rious branch of the art, and demands the most particular notice. It has been often remarked that as seven cities in Greece disputed for the birth of Homer, so three cities in Europe, Haerlem, Strasbourg, and Mentz, claim the honour of the invention of printing.

Without entering minutely into the disputes which have long agitated the minds of those who have felt a particular interest in this investigation, we state it as our opinion, that Guttemburg was the inventor of the art of printing by moveable types; that he began the art at Strasbourg, and perfected it at Mentz. In this opinion, the earliest writers who mention printing are all agreed.

That the first attempts at printing were made at Strasbourg is, we think, incontestably proved by the following circumstances. John Guttemburg entered into a partnership with Andrew Drizehennius, John Riff, and Andrew Heilmann, all citizens of Strasbourg, binding himself to discover to them some important secrets, whereby they should make their fortunes. Each at first contributed eighty florins, and afterwards 125. The workshop was in the house of Andrew Dritzehen, who died. Guttemburg immediately sent his servant Bieldick to Nicholas, the brother of the deceased, to request him to suffer no one to enter the workshop, lest the secret should be discovered, and the forms stolen. But this had already been done. This theft, and the claim which Nicholas made to succeed to his brother's share, occasioned a lawsuit, and the evidence of the servant affords explicit and incontrovertible proof in favour of Guttemburg, as the first who practised the art of printing with moveable types. The document containing the account of this trial, &c. is dated 1439. It was published in the original German, with a Latin Version, by Schopflin, in his "Vindicia Typographica." M. Lambinet, in his "Recherches Historiques sur l'Origine de l'Art de l'Imprimerie," published at Paris a few years ago, says, that the German is obscure, and that every one will interpret the equivocal words in favour of his own opinion. It is, however, manifest, that Guttemburg expressly ordered that the forms should be broken up, and the characters dispersed; a fact clearly proving, that the art of printing was at that time a secret, and that moreover it was performed with moveable types. Guttemburg, after having sunk what he and his associates had embarked

in this speculation, returned to Mentz, where he was born, and succeeded better in a partnership with Fust.

The evidence in favour of Guttemberg appearing to us decisive, we shall not enter into any examination of the claims advanced by the other candidates for the honour of being the inventor of the art of letter-press printing. The names of those persons were, John Fust, of Mentz; John Mental, of Strasbourg; and L. John Koster, of Haerlem. When the city of Mentz was taken by Adolphus, Count of Nassau, in 1462, Fust, and Schoeffer, servant and son-in-law to Fust, suffered materially with their fellow-townsmen.— Their associates and workmen dispersed to seek their fortunes, and the art was thus diffused over Europe. When it was first established at Paris, the copiers, finding their business so materially injured, presented a memorial of complaint to the parliament, and that tribunal, as superstitious as the people, who took the printers for conjurors, had their books seized and confiscated. Louis XI., who, villain as he was, was the friend and patron of letters, forbade the parliament to take any farther cognizance of the affair, and restored their property to the printers.

The art of printing now began to spread itself over a great part of Europe with astonishing rapidity. It was practised at Rome in the year 1467, and the year following, it was introduced into England by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent W. Turner, master of the robes, and W. Caxton, merchant, to the continent, to learn the art. Turner and Caxton met with one Corseilles, an under-workman, whom they bribed with considerable presents and large promises, to come over to England, and instruct them in the art. This business having been accomplished, a press was set up at Oxford, which was afterwards removed to St. Albans, and after that to Westminster Abbey. The learned Dr. Conyers Middleton, and others, are inclined to doubt the truth of this part of the history of printing. It is certain, that Caxton did not return immediately to England, but continued some time on the continent, following the business of a printer. Indeed both the origin and the history of the first introduction of the art of printing into this country are involved in doubt and obscurity, and nothing has ever yet been published perfectly satisfactory on this subject. We will, therefore, proceed to an account of

THE METHOD OF PRINTING.

The workmen employed in this art are compositors and pressmen. The first are those persons whose business it is to range and dispose the letters into words, lines, pages, &c. The pressmen are those who, properly speaking are the printers, as they take off the impressions from the letters after they are prepared for that purpose by the compositors. The types being provided for the compositor, he distributes each kind, or sort, by itself, into small cells or boxes, made in two wooden frames, called the cases; the upper-case and the lower-case. The cells in the upper-case are ninety-eight in number; those of the lower-case are fifty

four.

The upper-case contains two alphabets of capitals; large, or full capitals, and small capitals. They also contain cells for the figures, the accented letters, the characters used in references to notes, &c.; and one cell, being a middle one in the bottom row, for the small letter k. The capitals in this case are disposed alphabetically.

