Gutenberg, his brothers, and his sister, by which he undertakes. to bestow to the library of the convent where his sister dwelt, the books he had printed, and should print in future. A Histoire de l'imprimerie, published about twenty years since, by M. Schaaber, has proved in the clearest manner that the keeper of the archives at Mayence, Bodmann, who was assumed to have discovered these writings, had simply fabricated them, in order to relieve himself from the importunities. of Oberlin, Fischer, and other bibliographers, who tormented him unceasingly to obtain for them some souvenirs of Gutenberg.* After the separation from Gutenberg, Fust and Schaeffer preserved their workshop, and began to print anew. The first book known up to the present day as indicating a precise date of the name and residence of the publishers, is the Psalter of Mayence, which issued from their press in 1457. This book in large folio, regarded as a chef-d'œuvre of its kind, was an epoch in the history of printing. In what sort of type was it printed? This question was a matter of dispute amongst the savants; Van Praet thought they employed moveable type in wood, the number being so considerable, as to oblige them to have 640 for one page and 2,560 for a sheet. The volume is composed of 75 sheets; it is embellished with 288 ornamented capitals, engraven in wood, with surpas sing delicacy, traced in red when the ornaments are blue, and in blue when the ornaments are in red; the largest capital letter is on the first page. It is printed in three colors, blue, red and purple, comprising ornaments 92 millimetres high, and 108 wide. It represents a B encircled by arabesques of foliage and flowers; in one of the bends of the letter may be discerned a hare chasing a flying partridge. The following inscription may be seen printed in red characters on the back of the last leaf : Presens Spalmorum (for Psalmorum) Codex Venustate capitalium decoratus rubricationibus que sufficienter distinctus, adinventione artificiosa imprimendi ac characterizandi. Absque calami ulla exaratione sic effigiatus, et ad eusebiam Dei industrie est consummatus, per Johannem Fust, civem Maguntinum. Et Petrum Schoeffer de Gernszheim. Anno Domini millesimo CCCCLVII in vigilia Assumptionis. • Lambinet has given the translation of these writings. There are but six copies of this edition extant, and each varies. Two years later, Fust and Schoffer published another work with the same type as the former, and comprising 136 sheets. There are eight copies of it to be found at the present day in the Royal Library. The Psalter was re-printed in 1490 and 1502 by P. Schaffer alone, and in 1516 by J. Schaeffer son to Peter. We have here the detail of the works printed by Fust and Schæffer. 1459. Guilelmi Durandi rationale divinorum officiorum. Moguntiæ, Joannes Fust et Petrus de Gernshezm, 1459, large folio. This edition, looked on as a chef-d'œuvre of typography, is probably the first work printed in moveable type bearing date and the name of the two printers. 1460. Constitutiones Clementis Papæ V. Una cum apparatu Joannis Andreæ. Moguntiæ, Joannes Fust et Petrus Schoiffer 1460, large folio. 1462. Biblia latina vulgatæ editionis, ex translatione et cum præfationibus S. Hieronymi. Moguntiæ, Joannes Fust et Petrus Schoiffer. 1462. 2 vols, large folio. 66 This latter Bible, the first printed with a date, is famous as the Mayence Bible. There are various copies in vellum and paper. A copy which belonged to Coustard, Minister of the Parliament at Paris, and which perhaps is lost at the present day, contained a deed of sale in Latin of which the following is a translation. I, Herman of Germany, factor to the honest and prudent Jean Guymier accredited librarian to the University of Paris, acknowledge to have sold to the illustrious and learned master Guillaume de Tourneville, Archpriest and Canon of Angers, my lord and very respected master, a Mayence Bible in two volumes for the sum of forty crowns, which I have substantially received; a sale, which I promise to ratify in the following manner :-guaranteeing to my lord the indisputed possession of this Bible, against any claimant who may seek to dispossess him of it. In testimony of which I affix my seal this fifth day of April, the year of our Lord MCCCCLXX." 1465. Liber sextus Decretalium Domini Bonifacii Papæ VIII. cum glossa, 1465 in folio. Cicero de Officiis.. Moguntiæ, 1465, in quarto. 1466.Grammatica vet us rhytmica. Moguntiæ, 1466,small folic. At the end of this work which contains but eleven sheets, may be found the following four lines which are rather obscure. Artis ter deni jubilaminis octo bis annis. h Various explanations have been given of this quatrain; the best, however, is that of George Bathon, Canon of Saint Bartholomew at Frankfort. Jubilamen, designating a Jubilee of fifty years. Twenty nine jubilees make fourteen hundred and fifty years. If twice eight years (octo bis) be added of the thirtieth (ter deni) the current jubilee would take place at the date of 1466. The two last lines indicate Mayence as the place where it was printed, and Jean Fust as printer. Fust and Scheffer did not limit themselves, in the sale of their books,to the towns where they were published; it is unquestionable that they established depots in Germany, Italy, France, and in the Lost celebrated Universities. Naudé even gave sanction to a fable, which has been repeated by several writers. He maintains that Fust having brought a great number of copies of the Bible of 1462, to Paris, sold them at first as manuscripts at sixty crowns, and afterwards for twenty crowns only; the fraud having been discovered, he was prosecuted by the purchasers, and obliged to fly. This story which is not substantiated by any authority, has been refuted by several critics, who have sought in vain amongst the parliamentary registers of Paris, for any trace of the prosecution