Printing. Printing is the art of taking one or more impressions from the same surface, whereby characters and signs, cast, engraved, drawn, or otherwise represented thereon, are caused to present their reverse images upon paper, vellum, parchment, linen, and other substances, in pigments of various hues, or by means of chemical combinations, of which the components are contained on or within the surface from which the impression is taken, or in the fabric of the thing impressed, or in both.

The most important branch of printing is what is called letterpress printing, or the method of taking impressions from letters and other characters cast in relief upon separate pieces of metal, and therefore capable of indefinite combination. The impressions are taken either by superficial or surface pressure, as in the common printing-press, or by lineal or cylindrical pressure, as in the printing machine and roller-press. The pigments or inks, of whatever colour, are always upon the surface of the types; and the substances which may be impressed are various. Woodcuts and other engravings in relief are also printed in this manner.

Copperplate printing is the reverse of the above, the characters being engraved in intaglio, and the pigments or inks contained within the lines of the engravings, and not upon the surface of the plate. The impressions are always taken by lineal or cylindrical pressure; the substances to be impressed, however, are more limited. All engravings in intaglio, on whatever material, are printed by this method.

Lithographic printing is from the surface of certain porous stones, upon which characters are drawn with peculiar pencils. The surface of the stone being wetted, the chemical colouring compound adheres to the drawing, and refuses the stone. The impression is taken by a scraper, that rubs violently upon the back of the substances impressed, which are fewer still in number. Drawings upon zinc and other materials are printed by this process. (See Lithography.)

Cotton and calico printing is from surfaces engraven either in relief or in intaglio. The chemical compounds are either on or within the characters, as pigments or chemical colours, or in the fabric to be printed, but mostly in both; the combination of chemical substances producing colour when the fabric and the engraving are brought into contact. The impression is either superficial or lineal, but mostly lineal. (See Dyeing.)

LETTERPRESS PRINTING.

The origin and history of an art which has exercised such an influence on civilization, and contributed in so essential a manner to the cultivation of the human intellect, have naturally become a matter of inquiry amongst the learned, and have almost as naturally been the source of earnest controversy; for there are few effects of human invention or industry that have been originated and brought to perfection at a particular epoch, without any previous train of thought or circumstance, so that the precise day or year could be noted in which the perfect Minerva started forth in full maturity. On the contrary, it is difficult to say at what period of time the germ of the art of printing did not exist. So obvious is the reproduction of similar appearances from an impression of the same surface, that the most early of mankind must have noted it; and even the impression of a foot or a hand must have suggested a simple and intelligible mode of conveying an idea, before the invention of any kind of writing. Accordingly, these and similar signs are found to compose the chief characters of the earliest writing.

Observing this general law of the gradual perfectibility of human arts, we must look back to the most remote ages for the first steps of that of printing. We shall accordingly find certain evidence, that, more than two thousand years before our era, a method of multiplying impressions, rude and imperfect in the extreme, was certainly practised.

The earliest practice which can with propriety be called printing was probably that of impressing seals upon a plastic material, the purpose being confined to the single effect of each single impression. The next step of which the diligence of inquirers has taken note, and which is a step thus much further in advance that its object was the multiplication of impressions for the purpose of diffusing information,—the practice, namely, of impressing symbols or characters upon clay and other materials used in forming bricks, cylinders, and the walls of edifices,—was an art confined, so far as our knowledge extends, to the ancient centres of civilization in Egypt and Asia. Some examples of this art found their way many years ago into the great public museums and chief private collections of Europe, where they were objects of curiosity and wonder. In the present day, the researches of Sir Gardner Wilkinson and others into the antiquities of Egypt, and of Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr Layard into the ruins of the buried cities of Asia, have produced a vast quantity of materials illustrative of the subject. The relative antiquity of the Egyptian and Asiatic remains belong to another inquiry. Among the Egyptian remains are numerous bricks of clay stamped with the nome and agnomen of the king inclosed within a cartouche. The mode by which the impressions were made is manifest. The prints are very irregularly placed, without any reference to parallelism with the sides, and are always more or less awry, according to the manual skill and care of the workman: the surface of the bricks around the depression is forced up considerably, which is exactly the effect of pressing the hand or any substance into a plastic material; and the edges, both of the general depressions and of the figures, present the effect of the stamps having been drawn up whilst the clay was yet damp and adherent to it. It is therefore evident that the inscriptions were stamped in after the clay had been turned out of the mould, and were not produced by any part of it. To make the evidence complete, there have been found many stamps of wood, having on the face cartouches and inscriptions precisely resembling in kind those which must have been used for stamping the bricks. On some of these stamps and impressions there are slight traces of colour. Numerous specimens both of the bricks and stamps are in the British Museum, and of the bricks in many collections. There have also been found in Egypt numerous figures of baked clay and porcelain on which hieroglyphic characters have apparently been impressed singly, side by side, by stamps; and on the walls of their ruder buildings hieroglyphic and pictorial figures of considerable size have been produced by the same means and afterwards coloured. Of articles of domestic use are certain instruments called tesserae, having incised characters, the use of which has certainly been to stamp plastic materials; and there have also been found The ruins of the cities of Asia supply us with numerous examples similar to those of Egypt, but carrying the art farther. The ruins contain countless bricks, on which are impressed inscriptions similar to those of Egypt, but much more elaborate. Mr Layard says, that the characters on the Assyrian bricks were made separately; some letters may have been impressed singly with a stamp, but from the careless and irregular way in which they are formed and grouped together, it is more probable that they were all cut by an instrument and by hand; but that the inscriptions on the Babylonian bricks are generally enclosed in a small square, and are formed with considerable care and nicety; they appear to have been impressed with a stamp, on which the entire inscription, and not isolated letters, was cut in relief. From this circumstance, Mr Layard ascribes greater antiquity to the Assyrian remains.

Mr Layard's researches have further made evident that the ancient inhabitants of these cities practised a more advanced and elegant usage of imprinting in their domestic and ornamental arts. He has discovered great quantities of tiles and tablets covered with incised or incusced characters, on which was impressed, while the clay was yet wet, a line of characters or symbols,—apparently an authorisation or verification,—produced by the rolling of engraved cylinders; and other tiles, of which he says, "The most common mode of keeping records in Assyria and Babylon was on prepared bricks, tiles, or cylinders of clay, baked after the inscription was impressed?"—this impression must not be mistaken for the application of a stamp; it is effected by the use of an instrument in the hand, by which various combinations of the same form were indented into the moist clay, and therefore partakes more of the character of impressed writing; in many of the specimens thus impressed, the writing (or text) does not cover the entire tile or tablet, and the blank is filled up by repeated impressions of the same seal; and in some cases the entire text has been surrounded by an impression from a cylinder rolled round, forming an endless scroll, by which any addition to the text is rendered impossible. Great numbers of cylinders have been found. They are elaborately engraved on various stones; some are perfect cylinders, some barrel-shaped, others slightly curved inwards. Others again are of baked clay, on which the characters have been incusced while the clay was yet moist. Many of them are perforated longitudinally, and revolve on a metal axis. In describing an engraved cylinder of great beauty found in the mounds opposite Mosul, Mr Layard says, that on each side there were sixty lines written in such minute characters, that the aid of a magnifying glass was required to ascertain their forms. The habitual use of these elaborate articles is unknown,—by some they are supposed to be charms,—by others, records of family or personal transactions. The smaller examples, we have seen, were used to impress plastic materials as signets; but it is clear, from the shapes of the greater number, and from the circumstance that the characters they bear are invariably engraved or impressed in the order in which they are to be read, and not reversed, that they were not intended to multiply impressions on soft surfaces by way of diffusing information. In the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, has long been preserved a very celebrated Babylonian cylinder of clay, baked to vitrification. It is barrel-shaped, about 7 inches in length, and 3 inches diameter at the ends. There are two inscriptions, separated by a blank band round the centre. The inscription is in vertical lines (counting on a drawing), thirty-two in number, consequently each less than a quarter of an inch in width. In one of the columns there are thirty characters; consequently, in both inscriptions there will be about 1800 characters. The cylinder presents many appearances of having been formed in a mould. It was presented to the college by the late Sir John Malcolm.

That a similar art was known to the inhabitants of the old world generally, may safely be assumed. It is therefore not a little remarkable that peoples so original and ingenious as the Greeks, and so imitative as the Romans, should have left almost no vestige of their having practised any such means as this to multiply their beautiful creations of fancy, or to embellish the tasteful appliances of domestic life; especially when we consider the easy application of the art to pottery, and the beauty, taste, and ingenuity which they exhibited in that manufacture. For, excepting a few paltry designs en creuze on some of the coarser specimens, and a few marks upon the Roman military vessels, evidently stamped, there is no appearance of either people having had any idea of this kind. There are, however, in the British Museum numerous instruments presenting a singular instance how very nearly we may approach to an important discovery, and yet pass on unheeding. These are stamps of various sizes, having on their faces inscriptions in raised characters reversed. The material is brass or bronze. The letters of the inscriptions are considerably raised, and the face of them is rough and rounded, as though they were rudely cast in a mould. To the back of most a handle has been fastened; some have a loop to allow the fingers to pass through; some a boss to rest in the palm of the hand; some a ring. One use of these stamps has probably been to press the inscription into a soft material; but the more common application, especially of the smaller specimens, has evidently been to print the inscription on surfaces by the aid of colour. It has been suggested that their purpose was to imprint the coverings of bales of goods with the marks of their owners. Among relics of this kind is the signet of C. Cecilius Hermias. The face of this is two inches by four-fifths of an inch, and the inscription (reversed)

CICAECILI HERMIAE. SN.

with a border, is in relief, the surrounding parts being cut away to a considerable depth. It should be especially noticed, that the surface of the back-ground is very rough; and there is a ring at the back by which it could be handled or suspended. These circumstances render the use of it very clear. It would be very much easier to incise the required inscription, and to let the field stand (indeed the art of engraving en creuze was well known and used), than to cut away the field and leave the letters in relief; and it would produce a much more beautiful effect if it were used to impress any soft substance; whereas, cut as it is, the impression sunk into wax or clay would not only be ugly, but illegible, and the rough surface of the back-ground would present the most ungainly appearance upon the prominent parts of the wax, being the parts most presented to the eye. Its use therefore is evident. The relieved inscription, and no other part, being covered with ink or pigment, was impressed upon an even surface (papyrus, linen, parchment), and consequently left a perfect but reversed imprint of itself. This is the precise effect of printing with types. From the Greek agnomon, Cecilius probably lived under the emperors, when literature had become one of the pursuits of the great, and when

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2 The Antiquarian Society of Newcastle possesses a similar stamp with a Greek inscription. the difficulties and expense of procuring books by the slow process of copying were bitterly felt. It is singular, therefore, that the Romans should have overlooked so obvious an improvement upon their own signets as the engraving whole sentences and compositions upon blocks, and thence transferring them to paper—even if they had gone no farther than this.

From this time a vast period elapses before any circumstance can safely be instanced as showing that the practice of transferring characters was known to any, even comparatively civilized people. From the rough and imperfect attempts above indicated an early and obvious advance was engraving pictures upon wooden blocks. The first practice of this is involved in obscurity; but most writers on the fine arts agree that the art was invented towards the end of the thirteenth century, by a brother and sister of the illustrious family of Cunio, lords of Imola, in Italy. By some the whole narrative is considered as apocryphal, but it is nevertheless generally admitted. The engravings were discovered by a Frenchman of the name of Papillon, in the possession of a Swiss gentleman, M. de Groescher, who deciphered for him the manuscript annotations found upon the leaves of the book in which they were bound. These purported that the book had been given to Jan. Jaep. Turine, a native of Berne, by the Count of Cunio, with whose family he, Turine, appears to have been intimately acquainted. Then follows a romantic history of the twins, and the cause of their invention. The book is entitled—"The Heroic Actions, represented in figures, of the great and magnanimous Macedonian king, the bold and valiant Alexander; dedicated, presented, and humbly offered to the most Holy Father Pope Honorius IV., the glory and support of the Church, and to our illustrious and generous father and mother, by us Alessandro Alberico Cunio, cavaliere, and Isabella Cunio, twin brother and sister; first reduced, imagined, and attempted to be executed in relief, with a small knife, on blocks of wood, made even and polished by this learned and dear sister; continued and finished by us together, at Ravenna, from the eight pictures of our invention, painted six times larger than here represented; engraved, explained by verses, and thus marked upon the paper, to perpetuate the number of them, and to enable us to present them to our relations and friends, in testimony of gratitude, friendship, and affection. All this was done and finished by us when only sixteen years of age." (Otley.) This title is here given at full length, because, if genuine, it presents us at once with the origin, execution, and design of these first attempts at block-printing. The book consists of nine engravings, including the title; the figures are tolerably well designed, and the draperies graceful, with here and there attempts at cross-hatching; under the principal personages are their names; above, are inscriptions indicating the subject, and below, four lines of poetical Latin explanatory of it; and in some part of each print is an inscription indicating the share the twins respectively had in the execution. The colour of the pigment is gray.

The first subject is Alexander on Bucephalus. Upon a stone, Isabel. Cunio pinx. et scalp.

The second subject, the Passage of the Granicus. Alex. Alb. Cunio Equ. pinx. Isabel. Cunio scalp.

The third subject, Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot. Alex. Alb. Cunio Equ. pinx. et scalp.

The fourth subject, Alexander in the tent of Darius. Isabel. Cunio pinx. et scalp.

The fifth, Alexander giving Campaspe to Apelles. Alex. Alb. Cunio Eques. pinx. et scalp.

The sixth, the Battle of Arbela. Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel. Cunio pictor. et scalp.

The seventh, Porus brought to Alexander. Isabel. Cunio pinx. et scalp.

The eighth, the Triumph of Alexander upon his Entry into Babylon. Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel. Cunio pictor. et scalp.

From the dedication of this book to Pope Honorius IV., it is deduced that these engravings must have been executed between 1284 and 1285, inasmuch as this pope only enjoyed the pontificate two years; and it is suggested that a copy of it might be found in the library of the Vatican. The narrative appears to be confirmed by many incidental circumstances, which could not be the invention either of Papillon or his informer. The name of Alberico seems to have been a favourite with the family of Cunio, and a Count of that name actually figures in history in the very year of the presumed invention; a relative of the twins, of course, not the male artist himself.

The interval between the time of the twin Cunio and the next mention of any similar usage is very perplexing; but upon examination it will appear that that long period was not altogether a blank in the art. The next earliest evidence is a document of the government of Venice, discovered amongst the archives of the Company of Printers in that city. It bears the date of 1441, and as it throws some degree of light upon the controversy relative to the invention of printing, it is here given from Outley's History of Engraving.

"MCCCXL. October the 11th. Whereas the art and mystery of making cards and printed figures, which is used at Venice, has fallen into total decay; and this in consequence of the great quantity of playing-cards, and coloured figures printed, which are made out of Venice; to which evil it is necessary to apply some remedy; in order that the said artists, who are a great many in family, may find

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1 The Chinese printing is not unlike this, and must by no means be supposed to have much similarity to the modern art. They assert that it was used by them several centuries before it was known in Europe; in fact, fifty years before the Christian era. They certainly may have used their method centuries before our art, for it differs in nothing but extent from that of the old Roman. The following is a description of their method at the present day, and it is probably the same in every respect as that in practice two thousand years ago in an empire where nothing is changed. As their written language consists of from eighty to one hundred thousand characters, it would be utterly impracticable to use moveable types, and the use of block-printing would be the most easy and rapid. The sentences, therefore, desired to be multiplied, being drawn upon their thin paper, this is made to adhere with the face downward to a block of soft wood, so that the characters appear though reversed. The plain wood is then cut away with most wonderful rapidity, and the drawing left in relief. Both sides of the block are similarly operated upon. The engraved wood is then properly arranged in a frame, and the artist, with a large brush, covers the whole surface, the field as well as the relief, with a very thin ink. He then lays very lightly over it a sheet of paper, and passes a large soft brush over it, so, digly, yet so surely, that the ink is pressed upon the raised figures, and upon no other part. The rapidity with which this is performed is extraordinary; for Du Halde asserts that one man can print 10,000 sheets in one day, a number which would appear incredible, did not very good testimony exist at the present time that one man can print 700 sheets per hour. The method of putting the thin sheets together when printed is as different from ours as their printing and mode of reading. The sheets are printed on one side only; but instead of the blanks being pasted together to form one leaf, the sheet is so folded that no single edge of paper is presented to the reader, but only the double folded edge, the loose edges being all at the back of the book. The late emperor had punchers or matrices cut, from which copper types were cast; but the number of characters required—about 60,000—is so great, that composition is almost impracticable.

2 It is not unlikely that the twins may have been directed in the choice of their subject by the identity of the name of the great conqueror with that of the brother; at least such coincidences are not without parallel in the history of literature. encouragement rather than foreigners. Let it be ordered and established, according to that which the said masters have supplicated, that from this time in future, no work of the said art that is printed or painted on cloth or on paper, that is to say, altar-pieces (or images), and playing-cards, and whatever other work of the said art is done with a brush or printed, shall be allowed to be brought or imported into this city, under pain of forfeiting the works so imported, and xxx livres and xii soldi, of which fine one-third shall go to the state, one-third to the Signori Giustizieri Vecchi, to whom the affair is committed, and one-third to the accuser. With this condition, however, that the artists who make the said works in this city may not expose the said works to sale in any other place but their own shops, under the pain aforesaid, except on the day of Wednesday at St Paolo, and on Saturday at St Marco, under the pain aforesaid." (Otley.)

From this it seems manifest that the art of printing from wood-blocks was not lost, but, on the contrary, had been so long practised as to become an extensive and profitable business in Venice, and had spread over the Continent to such a degree as to destroy the trade of the Venetian artists. The establishment of an important manufacture, and its decay, necessarily infer a long period. From the constant conjunction of the two arts of painting and printing in this document, we may infer (what the existence of prints and cards of later date prove) the method in which these figures and cards were manufactured, namely, that the outline was first printed, and that the colours and shading were filled in by the painter and illuminator. The history of playing-cards now becomes of some importance to the narrative. When cards first came into use is uncertain; but mention is made of them in the year 1254, when they were interdicted by St Louis on his return from the Crusade; they were also forbidden by the Council of Cologne in 1281. In 1299 they are expressly mentioned under the name carte; and in Das Golden Spiegel, printed by Gunther Zainer in the year 1472, it is said that cards first came into Germany in 1300. An old French poet, who wrote "En l'an mil ij cent xxviii," has the line, "Jouent aux dex, aux cartes, aux tables." (See Cards.) There is no evidence earlier than the Venetian decree to connect the art of printing from wood-blocks with the art of making cards; but as it is evident from that document that such connection did exist, it is a fair presumption that it originated not very long after the introduction of the game; and as the sum paid by Charles VI. for "trois jeux de cartes" was so small as fifty-six Parisian sols, it has been conjectured that they must have been illuminated prints. The Venetian decree against the importation of painted and printed figures from abroad now brings us to the country from which the chief export was made. It appears, therefore, that in the Low Countries the manufacture was carried on to a great extent; and we shall also find that in Holland and Germany, and probably over most of Europe, religion had called this art to her aid; that whilst the noble and wealthy recreated the mind and delighted the eye with the exquisite productions of the scribe and illuminator, the more humble were equally gratified with rude and simple illustrations of interesting portions of Scripture, or pictures of favourite saints. It is probable that the poorer classes hung up these drawings in their dwellings, where they excited as true and heartfelt devotion as the masterpieces of the painters' art in the oratories of the great. There is no evidence how early the art was practised, nor whether the outlining the figures of saints and sacred subjects preceded the printing of cards, or was suggested by the latter; but it is certain that at the end of the fourteenth and the commencement of the fifteenth century the practice was very common. The impressions were taken by means of a burnisher, the gloss caused by the friction being distinctly visible on the backs both of cards and prints preserved to this time. As facility in practice increased, a distich or quotation illustrative of the print became a natural improvement; and to this was frequently added a coat of arms, the name of the saint, or the title of the subject, all in the field, or over the head of the figure; and, lastly, sometimes a date. The earliest print of which the date is given within the print itself is a wood-cut of St Christopher carrying the infant Jesus across the sea. It is of folio size, and coloured in the manner of our playing-cards. At the bottom is the inscription,

\[ \text{Cristofor faciem hic quaerunque turris} \]

\[ \text{Millium cccc°} \]

\[ \text{Ella nempe die morte mala non morituri.} \]

It was found in the monastery of Buxheim, near Meiningen, and is now in the possession of Earl Spencer.

The next advance was obvious. Instead of a single block, a series of blocks were employed, with additional literary illustrations; and thus were the first printed books formed. The earliest and most memorable of these are the Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelista, the Ars Memorandi, the Ars Moriendi, the Bibbia Pauperum, the Historia Virginis Mariae, and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis. (See Bibliography.) The most important of these works is the Historia Vetoris et Novi Testamenti seu Biblia Pauperum—truly the Poor Man's Bible. It consists of forty leaves printed upon one side of the paper only, by friction, from as many blocks; the colour is brown; the prints are placed opposite to each other, and the blank backs are pasted together into one strong leaf. The cuts are about 10 inches in height, and 7½ in width. Each print contains three sacred subjects in compartments, and four half-length figures of prophets in smaller divisions, two above and two beneath the principal subjects. Latin inscriptions are on either side of the upper figures, rhythmical verses on either side of the lower, and additional inscriptions are on labels at the bottom of the whole. The central subjects are from the New Testament, the others from the Old, and in some manner allusive to the former. There are many copies of this work, evidently from different blocks, and of different dates. Indeed it appears to have been a most popular book, and was printed repeatedly long after the introduction of legitimate printing; there are several editions in which the inscriptions are actually printed with moveable types. The exact date of these curious works is not ascertained; but Dr. Horne possessed a copy contained in one volume with the Ars Moriendi and the Apocalypse, all works of the same style, the binding of which bore the date of 142( ). The original composition and design of this work is attributed, and not without some show of reason, to Anagarius, who was bishop of Hamburg and Bremen in the ninth century. (See Plate II.)

A similar book is the Canticles, a small folio volume of thirty-two subjects, two being printed on each leaf, and on only one side of the paper, and the leaves also pasted back

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1 There is said to be a print at Lyons with the date 1384, but its existence is doubtful. There has lately been discovered a print with the date of 1418, but its authenticity is yet under discussion. It was found by an inhabitant of Malines, who, in breaking up an old coffin which had been used to contain the archives of the former Grand Council of Malines, observed an ancient-looking print pasted inside the lid. The subject is the Virgin and Child, with Saints Catharine, Dorothy, Barbara, and Margaret, within a palladed enclosure. On the top-bar of the gate is the date m; etc. "ibid. distinct and unmistakable. The design and execution are very superior to those of the St Christopher and the block-books. The Atkinson of 1844 contains a full description of the print, and the volume of 1845 a fac-simile. The earliest dated print taken from an engraved metal plate is by Marc Prigueria, 1466. to back. It differs from the Biblia Poperum in that the inscriptions are engraved on scrolls fantastically dispersed amongst the figures. This is generally allowed to be of somewhat later date than the preceding, and to hold an intermediate space between it and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, to which a larger space must be devoted, on account of its importance in the controversy relative to the invention of printing.

This is not, strictly speaking, a block-book; for whilst the form of the design and the portion of Scripture represented are engraved on wood, the inscription is in some cases engraved on wood also, but in others is printed in moveable type. The Latin edition, perhaps the first, consists of sixty-three leaves, divided into five unequal gatherings. The subjects are chiefly from the Old and New Testament; but sometimes such stories have been selected from ancient history as might seem in some way appropriate to the events recorded in sacred writ. Each subject has a short Latin inscription underneath it, and the text occupies the remainder of the page. Its size its folio; the impressions are taken with a burrisher, on one side of the paper; the colour of the ink is brown, and the backs are pasted together, as in the books previously described. The work is certainly of nearly the same date, though probably a little later, than the Biblia Pauperum; and it may even have been in part executed by the same artist, for in the earlier portions there is so much general resemblance, both in design and execution, as to make it probable that the same graver was employed in both. The latter part, however, is the work of another artist; the lines are not so bold, and there is an attempt at fineness of execution, of shading, and of distance, which the earlier master did not attempt; the design, though in better drawing, is not so spirited; the drapery is more correct, though not so graceful; and in fact the engraver was a better workman, but not so great an artist. It must be understood, that there are numerous editions of this work, many differing in essential particulars, but some so nearly similar as to require a microscopic eye to detect the variations. Of four of these, two are in Latin, two in Dutch; and between these four lies the contest for antiquity. Mr Ottey (whose beautiful History of Engraving contains a well-drawn-up account of his inquiry, illustrated by most convincing examples) has, from a minute and laborious examination, decided that the two Latin and two Dutch are printed from the self-same blocks, and by comparing them, and finding evidences of fractures in the one which do not exist in the other, he has very satisfactorily awarded the palm of antiquity. First, although the Latin inscriptions in the earlier part of the first Latin edition (so called by commentators) are engraved on blocks of wood, these blocks are not of the same piece as the figures, the work having been divided between two artists, the one more skilled in engraving figures, and the other in engraving letters. Secondly, parts of the engraving broken in the first Dutch are perfect in the first Latin; parts imperfect in the first Latin are unbroken in the second Dutch, whilst the second Latin is the most perfect of all; from which the conclusion is drawn that the second Latin is the most ancient, then the second Dutch, next the first Latin, and lastly the first Dutch. This order of succession is of considerable importance, because the first Latin is printed with moveable—some commentators say fusile—types. The printing of this work is claimed for Laurence Koster.

