But the supporters of Strasburg, convinced that the arguments in favour of Guttemberg are inconclusive, or anxious to proclaim the praise of another individual, have brought forward another candidate for the honour. Mete lius, the person thus distinguished, was, it is not denied, the first that was established in that city as a printer; but whatever assertions may have been made, there is no proof that he published any works before 1462 or 1463, previously to which date the art had not only been practised twenty years at Alentz, but had been brought to a high state of improvement. The claims of Metelius are supported by little or nothing deserving the appellation of evidence. These claims were first published to the world by Schottus, a grandson of Metelius, likewise a printer at Strasburg, a person to whose word, in such a case, we cannot attach the most implicit confidence, and who rested his opinion on the circumstance that the Emperor Frederick Ill. had granted him, as the descendant of the inventor of printing, the privilege of wearing a coat of arms, descriptive of his honourable descent. This assertion is totally fall, and unfounded. The art, in question, soon attained the most illustrious patronage. Guttemberg was made a counsellor of state by the Elector Adolphus, and was distinguished by an annual pension; the Emperor Maximilian secured to Schoeffer the exclusive right of printing Livyi and Frederick III., instead of conferring exclusive privileges on Metelius, granted the same privileges to printers in every part of his dominions. "Typothetis soil. aquilae, typographis autem pede altero pilam tinctoriam unguibus tenentis, scutum donavit, coin aperta galea et superimposita ei corona."—An old chronicle of Strasburg in favour of Metelius has also been triumphantly quoted. The authority of this paper, however, (at best but doubt-• ful,) has been completely destroyed by the contrary authority of a similar document at Cologne, as well as by Wimphe lingius and various other writers.
Such are the claims of these cities to the invention of printing. We have investigated their several pretensions to this honour, with the most rigid impartiality. And from the discussions in which we have been engaged, it is evident, we think, first, that the art of rioting was in vented and first practised in HarlaenloWully, that the knowlehe of it was early introduced thence into Mentz, where it was assiduously cultivated, improved, and brought nearly to that state in which we now find it ; and, thirdly, that the claims of Strasburg, being unsupported by evi deuce, seem to be entirely false. These points being established, the remainder of this article shall be employed in tracing the progress of the art in various quarters of the world, till its introduction into England and Scotland.
Faust and Schoeffer, when they had made the import ant discovery of casting the types in a matrix, instead of cutting them, afraid that the knowledge of this improve ment might become public throughout Europe, and pre vent that monopoly which they expected to secure to themselves, administered an oath of secrecy to all their workmen. The precaution might well have been spared. For, Mentz having been sacked by the Archbishop Adol phus in 1462, their servants were dispersed into different countries, and carried with them the knowledge they had acquired under their former masters. From this period, printing made rapid progress in most of the principal towns in Europe. It had, even before the sacking of Mentz, been introduced into Bamberg in Franconia ; and in the national library of Paris there is a part of a Bible, in German, in large Gothic characters, published at Bam berg in May, 1462, and executed with metal types, as im proved by Schoeffer. In 1465 the art had reached Naples, for, in that year, Lactantius's Institutes were printed in Monasterio Sublacensi, in that kingdom. Conrad Sweyn heim and Arnold Pannartz, names Familiar to every reader, settled in Rome in 1467; men whose passion for multiply ing books, or rather whose zeal in the cause oftletters, in duced them to carry on their profession to an extent that involved them in ruin and in poverty.* In 1472, Theodore Martens established himself at Alost, in Holland. About this time also the art had become known in Venice, Milan, Bern, Antwerp, and all the important cities of the con tinent. In 1490, it had reached Constantinople, and, ac cording to Mr. Palmer, it had extended, by the middle of next century, to Africa and America. It was introduced into Russia in 1560 ; hut, from the most illiberal and mistaken motives, it was soon suppressed; nor did it, till the time of Catherine II., experience, in that country, any favour or patronage. Printing, however, soon found its way even into countries more barbarous and inhospitable than any we have yet considered : for Mr. Bryant (Obser vations and Inquiries relating to various parts of Ancient History, p. 227,) proves that a work, written by a native of Iceland, was printed in Hola, in that island, so early as 1612. " I believe," says he, " it is the farthest north of any place where arts and sciences have ever resided." . For thirty years after the invention of printing, the uni form character was the old Gothic or German, whence our black was afterwards derived. The Roman type, as now used, was introduced by Sweynhcim and Pannartz of Rome, in an edition of Cicero's Epistoltr Familiares. The Italic character was, at a suhsequent period, invented by the celebrated Aldus. The first printed books were either in Latin, or in the language of the respective countries in which they were published. The first attempts at Greek printing took place in a few sentences, very rudely execut ed, which occur in the famous edition of Cicero de Officiis by Schoeffer, in 1465. Various attempts of a similar kind, though considerably more successful, were made about the same time by other enterprising printers ; but the first complete Greek work yet discovered, is a grammar of that language by Lascaris, printed at Milan in 1476 ; and, to overlook various minor attempts at Greek printing, a splendid edition of Ilomer, issued in 1488, from the press. of Demetrius of Florence, a native of Crete. Works in this tongue were rapidly multiplied ; but the first Greek edition of the Bible, printed at Complutium, was not finished till 1517. It was not, however, published till five years afterwards, and, therefore, the edition of Venice, in 1513, may be regarded as having preceded it. The Greek Psalter had often been printed before this time; and Erasmus had published a Greek edition of the New Tes tament in 1516. Aldus has been by some reckoned the first Greek printer ; but though this opinion, as is evident from the foregoing statements, is incorrect, yet Aldus, it must be allowed, for the beauty, correctness, and number of his works in that language, far eclipsed his most dis tinguished predecessors, and earned a name known wher ever letters are cultivated. Nor, in the mean time, was
