Various ages, and even to decide upon the school in which a particular manuscript was produced.

These illuminations, which render the early manuscripts of the monkish ages so attractive, generally exemplify the rude ideas and tastes of the time. In perspective they are wofully deficient, and manifest but little idea of the picturesque or sublime; but here and there we find quite a gem of art, and, it must be owned, we are seldom tired by monotony of colouring or paucity of invention. A study of these parchment illustrations afford considerable instruction. Not only do they indicate the state of the pictorial art in the middle ages, but also give us a comprehensive insight into the scriptural ideas entertained in those times; and the bible student may learn much from pondering on these glittering pages; to the historical student, and to the lover of antiquities, they offer a verdant field of research, and he may obtain in this way many a glimpse of the manners and customs of those old times which the pages of the monkish chroniclers have failed to record.

But all this prodigal decoration greatly enhanced the price of books, and enabled them to produce a sum, which now to us sounds enormously extravagant. Moreover, it is supposed that the scarcity of parchment limited the number of books materially, and prevented their increase to any extent; but we are prone to doubt this assertion, for our own observations do not help to prove it. Mr. Hallam says, that in consequence of this, "an unfortunate practice gained ground of erasing a manuscript in order to substitute another on the same skin. This occasioned, probably, the loss of many ancient authors who have made way for the legends of saints, or other ecclesiastical rubbish." But we may reasonably question this opinion, when we consider the value of books in the middle ages, and with what esteem the monks regarded, in spite of all their paganism, those "heathen dogs" of the ancient world. A doubt has often forced itself upon our mind, when turning over the crackling leaves" of many ancient MSS., whether the peculiarity mentioned by Montfaucon, and described as parchment from which former writing had been erased, may not be owing, in many cases, to its mode of preparation. It is true, a great

⚫ Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 437. Mr. Maitland, in his " Dark Ages," enters into a consideration of this matter with much critical learning and ingenuity.

proportion of the membrane on which the writings of the middle ages are inscribed, appear rough and uneven, but we could not detect, through many manuscripts of a hundred folios-all of which evinced this roughness--the unobliterated remains of a single letter. And when we have met with instances, they appear to have been short writings-perhaps epistles; for the monks were great correspondents, and, we suspect, kept economy in view, and often carried on an epistolary intercourse, for a considerable time, with a very limited amount of parchment, by erasing the letter to make room for the answer. This, probably, was usual where the matter of their correspondence was of no especial importance; so that, what our modern critics, being emboldened by these faint traces of former writing, have declared to possess the classic appearance of hoary antiquity, may be nothing more than a complimentary note, or the worthless accounts of some monastic expenditure. But, careful as they were, what would these monks have thought of" papersparing Pope," who wrote his Iliad on small pieces of refuse paper? One of the finest passages in that translation, which describes the parting of Hector and Andromache, is written on part of a letter which Addison had franked, and is now preser ved in the British Museum. Surely he could afford, these old monks would have said, to expend some few shillings for paper, on which to inscribe that, for which he was to receive his thousand pounds.

But far from the monastic manuscripts displaying a scantiness of parchment, we almost invariably find an abundant margin, and a space between each line almost amounting to prodi gality; and to say that the "vellum was considered more precious than the genius of the author,"* is absurd, when we know that, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. a dozen skins of parchment could be bought for sixpence ; whilst that quantity written upon, if the subject possessed any interest at all, would fetch considerably more, there always being a demand and ready sale for books. The supposition, therefore, that

D'Israeli Amenities of Lit., vol. i. p. 358.

The Precentor's accounts of the Church of Norwich contain the following items:-1300, 5 dozen parchment, 2s. 6d., 40lbs. of ink 4s. 4d., 1 gallon of vindi decrili, 3s., 4lbs. of coporase, 4lbs. of galls, 2lbs. of gum arab, 3s. 4d., to make ink. We dismiss these facts with the simple question they naturally excite. That if parchment was so very scarce, what on earth did the monk want with all this ink?

the monastic scribes erased classical manuscripts, for the sake of the material, seems altogether improbable, and certainly destitute of proof. It is true, many of the classics, as we have them now, are but mere fragments of the original work. For this, however, we have not to blame the monks, but barbarous invaders, ravaging flames, and the petty animosities of civil and religious warfare, for the loss of many valuable works of the classics. By these means, one hundred and five books of Livy have been lost to us, probably for ever. For the thirty which have beeu preserved, our thanks are certainly due to the monks. It was from their unpretending and long-forgotton libraries that many such treasures were brought forth at the revival of learning, in the fifteenth century, to receive the admiration of the curious, and the study of the erudite scholar. In this way Poggio Bracciolini discovered many inestimable manuscripts. Leonardo Aretino writes in rapturous terms on Poggio's discovery of a perfect copy of Quintillian. "What a precious acquisition!" he exclaims, "what unthought of pleasure to behold Quintillian perfect and entire !"* In the same letter we learn that Poggio had discovered Asconius and Flaccus in the monastry of St. Gall, whose inhabitants regarded them without much esteem. In the monastery of Langres, his researches were rewarded by a copy of Cicero's Oration for Cecina. With the assistance of Bartolomeo di Montepulciano, he discovered Silius Italicus, Lactantius, Vegetius, Nonius Marcellus, Ammainus Marcellus, Lucretius, and Columella, and he found in a monastery at Rome a complete copy of Turtullian. In the fine old monastery of Casino, so renowned for its classical library in former days, he met with Julius Frontinus and Firmicus, and transcribed them with his own hand. At Cologne he obtained a copy of Petronius Arbiter. But to these we may add Calpurnius's Bucolic, Manilius, Lucius Septimus, Coper, Eutychius, and Probus. He had anxious hopes of adding a perfect Livy to the list, which he had been told then existed, in a Cistercian Monastery in Hungary, but, unfortunately, he did not prosecute his researches in this instance with his usual energy. The scholar has equally to re