But by whomsoever these curious works were printed, they bring us to the very threshold of the invention of printing, in the proper sense of the word. Bibliographers agree that the pictorial parts of the Biblia Pauperum, the Canticles, and the Speculum were engraved by the same engraver, but from the designs of different artists; and that while of the first Latin edition (placed third by Ottey) the plates numbering 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 27, 46, are printed entirely from wooden blocks, the five leaves of which the preface consists, and the text of the remaining leaves—(there are 63 in all)—are printed from moveable type. Therefore, between the printing of the first edition of these three works, and the third of the Speculum, the art of printing with moveable type had become known to the printer. [Sotheby's Principia Typographica contains a great number of fac-similis of block-books, water-marks, &c., and an ingenious disquisition.]

We have now come fairly to the practice of printing in the real sense of the word; and we have also arrived at the long-pending, long-controverted question, of who invented it, and where? The honour is disputed by as many cities as contended for the birth of Homer. Only three of these can show the slightest argument for their pretensions; Harlem, Strasbourg, and Mentz. Harlem claims it for her citizen Laurence Koster, or Laurent Janszoen Koster (or Costos). The claim rests principally upon the narrative in the Batavia of Hadrianus Junius, a native of West Friesland, who dwelt at Harlem. The work was written in 1575, but not published until 1588. The following is a close translation of the narrative:

"There lived, a hundred and twenty-eight years ago, at Harlem, in houses sufficiently splendid (as a workshop, which remains to this day entire, can serve as proof), overlooking the forum from the neighbourhood of the royal palace, Laurentius Joannes, by surname Editius, or Custos (which at that time lucrative and honourable office an illustrious family of that name [or, a family illustrious by that name] held by hereditary right), the person who now seeks back by just avouchments and oaths the lapsing glory (recidivam gloriam) of the invention of printing, nefariously possessed and seized upon by others [the man], with the greatest right to be presented with the greater laurel of all honours (summo jure omnium triumphorum laurea majore donandus). He by chance, walking in a suburban grove (as was the fashion of citizens in easy means to do after dinner in those days), began first to fashion beech-bark into letters, which being impressed upon paper, reversed in the manner of a seal, produced one verse, then another, as his fancy pleased, to be for copies to the children of his son-in-law; which when he had happily accomplished, he began (for he was of great and acute genius) to agitate higher things in his mind, and first of all devised with his son-in-law, Thomas Peter, who left four children, all of whom obtained the consular dignity (a thing which I mention that all may understand the art arose in an honourable and talented, not a servile family), a more glutinous and tenacious species of writing ink, which he had commonly used to draw letters; thence (expiriaretur) he expressed entire figured pictures with characters added; in which sort I have myself seen Adversaria printed by him, the traces of the works (operarum) being only on opposite pages, not printed on both sides (hanc opistographias). That book was in the vernacular tongue by an anonymous author, bearing for title Speculum Nostre Salutis; in which it is to be observed among the first beginnings of the art (for never any is found and perfected at once), that the reverse pages being smeared with glue, were stuck together, lest they, being blank, should present a deformity. Afterwards he changed beech-blocks for lead;

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1 In the original, Koster is simply said to have been surnamed Editius, seu Costos, but no mention is made of the Cathedral. The statement, therefore, that he was curios of the cathedral is a gratuitous insertion of after narrators. The word Custos has been Dutchified into Coster or Koster; but there is no apparent reason why we may not suppose that Custos was a barbarous Latin word for keeper, or constable, or any other translation the word will bear. afterwards he made them of tin, because it was a material more solid and less flexible, and more durable: from the relics which remained of which types very ancient wine-flasks being made, they are to this day to be seen in those houses of Laurentius which I have mentioned looking upon the forum, inhabited afterwards by his grandson Gerard Thomas, whom I name for honour's sake, a noble citizen, who departed this life a few years ago. The studies of men favouring, as it happened, the new art, since a new merchandise, never before seen, brought buyers from every side with most eager quest, at once the love of the art increased, the establishment (ministerium) increased, workmen in the art being added to the family, the first touch of evil; among whom was a certain Joannes, either (as the suspicion is) that Faustus of ominous name, faithless and unlucky (infamatus) to his master, or some other of the same name, I do not greatly care which, because I am unwilling to disquiet the shades of the silenced, touched with the plague of conscience while they lived. He being sworn by oath to the processes of printing, after he had (as he thought) learned thoroughly the art of putting the characters together, the knowledge of fusile types, and whatever else may relate to the matter, taking an opportunity, than which he could not have found one more fit, on the very eve which is sacred to the birth of Christ, on which all in common are accustomed to labour at the sacred ceremonies, stole the whole materials, tied up a package of the instruments of his master used in that art (instrumentorum herilium ei artificio comparatorium suppleticetum compositae); thence with a servant hurried from the house, went in the beginning to Amsterdam, thence to Cologne, until he arrived at Mayence, as to the altar of an asylum, where he might live safe beyond the reach of arrows (as the saying is), and having opened an office, enjoyed the rich fruit of his robberies. Indeed, from it, in the space of the (or a turning) year, in the year 1442 from the birth of Christ, with the same types which Laurentius had used at Harlem, it is certain that he produced to light the Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus, which grammar was then in most famous use, with the Tractates of Peter Hispanus, his first productions. These are, for the most part, things which I have formerly heard from aged men worthy of belief, who have received them as things delivered from hand to hand, as a torch in a race, and have found others relating and attesting the same things. I remember that Nicholas Galus, the instructor of my youth, a man with iron memory, and venerable for his long years, related to me, that when a boy he had heard, not once only, a certain Cornelius, a bookbinder, and rendered serious by age, nor less than eighty years old (who had lived as an under workman in that office), relating with much mental anger, and with fervour, the course of the proceeding, the manner of the invention (as he had received it from his master), the improvement and increase of the art, and other things of the kind; and that the tears would burst from him against his will at the shame of the affair, as often as he talked of the robbery. Which things do not differ from the words of Quirinus Talesius Con., who confessed to me that he had formerly the same from the mouth of the same bookbinder.

Beyond this narrative of Hadrian Junius there is little, or rather no testimony to the truth of Koster's claim, all subsequent argument being either drawn from or referred to this statement. Many very learned bibliographers have given full credence to Hadrian; whilst others not less acute absolutely deny Koster any pretence whatever—Santander calling in question his very existence; and there is a third party who, being unable to decide between the opposing arguments, and willing to take refuge in a middle course, allow to Koster the credit of having invented printing from blocks, but assign to his rivals that of printing from moveable types.

The whole argument may, however, be reduced into a reasonable compass. The probability of Hadrian's narrative will naturally be the subject of inquiry. First, the round-about way in which this hearsay evidence reached Hadrian, is in itself an unsatisfactory circumstance. Little belief can be accorded to an uncertain bookbinder, even had any circumstances been adduced besides the name Cornelius, by which this bookbinder could be identified. Secondly, Talesius was many years secretary to Erasmus, who, although a Dutchman and resident in Holland, repeatedly and unhesitatingly ascribes the invention to John Gutenberg of Strasbourg at Mentz. It is not at all probable that, had Erasmus ever heard of this story, or given the slightest credence to it if he had, he would have omitted some mention of a circumstance so gratifying to his national vanity; or that he should have remained in ignorance of a story well known to his secretary, and commonly bruited about, and therefore known to some of the learned men amongst whom Erasmus lived. Thirdly, the story of the engraving on beech-bark accidentally, when it is quite certain that the art of taking impressions from wood-blocks of the figures of cards and of saints and sacred subjects, with religious and legendary inscriptions, had been known and extensively practised, not only in Italy and Germany, but in Holland itself, for more than a century, is absurd. Fourthly, every author who has written upon the matter has given up all claim on Koster's behalf for the invention of cast type, the evidence in favour of others being too strong to be got over. Fifthly, the tale of the conversion of the relics of these types into drinking-cups, which were yet to be seen (1575), is discredited by the circumstance that no one has since seen or heard of them, although a controversy for the honour of a discovery in which they would have been evidence, was even then and has ever since raged furiously. Sixthly, the story of John Fust having stolen all his printing materials on the eve of Christmas, and decamped, first to Amsterdam, then to Cologne, and lastly to Mentz, and his publishing there within the same year, is self-contradictory; for type is not a very portable commodity; nor would be easily have escaped pursuit at Amsterdam, a town under the same government. Again, John Fust was originally no printer, but a wealthy goldsmith of Mentz, and certainly never worked as any printer's journeyman. Indeed this is such a palpable mis-statement, that commentators upon Hadrian have boldly supposed that the thief was John Gutenberg,—not he of Mentz, but a brother, also named John. Unfortunately Gutenberg's brother was not named John, but Friele; there was a cousin John; but the only evidence by which we become aware of the existence of these persons excludes the supposition that either practised the art; nor is it at all likely that members of a noble family, and wealthy men, should have worked in the service of any man. If it should be asserted that it was the John Gutenberg, his time is so well accounted for that it is impossible, since he was then resident at Strasbourg, and never was at Amsterdam or Cologne. Thus, then, the narrative of Hadrian Junius appears upon examination to be utterly incredible, being at once at variance with itself and with all probability.

Arguments for and against the claim of Harlem may be urged not derived from this narrative. Although these cir-

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1 Or whatever else chorapism may mean; literally it signifies the properties of a theatre. 2 Anno Christi 1440. Magnum quoddam ac pene divinum beneficium collatum est universo terrarum orbi, a Johanne Gutenberg Argentinensi, novo scribendi genere reperto. Is cum primus artem impressoram, quem Latini vocant exornatam, in urbe Argentinensi inventit; inde Moguntiam veniens eandem feliciter complevit. (Epist. Rerum Script. 1502, cap. 95.) cumstances are not to be believed, the main facts may nevertheless be correct. Koster may have printed the Speculum and other block-books attributed to him. Ottley says that they were certainly printed in Holland, for that the types are not those used in Germany, but closely resembled such as were afterwards cut or cast in Holland; and that they are of greater antiquity than any books printed by those who afterwards used the art in the Low Countries. He also attempts to show, by the water-marks in the paper, that the works in question were produced in these parts. Watermarks, however, and some bearing a general resemblance to these, were common in the papers used by printers of Cologne, Louvain, and elsewhere; and the argument is worth little or nothing, for no evidence can be given even of the dates of these works, and much less of the printer.

The Speculum was printed again and again after the invention of letterpress printing; nor is there the slightest evidence, supposing these assertions to be correct, to connect them with the name of Koster. It is a conclusive argument against him, that those other works ascribed to him and his descendants are executed with the self-same types used at Utrecht in 1473 by Ketelaer and De Leeuwt. Van Mander, who lived at Harlem in 1580, in his History of the Lives of Dutch Painters and Engravers, treats the claim of Harlem with contempt; for, speaking of printing, he describes it as an art "of which Harlem, with much presumption, arrogates to herself the honour of the invention?" nor does he make the slightest mention of his famous fellow-citizen. There is not the least evidence that his three grandsons (not four, as Hadrian says) ever carried on his business; for where are their works? and in their time printers had become so proud of their art as not only to put their names to every work, but even to add a long history of their undertaking and progress. Where are the books ascribed to them? what mention is made of them by their contemporaries? In a subsequent part of this article it will be seen that Caxton, the first English printer, is asserted to have been sent to Harlem to learn the art, and if possible to carry off one of the workmen. These things being also matter of controversy, cannot fairly be used in argument; nevertheless it is of some value that Caxton, who, supposing it to be true, would be an excellent witness in favour of Harlem, upon all occasions refers the invention to Gutenberg, and makes no mention whatever of Harlem or Koster.

Santander labours to disprove the very existence of any such person. But there is no necessity to go so far as Santander: we may allow Koster's identity; we may even allow that he practised the art of taking impressions from wood-blocks; but this is very different from acknowledging his claim to the invention of the art of printing. The most strenuous champion of Koster is Meerman, an eminent French bibliographer of the last century, who, in his Origines Typographicae, published at the Hague in 1765, strongly maintains this narrative of Hadrian; which is not a little singular, seeing that the Newcastle Typographical Society published a letter from him to Wagenaar, of eight years' prior date, in which he expresses a precisely contrary opinion. He calls Seitz's (Hadrian's) story a mere supposition, and the chronology a romantic invention; gives to the Speculum the date of 1470 as the earliest possible; attributes the honour to Gutenberg, and incidentally mentions his intention of publishing a pamphlet on the subject. Notwithstanding this, in his work, without any new fact whatever, he accredits Hadrian's story, finds consistency in the dates, believes the Speculum, and denies John Gutenberg,—completely reversing his previous conclusion, though his premises remain the same.

The statement of Ulric Zell, given in the Cologne Chronicle, though always referred to by bibliographers, has not received the attention it seems to deserve. Ulric Zell is supposed to have been one of the workmen employed in the office of Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz, when that city was taken by the Count of Nassau in 1462. On this event Zell betook himself to Cologne, where he established a press, from which in 1467 he issued his first work. He continued to carry on the art in this city for many years. The Cologne Chronicle was printed by Koelhoff in 1499. Under the head of "Invention of Printing," it contains an account of its discovery communicated by Ulric Zell, which, considering the place where it was published, the nearness of the time, and the intimate connection of the narrator with the first movements of the art, carries great weight.

"Item, this most worthy art aforesaid [was] first of all invented [vrouden] in Germany, at Mayence, on the Rhine; and that is a great honour to the German nation, that such ingenious people are to be found there; and that happened in the year of our Lord 1440.

"Item, although the art was invented at Mayence as aforesaid, in the manner it is now commonly used, yet the first ideas [verbylding fonden] originated in Holland from the Donatases, which were printed there even before that time; and from out of them has been taken the beginning of the aforesaid art, and has been invented much more masterly and cunningly than it was according to that same method, and is become more and more ingenious."

Now we know that the Donatases were block-books of a rude form, in no way resembling the art used by Zell and his contemporaries; and such as they are, there is no evidence that Koster printed any one of them.

All evidence, then, and the general consent of the learned, in failure of Koster, unhesitatingly ascribe this invention to John Gutenberg, surnamed Genzleisch, Gensleisch, or Genseleisch, von Solgenloch or Sorgenloch. He was a native of Mentz, and of a noble family, possessed of considerable property in various places in the neighbourhood. Fortunately the life of Gutenberg does not rest merely upon hearsay evidence, or the doubtful guesses of bibliographers from dateless woodcuts; legal documents supply most important information. It appears that, for some reasons unknown, he resided for many years at Strasbourg, and had even acquired rights of citizenship. The first document presents him in no amiable light. It is a lawsuit instituted to compel him to perform his marriage-contract with Anne von Isern Thür; and it would appear that he was compelled to make good his promise, the name of Anne Gutenberg being found in the same register of the nobility liable to the wine-duty in the city of Strasbourg, in which Gutenberg's name also appears. The next document is so curious that an ample abstract of it cannot but be interesting.

It appears that he had contracted an engagement with Andrew Dritzehen, John Riffe, and Andrew Heilmann, to instruct them in the secrets of certain arts, and had entered into partnership with them for their better advantage. Andrew Dritzehen and Andrew Heilmann having called upon him one day, perceived that he was engaged in a wonderful and unknown art, the secret of which he was desirous of keeping to himself; that, moved by their importunities, he consented to enter into partnership with them for the term of five years, on two conditions,—first, that they should pay him the sum of 250 florins, 100 immediately, and the remainder at a certain fixed period; second, that if any one of the partners should die during the term of the copartnership, the survivors should pay to his heirs the sum of 100 florins, in consideration of which the effects should become the property of the surviving partners. Andrew Dritzehen died before the expiration of the period agreed on, being still indebted to Gutenberg in the sum of 85 florins. George and Nicholas, brothers of the deceased, demanded to be admitted to the partnership, and on refusal, brought an action against Gutenberg as principal partner. The magistrates gave judgment on the 12th of December 1439, relieving Gutenberg from the demand upon payment of the sum of 15 florins, being the difference of the sum of 100 florins, stipulated to be paid to the heirs of a deceasing partner, and the sum of 85 florins due to Gutenberg by Andrew on the original contract. The following evidence was produced on the trial:

"Anna, the wife of John Schultheiss (holtzmann, marchand de bois), deposed, that on one occasion Nicholas Beildeck came to her house to Nicholas Dreizehen, her relation, and said to him, 'My Nicholas Dreizehen, Andrew Dreizehen, of happy memory, has placed four stücke (pages?) in a press, which Gutenberg has desired that you will take away and them from one another put off, that no man may know what it may be; for he is not willing that any one should see.'

"Also John Schultheiss says, that Laurence Beildeck some time came to his house to Nicholas Dreizehen, when Andrew Dreizehen his brother was dead, and that the said Laurence Beildeck thus spoke to said Nicholas Dreizehen: 'Andrew Dreizehen, your brother, now happy, had four stücke lying underneath in a press. Therefore John Gutenberg desires you that you will take them therefrom and upon the presses take from one another so that no man can see what that is.'

"Also Conrad Sabsbach deposed, that sometime Andrew Heilman came to him upon the Street of Merchants and said, 'Dear Conrad, as Andrew Dreizehen is departed, as you made the presses, and know about the matter, do you go thither, and take the stücke from the presses, and thoroughly separate (zerlegen) them from one another, so that no man may know what it is.'

"Laurence Beildeck says that he was sent by John Gutenberg to Nicholas Dreizehen, after the death of Andrew his brother, to say to him, 'That he the presses which he under his care has to no man should show; which also this witness did. And he further conversed with me, and said he should take so much trouble as to go to the presses, and with the two screws upon or from them so separate the stücke (und die mit den zweyzen würbeln uff den so vielen die stücke) from one another, and these stücke he should then in the presses [or, on the presses] separate, so that thereafter no man can see nor understand.'

"The same witness also said that he knew well that Gutenberg, a little before the feast of the Nativity, had sent his servant to both Andrews to take away all stücke, which were broken up in his sight, that none of them might be found perfect. Moreover, after the death of Andrew, this witness was not ignorant that many were desirous of seeing the presses, and that Gutenberg had commanded that some one should be sent who might hinder any one from seeing the presses, and that his servant was sent to break them up.

"Also John Dunne, goldsmith, said, that three years or thereabouts previous he had received from Gutenberg about 300 florins for materials relating to printing."

From this curious document may be learnt, that separate types were used; for if they were blocks arranged so as to print four pages, how could they be so pulled to pieces that no one should know what they were, or how could the abstraction of two screws cause them to fall to pieces? It appears that some sort of presses were used, and the transfers no longer taken by a burnisher or roller; and, lastly, that the art was still a great secret at the time when Koster was at the point of death. Hence it is manifest that the ingenuity of Gutenberg had made a vast advance from the rude methods of the time, and had in fact invented a new and hitherto unknown art.

These documents would be decisive in favour of Strasbourg as the place in which printing was invented, had it appeared that any effects were produced by this establishment. This, however, does not seem to have been the case, as Gutenberg and his successors make no mention of the fact, but, on the contrary, claim for themselves the production of the first book at Mentz. Indeed the partnership appears to have expired without any attempt at entering into fresh engagements; for, about the year 1450, Gutenberg returned to his native city with all his materials, without any opposition from his partner. In this place he entered into partnership with John Fust, a wealthy goldsmith and citizen, who engaged, upon being taught the secrets of the art (a fact that completely overthrows the fable of his having been one of Koster's workmen, and of his having stolen his types), and being admitted into a participation of the profits, to advance the necessary funds; and he did accordingly advance the considerable sum of 2000 florins. The new partnership immediately commenced operations, and hired a house called Zum Jungem, and took into their employ Peter Schöffer and others. Their subsequent operations we again find curiously chronicled in the records of another lawsuit, in which Gutenberg was soon engaged with his new ally; for Fust, dissatisfied with their proceedings, sought to recover from Gutenberg money advanced, with interest, including 800 florins of the sum advanced in virtue of the deed of partnership. Gutenberg in defence alleged, that the 800 florins had not been paid at once, as stipulated; and that they had been expended in preparation for the work (apparently meaning thereby that this sum of money should have been paid down for his own use, in consideration of his communicating the secrets of his art, and that instead of so applying it to his private purposes, he had expended it for the joint benefit); whilst, as to the other sums, he offered to give an account of their appropriation, but denied that he was liable for the interest. The judges awarded that Gutenberg should pay the interest, as well as the part which his accounts showed he had applied to his individual use. This decision took place on the 6th of November 1455. Upon this, Fust obtained from the public notary the following document:

"To the Glory of God, Amen. Be it known unto all those who shall see or hear read this instrument, that in the year of Our Lord 1455, third indiction, on Thursday the sixth day of November, the first year of the Pontificate of our very Holy Father the Pope Calixtus III., appeared here at Mayence, in the great parlour of the Bare-footed Friars, between eleven o'clock and mid-day, before me, the Notary, and the undersigned witnesses, the honourable and discrete person, James Fust, citizen of Mayence, who, in the name of his brother, John Fust, also present, has said and declared clearly, that on this same day, and at the present hour, and in the same parlour of the Bare-footed Friars, John Gutenberg should see and hear taken by John Fust an oath, conformable to the sentence pronounced between them. And this sentence read in the presence of the honourable Henry Gunter, Curé of St Christopher of Mayence, of Henry Keffer, and De Bechtoff de Hanaw, servant and valet of the said Gutenberg; John Fust, placing his hand upon the Holy Evangelists, has sworn between the hands of me, the Notary Public, conformable to the sentence pronounced, and to a letter which he has sent to me, and has taken the following oath, word for word: I, John Fust, have borrowed 1550 florins which I have transmitted to John Gutenberg, which have been employed for our common labour, and of which I have paid the rent and annual interest, of which I still own a part. Reckoning, therefore, for each hundred florins borrowed, as above is recited, six florins per annum, I demand of him the re-

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1 The original German text of these documents is given in M. Leon de Laborde's interesting tracts on the origin of printing. 2 Wolfii Monumenta Typographica. Fournier, Origine de l'Imprimerie. payment and the interest, conformably to the sentence pronounced; which I will prove in equity to be legal, in consequence of my claim upon the said John Gutenberg. In presence of the honourable Henry Gunter, of Henry Kefler, and of Bechtoff de Hanaw aforesaid, John Fust has demanded of me an authentic instrument, to serve him as much and as often as he hath need, in the faith of which I have signed this instrument, and have set thereto my seal."

From this it would appear (indeed the mortgage of his printing materials to Fust, mentioned in this document, proves) that Gutenberg had expended the whole of his considerable private fortune in his experiments, and had fallen into the power of his more wealthy associate; for in consequence of this judgment, and owing probably to his being unable to repay the sums demanded, the whole of his materials, constructed with so much perseverance, fell into Fust's hands; for the initial letters used by Gutenberg and his partners, in works known and supposed to have been executed between 1450 and 1455, are likewise used by Fust and Schoeffer in the Psalter of 1457 and 1459. After such a mortifying result of so many years' labour, it would have been no matter for wonder had Gutenberg abandoned the unprofitable pursuit. On the contrary, he appears to have immediately started anew with fresh vigour, and this time with success. Another legal document gives curious information.

"We, Henne (John) Genszfeisch de Sulgeloch, named Gudinburg, and Friicle Genszfeisch, brothers, do affirm and publicly declare by these presents, and make known to all, that, with the advice and consent of our dear cousins, John, and Friicle, and Pedirnann Genszfeisch, brothers of Mentz, we have renounced and do renounce, by these presents, for us and for our heirs, simply, totally, and at once, without fraud or deceit, all the property which has passed by means of our sister Hebele, to the convent of St Claire of Mentz, in which she has become a nun, whether the said property has come to it on the part of our father Henne Genszfeisch, who gave it himself, or in whatsoever manner the property may have come to it, whether in grain, ready money, furniture, jewels, or whatever it may be, that the respectable nuns, the abbess, and sisters of the said convent, have received in common or individually, or other persons of the convent (have received), from the said Hebele, be it little or much; and we have promised and do promise, by these presents, in good faith, for us and for our heirs, that neither we, nor any person on our part, nor yet our said cousins, nor any of their heirs, nor any person on their part, shall either demand, gain, nor claim of the said convent, nor of the abbess, nor of the convent in general, nor of the persons who may be found therein individually, the said property, of whatever kind it may be, either wholly or in part, and that we will never demand it again; either through an ecclesiastical or civil court, or without the aid of the law; and that neither we nor our heirs will ever molest the said convent, either by words or deeds, either secretly or publicly, in any manner. And as to the books which I, the said Henne, have given to the library of the convent, they are to remain there always and for ever; and I, the said Henne, propose also to give in future, without disguise, to the library of the said convent, for the use of the present and future nuns, for their religious worship, either for reading or chanting, or in whatever manner they may wish to make use of them according to the rules of their order; all the books which I, the said Henne, have printed up to this hour, or which I shall hereafter print, in such quantities as they may wish to make use of; and for this the said abbess, the successors and nuns of the said convent of St Claire, have declared and promised to acquit me and my heirs of the claim which my sister Hebele had to the sixty florins, which I and my said brother Friicle had promised to pay and deliver to the said Hebele, as her portion and share arising from the house which Henne our father, assigned to him for his share, in virtue of the writings which were drawn up thereupon, without fraud or deceit. And in order that this may be observed by us and by our heirs, steadfastly and to its full extent, we have given the said nuns and their convent and order these present writings, sealed with our seals. Signed and delivered the year of the birth of J. C. 1459, on the day of St Margaret."