The lower-case is appropriated to the small letters, the double letters, the points, parenthesis, spaces, and quadrats. The boxes of the lower-case are of different sizes: the largest being for the letters most in use; but the arrangement is not in this instance alphabetical, those letters oftenest wanted being placed nearest to the compositor's hand. As there is nothing on the outside of the boxes to denote the letters they respectively contain, it is curious to observe the dexterity manifested by the compositor in finding and taking up the letters, as he wants them, from the different cells. Each case is placed in an inclined direction, that the compositor may reach the upper-case with ease.

The instrument in which the letters are set is called a composing-stick, which consists of a long plate of brass or iron, on the side of which arises a ledge, which runs the whole length of the plate, and serves to support the letters, the sides of which are to rest against it. Along this ledge is a row of holes, for introducing a screw to lengthen or shorten the line, by moving the sliders farther from, or nearer to, the shorter ledge at the end of the composing-stick Where marginal notes are required, the two sliding pieces are opened to a proper distance from each other. Before the compositor begins to compose, he puts a thin slip of brass plate, called a rule, cut to the length of the line, and

of the same height as the letter, in the composing-stick, parallel with the ledge, against which the letters are intended to bear. The compositor being thus furnished with an instrument suited to hold the letters as they are arranged into words, lines, &c. he places his copy on the upper-case, just before him, and holding the stick in his left hand, his thumb being over the slider, with the right takes up the letters, spaces, &c. one by one, and places them against the rule, while he supports them with his left thumb, by pressing them against the slider, the other hand being constantly employed in setting in other letters. Having in this manner composed a line, he takes the brass rule from behind it, and places it before the letters of which it is composed, and proceeds to compose another line in the same manner. But before he removes the brass rule, he notices whether the line ends with a complete word, or with an entire syllable of a word, including the hyphen that is put to denote the division, when a word is divided into syllables. If he finds that his words exactly fill the measure, he has nothing more to do with that line, but proceeds with the next. But if he finds the measure not entirely filled at the ending of a word or syllable, he puts in more spaces, diminishing the distances between the words, until the measure is full, and this operation, which is called justifying, is done in order that all the lines in the composing-stick may be of equal length. Much depends upon exactness in justi fying; and great care is taken by expert compositors that the lines are neither too closely wedged into the composing-stick, nor yet loose and uneven.

The spaces are pieces of metal, of various thicknesses, exactly shaped like the shanks of the letters. They are used to regulate the distances between the words. When the composing-stick has been filled with lines, being generally in number about ten or twelve, the compositor empties it on a thin board, called a galley, being of an oblong shape, with a ledge on two sides, and a groove, to admit a false bottom. When the compositor has filled and emptied his stick until he has composed a page, he ties it up with a piece of pack-thread, and removes it from the galley, either to the imposing stone, or to such other safe and convenient place as he may think proper. And in this manner he proceeds until he has composed as many pages as are re quired to make a sheet, or, in some in

stances, a half-sheet. He then proceeds to arrange the pages on the imposingstone, which is a very large oblong stone, of about five or six inches in thickness. The pages are so arranged, that when they are printed, they may be folded so as to follow each other regularly. Great eare, and some ingenuity, is requisite in the imposing of a sheet or half-sheet, particularly of works in sizes less than folio or quarto. In Stower's Printer's Grammar, a very excellent and copious work on the subject of printing, are given upwards of fifty schemes of imposition, of sheets of almost every possible size.

Having laid down or disposed the pages in right order on the imposing-stone, the compositor proceeds to what is called dressing the chases. The chase is a rectangular iron frame, of different dimensions, according to the size of the paper to be printed; having two cross pieces, of the same metal called a long and short cross, mortised at each end so as to be taken out occasionally. By the different situation of these crosses, the chase is fitted for different volumes; for folios, quartos, octavos, &c. To dress the chase, a set of furniture is necessary, consisting of small slips of wood of different dimensions. The first thing to be done is to lay the chase over the pages; after this, that part of the furniture called gutter-sticks, are placed between the respective pages. Then another part of the furniture called reglets are placed along the sides of the crosses of the chase. The reglets are of such a thickness as will let the book have proper margins after it is bound. Having dressed the inside of the pages, the compositor pro

ceeds to do the same with their outsides, by putting side-sticks and foot-sticks to them. Thus the pages being placed at proper distances, they are all untied and fastened together by small wooden wedges, called quoins. These small wedges, being firmly driven up the sides and feet of the pages, by means of a mallet, and a piece of hard wood called a shooting-stick, all the letters are fastened together. The work in this condition is called a form, and is ready for the pressman, who lays it upon the press, for the purpose of pulling a proof. When a proof is pulled, the form or forms are rubbed over with a brush, dipped in ley, made of pearl-ash and water; they are then carefully taken off the press, and the proof and forms delivered to the compositor's further care.

compositor so to compose all his sheets, as that they shall not require to be care fully read and corrected before they are finally worked off, the next thing to be done is, to put the proof, along with the copy from which it has been composed, into the hands of the reader or corrector, whose business is to read over the whole proof two or three times with great care and attention, making such errata in the margin of every page as he shall observe.

