In the art of printing, however, though it had made great progress, an important improvement was yet to he made, ere the invention could be regarded as complete. And Peter Schoeffer, of whom we have just spoken, was destined to have the honour of filling up this desideratum.
Naturally ingenious and inquisitive, Schoeffer discovered, after repeated trials, that the letters might, by means of a matrix, be cast, instead of being cut. Erc he revealed this discovery to any, he privately made matrices for the whole alphabet, and " when," as we are told, " he showed his master the letters cast from these matrices, Faust was so pleased with the contrivance, that he promised him his only daughter in marriage ; a promise which he soon afterwards performed." This invaluable discovery, which was made abobt 1458, forms one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of printing; and so much and so rapidly did it facilitate the art, that Schoeffer, before his death, which is supposed to have taken place about 1492, or the following year, patted upwards of fifty works. Of these the most celebrated are two editions of Cicero de Officiis, some copies of which are yet to he seen in our public libraries. Schoeffer and Faust seemed to have used only one size of cast letters, as all the large characters in the body of their books, and at the top of the pages, were made from cut types. They at first also seem to have printed on vellum, in preference to paper, a practice soon laid aside ; and a few copies only were afterwards printed on vellum as curiosities, or for the purpose of being brilliantly illuminated.' .Such, as it seems to us, are the claims which Mentz possesses to the invention of printing. The art was first known and practised at Harlaem, but Laurentius and his fa ily made use of nothing but wooden types, and the bs which Laurentius printed, though not very inaccu r , t arc clumsy and inelegant. Mentz, therefore, has the honour of bringing the art to perfection. It discovered and introduced the adzantages of metal types, first cut and then cast, and is inferior to Harlaem only in as far as the inventor of any art is superior to him who accomplishes improvements on what is already known, or whn makes it more easily applicable and useful. It must not be denied, however, that in the edition of the Psalter published in 1457, Faust and Schoeffer assume to themselves the merit of a new invention; but this, we think, has reference only to metal types, as they themselves very indirectly allow that piiiiiting had been before known, and that they had merely gained an important, and previously unknown step, in the progress of it. And it is extremely improbable, had they
really been the original inventors of the art in question, that they would have delayed urging their claims to this distinction (since they urged them at all) till the year 1457, since they might have done so, with equal, or rather far greater propriety fifteen years before that period.
The claims of Strasburg come next to be considered— a task by no means difficult to perform. Guttemberg, who, as formerly mentioned, originally resided at Stras burg, (where his ordinary profession was that of a looking glass maker, and a polisher of precious stones,) and who afterwards joined his brother Geinsfieisch at Mentz, is the person whom Strasburg holds out as the inventor of print ing. It has been supposed, that, having paid a visit to his brother at Harlacm, Guttemberg, in this way, became ac quainted with the success of Laurentius, and that, on his return to Strasburg, he exerted his utmost ingenuity to put into practice the knowledge thus obtained. How far this opinion is correct cannot now be established; but it is distinctly proved by Mr. Meerman that all his efforts were ineffectual—a fact which, were it evident from nothing else, is evident from the circumstance of his afterwards removing to Mentz; for had he been established as a printer in Strasburg, it is highly improbable he would have left a place where his merits must have been so thoroughly known, and where, carrying on business on his own account, he must have been far more successful and prosperous, than as assistant and partner to his brother at Mentz. Even Wimphelingius, the earliest writer in favour of Strasburg, admits, in his Epitome Rerun Germanarum, that the art of printing was found out incompOte by Guttcm berg, and that he was not altogether acquainted with it till he had settled at Mentz. And what is indeed a stronger and more irrefragable argument, no writers who support Guttemberg ever speak of any book printed by him. Nor, indeed, is there any proof of a single volume printed at Strasburg till after the year 1462, a period when, as shall soon be shown, the art was introduced into most of the principal towns in Europe. Guttemberg, it may be men tioned, was a man of ingenuity and talents, but a fanciful theorist and projector ; and his speculations had been so absurd or unprofitable, that, on his removal to Mentz, he was in a state of insolvency, and was obliged to dispose of his little property to lessen or liquidate his debts.