From this it will appear, that his new establishment had actually produced the long wished-for effect. He appears to have carried on the business ten years; for in 1465 he entered into the service of Elector Adolphus of Nassau, as one of his band of gentlemen pensioners, with a handsome salary, as appears from the letters-patent, dated the 17th January 1465, and finally abandoned the pursuit of an art which, though it caused him infinite trouble and vexation, has been more effectual in preserving his name and the memory of his acts, than all the warlike deeds and great achievements of his renowned master and all his house. Gutenberg died on the 24th of February 1468. His printing-office and materials had passed into the hands of Conrad Humery, syndic of Mentz, who had probably assisted him with money, and who appears to have been in some degree his partner. He afterwards sold them to Nicholas Bechternunze of Elfield, whose works are greatly sought after by the curious, as they afford much proof, by collation, of the genuineness of the works attributed to his great predecessor.

There does not appear to be any record of the early life of John Fust or Peter Schoeffer before their partnership with Gutenberg, save that the former was a wealthy goldsmith and an ingenious man, and that Schoeffer, surnamed de Gernsheim, was a scribe. It is very likely that the combination of character and qualifications of these three men may afford a good clue to the wonderful taste and beauty which distinguish the works issued from their press, and consequently to the great general improvement of the art during their life. The ingenuity of Gutenberg would readily suggest a new and expeditious method of manufacturing types; the practical skill of Fust as a worker in metals (and the working in gold and silver had at that time attained a most extraordinary nicety and beauty), and his large pecuniary resources, would readily provide the necessary appliances, while the taste of Schoeffer would give all possible grace and beauty to the new forms. For Schoeffer, it must be recollected, was a scribe, one of the ancient and honourable craft whose occupation was destined to fall before the new art; a transcriber, perhaps an illuminator, of the manuscript works in use before printed books; and those who have had the happiness of viewing those exquisite specimens of skill which beguiled our ancestors into study and devotion (when will modern typography produce such feasts for mind, and eye, and imagination?) will readily conceive that Schoeffer's eye was already schooled for the conception, and his hand for the execution, of all the beauty the trammels of a new art and limited skill would allow. Aided by his own taste and his partners' invention and wealth, Schoeffer proceeded to a new enterprise, namely the casting of type. The entire conception and execution of this invention has been generally attributed and allowed to Schoeffer. It seems most probable, however, that where three ingenious men are bound together by art and interest, no one of them can lay exclusive claim to any invention or undertaking executed in the workshops and for the mutual benefit of all. Allowing, therefore, to Schoeffer the honour of having suggested some such plan, the other two may fairly put in a claim for their portion of the credit on the score of their suggestion and assistance; especially since Fust, as a worker in metals, would have been the party to engage workmen to elaborate the conceptions of his partners' brain. Ac- cordingly the only evidence upon the subject appears to show that the partners had for some time practised a method of taking casts of types in moulds of plaster; for it must be remembered that the types of Gutenberg's earlier efforts, both at Strasbourg and at Mentz, were cut out of single pieces of wood or metal with infinite labour and imperfection. This method of casting, however, although a great improvement, was at best but a slow and tedious process. Almost every type cast would require a new mould; no skill or care could enable the workman to impress so small a thing as a type is at the face, yet so elongated in the shank, fully, freely, and steadily, into a soft material; and it would be necessary afterwards, under the most favourable circumstances, that the squareness and sharpness so indispensable in type should be given by another slow process; so that at best this advance was but an imperfect and tedious operation. Schoeffer has therefore an undoubted claim to be considered as one of the three inventors of printing; for he it was who first suggested the cutting of punches, whereby not only might the most beautiful form of type the taste and skill of the artist could suggest be fairly stamped upon the matrix, but a degree of sharpness and finish quite unattainable in type cut in metal or wood could be given to the face; whilst to the shank, by the very same process by which the face was cast, the mould would give perfect sharpness and precision of angle. Add to this, that the punch being once approved of, could be kept ready to stamp a new matrix in precisely the same condition and form as the first, should that be worn out or mislaid, or make a duplicate should the demands of business require it. It is nevertheless rather singular, that the mould represented on the right side of the press of Ascensius, shortly after the time of Schoeffer, should be precisely the same in form and manner of use as that of the present day. This was evidently an immense stride toward perfection; let Schoeffer therefore take a place on the right hand of the inventor.

Whatever may have been the several shares of the masters in perfecting their art, their joint labours were effectual. The first productions of their press—passing over an Alphabet, the Doctrinale of Alexander Gallus, and a Donatus, which are of doubtful authenticity, and are merely block-books—were three editions of Donatus, the first books known to have been printed entirely with moveable types. In 1455 they printed the celebrated Litterae Indulgentiae Nicolai V. Pont. Max., which is the first work—it is only a single page,—printed with moveable types which is dated. In 1455, or thereabouts, for it has no date, they printed the famous Biblia Latina Vulgata, generally known as "the Mazarine Bible." It has no colophon or Explicit. And it should be noted, that there is no book known which bears the conjoint names of Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer, nor any which has the imprint of Gutenberg alone.

Within eighteen months of their separation from Gutenberg, Fust and Schoeffer produced the celebrated Psalter. This was printed with large cut type. As it is impossible that a new font could have been prepared, and so splendid a work printed, within that short space, it must be evident that the partners did great injustice to Gutenberg in suppressing his name from the colophon. This book was produced in the month of August 1457, and is the first book which bears the name of the place where it was printed, those of its printers, and the date of the year in which it was printed. This Psalter was reprinted in 1459, 1490, and 1502, and always in the same type, which, it is remarkable, was never used for any other work, probably because its great size made it unfit for any other works than those not intended for popular reading, but to lay on desks like our church Bibles. On the 16th of October 1459 Fust and Schoeffer published the Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, with an entirely new found of type; in 1460 the Constitutiones

Clementis V.; and in 1462 the celebrated Latin Bible. In 1465 they printed Cicero de Officiis, in which occur the first printed Greek types. Fust enjoyed this successful and glorious practice of his art but ten short years; yet in this period what an immense advance from the misshapen and irregular lumps of their first efforts, ugly in themselves, and more ugly in their utter want of relative proportion and alignment, to the well-proportioned, evenly-standing type of the Bible! The plague carried him off in Paris about the year 1466, full of years, and perchance full of honours. Schoeffer survived many years, and, in conjunction with Conrad Henlit, produced a great number of works. His name is found in the colophon of the fourth edition of the Bible of 1402, about which time he is supposed to have deceased. There are ten books which are known to have been printed by Fust and Schoeffer conjointly. Schoeffer continued to print during a period of thirty-five or thirty-six years after the death of Fust, and his productions are very numerous.

Were we to take tradition for our guide as regards the character of Fust, we should regard him as a conjuror and an adept in the black art. The popular story (and many "grave and discrete old men" have given credit to the tale) runs, that having kept these proceedings profoundly secret, as soon as their Bible was finished, Fust transferred himself to Paris with many copies of the new work, and palmed them upon the learned as manuscripts—to which, as they were printed on vellum, in a type bearing much resemblance to the written books of the period, and the vignettes and initial letters were splendidly illuminated, they were not very dissimilar; that some eager scholar or devotee became the possessor of the first copy, supposing it to be a rare chance, at the moderate price of four or five hundred crowns; that as he brought the work into the market, the price fell rapidly to sixty, and then to thirty crowns, by which time the extraordinary glut produced suspicion, and Fust was accused of multiplying Holy Writ by the aid of the Devil, and was accordingly persecuted by the priesthood, whilst the laity, looking to their temporal interests, prosecuted him for his inroad into their pockets; and that from these things Fust was obliged to quit Paris precipitately.

Having thus given a sketch of the origin and history of the art of printing, a brief account of the works issued by the illustrious triumvirate will not only be proper here, but will give the general reader a better idea of the astonishing perfection to which the art rose under the taste and genius of its inventors. As before remarked, there is not a single work of Gutenberg which bears his name; yet there are several which bear such internal evidences that the literati of all parties and opinions are unanimous in attributing them to his press.

Of these works, Dr Dibdin, the well-known bibliographer, gives the following account:

"First, as to the character of the type used by the early Mentz printers. This appears to have been uniformly what is called Gothic; and if we except the varieties of the larger type (from three-eighths to two-eighths or to a quarter of an inch), which appear in the Psalters of 1457, 1459, and 1490 (the type common to most works executed about the same period), we shall observe three distinct sets or forms of letters used in the printing-office of Fust and Schoeffer. Of these three typographical characters, two only (if we except the one with which the Bible of 1455 was executed) are visible in the publications which appear to have been printed in the lifetime of Fust; that is to say, the larger Gothic used in the Bible of 1462, and the smaller Gothic in the Offices of Cicero, of the dates of 1465 and 1466. These appeared united, the former, for the first time, in the Constitutions of Pope Clement V., of the date of 1460. Schoeffer introduced a type of intermediate size, which may be seen, among other works, in the Rudi- ments of Grammar of 1468, and in the Decretals of Pope Gregory the Ninth, of the date of 1479. This intermediate type is of a narrower form, and prints very closely. Of the three types here mentioned, the largest is undoubtedly of the handsomest dimensions; but they all partake of the Secretary Gothic, and may be said to be the model of that peculiar character which was adopted by the early Leipzig printers, Thanner and Boettiger, and was more especially used by John Schoffler and the other German printers for nearly the whole of the sixteenth century. Shew me Lisardo, one book, nay, one leaf only, printed in the Roman type, in the colophon of which the name of Faust or of Peter Schoffler appears, and you shall immediately have the amount of the balance in my favour, at my banker's, be it great or small, be it L300 or L20, for such a precious and unheard-of curiosity.

"We shall now, in the second place, say a few words as to the character of the printing, or of the mechanical skill, of the early Mentz press. There can be but one opinion upon this point. Everything is perfect of the kind, the paper, the ink, and the register, or regularity of setting up the page. The Bible of the supposed date of 1455 is quite a miracle in this way; but the Psalters are not less miraculous, nor is less praise due to the Constitutions of Pope Clement V., of the date of 1460, and the Bible of 1462; while the Durrochus, of the earlier date of 1459, exhibiting the first specimen of the smallest letter, strikes one as among the most marvellous monuments extant of the perfection of early typography. Almost all the known works before the year 1462 are printed upon vellum, doubtless because they ventured upon limited impressions; and even of the Bible of 1462 more copies have been described upon vellum than upon paper. Upon the whole, the vellum used by Faust and Schoffler, although inferior to the Venetian, is exceedingly good, being generally both white and substantial.

"In the third place, let us notice the nature or character of the works which have issued from the press of Faust and Schoffler. Whatever may be our partiality towards that establishment from which the public were first gratified with the sight of a printed book, candour obliges us to confess that the fathers of printing were not fortunate, upon the whole, in the choice of books which issued from their press.

"In the fourth place (for I told you I should be somewhat tautologous), consider what is the typographical appearance of those books which Gutenberg is really supposed to have executed. It is quite unique. A little barbarous, and certainly wholly dissimilar from any thing we observe in other contemporaneous productions of the Mentz press. You will please to understand that I think very doubtfully of the Doctores, which are considered to have been printed by him; as well as of the Speculum Sacerdotalium, and Celebratio Missarum; concluding the Catholicon of 1460, and the Vocabularies of 1467 and 1469, to be the more genuine productions of his press, or of the types used by him. Is it not surprising, I ask, that these works are executed in types quite different from anything we observe in the Mentz productions? and this from a man who is considered as the parent of printing in that city. No wonder, if they be the actual productions of Gutenberg, that Faust and Schoffler thought so meanly of his talents, and that on a dissolution of partnership they adopted a different and a very superior character."

In confirmation of these remarks of the learned bibliographer, we shall here insert a specimen of Gutenberg's Balbus de Janum, which will also be a curious illustration of an

Dr Horne, in the appendix to his Introduction to Bibliography, says of the Psalter, "This precious work, as Santander justly calls it, is one of the most known among early printed books, from the various and correct descriptions of it which have been given by different bibliographers. Until the discovery of Pope Nicholas's Libera Indulgentiarum, this was supposed to be the very first article ever printed with a date affixed; the book is executed on vellum, and of such extreme rarity that not more than six or seven copies are known to be in existence; all of which, however, differ from each other in some respect or other. The most perfect copy known is that in the imperial library at Vienna; it comprises 175 leaves, of which the Psalter occupies the 135 first and the recto of the 136th. The remainder is appropriated to the litany, prayers, responses, vigils, &c. The psalms are executed in larger characters than the hymns, similar to those used for missals prior to the invention of printing; but all are distinguished for their uncommon blackness. The capital letters, 288 in number, are cut on wood with a degree of delicacy and boldness which are truly surprising; the largest of these, the initial letters of the psalms, which are black, red, and blue, must (as Lichtenberger has remarked) have passed three times through the press. Copies are now in the Queen's library at Windsor, and in that of Earl Spencer at Spencer House." A facsimile of the initial B, and a portion of the first verse of this beautiful book, and of the colophon at the end, will be found in Plate III.

The extraordinary praise awarded by these eminent bibliomaniacs to the first productions of the Mentz press may perchance excite in the minds of the more sober public a suspicion that these writers have been led away by their enthusiasm beyond the limits of matter-of-fact truth, and have seen merit in defects, beauty in deformity, and lustre in antiquity. Assuredly, nevertheless, such is by no means the case; and the happy individual who gains access to the chevaux de Fust and Schoffer will return from the inspection a wiser man; for the beauty of these works is inconceivable. England fortunately possesses several of these treasures of art, there being copies of the Bible of the supposed date of 1450-55 in the Royal Library, in the Bodleian, and in those of Earl Spencer and Henry Perkins, Esq.; whilst of the six known copies of the Psalter of 1457, two are in England, namely, one at Windsor, and one in the possession of Lord Spencer. Of the Latin Bible of Fust and Schoffer, 1462 (the first bearing date), there are copies on vellum at Blenheim, in the libraries of Lord Spencer, the Earl of Jersey, one formerly belonging to Sir M. Sykes, in the British Museum, and in the Bodleian (imperfect). Copies on paper are rarer still, there being but three in this country, viz., those in the Royal Library and the British Museum, and one lately in the possession of Mr Willett.

Apparently, in retaliation for the injustice done to Gutenberg by his partners in depriving him of any share of the honour of producing the Psalter of 1457, which, as before stated, must be the joint production of all three, although it was not finished until after the secession of Gutenberg; bibliographers have generally agreed in attributing the printing of the Bible of 1450-55 to Gutenberg alone, when it is equally manifest that Fust and Schoeffer had as much claim to the honour as their conjuitor. It is an exceedingly beautiful book, in two very large folio volumes, in two columns, containing from forty-one to forty-three lines each, in very large well-cut types. It consists of six hundred and forty-one leaves; it has no title, paging, signatures, or catch-words; the initial letters are not printed, but painted in by illuminators, and the initial letters of each verse of the psalms are painted alternately red and black, by way of guide to the priests in their alternate reading. From the lustre and blackness of the ink, its evenness of colour, and beautiful execution, it is a very superb book; but it is nevertheless surpassed by the Fust and Schoeffer edition of 1462, when they had attained greater experience in the practice of the art. By far the choicest, however, of these editiores principes is the Mentz Psalter or Codex Psalmorum before mentioned, the initial B and first few lines of which form part of Plate III. Dr Horne says that the six known copies of this edition differ from each other in some respects, and proceeds to give some particulars in which variations are found; but by collating the copies in the Royal Library, that at Windsor, and that at the British Museum, it will be found that, although bearing the same date, they are in fact three distinct editions. It would have excited no surprise had it been found that the printed ornaments differed, as nothing would be more easy than to change the colours with which the different blocks were worked; and in fact in the Museum copy the initial B is printed in a bright blue, and the scroll-work is red; but the text varies in such a manner that there can be no doubt of their perfect distinctness. Taking the first six lines, the following are the last words of each line:

| Windsor | Earl Spencer | British Museum | |---------|--------------|----------------| | ... | ... | ... | | ... | ... | ... | | ... | ... | ... | | ... | ... | ... | | ... | ... | ... |

It must also be noted that in the Windsor copy each line is "justified out," which is not the case in Earl Spencer's copy; and that in the Museum copy the page commences with rubrical matter, which is continued down the two first lines of text, which are shortened. The difference is effected by variations in the contractions of many of the words. The book is a very large folio, on vellum, consisting of about a hundred and thirty leaves, printed on both sides. There are generally twenty-three lines in a page, in Gothic type. Every psalm begins with a splendid initial letter, about two thirds of the size of the B, printed in two colours in almost every case. Occasionally, however, this appears to have been neglected, and then the letter is painted in by the illuminator, but not in imitation of the printed letters. The initials consist (like the B) of a bold character, of Gothic cut, surrounded by a scroll, which is sometimes of great length, that of the B extending from the top to the bottom of the page. The same wooden block is used as often as the letter occurs, but it is not always in the same colours. Moreover, every verse commences with a smaller initial printed in a red colour, in the same manner as the B in the specimen. Nor is this work destitute of the embellishments of the illuminator; for at the commencement of every psalm is a rubric, painted in a most brilliant red, in a smaller letter, of precisely the same character as the text, and also the music of the chant, with the words underneath it painted in black. The initial letters of both are splendidly illuminated in various colours. The paint is used in such profusion that the letters are absolutely in relief, often to the extent of one sixteenth of an inch; and besides these, the letter following the grand initial has a broad bar painted down it, and very frequently the first letter after the pauses indicated in our authorized version by a colon is illuminated in a similar manner. One page is particularly splendid; it consists of short verses, in which the first words are constantly repeated. It commences with a grand initial, and there are twenty-two smaller initials to the verses; the second letter of the first verse, and the first letter after every pause (twenty-three in number), having the broad illuminated bar. Wherever the psalm commences too near the bottom to allow of the full exuberance of the scroll, a piece of paper appears to have been laid over a portion of the cut, to prevent the impression from appearing; and in one psalm where the chant is of unusual length, the lower part of the initial O, and a corresponding portion of the scroll, are thus suppressed; the music being illuminated in its place, and the scroll continued below it. Sometimes the illuminator has omitted to add his initial letter; and in this copy the double device is omitted. The accuracy with which the coloured blocks are printed within the text and within each other is perfectly astonishing. From this description it may be conceived how very superb is the first book ever printed, the date, and place, and artist, of which can be accurately ascertained. Dr Dibdin in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, Mr Savage in his work on Decorative Printing, Dr Horne, whose wood-block is not coloured, and several other writers, have given fac-similes of the same copy (Lord Spencer's), which, however, all differ from one another. The lines given in the specimen in Plate III., are copied from Dibdin, whose initial B does not accord with that of the Windsor copy; the B here given is very accurate, and the colours are as similar as possible to the latter copy, but the colour of the scroll in the original seems somewhat faded.

The capture of the city of Mentz by Count Adolphus of Early Nassau in the year 1462 had the effect of interrupting the labours of Fust and Schoeffer; and moreover the distracted state of the city enabled, perhaps compelled, the workmen initiated in the mysteries of the art to flee into the neighbouring states, and thus spread its practice over the whole civilized globe. Such, indeed, was the fame it had already acquired, and such the idea entertained of its importance, that every community with the slightest pretensions to literature appears to have sought a knowledge of it with the greatest avidity. Thus, within six years of the publication of the Psalter, it had spread to several cities having some connection with Mentz, and within fifteen years to almost every town of consideration in Christian Europe. A chronological list of the cities which first seized upon the invention would be greatly too long for this article; it may be interesting, however, to extract a few of the principal, with a notice of such printers as are remarkable either for the beauty or the scarcity of their works. The reader is not to suppose that all, or indeed any great number of these, learned the practice of the art under the tuition of the first masters. A few are known to have been pupils of the inventors, and it is probable that many others of them were so; but the majority, in all likelihood, were men of learning, enterprise, or capital, who derived their typographical knowledge from such facts as had transpired, or from inferior

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1 It is desirable that the subsequent pages of the several editions should be collated. If similar variations should be found throughout, it will give rise to much speculation. If they are found to be identical, the suspicion will arise, that the first and last pages were intentionally varied, perhaps for the purpose of misleading, and the story of these first books having been offered for sale as manuscripts will receive some countenance.

2 The copy described is that at Windsor; the illuminations, no doubt, vary in every copy. workmen of Fust and Schoeffer or Gutenberg, supplying deficiencies by their own ingenuity.

Strasbourg. Mentelin. Some writers have claimed for Mentelin the invention of printing, representing that Gutenberg was his servant, without, however, showing the slightest ground for their assertions; but others, more reasonable, say that he was acquainted with Gutenberg, and instructed by him, and that on the latter's quitting Strasbourg he established a printing-office, and carried on the business successfully. Mentelin most probably printed about the year 1458. His type is rude and inelegant. The only book bearing his name is Beaumais' Speculum Historiale, of date 1473. Schaepplin says, that he, as well as Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz, printed 300 sheets per day.

In 1461, Bamberg. Albert Pfister. He printed a collection of Fables, of date 1461. This book is excessively rare; it is printed with cast metal type, and is illustrated with 101 wood-cuts, in much the same style as the old Biblia Pauperum. All his other works are printed in the same type.

1465. Subiaco and Rome. Schweynheim and Pannartz. Their known works are, a Donatus, without date; Lactantius, 1465; St Augustin on the City of God, 1467; Cicero de Oratore, without date; and the Commentary of De Lyra on the Bible, 1471, all in folio. These works were printed in a new letter, very closely resembling the type now in use called Roman, and of which they were the introducers. In De Lyra are the earliest specimens of Greek types worthy of the name; some few letters appear in the Cicero de Officis printed at Mentz, but so wretchedly imperfect that they are unworthy of mention. It is curious that the Greek fount of Schweynheim and Pannartz at Subiaco was evidently very small; but upon their removal to Rome they cast a much larger fount. The cut and appearance of this Greek is more than respectable. There is a very curious petition from them to the pope, praying for assistance on the ground that they had entirely ruined themselves by printing De Lyra, for which there was no sale, and representing that they had on their hands no less than eleven hundred folio volumes of that work. Subiaco is the first place in Italy in which printing was practised. At Rome Ulric Han and Lignamire were contemporaries. Their works, particularly those of Han, are excessively rare.

1467. Effeld. Henry and Nicholas Bechtermunzey. They purchased from Conrad Humery the types and materials of Gutenberg. Their works are not at all remarkable for beauty, but are very rare, and much sought for as affording evidence of Gutenberg's works.

