Inventions, fraught with the most important conse quences to the world, have as often been the result of accident as of ingenuity. This remark is applicable with peculiar emphasis to the art which we are now contem plating. " Laurentius," says Junius, " walking in a wood near the city, began at first to cut some letters upon the rind of a beech-tree ; which, for fancy's sake, being im pressed on paper, he printed one or two lines as a speci men for his grandchildren to foll-w. This having happily succeeded, he meditated greater things (as he was a man of ingenuity and judgment); and first of all with his son in law, Thomas Peter, invented a more glutinous writing ink, because he found the common ink sunk and spread; and then formed whole pages of wood, with letters cut upon them ; of which sort I have," continues Junius, " seen some essays in an anonymous work, printed only on one side, entitled Speculum Nostrae Sa/utis ; in which it is remarkable, that in the infancy of printing, (as nothing is complete at its first invention,) the back sides of the pages were pasted together that they might not by their nakedness betray their deformity." At what period printing was thus accidentally invented has not been exactly ascertained. Laurentius died in 1440. He published the Speculum .Nostrae Salutis, as stated above, and two editions of Donatus; and the " specimen" mentioned in the foregoing extract has been discovered to be a Horarium, containing the letters of the alphabet, the Lord's prayer, the Apostles' creed, and three short prayers, in all only eight pages. These works, considering the diffi culties Laurentius had to encounter, and that they were all printed with separate wooden types fastened•together with thread, must have required years in the execution ; and it has thus been conjectured that the invention took place about or soon after 1430. Laurentius, however, though we allow him the honour of the invention, cannot be regarded as having brought the art to any high degree of improvement.* On the contrary, the few works which he printed, arc re for rudeness and inelegance. The pages are not numbered ; there are no divisions at the end of lines; no direction-words ; and in the Horarium, his most clumsy performance, there is no punctuation ; the lines are uneven ; and the pages are not always of the same size or shape. Engravings of this rude typography may be found, as already mentioned, in the celebrated work of Meerman, to which we 1)( g leave particularly to refer.
The city of Mentz, which next demands our attention, can lay no claim, if the above reasoning be correct, to the invention of printing. This distinction, indeed, can with no degree of plausibility be attributed to any other place than to Harlaem. But it must not be denied that Mentz made many important improvements in the art ; though it must, at the same time, be confessed, that the knowledge of it was transferred thither in a way that reflects honour neither on the city, nor on the person by whom that know ledge was introduced. Mentz is indebted for the introduc tion of printing, not to the ingenuity of any of her citizens, but to the knavery of one of the servants of Laurentius, who, emulous of the honour which, on account of this invention, his master and the wealth which his new profession promised to yield him, on Christmas eve, when Laurentius and his family were engaged in the exercises of religion, basely stole the types, and all the necessary apparatus, and, with an accomplice, after visiting Amsterdam and Cologne, settled at Mentz in the capacity of a printer. Who this dishonest servant was, has been a question much agitated. That his name was John, has
been allow ed by all writers, and Mr. Meerman seems to have at last ascertained that it was John Geinsflcisch, pro bably a native of Mentz, who, both on account of his knavery to his master, and his subsequent eminence as a printer, occupies a prominent place in the annals of typography. Geirfsfleisch, on his arrival in Mentz, lost no time in avail ing himself of the implements he had so dishonourably brought along with him ; for in 1442, within two years from the time he absconded from Hallam', he published two little works, the Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus, and the Tracts of Peter of Spain, which, being both used as school books, met, it is probable, with a rapid sale.
But Geinsflcisch, long a servant, had not, as may be sup posed, wealth sufficient to carry on his profession to any great extent; the profession, however, was honourable, and promised to become so lucrative, that a person of the name of John Faust, a wealthy citizen, willing to advance money, acquired a share of the business in 1443. Meiden baeltius, and others, were also about the same time admitted as partners ; and in 14•4, Guttenberg, of whom we shall soon speak more fully, supposed to he the brother of Gcins fleisch, removed thither from Strasburg, where he had long resided. Geinsfleisch being thus patronised and sup ported, an improvement was made in the art of printing, which has conferred immortality on those by whom it was effected, and which, in point of utility, is inferior only to the original invention. The insufficiency of wooden types, particularly their want of durability, must have been deeply felt. With such materials, indeed, printing must have been an extremely tedious, clumsy, and expensive opera tion ; and GeinsReisch, with his brother Guttenberg, thus instigated to attempt improvements, had the merit of being the first that devised and used cut metal types. This was a most important step in the progress of the art—and something far greater than had yet been accomplished might now be expected. While these metal types were preparing, a task of no ordinary labour, several small books, chiefly for the use of schools, issued from the Mcotz press ; and the first result of the new invention was an edition of the Bible, which, taking seven or eight years to execute, was published in 1450, and which, for accuracy and beauty, would do honour to the art at any stage of its A revolution now took place (1445) in the printing esta blishment at Mentz. The partnership was dissolved. Gcins fleisch, now dim-sighted with age, seems to have retired from business, though he survived till 1462. A new partnership was formed between Faust and Guttcmberg, which, however, from some misunderstanding, was soon terminated ; and Faust, with Peter Schocifer, a native of Gensheim, whether as a partner or assistant is not well known, continued to carry on the business. In 1457 an edition of the Psalter was published by them, re markable for its elegance, but chiefly distinguished as the first book printed with a date. From this time, however, not only were the dates given, but the name of the printer, and the town where the work was executed. Guttenberg, it may not be improper to mention, though separated from Faust, did not remain long unemployed. He found a patron in Conrad Humery, Syndic of Mentz, through whom he opened another printing-office in that city, from which issued several elegant works. His merits acquired him the notice and friendship of the Elector Adolphus, from whom he received a pension; and, after a life of great activity and enterprise, he died in 1468.