The corrections are always placed against the line in which the faults are found. There are different characters used to denote different corrections; thus is put to signify that a work is divided that ought to be in one, as person instead of person; a mark resembling the that something, as a point, letter, word, Greek theta is put for dele, to intimate &c. dashed in that line is to be taken out. If any thing is to be inserted, the place of insertion is marked with a caret, a, and the thing to be inserted written in the margin. Where a space is wanting be tended to be separated, a parallel line tween two words, or letters, that are inmust be drawn where the separation ought to be, and a mark, somewhat resembling a sharp in music, placed in the margin. An inverted letter or word is mark, nearly resembling the dele characnoticed by making a dash under it, and a

ter reversed.

turned letters tries a corrector's skill in Mr. Stower observes, that marking knowing the true formation of them; without which it would be better to mark

them in the same manner as they do wrong letters, which is done by dashing out the wrong letter and writing the right one in the margin, unless they are very sure that they can distinguish b, d, n, o, P, 9, s, u, x, z, when they are turned, from the same letters with their nick the right way. Where a space rises up between two words, it is noticed by a cross in the margin. When any thing is transposed, it is noticed thus:

1

4

You merit

3

your

2

mistake

If

Italic lettes are to be changed for Roman, or vice versa, a line is drawn thus under the letters and Rom. or Ital. is written in the margin. Where words have been struck out that are afterwards approved of, dots are marked under such words, and in the margin is written the word stet. Where the punctuation is required to be altered, the semicolon, colon, and period, are encircled in the margin. The comma and other points are marked as letters and words, viz. with a long oblique line immediately before them; which line is intended to separate the different corrections from each other, that occur in the same line. When letters of a different fount or size are improperly introduced into the page, they are noticed by a small dash drawn through them, and the letters w. f. in the margin. There are some other marks used in correcting; such as for superior; where it is necessary to insert the apostrophe, the star, or other reference marks, and superior letters: Cap. for capital, L. C. for lower case, &c.

After a proof sheet has been read, and the errata thus noticed by the corrector, or, as he is more usually called, the reader, it is again put into the hands of the compositor, who proceeds to correct in the metal what has been marked for correction in the proof. He then unlocks the form on the imposing stone, by loosening the quoins or wedges which bound the letters together. He then casts his eye over one page of the proof, noticing what letters, &c. are required. Having gathered as many corrections, from the cases, between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, as he can conveniently hold, and an assortment of spaces, on a piece of paper, or in a small square box with partitions in it, he takes a sharppointed steel bodkin in his right hand.Placing the point of the bodkin at one end of the line, and the fore-finger of his left hand against the other, he raises the whole line sufficiently high to afford him a clear view of the spacing. He then changes the faulty letters or words, and alters his spaces before he drops the line. The first proof being corrected, another is pulled to be again put into the hands of the reader, or sent to the author for

examination. This proof being read and corrected as before, a revise is pulled, to see whether all the errors marked in the last proof are properly corrected. When the sheet is supposed to be correct, the forms are given to the pressman, whose business it is to work them off when they

are so prepared and corrected; in doing which four things are required: paper, ink, balls, and a press. The paper is prepared for use by being dipped, a few sheets at a time, in water, and afterwards laid in a heap over each other; to make the water penetrate equally into every sheet, a thick deal board is laid upon the heap, on which is placed heavy weights, according to the size of the heap. The reason why the paper is to be wetted before it is in a fit state to be printed upon is, that it may be made sufficiently soft to adhere closely to the surface of the letter, and take up a proper quantity of ink, that it may receive a fair and clear impression. It is also necessary to wet the paper, lest its stiff and harsh nature, when dry, should injure the face of the letters.

The ink used by printers has already been treated of in the article INK, which

see.

The manufacture of good common ink seems to be as yet but very imperfectly understood. That used in fine printing has been more attended to, and many of our best printers are now able to produce impressions in a great degree free from that offensive brown cast, which is to be observed in many books printed with what is called common ink.