1467. Cologne. Ulric Zell. His type is Gothic, and of no beauty; but his works are rare.

1468. Augsburg. Ginther Zainer printed the first book in Germany with Roman type.

1469. Venice. John de Spira, whose works are of the utmost beauty. His edition of Pliny is splendid, and enormous sums have been given for those printed in vellum. He did not use Greek characters; but Greek passages are composed in Roman types. In the same city, at the same time, printed Nicholas Jenson, whose works are equal, if not superior, to those of Spira; they are not so rare, but are almost equally sought after. A copy of his folio Latin Bible of 1479, printed in Gothic type, was sold at Mr Edwards' sale for L115. 10s. Venice was also the residence of Christopher Valdarfar, whose works gave rise to a most extraordinary event connected with bibliography, viz., the sale of the first edition of Il Decameron di Boccaccio, printed by him in 1471. For many years it had been known that a single copy of this work was in existence, and the most devoted bibliomaniacs had used their utmost endeavours to discover it, but in vain. At length, about 1740, an ancestor of the Duke of Roxburgh obtained possession of it for the sum of one hundred guineas. In lapse of time it became the property of John duke of Roxburgh, the accomplished, indefatigable, and undaunted bibliomaniac, after whose death his gorgeous library was dispersed by the auctioneer in the year 1811. The interest excited amongst the learned by this sale was intense. It was known that the collection contained the most superb specimens of every kind of ancient lore; that the illuminated manuscripts were the most brilliant, the ballads the most obscure, the editiones principes the most complete that the world could produce; that the rarest Caxtons, the finest Pynsons, and grandest specimens of the foreign printers, were here to be found; above all, it was rumoured that a mysterious edition of Boccacio's Decameron would become a bone of contention amongst the noblest of the literati. The public, learned and unlearned, were infected with the mania, and the daily papers teemed with notices of the sale. At length the important day arrived, the 17th of June 1811. St James' Square was the place. Mr Evans presided. The room was crowded; Earl Spencer, the Marquis of Blandford, the Duke of Devonshire, and an agent of Napoleon, were amongst the most prominent. The book was a small folio, in faded yellow morocco binding, black-letter. "Silence followed his (Mr Evans') address," says Dibdin. "On his right hand, standing against the wall, stood Earl Spencer; a little lower down, and standing at right angles with his lordship, appeared the Marquis of Blandford. The duke, I believe, was not then present; but my Lord Althorpe stood a little backward, to the right of his father Earl Spencer. Such was 'the ground taken up' by the adverse hosts. The honour of firing the first shot was due to a gentleman of Shropshire, unused to this species of warfare, and who seemed to recoil from the reverberation of the report himself had made. 'One hundred guineas,' he exclaimed. Again a pause ensued; but anon the biddings rose rapidly to five hundred guineas. Hitherto, however, it was manifest that the firing was but masked and desultory. At length all random shots ceased, and the champions before named stood gallantly up to each other, resolving not to flinch from a trial of their respective strengths. 'A thousand guineas' were bid by Earl Spencer; to which the marquis added 'ten.' You might have heard a pin drop. All eyes were turned; all breathing well nigh stopped. Every sword was put home within its scabbard, and not a piece of steel was seen to move or to glitter save that which each of these champions brandished in his valorous hand. See, see; they parry, they lunge, they hit; yet their strength is undiminished, and no thought of yielding is entertained by either. 'Two thousand pounds' are offered by the marquis. Then it was that Earl Spencer, as a prudent general, began to think of an useless effusion of blood and expenditure of ammunition, seeing that his adversary was as resolute and fresh as at the onset. For a quarter of a minute he paused, when my Lord Althorpe advanced one step forward, as if to supply his father with another spear for the purpose of renewing the contest. His countenance was marked with a fixed determination to gain the prize; if prudence in its most commanding form, and with a frown of unusual intensity of expression, had not bade him desist. The father and son for a few seconds converse apart; and the biddings are resumed. 'Two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds,' said Lord Spencer. The spectators are now absolutely electrified. The marquis quietly adds his usual 'ten,' and there is an end of the contest. Mr Evans, ere his hammer fell, made a due pause, and, indeed, as if by something supernatural, the ebony instrument seemed itself to be charmed or suspended 'in mid air.' However, at length down dropped the hammer, and, as Lisardo has not merely poetically expressed himself, 'the echo' of the sound of that fallen hammer 'was heard in the libraries of Rome, of Milan, and Saint Mark?' Not the least surprising incident of this extraordinary sale is, that the marquis already possessed a copy of the work, which History. wanted a few leaves at the end; he therefore paid this enormous sum for the honour of possessing a few pages. The prize of this contest is now in the possession of Earl Spencer.

1469. Milan. Lavagna. In 1476 Dionysius Palavasius printed the Greek Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, in quarto, which is the first book printed entirely in Greek. The first printing in Hebrew characters was performed at Soncino, in the duchy of Milan, in 1482.

1470. Paris. Ulricus Gering, M. Crantz, and M. Friburger.

1471. Florence. Bernard Cennini. In 1488 Demetrius of Crete printed the first edition of Homer's works, in most beautiful Greek.

1474. Basle. Bernardus Richel.

1474. Valencia. Alonso Fernandez de Cordova.

1474. Louvain. Joannes de Westphalia.

1474. Westminster. William Caxton, the Game of Chess.

1475. Ludbeck. Lucas Brandis.

1476. Antwerp. Thierry Martins of Alost.

1476. Pilsen in Bohemia. Statuta Synodalia Pragensia; printer's name not known.

1478. Delft. Maurice Yemantz.

1478. Geneva. Adam Steinshawer.

1478. Oxford. Theodericus Rood.

1480. St Albans. Laurentii Guillelmi de Scena Rhetorica Nova; printer's name not known.

1482. Vienna. John Winterburg.

1483. Stockholm. Johannes Snell.

1483. Harlem. Formula Noritrum, by Johannes Andriessen. This is the earliest book printed at Harlem with a date. In giving this as the first work known to be printed at Harlem, the claims of Koster, his grandsons and successors, must, of course, be reserved.

1493. Copenhagen. Gothofridus de Ghemen.

1500. Cracow. Joannes Haller.

1500. Munich. Joannes Schobzer.

1500. Amsterdam. D. Pietersoon.

1507. Edinburgh. A Latin Breviary; no printer's name. From a patent of James IV. it appears that the first printing press was established at Edinburgh in 1507. From the style and types, it is probable that they were imported from France.

1551. Dublin. Ireland was apparently the last country in Europe into which printing was introduced. The first book printed is a black-letter edition of the Book of Common Prayer, printed by Humphrey Powell.

1569. Mexico. Antonio Spinoza, Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana.

1639. United States, at the town of Cambridge. Printer Stephen Daye.

It was the custom of the early printers to distinguish their books by the most fantastic devices; and by these their works may be readily recognised. Many of them were of exceeding beauty, and all the skill and appliances of their art were employed to render them striking; they are really an ornament to their works. The invention of these has been ascribed to Aldus; but the very first printers, Fust and Schoeffer, used each for himself, yet conjoined, devices of rare excellence. Their celebrated Bible is adorned with one which is well worthy of being adopted as the arms of the art and mystery of printing. This is given in the plate of illustrations with those of Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Pierre Regnault, who, with his brother, printed the first English Testament at Paris.

Our chronological arrangement has precluded us from mentioning some of the most skilful typographers. Their works, however, are so numerous, and their efforts so well known, as to render it unnecessary to do more than mention their names. Such men as the Aldi, Frobenius, Plantinus, Operinus, the Stephani, the Elzeviri, the Gryphii, the Giunti, the Moreti, and hosts of peers, have universal fame. The printing-office of Plantinus, in the Place Vendredi, at Antwerp, exists in its full integrity, and in the possession and use of his descendants the Moreti; the same presses, the same types, with the addition of every improvement modern skill has effected, are still in use, and an inspection of these singular relics of olden art will well repay the investigation of the curious.

The First Presses.

Of the mechanical means by which these beautiful impressions of the old printers were produced there is little or no record; but it is quite evident that they must have been effected by some more skilful process than mere manipulation, that is, than the appliance of a burnisher, as is evident in the first wood-cuts, or of a roller, or superficial pressure applied immediately by hand. It is very probable that one of the difficulties which Gutenberg found insuperable at Strasbourg, was the construction of a machine of sufficient power to take impressions of the types or blocks then employed; nor is it at all wonderful that the many years he resided at that city were insufficient to produce the requisite means; for, with cutting type, forming his screws, inventing and making ink, and the means of applying his ink when made, his time must have been amply occupied. Moreover, the construction of a press would require a versatile genius, and excellent mechanical skill, not to be looked for in one man. But upon his junction with Fust and Schoeffer, the gold of the former, and the invention of all the three, would soon supply the defect; and, for aught that appears to the contrary, the press used in their office differed in no essential point from those in use until the improvements of Blaeu in 1600-20. Fortunately, amongst the singular devices with which it pleased the earlier printers to distinguish their works, Badins Ascensus of Lyons (1495-1535) chose the press; and there are cuts of various sizes on the title-pages of his works. It appears from these, that, like that of Gutenberg, they could print only four pages at a time, and that at two pulls; and when it is stated that the table and tympan ran in, and that the platten was brought down by a powerful screw, by means of a lever inserted into the spindle, the professional reader will easily recognise the wooden presses laid up in ordinary in many old London houses.

The colour which the earliest typographers used was probably made according to the style of work in hand. The earliest copies of the Speculum and Biblia Pauperum were printed in a brown colour, of which raw umber is the principal ingredient. It appears to have been well ground and thin. It was, most likely, of the same tint as the old drawings of the same subjects, and would be better adapted for the filling up in various colours, as appears to have been the practice, than a black and harsh outline of ink. Fust and Schoeffer, however, introduced, and their followers adopted, black ink, and were so skilful in compounding it that their works present a depth and richness of colour which excites the envy of the moderns; nor has it turned brown, or rendered the surrounding paper in the slightest degree dingy. From the above-mentioned colophons we have also the method of applying it to the types. This was by means of balls of skin stuffed with wool, in every respect the same as those used fifty years ago. The ink was laid in some thickness on a corner of a stone slab, and taken thence in small quantities and ground by a muller, and thence again taken by the balls and applied to the types. The types appear to have been disposed in cases very much the same as ours. The composing-stick differs somewhat, but cannot now be very clearly made out. The different operations of casting the type, composing, reading, and working, are mostly represented in the same apartment; but, it is probable, more for the sake of pictorial unity, than because such

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1 It should be mentioned that Aldus Manutius invented the beautiful character of type called Realic at the end of the fifteenth century. The first book printed with it is a Virgil, 1501. was really the custom. There must have been many workmen engaged in most of the old establishments; and they well knew the value of cleanliness, which is unattainable where all the operations are carried on together.

As the invention of printing has itself become matter of serious controversy amongst the learned of all countries, its introduction into England has not been suffered to pass without an attempt of the novelty-seekers to overturn the received opinion on the subject, and to give to another the laurel of a public benefactor, torn from him to whom the general voice had for two centuries allotted it. Fortunately, the quarrel is divested of one of the great difficulties of the continental, inasmuch as there does not appear to be any vestige of an art in any degree similar (such as block-printing) having been practised prior to the introduction of type-printing; the art, when it was brought over, being in a state somewhat approaching maturity. This controversy concerns the claims of William Caxton and Frederic Corsellis to the introduction of the knowledge of the art, and the printing of the first book, in this country.

The general and original belief is that Caxton, who for thirty years resided in the Low Countries, under the reign of Charles the Bold, and who had taken every opportunity of learning the new art, and had availed himself of the capture of Mentz to secure one of the fugitive workmen of Fust and Schoeffer, established a printing-office at Cologne, where he printed the French original and his own translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy; that whilst at Cologne he became acquainted with Wynkyn de Worde, Theoderick Rood, both foreigners, and Thomas Hunte his countryman, who all subsequently became printers in England; that he afterwards transferred his materials to England; that Wynkyn de Worde came over with him, and probably was the superintendent of his printing establishment; that his first press was established at Westminster, perhaps in one of the chapels attached to the abbey, and certainly under the protection of the abbot; and that he there produced the first book printed in England, the Game of Chess, which was completed on the last day of March 1474.

The correctness of these facts is not matter of dispute, all writers agreeing that Caxton did so set up his press at Westminster, and print his Game of Chess in 1474; but it has been asserted that Caxton was not the first printer, nor his book the first book printed, in this country. Neither does the controversy rest upon the contradictory statements of many writers, for all authors of the same and succeeding period agree in ascribing the honour to Caxton; and when, in 1642, a dispute arose between the Stationers' Company and certain persons who printed by virtue of a patent from the crown, concerning the validity of this patent, a committee was appointed, who heard evidence for and against the petitioners, and throughout the proceedings Caxton was acknowledged as incontestibly the first printer in England. Thus Caxton seemed to be established as the first English typographer, when, soon after the Restoration, a quarto volume of forty-one leaves was discovered in the library at Cambridge, bearing the title of Explicacio Sancti Jeronymi in Simbolum Apostolorum ad Papam Laureatium, and at the end, "Explicit Explicacio Sancti Jeronymi in Simbolu Apostolorum ad papam Laurentium, Oxonie Et finita, Anno Domini MCCCCLXXXVIII. xxvi. die decembri." Upon the production of this book the claim for priority of printing was set up for Oxford. In the year 1644 Richard Atkyns, who then enjoyed a patent from the crown, and whose claims consequently brought him into collision with the Stationers' Company, and who was desirous of establishing the prerogative of the sovereign, published a thin quarto work, entitled The Original and Growth of Printing, collected out of the History and the Records of the Kingdome; wherein is also demonstrated that Printing appertaineth to the Prerogative Royal, and is a Flower of History, the Crown of England. The book was published "by order and appointment of the Right Hon. Mr Secretary Morrice."

In support of this proposition Atkyns asserted that he had received from an anonymous friend a copy of a manuscript discovered at Lambeth Palace, amongst the archiepiscopal archives. The following is an abstract of this document. "Thomas Bouchier, archbishop of Canterbury, earnestly moved the king, Henry VI., to use all possible means to procure a printing mold, to which the king willingly assented, and appropriated to the undertaking the sum of 1500 merks, of which sum Bouchier contributed 300. Mr Turbourn, the king's master of the robes, was the person selected to manage the business; and he, taking with him Mr William Caxton, proceeded to Harlem in Holland, where John Gutenberg had recently invented the art, and was himself personally at work; their design being to give a considerable sum to any person who should draw away one of Gutenberg's workmen. With some difficulty they succeeded in purloining one of the under workmen, Frederic Corsellis; and it not being prudent to set him to work in London, he was sent under a guard to Oxford, and there closely watched until he had made good his promise of teaching the secrets of the art. Printing was therefore practised in England before France, Italy, or Germany, which claims priority of Harlem itself, though it is known to be otherwise, that city gaining the art from the brother of one of the workmen, who had learned it at home of his brother, and afterwards set up for himself at Mentz."

The Explicacio is asserted by inference to be the work of Corsellis. That this document is a forgery may be safely assumed; because of the more than unsatisfactory manner in which it is said to have been obtained; because no one ever saw this copy; because no one, except the unknown, ever saw the original, for it is not amongst the archives nor in the library of Lambeth Palace, nor was it when the Earl of Pembroke made diligent search for it in 17( ), nor was it found when the manuscripts, books, and muniments were moved into a new building; because Caxton himself, who took so important a share in the alleged abduction of the workman, states that twelve years afterwards he was diligently engaged in learning the art at Strasbourg, and repeatedly ascribes the invention to Gutenberg, "at Moguncie in Almayne;" because, when three years afterwards the Stationers' Company instituted legal proceedings against the University of Cambridge, to restrain them from printing, this document was rejected, as resting only on Atkyns' authority; because Archbishop Parker, in his account of Bourchier, mentions the invention of printing at Mentz, but makes no claim for his having introduced it into England, and Godwin, de Praesilibus Anglie, says that Bourchier, during his primacy of thirty-two years, did nothing remarkable, save giving L120 for poor scholars, and some books to the university, and that he minutely examined two registers of his proceedings during this term, without making any mention of his having found therein any record of so remarkable a transaction; because, since these transactions must have taken place before 1459, Henry VI. was at that time struggling fearfully for his throne and life, Edward IV. being crowned in that year; from internal evidence of the document itself, for, not to mention the weak evidence for the city of Harlem, it is quite certain that Gutenberg never printed there, and by Junius the theft is ascribed to John Fust, who certainly was a rich goldsmith of Mentz; whereupon Meeran, finding these statements at variance with possibility, boldly invents another theory, making the sufferers Koster's grandsons, who never printed, as far as is known, and the robber Corsellis himself; and, lastly, because six years elapsed between this asserted introduction and the publication of his Explicacio, and eleven years between this and any other publication from any Oxford press. Although these facts entirely confute the pretensions of Cor- sellis, there nevertheless remains the book itself; and unless some evidence can be produced, Oxford will still maintain the distinction of having printed the earliest book in Eng- land. Some of the most learned bibliographers entirely re- fuse their assent to the genuineness of the book. Middle- ton asserts that there must be an error of an x in the imprint, and produces many remarkable instances of similar typographical errors. This, however, is mere assertion; and, as in the Lambeth record, the best evidence is to be sought in the production itself; accordingly the work is printed with cast metal types, which are not proved to have been used by Koster at all, that art being invented by Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer at Mayence. The letter is of very elegant cut, the pages regular, and the whole work has the appearance of having been executed at a con- siderably advanced era of the art. Another and a good ar- gument is, that the work has signatures, or marks for the binder, at the foot of the page, which were not used on the Continent before 1472, by John Kochloff at Cologne. The residence in favour of Caxton is direct and strong; the date of the Oxford book is contradicted by internal evidence, and discredited by the story set up in its support; there seems, therefore, no sufficient ground for withdrawing from Caxton the fame of being the introducer of printing into England.

William Caxton was born about the year 1412, in the Weald of Kent. His father was a wealthy merchant, trading in wool. He was brought up to the business of a mer- cer, and conducted himself so much to his master's satis- faction, that on his death he bequeathed him the then con- siderable sum of twenty marks. Caxton then proceeded, probably as the agent of the Mercers' Company, into the Low Countries. He must have been a man of some wealth and consideration, for in 1464 he and Richard Wethenhall were appointed by Edward IV. "ambassadors and special deputies" to continue and confirm a treaty of commerce between him and Philip duke of Burgundy; and, upon the marriage of Edward's sister Margaret with Charles duke of Burgundy, he was appointed to the household retinue of the princess, by whom he appears to have been treated with much familiarity and confidence; for at her instigation he first commenced his literary labours, and he mentions her as repeatedly commanding him to amend his English. His first work was a translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, which he afterwards printed at Strasbourg, when his leisure had allowed him to turn his attention to the study of printing. The first production of his press is allowed to be the French Recuyell above mentioned, his second the Oracion of John Russell on Charles Duke of Burgundy being created a Knight of the Garter, which took place in 1469. Of his transactions between 1471 and 1474 there is no record; probably he was engaged in the diligent pursuit of the art, and preparing to transfer his materials to England, which he accomplished some time before 1477, when we find him printing in or near the Abbey of Westminster, of which Thomas Milling, bishop of Hereford, was at that time abbot. The first production of his English press was the Game of Chess, bearing date 1474, which work, however, some assert to have been print- ed by him at Cologne. The following is a specimen of this famous book, the initial letter being printed in red:

His next production was the Boke of the boole lyf of Jas- son; but his first book bearing date and place in the colo- phon is the Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers, a transla- tion from the French by the gallant Earl Rivers, "at West- mestre, the yere of our lord m. cccc. lxxvii." From this time he continued both to print and translate with great spirit. His "capital work" was a Book of the noble Histories of Kyng Arthur, in 1483, the most beautiful produc- tion of his press.

There is but one copy of any of Caxton's works printed upon vellum; it is the Doctrinal of Sepynce. "Translated out of Fremshe in to Englyshe by wylyam Caxton at Westmestre. Fynyshed the viij day of May the yere of our lord m. cccc. lxxix. Caxton me fieri fecit." This unique copy is in the library at Windsor, and it is in beautiful preservation. It is moreover doubly unique, for it contains an additional chapter, to be found in no other copy what- ever, and which is entitled "Of the negligencies happening in the Masse and of the Remedies. Cap. Ixiii." It is a curious treatise of minute omissions and commissions likely to occur in the service of mass, with directions how to remedy such evils. Of their importance here are two speci- mens, "If by any negligence fyl (fall) any of the blood of the Sacrament on the corporos, or upon any of the vest- ments, then ought to cut off the piece on which it is fallen, and ought well to be washen, and that piece to be kept with the other relics." "And if the body of Jesu Christ, or any piece, fall upon the pulfe of the altar, or upon any of the vestments that ben blessed, the piece ought not to be cut off on which it is fallen, but it ought right well to be washen, and the washing to be given to the ministers for to drink, or else drink it himself." This singular treatise finishes with this grave confession, "This chapitre to fore I durst not sett in the booke, by cause it is not convenient ne apper- taining that every lay man should know it et cetera." At the usual termination of this work is that colophon of Cax- ton which is given amongst the illustrations of this article in Plate III.; it is, however, considerably reduced.

The Royal Library possesses another work of Caxton, which, as a perfect copy, is also unique. This is the "Sub- tyll Histories and Fables of Esoppe. Translated out of Fremshe in to Englyshe by Wylyam Caxton at West- mystre In the yere of our lord m. cccc. lxxxii Emprynted by the same the xxvi daye of Marche the yere of our lorde m. cccc. lxxxiii. And the fyrst yere of the regne of kyng Rycharde the thyrde." It consists of 142 leaves. Each fable is illustrated by a rude wood-cut, all of which are said to have been executed abroad, where similar editions of Esop were frequently printed. They are, however, most probably copied; for there is nothing either in their de- sign or execution that a most moderate artist might not perform; and this will equally apply to other wood-cuts interspersed in Caxton's works.

It has been said that the works of Caxton have been ea- gerly sought for by English bibliomaniacs. The most re- markable instances of this are the enormous prices given for some of them at the sale of the Duke of Roxburgh's library before mentioned. The Chastyng of God's Children was knocked down to Earl Spencer for L146. The Sessions Papers were bought for the Society of Lin- coln's Inn for L378. The Duke of Devonshire gave L351. 15s. for The Mirrour of the World, and L180 for He must have been a man of wonderful perseverance and erudition, cultivated and enlarged by an extensive knowledge of books and the world. Of his industry and devotion some idea may be formed, when Wynkyn de Worde, his successor, states, in his colophon to the Vitae Patrum, that Caxton finished his translation of that work from French into English on the last day of his life. He died in 1491, being about fourscore years of age. His epitaph has been thus written by some friend unknown: "Of your charity pray for the soul of Master Wilyam Caxton, that in his time was a man of moche ormate and moche renomed wysdome and connynge, and deceased full crystenly the yere of our Lord MCCCCLXXXLI."

Moder of Merci shyld him from thorribil fynd, And bryng hym to lyff eternal that never hath ynd."

The type used by Caxton is in design very inferior to that used upon the Continent even earlier than his period; but in the latter part of his life he very materially improved his fonts, and some of his later productions are very elegantly cut. The design is peculiar to him, and is said to be in imitation of his own hand-writing; it bears, however, some resemblance to the types of Ulric Zell, from whom Caxton derived most of his instruction, and is something between Secretary and Gothic. He appears to have had two fonts of English, three fonts of Great Primer, one Double Pica, and one Long Primer.¹ He used very few ornamented initial letters, and those he did employ are very inferior in elegance to those of foreign printers. He preferred inserting a small capital letter within a large space, and leaving the interval to be filled up according to the taste of the illuminator, owing to which many excellent performances are destitute of these beautiful ornaments. Caxton's ink was not remarkable for depth of colour or richness; his paper was excellent; and he probably used presses of the same construction as the continental printers. His works are not very rare, but are highly prized by English collectors. Copies of one or more of his works are to be found in most collections of any pretension, and are well worthy of inspection. The number of his productions is sixty-two. Although Caxton was the first English printer, he was not the only one of his day, Wynkyn de Worde, Letton and Machlinia, Hunte, Pynson, the Oxford printer whoever he may have been, and he of St Alban's, being his contemporaries.

¹ These are terms by which modern English printers distinguish the sizes of their type. De Worde died about the year 1534. In his will, still in the Prerogative Office, dated 5th June 1534, he bequeaths many legacies of books to his friends and servants, with minute directions for payment of small creditors and forgiveness of debtors, betokening a conscientious and kindly disposition. His device is generally that of Caxton, with his own name added to the bottom; but he also used a much more complicated one, consisting of fleurs-de-lis, lions passant, portcullis, harts, roses, and other emblazonments of the later Plantagenets and the Tudors. A fac-simile of the former will be found in Plate III.

John Lettou and William Machlinia printed separately and jointly before the death of Caxton, but were very inferior to him in every respect; their type being most especially barbarous. Their works are not very numerous, and are principally upon legal subjects; they printed the first edition of Lyttelton's Tenures.

Richard Pynson was a Norman by birth, and studied the art of printing under his "worshipful master William Caxton." It would seem that he was an earlier printer than Wynkyn de Worde, having established an office before the death of Caxton. His first work is of date 1483, and was printed "at the Temple-bar of London." He enjoyed high patronage, and was appointed by Henry VII. to be his printer before 1503. He is perhaps inferior to De Worde as a typographer, his first types being extremely rude. He afterwards used a font of De Worde's, and another peculiar to himself in this country, probably imported from France. Some of his larger works, Fabian's Chronicle, Lord Berner's translation of Froissart (which are the first editions of these important additions to English literature), and some of his law-works, are very fine specimens of the art. His device was a curious compound of R and P, on a shield which is sometimes supported by two naked figures.

Of Julian Notary, William Faques, Henry Pepwell, and others, it is unnecessary even to mention their names, inasmuch as they add little that is interesting to the history of English typography.