* Leonardi Aretini Epist. 1. iv. eb. v.

+ Mehi Præfatio ad vit Ambrosii Traversarii, p. xxxix. Mehi Præf., pp. xlviii.-xlix.

gret the loss of a perfect Tacitus, which Poggio had expectations of from the hands of a German monk. We may still more deplore this, as there is every probability that the monks actually possessed the precious volume.* Nicholas of Treves, a contemporary and friend of Poggio's, and who was infected, though in a slight degree, with the same passionate ardour for collecting ancient manuscripts, discovered, whilst exploring the German monasteries, twelve comedies of Plautus, and a fragment of Aulus Gellius. Had it not been for the timely aid of these great men, many would have been irretrievably lost in the many revolutions and contentions that followed; and, had such been the case, the monks, of course, would have received the odium, and on their heads the spleen of the disappointed student would have been prodigally showered.

ORIGIN OF PRINTING.-It was about the year 1398 or 1400 that Jean Gutenberg was born at Mayence.‡

In 1420 he was forced to exile himself in consequence of an insurrection which broke out in the city. We are ignorant what become of him during the fourteen following years, but know positively that in 1434 he resided at Strasbourg, where, two years later, he worked polishing mirrors and carving pre

cious stones.

mann.

In 1436, he formed, with a certain Jean Riffe, for the achievement of some secret design, a society, which was afterwards joined by André Dritzehen and his brother Anton HeilIn the deed which was registered in writing we perceive that the interests of the society were divided into four parts; Gutenberg, who was the soul and spirit of this undertaking, reserved for himself two, having moreover allowed to his two latter associates the sum of 160 florins. Ere long Dritzehen perceiving that Gutenberg occupied himself secretly

* A MS. containing five books of Tacitus which had been deemed lost, was found in Germany during the pontificate of Leo X., and deposited in the Laurentian library at Florence. Mehi Præf. p. xlvii. See Shepard's Life of Poggio, p. 104, to whom we are much indebted for these curious facts.

+Shepard's Life of Poggio, p, 101.

His father, of the noble family of Gensfleisch, bore the surname of Fricle. He married Else de Gutenberg, and gave this latter name to his son Henne Gensfleisch Zum Gutenberg. The name of Gutenberg has been sometimes written Gudinberg, sometimes Gutenberger, and at other times Gudenburch.

with an invention, with the construction of which they were. kept in total ignorance, obtained adinission with André Heilmaun to enter a new association by paying 250 florins. This invention, with which the Mayengais occupied himself so mysteriously, was printing.

André having died in 1438, his two brothers George and Claus, re-claimed from Gutenberg, either their admission into the society, or the payment of a sum of 100 florins, which the associates had reserved for the successors of those who died amongst them. A lawsuit was the result of this demand, when, after having heard a great number of witnesses, the tribunal acknowledged that Gutenberg was not bound to pay the inheritors more than 15 florins. It was in the depositions of the witnesses that mention was for the first time made of printing by means of moveable type, and this fact, of such paramount interest, remained undiscovered up to the year 1745, when the keeper of records, Schoepflin, found the deeds in an old tower of Strasbourg, the Pfennig hurm. These documents. written in German, the authority of which is incontestible, were published by Schoepffin, in his Vindicia Typographicæ. M. Léon de Laborde has recently made an accurate copy of them, to which he has joined a translation and the facsimile of several passages.*

As their text has been the subject of various important discussions we think it well to give the following extracts.

first part thus commences

The

"Item, Barbel de Zabern, deposes that he had one night a conversation with Andres Dritzehen on various matters, that amongst others, having said to him:

Will you not retire to finish this before I do But God preserve me,

rest at length?' he replied: 'I must so. Then the witness spoke thus: what a vast sum of money you must have expended? Why that must have cost at least 10 florins.' In reply he said; 'thou art a fool, if thou thinkest that that has cost me but 10 florins? Hearken, know, that this has already cost me more. than 300 florins, a sum more than sufficient for thy whole life, aye, it has cost me at least 500 florins. And that will be no

See Débuts de l'imprimerie à Strasbourgh, Paris, 1840 in octavo. The original parts of the documents are preserved with great care in a cabinet at the library of the university of Strasbourg.