JOHN, a goldsmith of Mayence, in the middle of the fifteenth century, and a man not more distinguished for his riches than for his knowledge of the arts, shares with Guttenberg and Schreffer the glory of having invented printing. Guttenberg is generally considered as the first inventor of this art; and, according to some, Fust had only the merit, by no means a slight one, of supplying him with money; whilst others are of opinion that the goldsmith contributed both his funds and his industry towards the completion of the invention. But, however this may be, a partnership was formed between them in 1450, and it appears that these associates practised successively three sorts of impressions; first, the tabellary, that is, in carved tablets or plates, like our engravings on wood; secondly, the xylographic, or in moveable characters of wood; and, lastly, the impression in characters cast in moulds or matrices, analogous to, if not identical with, the stereotype founding of the present day. There is reason to believe, however, that Fust, notwithstanding his acquirements, contributed but little of his own invention to the operations of the partnership contracted with Guttenberg; since the latter appears to have been the first who thought of applying to regular compositions the same mode which had been long practised at the foot of engravings for their explanation; and since Schreffer, in inventing the punch, completed the discovery, if indeed this ought not to be considered as the discovery itself. Fust, zealous in favour of all that regarded his art, was so much delighted with the invention of Schreffer, that he gave the latter his daughter in marriage. The Biblia Sacra Latina, without date, in folio, and consisting of 637 leaves, is probably the first production of printing, and seems to have been executed between 1450 and 1455, during the partnership of Fust and Guttenberg; but some think that the impression was struck from the characters invented by Schreffer. In 1455, difficulties arose between Fust and Guttenberg, who, in consequence, separated on the 6th of November. But, in reimbursements of the sums he had advanced, Fust remained proprietor of the establishment, which he now carried on with Schreffer; and to this new partnership we are indebted for the Psalter, Paulusma Codex, of 1457, the most ancient work printed with a date (reprinted in 1459, from the same characters, which also served for the re-impresions of 1490, 1502, and 1516); the Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 1459; the Constitutiones Clementis Quinti, 1460; the ce- Fust, in Architecture, the shaft of a column, or the part comprehended between the base and the capital, and also called the naked.