Richard Grafton, however, claims especial notice. He was by trade a grocer, although of good family. Of his education nothing appears; but he was one of the most voluminous authors of his time, having, by his own account, written a considerable portion of Hall's Chronicles, an Abridgment of the Chronicles of England, and a Manual of the same, a Chronicle at Large, and other books of historical character, under what circumstances is not known. In 1537 Grafton published Thomas Mathew's translation of the Bible, which was printed abroad, but where is not satisfactorily ascertained; and in 1538 the Testament translated by Miles Coverdale, which was printed at Paris by Francis Regnault. At this time it would not appear that English printers were in high estimation; for Lord Cromwell, desirous of having the Bible in the English language, thought it necessary to procure from Henry VIII. letters to the king of France for license to print it at Paris, and urged Bonner to tender his earnest assistance. Bonner entered upon the undertaking with such zeal, that in recompense he was soon afterwards appointed to the bishopric of Hereford. Miles Coverdale had charge of the correctness (see his letter, Gent.'s Mag. 1791), and Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch were the proprietors; but under what arrangement does not appear. When the work was on the point of completion, the Inquisitors of the Faith interfered, seized the sheets, and Grafton, Whitchurch, and Coverdale, were compelled to make precipitate flight. The avarice of the lieutenant-criminal induced him to sell the sheets for waste paper instead of destroying them, and they were in part purchased. The Testament was intrusted to Francis Regnault, whose brother used the tasteful colophon which will be found in Plate III. Under the protection of Cromwell they next, after many difficulties, obtained their types and other materials from Paris, and the Bible was completed at London in 1539. "Thus they became printers themselves, which before this affair they never intended." The edition consisted of 2500 copies. Cromwell next procured for them a privilege (not an exclusive one, however) for printing the Scriptures for five years. Very shortly after the death of Lord Cromwell, Grafton was imprisoned for printing Mathew's Bible and the Great Bible, his former friend Bonner much exaggerating the case against him. The prosecution, however, was not followed up; but in a short time he was, with Whitchurch, appointed printer to Prince Edward, with special patents for printing all church-service books and primers. The document is curious. It recites that such "bookes had beene printed by strangers in other and strange countreys, parte to the great losse and hinderance of our subjects, who both have the sufficient arte, feate and tredae of prynting, and parte to the setting forth the bysshhopp of Rome's usurped auctoritie, and keping the same in contymall memorye;" and that, therefore, of his "grace especiall, he had granted and geven privilege to our wel-beloved subjects Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, cytezens of London," exclusive liberty to print all such books for seven years, upon pain of forfeiture of all such books printed elsewhere.

One Richard Grafton, supposed to be the above, was member of parliament for the city of London in 1553-54, and also in 1556-57, and in 1562 was member for Coventry. He is supposed to have died about 1572, and not in very affluent circumstances. He used a punning, or, as the heralds would call it, a canting device, of a young tree or graft growing out of a tun. His works are distinguished for their beauty, and are very numerous and costly. He was one of the most careful and meritorious of English printers.

These are the titles of a few of his early Bibles, &c.

The Byble, 1537, folio. "The Byble, which is all the holy Scripture: In whych are contained the Olde and Newe Testament truly and purely translated into Englysh by Thomas Mathew. Esay 1 & Hearcken to ye heauens, and thou earth grane care: For the Lorde speakest."

The New Testament, Latin and English. 1538. Octavo. "The new testament both in Latin and English after the vulgaire texte; which is red in the churche. Translated and corrected by Myles Conerdale: and prynted in Paris, by Fraunces Regnault. M. ccccc. xxxviii in Nouembre. Prynted for Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, cytezens of London. Cum gratia & privilegio regis."

The Byble in Englyshe, 1539. Folio. "The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the content of all the holy Scripture, bothe of ye olde, and newe testament, truly translated after the vertye of the Hebrue and Greke textes, by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues. Prynted by Rycharde Grafton, and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio—sublim. 1539." This is a very superb book, and is the one which was commenced at Paris and finished at London under the circumstances before related.

Newe Testament in Englyshe. 1540. Quarto. "Translated after the texte of Master Erasmus of Roterdame."

The Prymer. English and Latin. 1540. Octavo.

The Byble in Englyshe. 1540. Folio. A noble volume, called, from the preface, Cranmer's Byble. The Bible in English. 1541. Folio. "The Bible in English of the largest and greatest volume, authorised and appointed by the commandment of our most redoubted prince and sovereign Lord, King Henry VIII, supreme head of this his church and realm of England; to be frequented and used in every Church within this his said realm, according to the tenure of his former injunctions given in that behalf. Overseen and perused at the commandment of the kings highness, by the right reverend fathers in God Cuthbert bishop of Durham, and Nicholas, bishop of Rochester." The lines of the title are printed alternately red and black.

Such, with many other manuals, primers, &c., were the productions of this most eminent British typographer.

John Day was a printer of much eminence; and his works are numerous, beautiful, and useful.

The first complete edition of Shakespear's Plays was printed by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, in folio, in 1623. Of his single plays, the earliest is "The first part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster," which was printed by "Thomas Creed for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shop, under Saint Peter's Church, Cornwall" (Corsham), in 1594. These plays were printed by various typographers, amongst whom appear the names of George Eld, Valentine Simmes, R. Young, John Robson, and others who only give their initials.

The first edition of Milton's Paradise Lost was printed in quarto by Peter Parker in the year 1667; the Paradise Regained in 1671.

During the troublesome times that preceded the great rebellion, the Puritans, jealously watched and persecuted, introduced the anomaly of ambulatory presses, which were constantly removed from town to town to escape the vigilance of the Star-Chamber. At these presses many of Milton's controversial pamphlets were printed; and it is even said that the identical press at which the Areopagitica was printed is still in existence, and was lately in the possession of Mr Valpy, the well-known printer of the Variorum Classics.

It is a very pleasing reflection, that the earlier practitioners of the art did, by their uniform good character and religious turn, tend much to render their profession productive of a highly moral class of literature, and to raise it in the estimation of all men. Had they been less respectable, had they turned their attention to the many ribald and tasteless writings of those times, the effect of the new art would have been to degrade literature and lower morals, to delay the spread of knowledge, and to give a depression to the character of the art and its practitioners, from which possibly they might never have recovered. These excellent and learned men appear to have received their temporal reward, in public estimation, sufficient wealth, and a length of years beyond the ordinary term of mortality.

Setting aside the claim of Corsellis, printing was first practised at Oxford by Theoderic Rood and Thomas Hunte from 1480 to 1485. In Rymer, vol. xv. is a grant by Queen Elizabeth to Thomas Cooper, clerk of Oxford, for the exclusive printing of his Latin Dictionary. In 1585 a printing press was established at the expense of the Earl of Leicester, chancellor of the university. Joseph Barnes was appointed printer to the university in 1585.

At Cambridge John Sibercrith printed in 1521, when Cambridge Erasmus resided there, and probably executed some of his books. Thomas Thomas, M.A., was the first printer to the university in 1584.

At St Albans' printing was very early practised, certainly in the year 1480. It would appear that the printer was a schoolmaster. It has been asserted, but without shadow of argument, that printing was introduced here many years before Caxton.

Printing was not introduced into Scotland till thirty years after Caxton had set up his press at Westminster. Under the patronage of James IV., who was a zealous encourager of learning and the useful arts, Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar established the first printing press at Edinburgh, as appears by a royal privilege granted to them in 1507.

The only publications known to have issued from the press of Myllar and Chepman are a collection of pamphlets, chiefly metrical romances and ballads, in 1508, of which an imperfect copy is preserved in the Advocates' Library; and the Scottish Service Book, including the Legends of the Scottish Saints, commonly called the Breviary of Aberdeen, in 1509.

It is difficult to account for the discontinuance of printing in Scotland for about twenty years after this time; probably the disastrous events at the close of the reign of James IV. may have contributed to render it an unprofitable trade; but in its revival by Davidson there was no deterioration, either in the magnitude and importance of the works attempted, or in the mode in which the mechanical part was executed. It was probably about the year 1536 that he printed, in a black-letter folio, "The History and Croniklis of Scotland, compilit and newly correcit be the Reuerend and Noble Clercke Maister Hector Boece. Translatit latly be Maister John Bellenden. Imprentit in Edinburghe be Thomas Davidson, dwelling forment the Frere Wynd," and in 1540 he printed the whole works of Sir David Lindsay.

Davidson was succeeded by Lekprevik, Vautrolter, and others; but none were distinguished as printers till the time of Ruddiman.

A more catalogue of printers would afford little amusement, and less instruction; especially since the productions of the English press, save in the works of the printers above named, not only exhibited no advance, but even much deterioration, in most requisites of good printing. Indeed, so low a point had the art fallen, and so little spirit was exhibited by English typographers, that the regeneration was left to an alien, whose perception of the inferiority and capacity of improvement at once raised the art to the level of the finest productions of Bodoni and Barbold.

This was John Baskerville, a jappaner of Birmingham, who, having realized a considerable fortune, turned his attention to cutting punches for type, and succeeded in producing a series of fonts of remarkable beauty, so excellent proportioned, and standing so well, that the best of

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1 "James, &c. To al and sindry our affilatrs ilegge and subdittis quahm it estitis, quahm knollege this our lettres salutem, greeting; Wit ye that ferreusckill as our loyaltie servitouris Walter Chepman and Andro Millar, burgessis of our burgh of Edinburgh, has at our instance and request, for our pleasure, the honour and profit of our Realme and liegis, takis on thame to furnis and bring hame ame prent, with all stuff belangand thereto, and expert men to use the samynne, for imprinting within our Realme of the bukis of our Lawis, acts of parliament, cronicles, mess bukis, and portuus after the use of our Realme, with addicions and legendis of Scotis sanctis, now gaderit to be ekit thereto, and al utheris bukis that salbe sene necessar, and to sel the samynyn for competent pricis, be our avis and discrecious their labours and expenses being considerit," &c.

2 "Given under our prive Sel at Edinburgh the xxv day of September, and of our Regne the xxvil yer."

3 These pamphlets were reprinted in a handsome quarto volume, edited by Mr David Laing. The preface contains much accurate information regarding early printing in Scotland.

4 Of this Service Book, which forms two volumes octavo, handsomely printed with red and black letter, in the years 1509 and 1510, a beautiful copy is preserved in the University Library of Edinburgh. As the name and device of Walter Chepman occur in the work, without any mention being made of his partner, we are led to the conclusion that Andro Myllar, if then alive, had relinquished his share in the concern. modern type-founders (and this seems the Augustan age of type-founding) have done no more than vary the proportions and refine the more delicate lines and strokes. Added to this, his press-work is of most excellent quality; his paper the choicest that could be procured; and his ink has a richness of tone, the mode of producing which has died with him. The works of Baskerville are amongst the choicest that can adorn a library. He died in 1775. His types and punches were purchased to print the splendid edition of Voltaire's works at Paris. He was worthily succeeded by Bulmer, whose magnificent Shakspeare and Milton are amongst the most superb books ever issued from the press, and, with Macklin's Bible and Ritchie's, Bensly's Hume, and other works, may be fearlessly produced to win for this country the palm of fine printing; whilst in Scotland, Thomas Ruddiman and the two Foulls may challenge the prize of classical typography from Aldus and the Stephani. Indeed, the larger Greek types of the Foulls are without parallel for grandeur, their press-work is beautiful, and their correctness beyond all praise.

Modern printers, with all their faults, are not degenerate successors of these worthies. The works from present offices that make pretensions to fine printing need not be ashamed of comparison with these chefs-d'œuvre; whilst, from the vast improvements in the mechanism of the art in all its branches, paper, presses, ink, type, and other adjuncts, the average of the printing of the present day is infinitely superior to that of the last century. But in what relates to practical skill, correctness, taste, and diligence, we cannot hope to excel, though we may perhaps equal, these departed masters.

PRACTICAL PRINTING.

The first operation when the new fount has entered the doors of the printing-office, is to lay it in the cases (fig. 1). These are always in pairs; the upper case being divided into equal spaces or boxes; the part on the left of the broader division being appropriated to CAPITAL letters, figures, diacritics, vowels, particular sorts, &c.; that on the right to SMALL CAPITALS, accented letters, and references. The letters and figures are arranged in alphabetical and numerical order, from left to right. The lower case is divided into unequal portions, according to the average occurrence of the particular letters; for the compositor (the workman whose duty it is to lay the fount, and afterwards to place together or compose the separate types into words) never looks at the face of the letter he picks up, but unhesitatingly plunges his fingers into any box, being sure that the letter he picks out thence is the one to which that box is appropriated, and consequently the one he requires. As there is no external mark or guide attached to the different boxes to denote the letters they contain, a stranger is not a little surprised and puzzled at the eccentric movements of the workman's hand. Accordingly, it will be observed, upon looking at fig. 1, that the letter e has a box one-half larger than c, d, m, n, h, u, t, l, s, o, a, r; and these are twice the size of b, l, v, k, i, g, y, p, w; or the commas; and four times the size of z, x, j, q, or the crotchets, full points, &c. These boxes are not arranged in alphabetical order, but those of most frequent occurrence are placed about the middle of the case to diminish the distance the hands of the compositor have to travel in picking up and receiving the types. There are also other pairs of cases similarly arranged for the italic letters. The following are the proportions of some of the letters in a fount of pica of 800 lb. weight:

| Capital | Small | |---------|-------| | a 8,600 | b 1,600 | | c 12,000 | d 3,000 | | e 5,000 | f 4,000 | | g 8,000 | h 2,500 | | i 3,400 | j 400 | | k 800 | l 200 | | m 3,000 | n 8,000 | | o 8,000 | p 2,000 | | q 500 |

In a whole fount there are about 150,000 letters, spaces, and figures.

The compositor, having placed his copy upon a part of the upper case little used, and having received the necessary directions, takes up an instrument called a composing-stick (fig. 2), (which, as well as the way of holding it and its use, will be better understood by reference to the drawing than by description), and sliding the inner moveable portion wider or closer according to the desired width of the page, he fastens it with a screw; he then cuts a piece of brass rule to fit in easily between the end of the stick and slide, and which is called the setting-rule. This rule causes the letters to slip down without any obstruction from the screw-holes of the stick, or the nicks which serve to distinguish one fount from another and enable the compositor, by turning them outwards, to place the letters in their proper position. He then reads the first few words of his copy, takes first a capital letter from the upper case, the succeeding letters from the lower case, and at the conclusion of the word a space, which is merely the shank of a letter without any face, and not so high as a letter by about one-fourth part; and therefore, not receiving the ink, forms the blank space between words; but sometimes, through carelessness, it is allowed to stand up, in which case it is a fearful blotch upon a fair page, and must have been observed by most readers. He then proceeds with his next word, which will probably consist of lower-case letters only; and so on until he has arrived at the end of his line. It is most likely, however, that the words he has occasion to compose, with the necessary spaces, will not

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1 A fount is any weight of type of the same body and face, consisting of every letter, stop, figure, &c., in certain proportions, as stated above, together with spaces and quadrats. (See Type-Founding.) fill up the exact width of the line, and that there will sometimes be too much, sometimes too little room, for getting in the whole or part of the next word. In this case he has to consider whether it will be better to crowd the line and get in the word or syllable, or make the line more open and take it over to the next line; his care being that his matter, when composed, shall not look too open or too close. Having decided, he takes out the spaces he has inserted, and puts in their stead others of greater or less width, as the case may require, in such a manner that on the face of the line being touched, it shall not feel loose, or require any particular pressure to force down the last letter into its proper place. This being accomplished in an artist-like manner, he takes out his setting-rule and places it in front of his line, and with a gentle pressure of his thumb forces both back into the composing-stick; he then proceeds in a similar manner with other lines until his stick is full, when, placing it upon the frame on which the cases rest, his setting-rule being in front, he lifts his lines out of the stick and places them upon a proper instrument called a galley. If, however, the matter is to be leaded, that is, if the lines of types are to be more apart than usual, the process is a little different. The compositor then has before him a quantity of pieces of metal called leads, of the exact width of the page, only one-fourth, one-sixth, or one-eighth of the body of the type, and not higher than spaces. After composing a line, before moving his setting-rule, he takes one or more of these and places it before the line; he then takes out the setting-rule, and proceeds as above described. Having thus gone on until a considerable quantity of matter is composed, the compositor next makes it up into pages, and then into sheets. First, taking by portions as many lines of his matter as are to be contained in a page, he adds thereto at the bottom a line of quadrats, which are of the same height as spaces but much larger, varying in length from one to four ns, and places at the top the folio of the page and the running head or line which indicates the title of the work or the subject of the page or chapter, and then adds such leads or other things as may be necessary; taking care that in the first page he places the signature (a letter of the alphabet intended for a guide to the binder, because by keeping this always outside, and the second signature on the next leaf, he cannot fold the sheet wrong). He next ties it tightly round with page-cord, and places it upon a piece of coarse paper. Having made up as many pages as the sheet consists of, viz., four if folio, eight if 4to, sixteen if 8vo, he next lays them down upon the imposing-table (a large plate of iron screwed on to a frame) in the necessary order. This is, to a stranger, a very curious arrangement; they appear to him to be placed at random, without any design or fixed rule, and as they are necessarily laid down in two divisions, one for each side of the sheet, one is of consequence the very reverse of the other. He may easily instruct himself, however; for if he take a sheet of paper and fold it into any required size, marking the folios with a pencil, and then open it without cutting, he will find they fall in curious irregularity. The pages are laid down on the table reverse of the order they have on the paper; for it must be remembered that every type and every page is like a seal, the reverse of the impression it leaves; consequently, were the pages laid down as on the marked paper, viz., the first page on the right hand, it would, in type, be at the extreme left, and so on.

The following schemes of the laying down or imposition of a sheet of 4to, 8vo, 12mo, and 18mo, will give some idea of the apparent confusion of this process:

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Sheet of 4to} & \text{Outer Form} & \text{Inner Form} \\ \hline 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \hline 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\ \hline \end{array} \]

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Sheet of 8vo} & \text{Outer Form} & \text{Inner Form} \\ \hline 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \hline 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\ \hline \end{array} \]

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Sheet of 12mo} & \text{Outer Form} & \text{Inner Form} \\ \hline 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \hline 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\ \hline \end{array} \]

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Sheet of 18mo} & \text{Outer Form} & \text{Inner Form} \\ \hline 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \hline 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\ \hline \end{array} \]

The pages being correctly laid down upon the imposing-table, the compositor removes the papers from under them, and next takes in both hands a chase (a frame of iron divided by cross-bars into four compartments, the inner angles of which are made rectangular with much care) and places it over them; and then having ascertained the size of the paper to be used, adjusts pieces of wood or metal, called furniture, between them. Within the chase, but next to the pages, he places other pieces of wood or iron called side and foot sticks, which are rather wider at one end than the other, and between these and the chase small pieces of

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1 Formerly a large slab of marble or stone was used for this purpose; but as it was liable to split, and to have its smooth surface indented, a plate of iron turned in a lathe is now very generally substituted. wood, which decrease in width in the same proportion as the side-stick, and which are called quoins. He now takes off the cords from the pages, and, as he removes each cord, he tightens the adjacent quoins that the letters at the sides of the pages may not slip down. When all the pages are untied, and the quoins pushed up with his finger and thumb, he planes down the pages gently with a planer (a piece of beech perfectly plane and smooth on the face, about 9 inches long, 4½ inches wide, and 2 inches thick), to prevent any of the letters from standing up. With a shooting-stick (which formidably-named weapon is merely a piece of hard wood, 1 foot in length, an inch and a half in width, and half an inch in thickness) and a mallet he forces the quoins towards the thicker ends of the side and foot sticks, which consequently act as gradual and most powerful wedges, forcing the separate pieces of type to become a compact and almost united body, so that, the pages being securely locked up and again planed down, the whole mass, consisting of many thousand letters, may be lifted entire from the table.

This united mass is called a form; that one which contains the first page being called the outer form, the other the inner (fig. 3).

The compositor is paid by the number of thousands of letters he composes, which is thus ascertained:—The letter m, being on a shank which is supposed to have its four sides parallel and equal, is taken as the standard; he ascertains how many m's the page is in length, including the running head and the white line at the bottom; that is, in fact, how many lines of the particular type used there would be in a page of the given size, supposing it were all solid type; next, how many m's (laid on their side) it is in width, that is, how many times the letter m would be repeated in a line of the given length were it to consist of nothing but m's so laid. This latter sum is then doubled, because experience shows that the average width of the letters is one-half of the depth, or one-half of that of the letter m. The length of the page is then multiplied by the product of this doubled width, then by the number of pages in the sheet, and the result will give the average number of letters in the sheet. This will be much better understood by the following casting-up of a sheet of 8vo in pica:

| Number of m's long | 47 | |--------------------|----| | m's wide 24 × 2 | 48 | | | 376| | | 188| | | 2256|

Number of pages in a sheet of 8vo: 16

13536 2256 36096

The compositor therefore is paid for composing 36,000 letters; for the odd figures are dropped, unless they amount to or exceed 500, when they are paid for as if they completed another 1000. If the sheet be of solid type, of the ordinary size, the price paid in London is sixpence per 1000 letters; if in the small type called minion, sixpence farthing; in nonpareil, sevenpence; in pearl, eightpence. If the work be composed from print copy, the price is three farthings per 1000 less than it would be paid if the copy were manuscript. If, however, the type be leaded, the price is a farthing per 1000 less for fonts above pearl. If the work is to be stereotyped, and high spaces are used, it is subject to an additional charge of a farthing per 1000; if low spaces, of a halfpenny per 1000. Works in foreign languages, in type of the ordinary size and character, are paid one halfpenny per 1000 more, and three farthings per 1000 more in the smaller. Greek, with leads and without accents, is eightpence halfpenny per 1000; without leads or accents, eightpence three farthings; with accents, tenpence farthing. Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, &c., are paid double. The compositor, it appears, must therefore pick up 72,000 letters before he can receive an ordinary week's wages, must make up his matter into pages and impose them, and, moreover, correct all the blunders mischance or carelessness may have occasioned, with great expenditure of time also in many other particulars; but, as is hereafter described, he must have previously placed every one of these 72,000 into the appropriate boxes whence he has withdrawn them in composition. Now it is usually reckoned that this latter operation, called distributing, occupies one-fourth of a compositor's time, and the other operations another fourth; he has therefore only one-half of his time for composition; consequently he must pick up letters at the rate of 14,400 per week, 24,000 per day, or 2000 per hour. His rapidity of motion is therefore wonderful, and the exertion is so long continued, that the business, although apparently a light one, is in fact extremely laborious.

The number of thousands of letters in a sheet necessarily

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1 Iron or gun-metal is now generally substituted, as being more durable.

2 In 1804, after a protracted litigation before the Court of Session, the journeyman compositors of Edinburgh succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the Court for an advance of one penny per thousand letters, or, upon an average, about one-fourth on the prices of their work. The grounds upon which the Court rested this decision were, that the wages were much too low; that they had remained for forty years unaltered, whilst the price of the necessaries of life had very much increased; that although it was proper to avoid a rise of wages which might lead to idleness, yet it was equally necessary to place the workmen upon a respectable footing, so as to enable them to do their work properly, and also to encourage them in cultivating and acquiring that degree of literature by which the public must infallibly be benefited; and that the fair criterion was, to make the wages of Edinburgh bear the same proportion to those of London which they did in the year 1785, before the London prices were raised. That a court of law, whose province it is not to legislate, is not competent to afford any redress; and that the question, for the regulation of which there not only existed no law, but which had never been deemed a fit subject for legislative interference, appears to be a very singular incident in the history of judicial procedure. The prices thus fixed, however (namely, 4½d. per 1000 for book-work, with an additional halfpenny if nonpareil, and a penny if pearl, and 5½d. for law-papers and jobs), being regarded as not unreasonable, have ever since been adhered to by every respectable establishment in Edinburgh. varies with the size of the type, width and length of the page, and the number of the pages. The example above given is the casting-up of an octavo sheet of pica solid, the page being of moderate size; a similar sheet of brevier would contain 81,000 letters, and the cost of composing it would be L2, Os. 6d. Single tables, forming one uninterrupted mass of type, will sometimes contain 250,000 letters; and the labour of the compositor being very great in getting them up, he is paid double. Consequently the cost of composing such a table in pearl or diamond (as the 13th of Bell's Chronological Tables, 4th edit.) would be not less than L16, 13s. 6d., without extra charges. Yet this large number of types, by the power of the wedge-formed side and foot sticks and quoins, is compressed into so solid a mass that it can be moved without much danger of disruption.

