres. This is why it is called Mien-chi, or silk paper. . .
Printing was known in Europe in A.D. 1428. The art of printing was introduced into India by the Goa Jesuits about the middle of the 16th century, but at first they printed only in the Roman character. Father Estevao (i.e. Stephens, an Englishman), about 1600, speaks of the Roman character as exclusively used for writing Konkani, and the system of transcription which he uses in his Konkani grammar (Ante de lingoa Cannarin) and Purana is really worthy of admiration. It is based on the Portuguese pronunciation of the alphabet, but is accurate and complete, and has been used by the numerous Konkani Roman Catholics of the west coast of India up to the present time. In the 17th century • the Jesuits appear to have had two presses at Goa,—in their college of St. Paul at Goa, and in their house at Rachol. Few specimens of their work have been preserved, but there is ample evidence that they printed a considerable number of books, and some of large size. About the end of the 17th century,
it became the practice at Goa to advance natives to high office in the church, and from that time ruin and degradation began, and the labours of the early Jesuits disappeared. Literature was entirely neglected, and the productions of the early presses were probably used as waste-paper by the monks, or left to certain destruction by remaining unused and uncared for on their book shelves. There is, however, in the Cochin territory a place quite as famous as Goa in the history of printing in India, often mentioned by travellers in the 17th and 18th centuries, Ambalacatta (i.e. Ambalakkadu, or Churchwood). The place still remains as a small village with a scanty popu lation of schismatic Nestorians ; it is inland from Cranganore, and a few miles to the north of Angama li. The Jesuits appear to have built here a seminary and church dedicated to St. Thomas soon after 15b0; and in the result of the Synod of Udaymnpura, presided over by Alexius Manezes, Archbishop of Goa, in 1599 it became a place of great importance to the mission. Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayan, and Syriac were studied by the Portuguese Jesuits residing there with great success, and several important works were printed, of which, however, we have only the names left us, as recorded by F. de Souza and others, and still later by Fr. Paulinus. The last tells us that—' Anno 1679, in oppido Ambalacatta in lignum incisi alli characterm Tamulici per Igna tium Aichamoni indigenam Malabarensem, iisquc in lucem prodiit opus iuscripturn : Vocabulario Tamulio corn a significaco Portugueza composto pello P. Antem de Proenca da Comp. de Jcsu, Miss de Madure,' The first Malabar (Tamil ? Malayalam ?) types had been cut by a lay brother of the Jesuits, Joannes Gonsalves, at Cochin, in 1577. Ambalacatta was destroyed by order of Tipu, when his army invaded Cochin and Travan core. He spared neither Christians nor Hindus, and to him attaches the infamy of destroying most of the ancient Sanskrit MSS. which time had spared in South India. Brahmans have yet stories current, how in those times their ancestors had to flee to the forests with a few of their most precious books and possessions, leaving the re mainder to the flames.— Trubner's Oriental Record.