The balls used in laying the ink on the forms, are a kind of wooden funnels, with handles, the cavities of which are stuffed with wool or hair, and covered over with a pelt, prepared for the purpose. One skin generally makes two proper sized balls. When the skin has been sufficiently soaked in urine, which will take about fourteen or fifteen hours, it is taken out and curried, by putting it round an iron, called a currying iron, or round some upright post; the pressman taking hold of each end of it, and drawing it with as much force as possible backwards and forwards, till it is rendered soft and pliable. He then cuts the skin exactly in two, puts them under his feet, and continues to tread them till they are so dry as to stick to the foot in treading. The skin is then laid on a board or flat stone, and stretched as much as possible by rubbing the ball-stock upon it. It is then nailed upon the ball-stock in plaits, about an inch wide, thrusting in as much wool as the cavity of the stock and the skin will conveniently hold. If, however, too much wool were to be put in, it would render the balls hard and difficult to work with. If too little wool is in the balls, they soon flap and wrap over into wrinkles, so as to prevent an equal dstribution of ink on their surface. When the balls are thus

knocked up, as it is termed, they are dip. ped in urine, and scraped with a blunt knife until they are perfectly clean: they are then dried with a clean sheet of stout paper, and patted with the hand until no moisture remains on the surface. The balls, when they are completed, have much the shape and appearance of a very large mallet, used by stone masons, except that their surface is much broader and rounder.

The press is a curious and complex machine: it consists of two upright beams, called cheeks; they are generally about six feet one inch long, eight inches and a half broad, and five inches thick, with a tenon at each end. The tenon at the upper end of the cheek is cut across the breadth, and enters the cap within half an inch of the top. The cap is a piece of solid timber, three feet long, eleven inches wide, and four inches thick. The lower tenon of the cheek enters the feet, which is a square wooden frame,made very thick and strong. The head, which is moveable, is sustained by two iron bolts that pass through the cap. The spindle is an upright piece of iron, pointed with steel, having a male screw, which goes into the female one in the head about four inches. This spindle is so contrived, that when the pressman pulls a lever, which is attached to it, the pointed end of it works in a steel pan or cup, supplied with oil, which is fixed to an iron plate, let into the top of a broad thick piece of mahogany, with a perfectly plain surface, called the platten. This platten is made to rise and fall as the pressman pulls or lets go the lever or bar. When the platten falls, it presses upon a blanket, by which the paper is covered when it lies upon the form from which the impression is intended to be taken. The form is laid upon a broad flat stone, or thick marble slab, which is let into a wooden frame, called the coffin, and which is made to move backwards or forwards, by the turning of a wince or rounce. At the end of the coffin are three frames, two of which are called tympans, and the remaining one a frisket.

The tympans are square, and are made of three slips of very thin wood, and at the top a piece of iron, still thinner; that called the outer tympan is fastened with hinges to the coffin; they are both covered with parchment, and between the two are placed blankets, which are necessary to take off the impression of the letters upon the paper. The frisket is a square frame of thin iron, fastened with VOL. X.

hinges to the tympan; it is covered with paper, cut in the necessary places, that the sheet, which is put between the frisket and the outer tympan, may receive the ink, and that nothing may hurt the margins. To regulate the margins, a sheet of paper is fastened upon this tympan, which is called the tympan sheet, and which ought to be changed whenever it becomes wet with the paper to be printed upon. On each side is fixed an iron point, which makes two holes in the sheet which is to be placed on the same points when the impression is to be made on the other side. In preparing the press for working, or, as it is called by pressmen, making ready a form, great care and attention is requisite, that the printed sheets may be in proper register, i. e. that the lines on one side may exactly fall upon the backs of the other. That the impression may be equable, the parchment which covers the outer tympan is wetted till it is very soft; the blankets are then put in, and secured from slipping by the inner tympan. When the form is made ready, and every thing is prepared for working, one man beats the letters with the ink balls, another places a sheet of paper on the tympan sheet, turns down the frisket upon it, to keep the paper clean and prevent its slipping, then bringing the tympan upon the form, and turning the rounce, by which the carriage, holding the coffin, stone, and form, is moved, he brings the form, with the stone, &c. under the platten; pulls with the bar, by which the platten presses the blankets and paper close upon the letter, whereby half the form is printed; then easing the bar, he draws the form still forward, gives a second pull, and letting go the bar, turns back the carriage, &c. raises the tympans and frisket, takes out the printed sheet, and lays on a fresh one; and this is is repeated till he has taken off the impression upon the full number of sheets of which the edition is to consist. One side of every sheet being thus printed, the form for the other side is laid on the press and worked off in the

same manner.

Mr. Stower very justly remarks, "that this, the common press, is constructed on the true principles of mechanism." It does not, however, he allows, produce an adequate impression from heavy works in small letter, without great labour and attention. It was, therefore, a great acquisition to gain an accession of power, with, at the same time, a diminution of labour.

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