The sheet being now imposed, an impression is taken, called a proof, which is carried down to the reader, who having folded the proof in the necessary manner, first looks over the signatures, next ascertains whether the sheet commences with the right signature and folio, and then sees that the folios follow in order. He now looks over the running heads, inspects the proof to see that it has been imposed in the proper furniture, that the chapters are numbered rightly, and that the directions given have been correctly attended to, marking whatever he finds wrong. Having carefully done this, he places the proof before him, with the copy at his left hand, and proceeds to read the proof over with the greatest care, referring occasionally to the copy when necessary, correcting the capitals or italics, or any other peculiarities, noting continually whether every portion of the composition has been executed in a workman-like manner; and having fully satisfied himself upon these and all technical points, he calls his reading-boy, who, taking the copy, reads in a clear voice, but with great rapidity and often without the least attention to sound, sense, pauses, or cadences, the precise words of the most crabbed or intricate copy, inserting, without pause or embarrassment, every interlineation, note, or side-note. The gabble of these boys in the reading-room, where there are three or four reading, is most amusing, a stranger hearing the utmost confusion of tongues, unconnected sentences, and most monotonous tones. The readers plodding at their several tasks with the most iron composure, are not in the least disturbed by the Babel around them, but follow carefully every word, marking every error, or pausing to assist in deciphering every unknown or foreign word. This first reading is strictly confined to making the proof an exact copy of the manuscript, and ascertaining the accuracy of the composition; consequently first readers are generally intelligent and well-educated compositors, whose practical knowledge enables them to detect the most trivial technical errors. Having thus a second time perused the proof, and carefully marked upon the copy the commencement, signature, and folio of the succeeding sheet, he sends it by his reading-boy to the composing-room to be corrected by the workmen who have taken share in the composition. These immediately divide the proof amongst them, and each, taking that portion of it which contains the matter he had composed, and going to his cases, gathers the letters marked as corrections in the margin, together with a quantity of spaces of all sizes, and returns to the forms, which in the meanwhile one of them has laid up on the imposing-table and unlocked. He then with a bodkin lifts up each line in which a correction is required, draws out the wrong letter and inserts the right one, adjusting the spaces in such a way as to compensate for the increased or diminished size of the letter substituted, overrunning carefully several lines should any word have been added or struck out, so that the spacing may be uniform, and the corrected matter exhibit no indication of any alteration having been made.

This is an operation requiring much practice and skill; and here is shown the value of attention in the preliminary operations. Should the types have been carelessly laid or inaccurately distributed, should the workman have been negligent in composition, capitalising, or spacing, he will consume as much time in amending his errors as in composing his matter, to the great detriment of his work, the injury and inconvenience of his employer and his companions, and great delay in every department of the printing-office. When every compositor has corrected his matter, that one whose matter is last in the sheet locks it up, and another proof is pulled, which, with the original proof, is taken to the same first reader, who compares the one with the other, and ascertains that his marks have been carefully attended to, in default of which, he again sends it up to be corrected; but should he find his revision satisfactory, he sends the second proof with the copy to the second reader, by whom it undergoes the same careful inspection; but this time, most technical inaccuracies having been rectified, the reader observes whether the author's language be good and intelligible; if not, he makes such queries on the margin as his experience may suggest; he sends it up to the compositor, where it again undergoes correction, and a proof being very carefully pulled, it is sent down to the same reader, who revises his marks and transfers the queries. The proof is then sent, generally with the copy, to the author for his perusal, who, having made such alterations as he thinks necessary, sends it back to the printing-office for correction. With the proper attention to these marks, the printer's responsibility as to correctness ceases, and the sheet is now ready for press. Such at least is the process of proof-reading which ought to be adopted; but now, from the speed with which works are hurried through the press, the proofs are frequently sent out with only one reading, the careful press-reading being reserved until the author's revise is returned.

It need scarcely be remarked that "correctness of the press" is a very material feature in every work, and more especially in those of a scientific nature. When the attention and the mind are devoted to the train of some close argument or passage of surpassing beauty, it is surprising how easily an error of the press, even although it may not injure the sense, and may be as evident "as the sun at noon," will destroy the charm, and break the "thread of the discourse;" and even in works of ordinary reading they are exceedingly offensive. Many curious anecdotes are related of the methods which the earlier printers adopted to attain correctness. It was the glory of the early literati to take charge of the accuracy of new works; and, in return, the value and sale of each edition varied with the skill and reputation of the corrector. Of these, Erasmus is an illustrious example. Many of the first printers were led to the practice of the art by their love of learning, and their anxiety to promote it by the production of classic authors. Hence several are better known in the world of learning than in the circle of bibliographers; as the editors and correctors of valuable works, than as the careful or beautiful printers of them. Aldus, it is true, has so admirably succeeded in both characters that he has fully established his double fame; but whether he most valued himself upon his learning or his skill may be doubted. It would appear from his letters that he considered it as his chiefest duty to correct every sheet that passed through his press. In all his bustle in preparing every material in use in his art, in all his occupations public and private, this important duty was never neglected. He tells us "that he has hardly time to inspect, much less to correct, the sheets which are executed in his office; that his days and his nights are devoted to the preparation of fit materials; and that he can scarcely take food or strengthen his stomach, owing to the multiplicity and pressure of business; meanwhile," adds he, Printing

Practical Printing

with both hands occupied, and surrounded by pressmen who are clamorous for work, there is scarcely time even to blow one's nose; nor did his son or grandson depart from his ways, but did themselves insure the correctness of their works, even when the latter had risen to wealth and eminence, and enjoyed the laborious dignity of a professor's chair. The beautiful Greek works of the Stephani are especially valued for their correctness. Stephens corrected his own press with intense labour and minuteness, and is reported to have adopted a singular plan for obtaining perfect similarity to the copy, by employing females who had not the slightest knowledge of the Greek characters or language to compare every letter of the proof with the manuscript; a labour so intense as to be almost incredible. He is moreover said to have hung up proofs on the doors of his printing-office, and to have amply rewarded any who could detect inaccuracies therein. Coverdale, it will be recollected, corrected the first English Bible and Testament, and received a bishopric as his reward. Foulis, the celebrated printer at Glasgow, adopted the same plan to insure the accuracy of his edition of Horace, which is styled immaculate; in which, however, one error escaped detection, the ode commencing Scibens Vario, being printed, as originally issued, Scribens Vario.

The experience of every printer will furnish a host of laughable errors; and indeed these defects have been deemed of such importance as to deserve preservation. (D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature.) The omission of the word not from the seventh commandment, in an edition of the Bible printed by the Stationers' Company, is well known; and the company richly deserved the severe fine they incurred for spreading the immoral command, "Thou shalt commit adultery." The Bible so misprinted has received the name of the "Adultery Bible;" and a copy is preserved in the British Museum, the edition having been carefully suppressed. There is another Bible known as the "Vinegar Bible," from a misprint in the 20th chapter of St Luke, where "Parable of the Vinegar" is printed for "Parable of the Vineyard:" this proceeded from the Clarendon press. In the reign of Charles I. a very curious traffic in Bibles, &c., arose; they were printed by any one who chose, and imported in vast numbers from abroad. It will readily be imagined that these were made for sale, not for use, and that they abounded with egregious errors; but, what is worse than this, they were full of mistranslations and interpolations, and the omissions were fearful. All these were done as much by design as by accident, the Romanists and sectaries taking the opportunity of advancing their own tenets by interpolating and altering texts to suit their views. These monstrous anomalies produced, however, some good; they occasioned the necessity of the authorized version now in use, and printed under such authority as insures perfect fidelity, whilst there is sufficient competition to make it impossible that the Word of God can ever become a sealed book to the humblest and poorest Christian. Some of the blunders in these editions are sufficiently absurd to overcome the repugnance which must naturally be felt at such license. Thus, in Luke xxi. 28, condemnation has been misprinted for redemption. In Field's Bible of 1653, called the Pearl Bible, Rom. vi. 13, we find "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin," for unrighteousness; and 1 Cor. vi. 9, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?" for shall not inherit. It is said that these corruptions are in great measure owing to Field's cupidity, and that he received a bribe of L1500 from the Independents to alter the text in Acts vi. 3, to sanction the right of the people to appoint their own pastors, "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business," instead of see. This Bible is notorious, and strange to say, valued, for its gross incorrectness. It is asserted that no less than six thousand errors of greater or less magnitude have been noted in it. But the most extraordinary example of carelessness is presented by the Vulgate, the printing of which was sedulously superintended by no less an authority than Sextus V., a curious example of the infallibility of the Pope. To the astonishment of the world, it swarmed with errors; and a whimsical attempt was made to remedy the defects by pasting printed slips of paper over the erroneous passages. As this, however, was exceedingly laughable, the papal authority was exerted to the utmost to call in the edition, and with such effect that it soon became very scarce, and a copy of it has produced the sum of sixty guineas. To add to the absurdity, the volume contains a bull from the Pope anathematizing and excommunicating all printers who, in printing it, should make any alteration in the text. The monkish editor of The Anatomy of the Mass, printed in 1561, a work consisting of 172 pages of text and fifteen pages of errata, very amusingly accounts for these mistakes by attributing them to the artifice of Satan, who caused the printers to commit such numerous blunders; but he does not inform us whether it was really the archangel fallen, or only his minor satellite, the printer's devil. The editor of an Ethiopic version of St Paul's Epistles innocently confesses, in palliation of his errors, "that they who printed the work could not read, and we could not print: they helped us and we helped them, as the blind helps the blind."

The sheet being printed off in the way hereafter to be described, and the forms returned by the pressmen to the composing-room, and very carefully washed with lye, and rinsed with water, the compositor lays them up on a letter-board in the sink, and there unlocks them; he then passes one hand backwards and forwards over the pages so as effectually to loosen the type, and at the same time with the other pours on water, till, the lye and ink being washed away, it runs off clear. The forms are then allowed to drain, and carried to the bulks at the ends of the frames. Each compositor employed on the work then takes a share of the letter, and, wetting the face of it plentifully with a sponge, which causes the types to adhere sufficiently to prevent accidents, yet not so much as to retard the workman, takes up a portion on his setting-rule, with the nick upwards, and the face turned towards him; he then takes between his fingers and thumb a few letters, gives a rapid glance at the face to see what letters they are, and then, passing his hand rapidly over the cases, drops each into its appropriate box. In this operation the greatest attention is necessary, for it must be remembered that every letter dropped into a wrong box in distributing is sure to cause an error in composing; for the workman, as before stated, never looks at the letter he takes up, relying upon the correctness of the distribution. Compositors, therefore, should be especially careful, when learning their business, not to sacrifice accuracy to swiftness; for in this instance most especially is it found that too much haste is little speed. If the rapidity of motion in composition strikes the stranger with wonder, what must that of distribution occasion? Most compositors distribute four times as rapidly as they compose; if, therefore, he pick up two thousand letters in an hour, he would distribute eight or ten thousand, or about three per second. His letter being properly distributed, he again proceeds to compose in the manner before described, until the work is finished. The number of times the types are returned to the cases must depend upon the size of the font. A thousand pounds weight of types would get up five or six sheets; and therefore, in an ordinary octavo volume, the types would be returned five or six times.

Many attempts have been made to substitute machinery for the manual labour of the compositors. The machines of Messrs Young and Delambre (1842), and of Major Rosenborg, deserve mention for their great ingenuity; Major Beniowski has attempted a process by which, by the use of a new description of type, logotypes, cases, and machinery, a great saving of time and money may be effected. But there are requirements in the process of composing which are independent of mechanism, and which have hitherto rendered these inventions practically useless.

THE PRINTING-PRESS.

The press is the machine whereby impressions are obtained of the type, when set up by the compositor as above described. On the skill and care of the pressmen depends the beauty of the work. If the press-work be not good, all the labour of the compositor is thrown away; his work makes no respectable appearance, and the master gets no credit.

It has already been mentioned that very little alteration had been made in the printing-press from the time of the first printers to that of Blaeu of Amsterdam, about 1620. Blaeu's improvements, although very great, only consisted in alterations in the details, and not in the principle. These presses have in their turn been superseded by those of Lord Stanhope; and the latter has found successful competitors in the Columbian, Albion, and others of more modern invention. Very few of Blaeu's construction are now in existence, in England at least, save in old offices, where they are used as proof-presses, or kept merely as curiosities.

As a description of these bygone pieces of mechanism would be of little utility, the Stanhope press, by which they have been superseded, has been selected for illustration, for which it is best adapted, from the simplicity of its construction and its being easily explained. The novelty of his lordship's invention consists in an improved application of the power to the spindle and screw, whereby it is greatly increased. Upon reference to fig. 4, it will be seen that this press possesses great strength and compactness. The heavy mass of iron A.A., somewhat resembling a vase in outline, is called the staple. It is united at the top and bottom, but the neck and body are open. The upper part is called the nut B, and answers the purpose of the head in the old press; it is in fact a box with a female screw, in which the screw of the spindle C works; the lower portion of the open part, described as the neck, is occupied with a piston and cup D.D., in and on which the toe of the spindle works.

On the nearer side of the staple is a vertical pillar or arbor A (fig. 5), the lower end of which is inserted into the staple at the top of the shoulder; the upper end passes through a top-plate B, which being screwed on to the upper part of the staple, holds it firmly. The extreme upper end of the arbor (which is hexagonal) receives a head C, which is in fact a lever of some inches in length; this head is connected by a coupling-bar E to a similar lever or head D, into which the upper end of the spindle is inserted.

The bar or lever F, by which the power is applied by the workman, is inserted into the arbor, and not into the spindle, by which ingenious contrivance,—1st, the lever is in length the whole width of the press, instead of half, as in Blaeu's press, and is, moreover, in a much better situation for the application of the pressman's strength; 2d, there is the additional lever of the arbor-head; 3d, the additional lever of the spindle-head; and, lastly, the screw itself may be so enlarged in diameter as greatly to increase its power.

The platen L is screwed on to the under surface of the spindle; the table M has slides underneath, which move in the ribs N, N, instead of upon them, as in the old presses, and is run in and out by means of girdles affixed to each end, and passing round a drum or wheel O. As the platen is of considerable weight, the workman would have to exert much strength in raising it from the form after the impression has been given, were not a balance-weight P suspended upon a lever and hook at the back of the press, which counterbalances the weight of the platen, raises it from the form, and brings the bar-handle back again, ready for another pull. These are the principal parts of the machinery whereby the impression is given, and are sufficient to give the general reader, with the aid of fig. 5, an idea of the mechanism of the Stanhope press. For the printer there are yet other appliances. At the right-hand end of the table is an iron frame Q, moving freely upon pivots, so as to fall upon the table, or rise until stopped by what is called the galloos R; this is covered with parchment very tightly stretched, and is then called the tympan; upon the tympan blankets are placed, which are covered by an inner tympan, and fastened by hooks; the whole forming a solid yet elastic and yielding surface, admirably fitted for impressing the paper upon the type (for this is its use), inasmuch as the surface of the parchment is soft and without grain, and readily receives the impression of the type, while the blankets give freely to every projection, without retaining any indentation. To protect those portions of the paper which are not intended to be coloured from ink or soil, there is at the upper end of the tympan another iron frame, of much lighter make, and also moving upon pivots, so as to fall upon the face of the tympan. This is covered with a sheet of coarse paper, and after an impression has been taken upon it, the exact size and form of the pages are carefully cut out therefrom, the parts left being an excel- Such is the ordinary Stanhope press. A notice of the principle of many other excellent presses which have been since invented, and very extensively introduced, will be found in a subsequent part of this treatise. The manner of working is the same in all.

On the left front of the press stands the inking-table. This is made of iron, about four feet high, and three feet four inches wide; at the back is a solid iron cylinder, turned perfectly true, against which a thin steel straight-edge is made to press by means of levers and weights, thus forming a trough for the ink; of which, when the cylinder is turned round, it becomes covered with a thin film, its thickness being regulated by adjusting the weights on the levers. Against this iron cylinder the inking-roller (which will be hereafter described) is dabbed, and being rolled backwards and forwards on the table, the ink is evenly distributed over its surface.

It must be fully understood that printers' ink is a very different composition from that used for writing. It is of such consistency that if a small portion be taken up between the finger and thumb, when they are opened it will produce a thread of an inch or an inch and a half in length. Of all the materials used in printing this is the most important, and the most opposite qualities are required in it. It must be of excellent colour. Formerly excellence of colour was deemed to consist in an exceeding dark hue, not exactly black, but black enriched with a hue of the darkest blue or purple. This gave indescribable effect to the works for which it was used, a richness and intensity which it is impossible to describe, but of which the works of Baskerville and Bulmer, especially the Milton of the latter, afford the best specimens. Now we hold perfection to consist in the intensest black, and all the resources of chemistry and the arts have been sought to attain this end. It must stand for ever; but here we have miserably failed. Compare the productions of the old printers with those printed twenty years back. What a difference! The works of the Aldi and Elzevirs, of Plantinus, Caxton, Pynson, and Grafton, preserve their colour as intense as on the day they were printed; there is no yellowness or brownness, no foxiness; whilst the books printed from 1810 to 1820 are wretchedly discoloured. Where fine printing, however, has been required and paid for, the modern ink is no whit inferior to the ancient. Witness the works of Bulmer, Macklin, Ritchie, Bowyer, Baskerville, and others; but certain it is that the ink in general use twenty years ago was of very inferior quality. It must be perfectly mixed, and ground until it is absolutely impalpable, otherwise it will specify clog the types and inking apparatus; it must adhere to the paper, and not to the type, or it will tear off the face of the former, and clog up the latter; it must be sufficiently thick; it must keep perfectly undried when in large masses, and dry very quickly when it is transferred to the paper. Few printers of the present day make their own ink, although some add ingredients which they believe to improve the colour or quality. Ink-making is a distinct business; and by the aid of machinery, capital, and exclusive attention to the manufacture, the ink now supplied is admirable in the qualities of being thoroughly mixed and ground, drying, blackness, &c.; but whether it will stand the test of time, time alone can show. It is an expensive article, the commonest book-ink being one shilling and sixpence per pound, whilst the usual qualities are two shillings and sixpence, three shillings, and four shillings per pound; those used for superior work are five shillings or six shillings; and those for cuts as high as ten shillings—though it is questionable whether, at the latter price, the consumer is not paying for a mere name.

Every manufacturer has of course his own secrets both of ingredients and process. The universal ingredient is the finest possible lamp-black; the great secret probably consists in the manner in which, and the material from which, this is made. There are vast buildings appropriated to the sole purpose of burning oil, naphtha, spirits, coal-gas, &c., to produce this black, which is collected from the sides, ceilings, &c., of the buildings; it is brought from Germany and many other countries; and no expense is spared to get the most superior quality. The next most important article is nut or linseed oil boiled and burnt into a varnish; then oil of turpentine, &c. The following receipts have been given. The first is the method used by Baskerville and Bulmer, and nothing can be better than the results:

1. Fine old linseed oil boiled to a thick varnish, and cooled in small quantities, three gallons; a small quantity of black or amber rosin dissolved therein; the mixture then stands for some months, that all impurities may be deposited; after which it is mixed with the finest lamp-black, and carefully ground for use.

2. One hundred pounds of nut or linseed oil are reduced by boiling and burning one-tenth or one-eighth of its bulk, and to the thickness of a syrup, two pounds of coarse bread and several onions being thrown in to purify it from grease. Thirty or thirty-five pounds of turpentine are boiled apart, until, on cooling it on paper, it breaks clean, without pulverising. The former is poured nearly cold into the latter, and well mixed. The compound is then boiled again. Lamp-black is next thoroughly mixed with it, in quantity according to the ink required, and being well ground, the ink is then ready for use. Some add indigo, some Prussian blue, which considerably improves the colour; but these inks are so difficult to work, and so clog up the type, that the improvement is better let alone. The turpentine is added to give greater varnish, and improve the drying quality; but if the oil be old and fine, the quantity required is proportionally less.

3. Mr Savage, an admirable artist, denies that any ink can be depended on of the varnish of which oil is the basis; he therefore gives the following receipt—Balsam capivi, 9 oz.; best lamp-black, 3 oz.; Prussian blue, 1½ oz.; Indian red, 3 oz.; turpentine soap dried, 3 oz. This ink is of beautiful colour, but appears to work foul. There can be no doubt, however, that the best and cheapest plan is always to purchase what is required of a proper ink-maker.

At the right front of the press stand the bank and horse. The bank is a deal table of some size; the horse is an inclined plane which stands upon the bank; upon it is laid the white paper properly damped for working; and as each sheet is worked, it is taken off the tympan and laid on the bank. There are two pressmen to each press, one of whom attends to the inking only, to ascertain the excellence of which, whenever he has a moment to spare, he turns to the worked sheets upon the bank, glancing his eye rapidly over each, to see that every part is of its proper colour, and that no picks or other imperfections mar the work; the other attends only to the press, and gives the impression. These men are paid by every two hundred and fifty impressions, called a token. Thus, if the number be five hundred, and the price 4½d. per token, each man receives 9½d. for the five hundred impressions of each form, and the cost therefore is,

Inner form, two men, two tokens, at 4½d. ........... 1s. 6d. Outer form, do. do. do. do. do. ........... 1s. 6d.

The price varies with the size of the type and the form; with the quality of the paper and the ink; with the number, and the care required. Common work used to be paid for at 4½d., good at 6½d., superior at 7½d., the very best at 8½d., 9½d., or even 1s. per token. But now the price is matter of agreement between the master and pressmen.

One of the pressmen, having received the forms after the final correction, lays the inner form, or that one which contains the second signature, upon the table of the press, and secures it in the centre by quoins; the other in the meanwhile pastes a stout sheet of paper upon the frisket frame, and then secures it upon the tympan. The form is then inked, and an impression taken upon the frisket, and the printed parts only being cut away, that which is left protects the paper from ink or soil. The puller now carefully folds a sheet of the paper according to the crosses of the chase, and laying it upon the form, opens it carefully, by which the paper is made to lie evenly upon the form, with the same margin with which it is to be afterwards worked. Having slightly wetted the tympan, he turns it down upon the form, and takes an impression, when the paper will be found to adhere to the tympan, and thus become a guide whereby to lay all the subsequent sheets, and therefore much care should be taken to lay it properly. They now choose their points, which are thin and narrow pieces of iron, having a short point or spur projecting from one end, and a shank at the other made to screw on to the tympan-frame, which must be done in such a manner that the spurs may fall into the grooves in the cross of the chase; because if they did not, they would be battered or broken at the first pull. It is advisable to make the inner form register, for it may be very difficult to correct any error in the furniture when the reiteration, or outer form, is laid on.

The puller now brings his paper from the wetting-room; for before any good impression can be taken the paper must have been damped, by rapidly passing it, one-fourth or one-fifth of a quire at a time, through water, and then allowing it to soak for two or three days under a heavy weight, until it is evenly and thoroughly dampened; and laying a ream upon the horse, he takes a sheet, and placing it carefully over the tympan-sheet, closes the frisket over it, shuts both tympan and frisket down upon the form, which in the meanwhile his companion has inked (a process that will be described below), runs the table in under the platten, pulls the handle of the bar or lever over by his full weight, until brought up by the stop, at which moment the platten descends, and exerts a powerful pressure to the tympan, &c., upon the form, producing upon the paper a perfect fac-simile in reverse of the surface of the pages. The pressman now gradually releases his hold, the balance-weight raises the platten, the bar returns to its first position, the table is run out, the tympan and frisket are raised by the workman, and the frisket thrown up to the catch. The sheet is taken off the spurs of the points, which have been forced through it by the pressure, and the back of the impression is carefully examined, to ascertain that every part of it is just and even, which is the great test of the workman's skill and the excellence of the press. The first impression is, however, invariably defective: the parchment may have been thicker in some parts than in others, the blankets worn, or one of two fonts of type may not have been of equal height, in which respect "the estimation of a hair" would produce a manifest imperfection, but which may be remedied by the thinnest possible tissue paper. The pressman now proceeds to overlay; that is, by pasting upon his tympan-sheets portions of paper of the exact size of the defects, thicker or thinner as may be required, to bring up the form; he overlays the faint parts of the impression; or if the defect be great, he places a part of a sheet of paper within the tympan, or, which is a much better plan, he raises the form, and pastes the paper under the defective part. If there be any small portion of undue prominence, or that "comes off hard," he rubs down a portion of the tympan-sheet with his wet fingers, or cuts it away altogether. Having, as he supposes, remedied all blemishes, he takes another impression, which he again examines with equal closeness, and carefully removes every remaining defect by the same method; and having at length satisfied himself, and his master or overseer, that the form is well brought up, the work is proceeded with, the inker taking off from the table with the roller or balls even portions of ink, which has been well distributed on its surface, and rolls or beats the form, being very careful that every part is equally inked; the puller taking a sheet and laying it on the tympan as before. They thus proceed until the whole number of the white paper is worked off; when it is a good precaution to count the heap, to ascertain that the number printed is correct. The form is now lifted from the table, and carefully washed with very strong lye. The outer form is then laid on and made ready.