against the printer of Mayence. Be that as it may, it is fact that Fast came to Paris in 1466. It is even conjectured that he died there of the plague, which desolated the city in the months of April and September of that year. After the death of his associate, Pierre Schaeffer continued to print alone at Mayence, up to the year 1503, and had repositories for the sale of his books in several towns in France. He had for factor at Paris a German, named Herman de Stathoen. He having died there, the Royal Commissary in virtue of his right of escheat, seized and sold all the books and effects which were found on the premises; Schaeffer and his associate Conrart Hanequis or Henlif, took active measures to obtain from Louis XI., an indemnity or restitution of the books which belonged to them. Their demand, supported by the King of the Romans, Frederick III., and the Elector of Mayence, was most succesful, and in the month of April, 1475, ⚫ led -metaos dagen bea 21 ap ds by ego qu the King issued the following decree, a portion only of which we give, as a detailed account would be quite uninteresting. "Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France, to our trusty and beloved councillors, ordained by us comptrollers of finance, greeting in all affection, on behalf of our dear and well beloved Conrart Hanequis and Pierre Schaeffer, merchants and citizens of Mayence in Germany, who have been represented to us as devoting the greater portion of their time to the invention of the art of printing, by which means they have with much care and diligence succeeded in making several beautiful books of rare and exquisite workmanship, in which history and the different sciences have been portrayed; some of those have been sent to various parts of our kingdom and even to our City of Paris, and its eminent university; that in order to dispose of those books, a commission was given to a certain man employed by them for that purpose; that with this man Herman de Stathoen, native of the diocese of Munster in Germany, they had contracted for the sale of a certain quantity of books, which they had sent to him and for which he was held responsible by Conrart Hanequis and Pierre Schaeffer; Stathoen dying, according to the universal law of our kingdom his goods and effects were escheated, as no alien dying in our City of Paris was empowered to make a testament or dispose of any property in Iris possession. In this manner the books belonging to those men were seized by the commissary and the other officers of our kingdom, and in requittal for this loss, they demand from us either the books or restitution to the amount of the value of those books which they estimate as being worth the sum of two thousand four hundred and twenty-five golden crowns and three sols tournois: Now, in consideration of the most high and very powerful prince our very dear and best beloved brother, cousin and ally the King of Romans, having written to us on this matter, and also, as we understand that Hanequis and Schaeffer are subjects to, and from the same country as our very dear and truly beloved cousin the Archbishop of Mayence who is our father, friend, confederate and ally, and who has also written to us on their behalf, for the love and affection we bear to them, as well as in requittal for the services rendered by Conrart Hanequis and Pierre Schaffer to science, and the public advantage which their invention has bestowed in the increase of literature, we are willing to make restitution to the amount of the sum claimed of two thousand four hundred and twenty-five golden crowns and three sols tournois and therefore agree to grant out of our finances the sum of eight hundred livres yearly, to commence the first day of next October, and to continue annually until the entire sum be paid. We therefore expressly coinmand and enjoin our friend and leal Counsellor, Jean Briçonnet, comptroller general of our finances, to pay and deliver to the said Conrart Hanequis, and Pierre Schaeffer or to their agent the sum specified, commencing the first day of October, and continuing annually till the entire sum of two thousand four hundred and twenty-five golden crowns and three sols tournois. be liquidated; signed this day by our hand and with our royal seal in discharge of our recognizances to Conrart Hanequis and Pierre Schaeffer. Given at Paris the XXI day of April, year of Grace MCCCCLXXV and the XIV of our reign. Signed Louis, King. The Bishop of Evreux and several others present.-Le Gouzy.” * Origin of Printing, Type Founding, Block, or Stereotype, Printing. These subjects perhaps ought to have been noticed in an earlier portion of our pages, but as it was not intended to go into any regular or systematic details or elaborate discussion, we shall introduce a few remarks from Ames's Typographical Antiquities, or an Historical account of the origin, and progress of Printing in Great Britain and Ireland, being by far the most extensive work on the subject, and which has from time to time, been considerably enlarged by Mr. Herbert and Mr. Dibdin; added to these, there are other admirable histories of the art, by Meerman, Bowyer, Nichols, Watson, Palmer, Luckombe, Le Moine, Hansard, Stower, &c.-But as it would be impossible to do ample justice to them all, we shall advert to the leading features of a few of the Printers, and their Biographers. Joseph Ames, the historian of British Topography, was born at Yarmouth, 1688-9, and apprenticed by his father, the master of a Yarmouth trading vessel, to a plane-maker in London. After serving out his time, he became a ship-chandler in Wapping, which business, notwithstanding his antiquarian pursuits, he carried on until his death. He early discovered a taste for English history and antiquities; and in 1730, the composition of a history of printing in England * See Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, vol. XIV. p, 243. |