the Hebrew language overlooked. The Pentateuch was printed so early as 1482 ; and afterwards, at short intervals, the prior prophets, the posterior prophets, and the Hagio grapha, the whole terminating in 1487. And in the sub sequent year, the whole New Testament was published, with vowel points, in 'one volume folio, at Soncino, duchy of Milan, by a Jewish Rabbi. The first Polyglot Bible was printed at Genoa in 1516, by Porrus, containing versions in Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldaic, Greek, Latin.f Having thus traced the progress of printing in different parts, of the world, we must now endeavour to ascertaib its introduction into Britain. That William Caxton, who established a press in Westminster Abbey in 1471, was the first printer in England, was universally believed until about a hundred and fifty years ago, when a small work was discovered in the public library of Cambridge, print ed at Oxford, in 1468. Of this work, which consists of 41 quarto leaves, the title is Exposiao Sancti Jcroizimi in Simbolum Apostolorum ad Popain Laurentium ; and at the end the date is explicitly given, Impressa Oxonii, et finita Anne) Domini m.cccc•Lxvin. xvii. die Decembris. The genuineness of this date is authenticated by a curious document, which, till the middle of the 17th century, had lain obscure and unknown in the register of the see of Canterbury, and which was given to the world in 1664, by Atkyns in " The Original and Growth of Printing." In this document, it is mentioned, that a report of the inven tion of printing having reached England, Henry VI. at the suggestion of Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, anxious to obtain for his subjects the advantages of this art, appointed Robert Tourncr (who took with him Wil liam Caxton) to go to Holland to procure "a printing mould;" that Frederick Corsellis, one of the under printers at Harlaem, was either bribed or forced to leave his former master, and remove to England ; that Corsellts, who brought with him some types, was established at Oxford ; but that as Oxford was found to be too far dis tant from London, a press was set up at St. Albans, and another soon after at Westminster. Such is the evidence upon which Qaxton has been of late years denied the dis tinction he had so long enjoyed. That it is conclusive we will not pretend to determine. Most writers, as Anthony Wood, Maittaire, Palmer, &c. have been convinced by it ; while Dr. Middleton has endeavoured to show that it is unsatisfactory and doubtful. But though we allow it to be decisive, (at least it is impossible to establish the con trary,) the fame of Caxton is but very slenderly affected by it. For though priority in point of time be granted to Col. sellis, yet that printer, and those whom he instructed, used nothing but separate wooden types, similar to those of Laurentius at Harlaem ; and Caxton possesses the honour of having been the first that introduced the use of metal types as invented at Mentz, and of otherwise bringing the art to great perfection in England. The first book that Caxton printed was a translation of the £neid, written by himself, and entitled The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troye. He published a great number of works ; among others an edition of yEsop's Fables, a copy of which is still preserved in the Bodleian library, regarded as the first that had its leaves numbered. Caxton is entitled to com memoration, both on account of his eminence as a scholar and a printer, and of his integrity and worth as a man. His master, Robert Large, a mercer in London, with whom Caxton served his apprenticeship, entertained so great a respect for him, that he left him a legacy at his death. After his master's death (1441) he spent the sub sequent thirty years on the continent, in the business of erchandise, and in the cultivation of his mind, naturally vigorous and inquisitive. And it may be mentioned as a proof of the respectability of his character, that he was employed by Edward IV. jointly with Richard Whitehill, Esq. to transact and conclude a treaty of commerce be tween that monarch and his brother-in-law the Duke of Burgundy. It is gratifying to know, that, on his return to England, he met with the honour and notice he deserv ed. Most of his works are inscribed either to the king or to so me of the royal family, and he enjoyed the friendship of the nobility and eminent men of his day. He attained to a very venerable old age ; for though so early as the year 1471, he complained that " myn hande is wery, and myn even dimmed with overmoche lokyng on the whit paper, and that age crepeth on me dayly," he yet survived that period twenty years, and died in 1491. He was suc ceeded by Richard Pynson and \Vynkin de Worde, two of his principal workmen. John Letton and William Mach linia had indeed settled as printers in London before his death ; but neither they, nor any for many generations, rivalled the fame and success of Caxton. The art, how ever, was patronised, and flourished in no ordinary degree ; and, in the reign of Henry VII. and his successor, English printers, we are told, had become " so skilful, as to print books as well as any beyond the seas." Printing was not introduced into Scotland till upwards of thirty years after Caxton had settled in London. The first Scottish printers were Walter Chapman, a merchant in Edinburgh, and Andrew Millar, a mere workman, who, in consequence of a patent from James IV. established a press at Edinburgh in 1507. " In 1508," says Dr. Irving, " they are known to have pi inted various pamphlets; a collection of which may be found in the Advocates' Library. 'Dr first volume of the Breviarium ?lberdonense issued from their press in 1509 ; the second in 1510. Of this very rare book, a complete and well-preserved copy be longs to the library of the university of Edinburgh. The establishment of printing presses in the other principal towns of Scotland, cannot so easily be traced. Knox's PaythfuThldmonition unto the Professours of God's Truths in England, was, if we may credit the title-page, printed at Kalykow or Kelso. This work appeared in 1554. Aber deen, the seat of a university, could not boast of a printing press till a much later period. In the colophon of a poem (1635) on the death of Bishop Forbes, Edward Rahan styles himself "Master-printer,the first in iTherdene." But, though printing was thus established in Scotland, many of our most eminent Scottish productions were printed on the continent; as, for example, those of Mair, Boethius, and Bishop Lesley. Scotland, however, had the honour of ushering into the world two of the most celebrated and classical works of which modern literature can boast, De Jure Regni apud Scotos, written by Buchanan, and the History of Scotland, by the same illustrious author.