The making ready of this form varies a little from the mode previously described. It has been stated that the spurs of the points penetrate the paper at the first impression. The holes thus made are the guides whereby perfect register is obtained; that is, whereby not only the pages, but the lines, are made to fall exactly upon the back of each other, any variation in this respect being a great defect in good book-work. The outer form, therefore, having been placed on the table in precisely the same position which the inner previously occupied, a printed sheet is taken from the heap, and laid upon the tympan with its printed face inwards, in such manner that the spurs of the points pass through the holes made by them in the working of the inner form, but of course the opposite way; and an impression is taken. If the pages do not back, the points are shifted until they do; or if the defect arise from the furniture of the form, such alterations are made in it as may be necessary. The impression is then brought up as before, and when all is ready, a thin sheet of white paper, called the set-off sheet, is placed over the tympan-sheet and under the points. It must be remembered that one side has been worked, that the ink has not yet dried, that the paper is still damp; therefore at every impression some portion of the ink will be transferred to or impressed upon the set-off sheet. When this has taken place in many impressions, some of the ink of the print will be re-transferred from the set-off sheet to the sheet then working, producing a most unpleasing blurred appearance, very perplexing to the eyes, and utterly destructive of the beauty of the presswork. To obviate this, the puller, after a few impressions, moves the set-off sheet slightly, and when it has become very black, takes it off, and replaces it with another. The pressman should be very attentive to this; and the master should not grudge ample supplies of set-offs, paper, for it is not destroyed, but, when dried, may be used again for the same purpose, or in other departments as waste paper. The form is now lifted, and carefully washed with lye, and the two are ready for the composing-room, where they are laid up, as previously described. Two good pressmen are supposed to do about one token, or 250 impressions, per hour of fair work. This, however, must depend entirely upon the quality of the work required; with small type, stiff ink, and many rules, the work is more slow, and paid for accordingly. The finest work is seldom paid for by the token, the pressmen being placed upon weekly wages, and allowed as much time as they require, the rapidity being at the discretion of the overseer. Frequently they are limited to a certain number per hour, often as few as fifty, the most careful inspection being given to every sheet by both pressmen, and continual attention by the press-overseer and other chief persons in the establishment. In such work the very best materials are employed. Instead of parchment, the tympans are covered with fine calico, or even silk; instead of blankets the finest broad cloth; picked blotting-paper for the thick overlays, the thinnest tissue-paper for the finer. It will readily be understood that in all operations of the press-room, where everything depends upon the skill of the workmen, there are infinite minutiae, The ink is distributed over the type either by balls or by rollers. The rollers are of modern use. The balls, which are such prominent objects in the representation of ancient printing-offices, and which form part of the armorial bearings of the printers' guilds on the Continent, were formerly made of sheepskins, with the hair taken off by lime, and formed into a ball with wool, gathered at all corners, and nailed upon a wooden handle. One of these was held in each hand; and a small portion of ink being taken, they were well beaten upon the inking-table, and then upon each other, until the ink was so evenly distributed over the whole surface, that if touched gently with the finger, the prominent lines of the skin would be blackened, whilst the channels would be left perfectly clean. The balls were then beaten over every part of the type, so that the whole surface should be evenly covered; an operation requiring much skill and practice. The skins were prepared and softened by the nastiest processes imaginable, which converted a press-room into a stinking cloaca. Thanks, however, to the observation and ingenuity of Mr Forster, a practical printer, and Mr Donkin, an engineer, this has been entirely done away, and a press-room now regales the nose with a warm scent of ink and paper, anything but unpleasant. This invention has been of the greatest consequence to printing. The printing-machine is said to be the handmaid of modern literature; and so it is; but without this, printing-machines were mere old iron and brass. Earl Stanhope had attempted to substitute skin rollers for skin balls; but his plan failed owing to the difficulty of preparing the pelts, and the inevitable seam, which left a broad mark upon the type. But the use of rollers, which in the hand-press would have been merely an improvement on a process in use, was a necessity to the printing-machine, and the complete failure of the earliest of these machines was in a great degree owing to the imperfection of their inking appliances. For many years the workmen in the potteries had used a composition of glue and treacle for applying colours to their ware. Mr Forster observed that this composition possessed every requisite for the use of the printing-office; and he immediately proceeded to form balls of canvas, with a facing of composition. They answered admirably, proved beautifully soft, distributed satisfactorily, kept clean, and were easily washed and purified if soiled. Some opposition was offered by the workmen; but the advantages proved so great that they were readily adopted by the masters, and speedily drove away for ever the nasty skins. The next step, however, was more important still. Mr Donkin observing the adaptability of the composition to casting rollers for printing-machines, devised moulds, by which he was able to cast cylinders without seam, and of somewhat greater tensility than the original compound. The rollers answered perfectly for printing-machines; and there was little difficulty in perceiving that at the hand-press the roller might be advantageously substituted for beating by balls. They were accordingly introduced, and after meeting with some opposition, are now in universal use. They consist of a solid wooden cylinder, with a thick coating of composition cast in a metal mould perfectly true; through the middle of the cylinder passes an iron rod attached to a curved bar, upon which are fixed two handles; the roller revolving freely upon the rod. The pressman regulates the quantity of ink to be taken by adjusting the pressure of the straight edge against the cylinder at the back of the table, as above described; and according as that pressure is greater or less, the cuticle of ink on its surface is proportionately diminished or increased in thickness. Having taken off upon the inking-roller a line of ink, he distributes it carefully upon the table until the entire face is evenly covered, and then rolls the form, taking care that the whole surface receives its due proportion. If he does this lightly and steadily, there is no fear of the result; he cannot in rolling leave any part without ink; but it nevertheless requires some judgment. If there be any heavy titles or large type, he must roll that portion several times; if there be blank pages, he must take care that the roller does not sink, and so leave the pages in line with them slightly touched. The greatest judgment, however, is displayed in choosing the exact quantity of ink required for the form. If the type be small, the quantity taken must also be small; it must be very carefully distributed, and the form rolled many times; for if the quantity be too great the type will become clogged, and if too little, the colour will become faint. The pressman must from time to time examine the sheets as they are printed, and in working the reiteration, turn up the corners of the sheets to see that the colour corresponds with that of the inner form, detecting with quick eye every defect; and he must be particularly careful that for every sheet of the same work he takes the same quantity of ink, so that the book when bound may present an even and beautiful colour, every bold line being perfectly covered, and yet every fine stroke clear and distinct. This can only be effected by careful distribution and repeated rolling, with nice judgment as to the quantity of ink to be taken.

The sheet having been thus worked off, the printed paper is taken away by the warehouseman, and hung by the boys upon poles stretched under the ceiling, by means of a peel, which is a handle with a broad end, upon which a quire or two is hung at a time, thence transferred to the poles, and distributed in portions of four or five sheets. Here they hang a day or two, until the ink and paper are perfectly dry. This should be a gradual process, for if by artificial heat the drying is hurried, a skin will be formed upon the surface of the ink, which will prevent that underneath from drying; the work will look very well until it is pressed or bound, when the skin breaks, the ink spreads, and the sharpness of the impression is entirely destroyed. When perfectly dry the sheets are taken down and laid in heaps upon the gathering-board, each signature separately; thus, first, a heap, say 1000, of B, then C, D, E, F, and, lastly, the title-sheet A. The boys then take one sheet from each heap; consequently, when they have got to the last signature, each boy has gathered one complete copy of the work. These are laid upon one another at the end of the gathering-board in such a manner that each book is perfectly distinct. The warehouseman then takes away this heap, and with a collector (a needle inserted in a handle) goes over the whole with great rapidity, ascertaining that no sheet has been carelessly omitted, and that more than one of each signature has not been taken. The books are then folded down the middle, counted out in tens, thirteens, or twenty-fives, and tied up in bundles of convenient size. The process of printing is thus complete, and the work is ready for the binder.

Works of finer description, indeed most works of the present day, are submitted to another process after they have been taken down from the poles, viz., hot or cold pressing, which very much improves their appearance. In cold pressing the sheets are placed one by one between glazed boards, which are sheets of coarse material pressed and glazed on both surfaces by burnishing on a steel plate with a steel ball. The heaps are then placed in a hydraulic press, with cold iron plates at small intervals, and the whole is subjected to considerable pressure for some hours; they are then taken out, and the sheets extracted from the boards, when the indentations consequent upon the working will have been all pressed out, the roughnesses of the paper smoothed out, a slight gloss given to the ink; and the whole will present a very agreeable smoothness to the eye and the touch. Hot-pressing is used when the paper is very stout and the ink strong. The sole difference is, that the iron plates are heated until they can hardly be touched. The effect produced is much greater than that by cold pressing; the whole surface of the paper is perfectly glazed, and the ink absolutely shines; but the effect is not so agreeable to the eye; it is too glossy. A machine of great power has been invented for superseding the use of glazed boards and the hydraulic; in this machine the sheets are placed between two plates of copper or zinc, and passed in rapid succession between two hard steel rollers, and come out more perfectly smoothed than by the ordinary hot or cold pressing. As these processes set the ink and also make the books lie perfectly flat, they render much beating by the binder unnecessary, which is a great advantage, as the beating causes the ink to set-off upon the opposite pages when the work is recently printed. The glazed boards must be often cleaned by rubbing with waste paper, or they will soil the sheets placed between them.

Every printing-office of credit should have a hydraulic press and glazed boards; for it is incredible how much smartness pressing gives to the work, and how greatly the warehouse work is facilitated by the readiness with which the hydraulic is pumped up, and by its great power. A press of eight-inch ram will be found sufficient for most purposes; but where much hot and cold pressing are required, one of ten-inch ram will prove cheapest, because, from its immense power, a few hours are sufficient to give the requisite surface, and the press may therefore be filled twice or thrice a day.

Wood-blocks are very often worked along with the common type. The block, having been carefully reduced by the engraver to the exact height of the type, is placed in the composing-stick, and justified to the width of the page; it is then made up along with the other matter in its proper place. When laid upon the press for working, and an impression of the form has been taken, the pressman examines with great minuteness whether it stands well with the type; if not, the form is unlocked, and paper placed under it if it be too low, or under any corner that may be lower than the rest; if the block be too high, it must be scraped or filed at the bottom. The artist in wood contents himself with producing his lights and shades by cutting his lines in greater or less degrees of fineness upon a plane, leaving to the printer the task of producing the required effects by a tedious process of overlaying; so that the pressman becomes to a certain extent an artist, and must have a good eye for perspective and for the proper adjustment of tints. These effects he produces by careful and skilful overlaying. But Bewick and some other eminent engravers, instead of imposing this tedious process upon the pressman, used to cut away the parts of the block intended to appear light before engraving them; and thus, by repeated lowering and rounding, they so regulated the lights and shades that the cut left their hands in a fit state to be worked. This process was, however, very costly, and has been discontinued by modern artists. In machine-printing, to prevent the loss that would be incurred if the machine were to stand still during the operation of bringing-up, the machiner, some time before the sheet is laid on, takes an impression of the cuts, and by overlaying and other processes, so prepares them that they require very little additional work when the forms are laid on. Where it can be managed, the cuts should be worked in the outer form, to prevent setting-off and the impression of the reiteration upon them. The cuts may then be worked with the type without any other care than that of keeping them clear from clogging or picks. When done with, they must be very carefully cleaned with spirits of turpentine and a brush.

The working of woodcuts by themselves, as illustrations of works, differs from type-printing in no other respect than in the superior materials and skill required. The woodcut must be imposed in a chase, and locked up upon the table of the press, which is generally a smaller one than that used for ordinary printing, of most excellent construction, and in good order. The tympons are, as before stated, often of silk or cambric. For the inking, balls are preferred to rollers. The greater opportunity for manual skill offered by the former enables the pressman to exercise an artistic judgment which is not possible when rollers are used. The ink is generally brayed out by a muller on a slab.

There are in London, and probably in the larger provincial cities, parties who make an especial business of the manufacture of composition balls and rollers, which they supply to printers upon payment of a rent. The skill and experience of these persons enable them, as must be the case in every instance where a manufacture engages exclusive attention, to supply a much better and cheaper article than could be manufactured by any individual whose engagements are varied; consequently there are not many printers, either in town or country, who do not avail themselves of these opportunities. The rent is paid for each roller required, and by the quarter; that is to say, if a printer employs six presses, and consequently six rollers, he pays for six rollers, the manufacturer engaging to supply him with as many changes as he may require from their getting out of order or being injured; in fact, to keep him supplied with six rollers in good condition. The rent for a common press-roller is the moderate sum of six shillings per quarter; they are sent into the country in boxes fitted for the purpose. There are, of course, situations in which it is not easy to obtain a regular supply of the necessary article, and in this case the printer may very easily make them for himself; but the expense of the utensils is so great as to exceed the usual rent for years. They consist of the following—For rollers, a hollow cylinder of iron, the bore of which must be most accurately turned and well polished; this mould consists of two semi-cylinders closely fitted, and brought into contact by screws along the sides and collars at the end, and a head is made to fit into the lower end. The core, a wooden or iron cylinder, upon which the composition is cast, is held in the centre of the bore by means of a star, through the radii of which the composition flows. For balls are required a concave mirror of about half an inch cavity, and a board of the same size and of a quarter of an inch convexity. A kettle for melting and mixing the composition is also required. This is made double like a glue-pot, fitting exceedingly close, and with a small orifice for the escape of the steam from the hot water between the two; and the inner vessel should have a large lip. The recipes for making the composition vary, and this appears to arise from the different circumstances under which it is made. The ingredients are but three, and these easily purchasable, viz., fine glue, treacle (not that procured from the sugar-bakers, which is adulterated, but the best from the sugar-refiners), and a small quantity of carbonate of barytes, called in commerce Paris white, or of carbonate of soda. The first two ingredients are quite sufficient with a little skill. The following are good recipes:

1. Two pounds of glue to one pound of treacle. 2. Two pounds of glue to three pounds of treacle. 3. One pound of glue to three pounds of treacle and a quarter of a pound of Paris white.

(Sugar is sometimes used in lieu of treacle, and is said to make the composition firmer.)

Soak the glue in water until it is soft; then place it in the inner vessel, and boil quickly, until the glue is thoroughly dissolved; add the treacle, mixing it well, and let it boil for an hour or more; then sift in the Paris white, but do not stir it violently, or the mixture will be full of air-bubbles, which are destructive to the roller or ball. Rub the mould slightly with a rag dipped in thin oil, taking care that no globules and streaks remain upon the surface. When the mixture is ready, pour it gently between the radii of the star, so that no air be detained within the cylinder, until the mould be filled; allow it to set, and then take it from the mould, cutting off the superfluous portion with a string. When the roller has been hung up twenty-four hours it will be fit for use. Owing to the rapidity of the printing-machines recently introduced, the ordinary rollers have proved inadequate to the work; but improvements have been introduced into the manufacture which remedy the defect. The excellence of the new rollers is said to depend entirely on skilful manipulation. The ingredients are the same, but great experience is required in the choice of the glue, the proportion of the ingredients, the mixture, and the heat applied. In making balls, having oiled the mirror, pour the composition upon the centre, and having allowed it to spread itself, lay over it a piece of coarse canvas, place the board upon it, and lay weights upon it to press it down; it will consequently be found that the composition face of the ball will be slightly thicker in the centre than at the edges, which, besides being a convenience in the working, will allow it to be knocked up with much facility, which is done in the ordinary manner. These balls and rollers are very easily kept in order: if they are too soft, cold water will harden them; if too hard, warm water will soften them. When not in use they should be covered with refuse ink, and hung up in a room of even temperature, and carefully scraped with a palette-knife before use. They should not be cleaned with spirits of turpentine, as that will give them a hard surface. These rollers will be fit for use for a long while if attention be paid to them; and when spoiled, the composition may be repeatedly melted down, and, with an addition of new materials, will make as good rollers as before. When the proper apparatus is wanting, small balls for woodcuts or single pages may be made upon an earthen palette, or even upon a smooth dinner-plate.

A new process has recently been patented by Messrs Harrild for the manufacture of composition rollers, which enables them to resist the friction of the fastest machines even in the warmest weather, and to continue in working order for a much longer period than those at present in use. They are also but slightly affected by atmospheric changes. These are great advantages for the fast newspaper machines, and for country printers who have not the same facilities as the printers in the metropolis for changing their rollers when out of order. The principal difference in the new process is, that the glue is liquefied without any admixture of moisture, the condensed steam which floats on the surface of the glue being entirely drawn off by a syringe.

STEREOTYPING.

Stereotyping is a mode of making perfect fac-similes in type-metal of the face of pages composed of moveable types. Letterpress printing being a very expensive process, the price of books consequently high, and the heaviest expense consisting in the composition, the printers of the Continent very soon set up the entire of such small works as were in constant demand, and thus were enabled to sell them at little more than the cost of paper and press-work. Some works of very great extent, especially Bibles and prayer-books, were kept standing by the privileged printers. This, however, was exceedingly expensive, as the cost of the type would be very great; the forms would occupy much space in storing, and be liable to continual damage from the dropping out of letters, from batters, and other accidents to which they would be unavoidably exposed. Some method, therefore, by which all or some of these disadvantages might be remedied, became desirable. About the beginning of the eighteenth century, Van der Moy, in Holland, sought to avoid this liability to accidents, by immersing the bottom of his pages in melted lead or solder, and thus rendering them solid masses: "c'est une réunion des caractères ordinaires par le pied, avec de la matière fondue, de l'épaisseur d'environ trois mains de papier à écrire;" therefore the mass together would be somewhat less than the height of our type. It is not very easy to imagine how they contrived to make the backs of these blocks of such evenness as to produce anything like a good impression; but Dibdin says that the book is very handsome. The same process was followed by a Jew of Amsterdam, in printing an English Bible; but he was utterly ruined by his speculation.

Some time before the year 1735 there is sufficient evidence that the French used casts of the calendars placed at the commencement of church books. These plates are thus described by Camus: "It (one of the plates) is formed of copper, and is three inches and a half long by two inches broad and one-seventh of an inch thick. From the roughness of the casting, it has evidently been made in a mould formed of sand or clay." After the plate had been cast, the back of it had been dressed with a file, in order that it might bear equally upon a block of wood to which it had been attached.

Who really invented the art of stereotyping as at present practised (and after all, he who finds out the efficient modus operandi is the inventor of the art, though he may not be of the principle) is, like the inventor of the parent art, a matter of some controversy, which has been carried on with more vigour than the subject merited. It seems however most probable, when all assertions are weighed, that William Ged, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, deserves the credit. According to his statement, being in 1725 in company with a printer, they lamented the want of a good letter-founder in Scotland; and the printer asked him whether he could do anything to remedy the inconvenience. He immediately answered, that it would be more easy to cast plates from pages when composed in moveable type; and he undertook to produce, and very shortly did so, a specimen cast on his new plan, and not long afterwards made arrangements with a capitalist for the advance of the requisite funds. The latter failing to perform his part of the engagement, Ged made a similar contract with a London stationer, in conjunction with whom he made many attempts; but being repeatedly thwarted in perfecting his plans, he separated from his partner, and made proposals to the universities and the king's printers for the stereotyping of Bibles and prayer-books. These all entered into the scheme with eagerness, and some works were produced from plates quite equal to the ordinary printing of the day. Nevertheless, so much ignorance and prejudice prevailed amongst the workmen and other interested persons that Ged was obliged to abandon the undertaking. He entered into several subsequent arrangements, in which he was equally unsuccessful; a type-founder, in particular, causing so much opposition that the invention made no progress. Ged died before he had met with much encouragement; and his son was equally unsuccessful, although, as the practicability was made more manifest, the very parties who had rejected his plans subsequently made extensive use of his plates. What was Ged's method of stereotyping is unknown, as he kept it private; nor did he fully communicate the secret to his partners.

Fifty years afterwards Mr Tilloch made a similar invention; but from private circumstances the design was laid aside, not, however, before several volumes had been printed from his stereotype plates at the press of Mr Foulis. Some years after this, Lord Stanhope engaged an ingenious London printer, Mr Wilson, to prosecute the invention; and after many trials, the noble lord's ingenuity succeeded in bringing the invention to practical use.

When a work is expressly intended to be stereotyped, the spaces, quadrats, and leads generally used are somewhat different from those commonly employed, being cast of the same height as the stem of the letter, in order that the base of the plate may be more solid and of uniform thickness. When low spaces, &c., are used, plaster is poured upon the face of the type to fill up the interstices, and just before it sets the superfluous plaster above the stem of the letter is removed by a brush, which damages the face of the type not a little. The page is composed in the ordinary manner, and very carefully corrected; it is then imposed in a small chase with metal furniture, and the whole is placed within a moulding-frame, somewhat less than half an inch higher than the type. The surface of the type is then rubbed with a soft brush holding a small quantity of very thin oil.

The plaster of Paris (gypsum) of which the mould is formed is of the finest quality, and may be purchased ready prepared. Having been carefully mixed with water to the thickness of cream, a small portion is gently poured upon the surface of the page, and softly worked in with a brush, care being taken that every part is fully covered, and that no air-bubbles remain. Then a larger quantity is poured on, and spread over the previous layer without disturbing it; a straight-edge is then passed over the moulding-frame, clearing away the superfluous plaster, and leaving that within the frame of uniform thickness. It is then left to set. When sufficiently dry, the moulding-frame is raised, and the mould with it, from off the face of the page; the mould is then dressed, and placed in a heated oven until it be perfectly dry, and raised to an adequate temperature for the casting. The oil with which the page is rubbed prevents the plaster from adhering to the type.

The melting-pot is a square vessel of iron about two inches and a half deep, having a separate lid, of which the four corners are cut off, the inner face being turned true, but the outer face hollow towards the centre. A floating plate, of which the upper surface is turned, is placed at the bottom of the pot. Over the melting-pit is a crane with a rack, upon which a pair of tongs are made to run. These lay hold of ears upon the melting-pot, closing with its weight, and opening when relieved. The metal does not differ from type-metal, and must be sufficiently fluxed to flow easily, but not made too hot, or it will prove brittle. The melting-pot having been heated in the same oven with the mould, and consequently to the same temperature, the latter is placed within it, the face being turned down upon the floating-plate. A bar or other piece of iron is screwed down upon that part of the lid which is turned hollow; and the whole being suspended by the rack and crane, is swung over the melting-pit, and gradually let down into the metal, which flows gently into the pot through the openings left at the corners. The metal flowing slowly in gradually expels all the air; the mould immediately rises to the inner surface of the lid; the floating-plate, being specifically lighter than the metal, rises also to the edge of the mould; consequently the metal which has run in between is of the exact thickness of the depth of the mould, the upper surface being the field upon which are the casts of the type, the under surface the smooth face of the floating-plate, and the rest of the melting-pot being filled with metal. The pot is allowed to remain immersed ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, that is, until the air is supposed to be perfectly expelled. It is then drawn up, and swung to a board resting upon a trough of water, and there allowed to cool. The cooling is a process requiring much care and attention. It is obvious that unless the whole mass cool equally, the plate will be warped, and consequently spoiled; it is equally clear that the heat will more readily radiate at the corners, and consequently that the centre will remain fluid after the other parts are set, and that the contraction must be unequal. This is provided against by the lid having been turned hollow in the centre, and it will therefore allow the metal under it to cool more rapidly. The mass having been turned out from the pot, the metal under the plate is separated by a smart blow or two of the mallet; the floating-plate will be readily disengaged, and the mould be removed from the cast. Some defects will invariably be found in the new plate; but these are removed by the picker, who goes carefully over it, clearing away the picks from the face of the letter, and deepening the larger white lines with a graver, that they may not blacken in working at press; for it must be remembered that the quadrats and spaces used in stereotyping are higher than those in moveable-type printing. If the face of the plate has cooled evenly, and it is in other respects a successful cast, it is placed, the face inwards, in a turning-lathe or planing-machine, and the back rendered a plane parallel to the face; the margins are then squared, and the edges flanged. The plate is now ready for use. If any errors or batters occur in the plates, they are cut out, and the corrections made with moveable type let in and soldered at the back.

A great improvement in the stereotype art was a number of years ago introduced by Mr Thomas Allan, printer in Edinburgh, into his establishment, by which a number of plates are cast at once, whilst the risk of broken casts is considerably lessened. This is effected by means of a pot sufficiently deep to contain moulds placed in a perpendicular position. The pot is an oblong square cast-iron box, widening towards the mouth, and having placed inside, at each end, a wedge-like block, of which one face is parallel to the side, while the other is perfectly vertical. On the vertical side are perpendicular grooves, at distances rather greater than the thickness of the stereotype moulds. Into these grooves are inserted plates of malleable iron, by which the interior of the box or pot is partitioned into spaces sufficiently wide to admit with ease the plaster moulds. The moulds, when baked, being inserted into these spaces, a cross bar of metal is placed over the top, instead of a cover, which serves to prevent the moulds from being raised by the liquid metal flowing beneath them; and it is then suspended upon the crane, and dipped into the metal-pit in the usual way. By this method not only are the moulds saved from all risk of breaking by being placed horizontally and pressed between the two broad surfaces of a float-block and cover, as in the method of single-page casting, but a number of plates are produced at one cast, and thus additional celerity is combined with greater certainty of sound plates. The plates of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is the most extensive work ever stereotyped, have been for the most part produced by this process, in pots containing each five moulds; and it is especially advantageous for large plates, the risk of breakage by the old method increasing in a greater ratio than the increase in the size of the page.

The plates are sometimes screwed down at the corners upon blocks of wood, the height of which is the difference between the thickness of the plate and the height of the type. This answers very well for jobs and standing advertisements; but for ordinary book-work it is usual to have the blocks formed of several separate pieces of mahogany furnished on one side and at one end with brass or iron catches (let in and screwed to the blocks), the upper part of which is turned over so as to take hold of the flange of the plate. But as wood is liable to warp and to other accidents, a plan has recently been devised of making hollow blocks of type-metal of the requisite height and of different sizes, by means of which pages may be easily composed to There are many smaller instruments requisite, which it is unnecessary to mention. The founder requires some practical skill, which, however, it is not difficult to acquire; and the excellence of the casts will depend upon his personal knack and observation. The best metal for stereotyping is composed of new metal and old type in moieties. The price of prepared metal is about 28s. per cwt. The following, however, are proportions which may be used when the prepared metal cannot be procured:

1. From five to eight parts lead, one of regulus, one fifthieth of block-tin. 2. One seventh of pure regulus, six sevenths of lead.

The best lead is that which comes from China, in the lining of tea-chests.

The mixing of the metals is exceedingly injurious to the workman, and should be avoided wherever it is possible. The foundry should be thoroughly ventilated, as the fumes from the melting-pit, and the moisture and smell of the drying oven, are very noxious.

In some cases stereotyping is of great advantage; but chiefly in books of numbers, in which it is of the utmost importance that every figure should be correct. In this case the proofs must be read again and again, until the correctness is unquestionable; when once stereotyped, there is no fear of alteration from the error of compositors or carelessness of readers, but the book remains the same for ever. Such works also are most expensive in getting up, and the cost of composition very much exceeds that of stereotyping. Books of logarithms may be especially mentioned, tables of longitude, indexes to maps, and other works, which being once written, remain unchangeably the same, such as ready reckoners, interest tables, &c.; or when it is found expedient to have duplicates of the work where large numbers are required, and it is necessary for speed to work on double-sized paper, the cast and the moveable type are imposed together, and are worked side by side at the same moment, producing two copies instead of one. There is also another advantage, for the stereotype remains without further expense for another edition; again, where it is expedient to send duplicate plates to other countries to be worked.

Woodcuts may be stereotyped with great advantage; for a small cut which has cost several guineas to engrave may be multiplied indefinitely, and at a cost of only a few shillings.

No printer should stereotype by the common process who wishes his type to be a credit to his house. The wear of the type in casting is very great, especially when low spaces, &c., are used; the gypsum is at best a fine powder, and grinds away the edge and face of the letter when rubbed in with the brush, in a frugal manner. The letter can never be entirely freed from the plaster, and will present a very dirty appearance ever after. The wear of a font of 1000 lb. weight, returned six times from the foundry, is greater than would occur in six years' constant fair usage; besides which, the high spaces, quadrats, and leads, are all extra expenses, for which the economical bookseller makes no remuneration whatever.

The plan of stereotyping Bibles and prayer-books has been nearly abandoned, and the entire sheets are kept standing in moveable type, at a great expense, by the Queen's printer, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Before every edition, however, is worked, each sheet must undergo a careful reading, in order to guard against accidents which may have occurred since the last edition.

Such is the process of stereotyping at this time in common use, and which will probably continue in practice in provincial and colonial printing-offices, by reason of the readiness of the materials and the knowledge now acquired by the workmen.

A greatly improved method has, however, been recently introduced by Messrs Dellagana, by which all the inconveniences incident to the existing system are obviated. The page is composed with the ordinary spaces, leads, &c., and there is therefore no additional charge for composition; the destructive tampering with the face of the type is avoided; the plaster-mould is not required; and there is no necessity for re-imposition, as the new moulds can be taken from the pages as they are imposed in the chases; and the forms can be returned to the printer within an hour from the time of their being sent to the foundry. So great are the resources of this invention that the largest or the smallest pages can be cast with equal facility, and either plane or curved to suit the periphery of cylinder machines. The pages, for instance, of The Times newspaper are each cast in a single plate, in a curved form to fit the cylinders of the great machines used in that establishment. The following is a brief account of the process:

A page of a newspaper or a sheet of bookwork (as imposed), carefully cleaned and perfectly dry, is laid on an iron chest previously filled with hot water. A fine brush, having the whole of its surface slightly anointed with olive oil, is rubbed over the face of the type to remove any picks or other impurities from the pages, which are then ready for moulding. A substance, in appearance resembling two or three sheets of wrapper-paper pasted together, of a soft and pulpy nature (the matrix), understood to be composed of an earthy material very finely ground, and afterwards felted together, and which is not affected by heat, in a damp state, is laid smoothly on the face of the type, and carefully beaten in with a brush until every letter is indented into this substance, and the matrix is thus formed. The type, with the matrix unremoved, is taken to a press and subjected to a steady pressure, continued for two or three minutes. The matrix is then removed from the type, which may now be returned to the printer. Not more than ten minutes is required for these operations. The matrix is next laid upon a plate heated to 200° or 300°, and covered with a piece of flannel (as a non-conductor of heat and an absorbent of the moisture generated in drying) upon which is placed a thin metal plate of the dimensions of the page or form, to keep the matrix flat. It remains on this hot plate about two minutes, and is then ready for casting. The matrix, with its face upwards, is now placed in a "register" flat or curved, as the plates are required to be plane or convex. The register is formed of two iron plates, the inner surfaces of which are accurately planed; these plates are joined together by hinges at the further end. The matrix is placed, face uppermost, on the lower of these plates, and is secured on three sides by an iron gauge, which varies in height according to the intended thickness of the plate about to be cast. The upper plate is closed over, and the two, including the matrix, are firmly clamped together by an iron bar which passes over, with a screw in the centre, which presses the two plates upon the gauge. The register swings upon trunnions; and thus prepared, is turned into a vertical position, and the metal, at a temperature of 500°, is poured in through a mouth. In one minute the metal is set sufficiently hard to bear removal, the register is brought back to a horizontal position, the upper plate is thrown back, and the cast and matrix are taken out and placed (the matrix uppermost) on an iron table, which is flat or curved like the register, otherwise the cast in cooling would contract or spring, and its flatness or curvature would not be preserved. The matrix may now be carefully lifted off, and, if required, again placed in the register for another cast. The curved casts for newspapers are fixed on the cooling-table by four screws, and the dressing is performed by a tool on the lever principle, which cuts off the flange or waste piece of metal at the top of the page, and bevels it at the same time. For book-work, the under surface of the cast is planed, as in the ordinary mode. A little chiselling is required to lower the white and break lines, to prevent their blacking the paper when worked.

The casts obtained by this process are remarkably true, and require little "bringing up." The matrix is uninjured by the casting, and may be used again for any number of casts, or preserved for future use. The power of multiplying casts from the same matrix is of immense advantage where large numbers are required to be printed in a short space of time. As before stated, a matrix and the first cast may be obtained in less than a quarter of an hour, and several subsequent casts will not require more than five or six minutes each. In half an hour, therefore, several machines may be at work simultaneously.

It is of course not necessary that any cast should be taken from the matrix; and therefore when a second edition of a book is doubtful, the matrix only need be made, and may be kept until required, at a cost of not more than one-third of a casting; and when used, may be put by without inconvenience, and another cast taken when the first is worked out or injured.

In book-work also this process will be found of great advantage, as compared with the charge for re-composition. The matrices of a work of 500 pages would occupy no more space than a ream of demy, and not weigh more than 10 lb. They will remain unchanged for years if preserved free from damp or water.

The cost of casts by this process is about 10 per cent. less than by the ordinary mode; and the proportions of lead and regulus used in the composition of the metal are those given above in recipe No. 2.

The great excellence of the imperial Austrian printing establishment in the art of stereotyping should not escape mention. In the Exhibition of 1851 were some magnificent moulds taken from type by the electrotyping or galvano-plastic process. From these moulds other copies in relief were obtained by doubling the process, which are stated to produce beautiful work; or casts in type-metal could be taken of great perfection. A curious specimen was also exhibited, the work of the Rubeland ducal foundry, of a stereotype-plate of cast-iron.

OF POLYTYPE, AND OTHER METHODS OF PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES ON METAL PLATES.

Many considerable improvements in stereotyping are to be ascribed to French artists; but stereotyping has never been a favourite with them, and they have rather exerted their inventive talents in a series of experiments which may be classed under the general name of polytype.

In 1780 Hoffman, a German residing in France, not satisfied with his success in stereotyping, made many ingenious experiments in polytype. Whilst he was thus engaged, a practical printer named Carez discovered a method which Hoffman afterwards pursued. The page, after being composed in the ordinary manner, was attached, with the face downwards, to the under side of a heavy block of wood, suspended from a long beam. Immediately under the page was an anvil, whercon a tray of oiled paper into which the workmen poured a portion of type metal, attentively watching the cooling. When the metal was on the point of setting, the page, block, and beam, were brought down with a very smart blow, forcing the face of the type into the setting metal, and producing a very sharp matrix; which again was made to take the place of the type upon the block, was struck in a similar manner upon the fixed metal, and thus produced a perfect and excellent polytype plate. This having been properly dressed at the edges and back, was affixed to the usual wooden raiser and made type height, and might be printed separately or in conjunction with moveable type. Several casts might be made from the same mould. This process was designated cliché.

Ign., a native of Alsace, who settled in Paris as a printer in 1784, availing himself of the discoveries made in the art of stereotyping, endeavoured to extend them by inventing logotypy, or the art of uniting several characters into a single type. He printed on solid plates several sheets of his Journal Polytype, and advertised Father Chenier's Recherches sur les Maures, 3 vols. 8vo, as a polytyped book; but being deprived of his printing-office in 1787 by a decree of the council, he was prevented from executing his design.

In 1791 M. Gegembre made considerable improvements in the art of polytyping in printing the fifty-sous notes of the Caisse Patriotique. He caused the whole print of the notes to be engraved in relief upon a plate of steel, and this engraving he pressed into a plate of copper, from which polytype casts were taken. Any number of these casts could be taken from the copper mould, and if by chance the copper mould became injured, a new one could be readily made from the steel engraving.

When the revolutionary government commenced issuing assignats, it became necessary to have an immense number of plates to work the enormous quantity required of these documents. A design having been approved of, artists were employed to engrave three hundred fac-similes. Of course, if three hundred so-called fac-similes could be engraved, other artists would find no difficulty in engraving another hundred, nor could even the bank-officers tell which document was printed from a forged fac-simile and which from the plates engraved by their authority. The consequence was an utter want of confidence in the government paper. To remedy this, the committee of assignats caused many experiments to be instituted for the production of plates which should be not only imitative and similar, but pro re identical. The plan adopted was the engraving a plate in intaglio on steel, from which copper matrices were obtained in relief. From these perfect fac-similes of the original engraving were struck and were worked by the roller-press in the manner of copperplates. But it was a great defect in this process, that the air compressed within the hollows of the letters frequently destroyed the form in the reproduction. Upon the suppression of assignats this establishment was broken up; but some of the plates and matrices are preserved in the public repositories of France.

Polytyping, as now practised in England, is confined to the production of casts from metal plates in intaglio and from woodcuts. Instead of the cumbrous machinery employed by Carez, a fly-press is used, the woodcut is fixed upon what may be called the platten, and a tray containing semi-fluid metal is placed upon the table of the press immediately under the cut to be matriced. By a slow motion the cut is impressed into the metal, and an intaglio matrix is produced. The matrix is then attached to a drop stamp to perform the cliché process, and by the rapid descent of the stamp with the matrix attached into a tray of molten metal, a polytype in relief is obtained. The type-founders have adopted this process for the production of casts of their ornamental designs; and Mr Bramston has practised this mode so successfully that he is able to take fac-simile polytype casts of the most elaborately-engraved woodcuts, without in the slightest degree injuring the original.

A method of producing raised surfaces for the purposes of printing has of late years been extensively used in Paris and London, chiefly for forming maps and rough designs. The art is of French origin, but has been patented in England. In a patent granted in 1853 to Mr Vizetelly it is described for "improvements in producing plates for printing surfaces, by which the manipulatory process of engraving is superseded."

A plate of highly-polished zinc, copper, or steel is thoroughly rubbed over with very fine pounce powder moistened with water, and then with a soft dry piece of linen it is again rubbed until no greasy appearance remains on the surface, which is now in a fit state to receive the transfer.

Where the engraving has been recently printed, say within a month, the transfer is thus effected:—The print is soaked for five minutes in a flat dish containing a liquid composed of seven parts of water, one of azotic acid, and six drops of phosphoric acid. It is then taken out and placed between two sheets of blotting-paper, to absorb the superfluous moisture, after which it is laid on the prepared plate and covered with a sheet of soft paper, and subjected to the strong pressure of the lithographic press. When the transfer is thus effected, the plate is washed with a sponge moistened in a solution of gum arabic, slightly acidulated with nitric acid; this preparation having remained on the plate for five minutes, is sponged off with clean water. While the plate is still wet, a lithographic roller charged with ink composed of bitumen of Judea, powdered very fine with a muller and mixed with linseed oil, is passed over it. The linseed oil must be of the purest quality, and be boiled for at least an hour, and afterwards filtered through a felt bag containing some animal black. For zinc plates, lithographic transfer-ink and melted virgin wax, well mixed and ground together, must be substituted. When the plate is well rolled over with this ink, it will be observed that the transfer only has taken up the ink, the parts of the plate where the lines of the print do not occur having no power to take it up. While the ink is still wet, some resin, ground to an impalpable powder, is distributed over the plate with a piece of cotton wool or a camel's hair brush, care being taken that it adheres to the inked transfer only, and not to the other parts of the plate. The plate is now placed over a spirit-lamp, and gradually heated until it becomes lukewarm, in which state it is allowed to remain undisturbed for at least two hours; if expedition is not required, it will be better not to disturb the plate for twelve hours, as the resin and ink will then have thoroughly combined, and more completely protect the portions of the plate covered by the transfer from the corroding action of the acid, by which the surface in relief is produced. Before the plate is subjected to this "biting" process, it is necessary to cover its back with a varnish or other substance, to protect it from the action of the acid. When this is done, it is placed in a slanting position, and a liquid composed of nitric acid, diluted to about 4° Réaumur for zinc and steel plates, and to about 12° for coppers, to which is added a table-spoonful of spirits of wine to every half-pint of acidulated water, is applied with a clean sponge to the surface of the plate. This bathing is continued for a quarter of an hour, and pure water is then poured over the plate until the acid is entirely washed off. The plate is then again sponged over with the slightly-acidulated gum-water, re-inked, submitted to the action of the acidulated water, and washed with pure water as above described; and these operations are repeated four or five times, until the exposed portions of the plate are so much bitten away by the acid as to leave the transfer sufficiently in relief to be printed from.

The "whites"—i.e., the blank spaces in the engraving,—must be lowered or removed to prevent their receiving the ink in process of printing, and blacking the paper. This is effected by covering the surface of the raised lines of the transfer, and the sides also where practicable, with engraver's varnish, which is composed of bitumen of Judea dissolved in essence of turpentine, with the addition of lamp-black to make it of a proper consistency, and allowed to stand two hours before it is used. The plate is then bathed with the solution of acidulated water and spirits of wine, and washed as before described; but in this operation a stronger solution is used, being 8° instead of 4°. Where the whites are very large, essence of spikenard (aspho) is substituted for essence of turpentine, or they may be lowered by scrapers or gouges, or cut out with a fine saw. Great care must be taken that the bitumen is entirely dissolved, and that the varnish is made of the proper consistency.

A raised printing surface being now produced, the plate is cleaned with turpentine and well rubbed over with charcoal, after which it may be mounted on raisers to type height, and used as a stereotype cast.

When an old print is to be transferred, it is treated in the manner commonly employed by lithographic printers prior to making a transfer, and which has been described in the article Lithography.

Anastatic printing is a process by which a print, whether from type or a copperplate, may be reproduced without drawing or engraving. The print is saturated with a strong solution of nitric acid; it is then placed between sheets of blotting-paper, and the superfluous fluid absorbed; after which it is laid, face downwards, upon a polished plate of zinc, and another placed over it. The plates are then passed between iron rollers, and subjected to great pressure. The nitric acid is thus squeezed out upon the zinc, except in those parts which are protected by the ink of the old print. The acid bites away the zinc, and a rough surface is produced, the protected parts continuing bright and unaffected. The plate is then wetted with a solution of gum in water. The corroded surfaces retain the fluid, while the unaffected portions remain dry. A roller charged with the ink used by copperplate printers is then rolled over the plate; the ink covering the dry and being repelled by the wet surfaces. This is repeated until the lines of the print are well covered with the ink,—a process which is rapidly effected if the ink of the original print is fresh, and has parted with a portion of its oil under the pressure of the rollers. Impressions may now be readily taken in the same manner as lithographic prints.

PRINTING FOR THE BLIND.

The invention of printing for the blind forms a new era in the history of literature. In European countries, one individual in every 1200 or 1400 of the entire population is blind, and in America one in every 2000. To open up to this large and unfortunate class such a source of profit and pleasure as reading could afford was long considered very desirable, and also very doubtful; but while, of late years, embossed books have very rapidly increased, it is exceedingly gratifying to find that blind readers have far more rapidly multiplied. The credit of this invention belongs to France. In 1784 Valentine Haüy printed the first book at Paris with raised letters, and proved to the world that those for whom such books were intended could easily be taught to read with their fingers. He seems to have caught the hint from a blind pianist of Vienna, who distinguished the keys of her instrument by the sense of touch. After many experiments as to the form of his raised letters, he at last chose a character a little approaching the Italic. A new institution was at once established,—Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles,—and Haüy was placed at the head of it. Twenty-four of his pupils exhibited their attainments in reading, writing, arithmetic, music, and geography, before the king and the royal family at Versailles on the 26th December 1786, to the very great delight of those high personages. In 1814, when Haüy was pen- Priting for the Blind.

Signed off, Dr Guillé was chosen in his stead. This enterprising directeur-général modified Haüy's letters, and prosecuted the publication of embossed books with renewed vigour. Still, however, very little progress was made towards the extension of Haüy's system; and their books could only be read by those possessing a very delicate touch. In 1806 M. Haüy established schools for the blind in Germany and St Petersburg, but they have made very slow progress. It was in Scotland and the United States that improvements were first made in embossed typography. To Mr James Gall of Edinburgh belongs the merit of reviving and improving this very useful art. After canvassing every form of letter, he at last adopted his angular alphabet. Before 1826, when Mr Gall began his experiments, not a single blind person using the English language could read by embossed printing. On the 28th September 1827 he published A First Book for Teaching the Art of Reading to the Blind, the first book printed for the blind in the English language. In October 1834 this zealous individual published in a perfected alphabet The Gospel by St John, for the Blind. The text, which was embossed, and, unlike his former effort, printed not with wooden but with metallic types, consisted of 141 pages, with 27 lines on a page of 70 square inches. This book was counted a great improvement, but it was objected that the types were too angular. He afterwards printed a number of books with serrated edges. It is unquestionably to Mr Gall, more than to any other man, that the interest in the education of the blind was awakened throughout Great Britain and America. While Mr Gall was engaged in perfecting his plan in this country, Dr S. G. Howe, of the Perkins Institution, Boston, United States, was busily engaged in developing his system. In 1833 Dr Howe began, like Gall, by taking Haüy's invention as the basis of his system, and soon effected those improvements upon it which have given so wide a fame to the Boston press. He chose the common Roman letter of the lowercase, reducing it by cutting off the flourishes, &c., until it occupied but a space and a half instead of three. This alphabet remains unchanged. So rapid was his progress, that in 1836 he printed in relief the whole of the New Testament for the first time in any language, in 4 small quarto volumes, comprising 624 pages, for four dollars. More than twelve times this amount has now been printed, and seventeen of the American States have adopted Dr Howe's method.

The Society of Arts in Edinburgh awarded a medal, on the 31st of May 1837, to Dr Fry of London for the invention of an alphabet, which seems, however, to have been in use in Philadelphia since 1833. Mr Alston of Glasgow improved upon Fry's alphabet, by reducing the size of the letters, and sharpening the embossing. In 1840 Mr Alston published the entire Old Testament in 15 quarto volumes, of 2535 pages, and 37 lines to a page, in double pica type. Alston, in his just pride, designated this "the first Bible ever printed for the blind;" in which he was wrong, however, for Boston had claimed the honour years before. Some 70 distinct volumes have been printed by the Glasgow press; but since the death of Alston, on the 29th of August 1846, it has almost ceased to work. Since 1837 it has supplied England, Ireland, and Scotland with embossed books in Roman type. The best of all the arbitrary systems is that of T. M. Lucas of Bristol, who set it on foot about 1835, and which "The London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read" has been gradually improving since its establishment in 1839. In May 1838 "The London and Blackheath Association for Embossing the Scriptures" adopted the phonetic method of James Hartley Frere. A cheap plan of embossing or stereotyping was devised by Mr Frere in 1839. His books read from left to right, and back, after the ancient Greek βοστροπογραφία writing. Mr Moon, of the Brighton Blind Asylum, has slightly improved on Mr Frere's method. Dr Howe's typography is judged, however, to be superior to the British both in cheapness and in size. There are at present no less than five different systems of typography in use in Great Britain.

The following table shows the results of the six systems of printing for the blind used in the English language, taking the New Testament as a standard of comparison:

| Systems | No. of Vols. | Size | No. of Pages | No. of Lines in a Page | No. of Square Inches in a Page | Price | |------------------|-------------|------|--------------|------------------------|--------------------------------|-------| | The New Testament | 2 | 4to. | 430 | ... | 117 | L. s. d. | | Howe's | 4 | n | 623 | 42 | 90 | 2 0 0 | | Alston's | 8 | n | ... | 28 | 70 | 2 0 0 | | Lucas's | 9 | n | 841 | 27 | 70 | 2 0 0 | | Frere's | 8 Ob. 4to. | | 723 | ... | 110 | 2 10 0 | | Moon | 9 | n | ... | 25 | 110 | 4 10 0 |

(For an interesting account of the different systems of printing for the blind, see the Reports of the Juries of the Exhibition for 1851.)

OTHER PROCESSES.

To the magnificent establishment of the imperial printing-office at Vienna we owe the introduction of several processes, which, though not founded on the use of type, belong to the art of printing. The description of these new arts is derived from the Reports of Jurors of the Exhibition of 1851.

Galvanoplastie Process.—The Austrian department contained some extraordinary prints of fossil fishes, which were produced by the following process:—By means of successive layers of gutta percha applied to the stone inclosing the petrified fish a mould is obtained, which being afterwards submitted to the action of a galvanic battery, is quickly covered with coatings of copper, forming a plate upon which all the marks of the fish are reproduced in relief; and which, when printed at the common press, gives a result upon the paper identical with the object itself.

Galvanography.—The artist covers a plate of silvered copper with several coats of a paint composed of any oxide,—such as that of iron, burnt terra sienna, or black-lead,—ground with linseed oil. The substance of these coats is thick or thin according to the intensity to be given to the lights or shades. The plate is then submitted to the action of the galvanic battery, from which another plate is obtained reproducing an intaglio copy, with all the unevenness of the original painting. This is an actual copperplate resembling an aquatint engraving. It may be touched up by the engraving-tool. This process has been improved upon by outlines etched in the usual manner, and the tones laid on with a roulette. A galvano-plastic copy of this sunk plate is obtained. On this second raised plate the artist completes his picture by means of chalks and Indian ink, and puts in the lights and shades; from this a second galvano-plastic copy is produced. This second copy or sunk plate, the third in the order of procedure, serves, after being touched up, for printing from in the copperplate press.

Galvanography.—Upon a plate of zinc coated with varnish a drawing is etched; then ink or varnish is rolled over. The ink adheres only to the parts it touches, every application when dry raising the coating and consequently deepening the etched lines,—a galvanic battery produces a plate in relief, which is printed at the common press.

Chemitypy.—A polished zinc plate is covered with an etching-ground. The etching is bitten in with diluted aquafortis. Remove the etching-ground, and carefully wash out the aquafortis. Heat the plate thus cleansed over a

Mr Henry Bradbury, who has had a principal share in introducing this beautiful process into England, describes it as a method of producing impressions of plants and other natural objects, in a manner so truthful that only a close inspection reveals the fact of their being copies. So deeply sensible to the touch are the impressions, that it is difficult to persuade those who are unacquainted with the manipulation that they are the production of the printing-press. The process, in its application to the reproduction of botanical subjects, represents the size, form, and colour of the plant, and all its most minute details, even to the smallest fibres of the roots. The distinguishing feature of the process, compared with other modes of producing engraved surfaces for printing purposes, consists, firstly, in imprinting natural objects—such as plants, mosses, sea-weeds, feathers, and embroideries—into plates of metal, causing, as it were, the objects to engrave themselves by pressure; and, secondly, in being able to take such casts or copies of the impressed plates as can be printed from at the ordinary copper-plate-press.

The art is by no means new in idea, many persons having attempted something analogous to the present process, and produced results which were imperfect, merely because science had not yet discovered an art necessary to its practical development. It is to the discovery of electrotyping that the existing art of nature-printing is due.

The progress of the art, and the persons to whose ingenuity the steps were severally due, are stated by Mr Bradbury thus:

Professor Kniphof of Erfurt took impressions from leaves, &c., which had been coloured with lamp-black, printers' ink, &c., 1728-57.

Kuhl, a goldsmith of Copenhagen, took copies of natural objects in plates of metal between two steel rollers. These were not for the purposes of printing, but for reproduction of embossing and ornamentation in metal. 1833.

In 1851 Dr Ferguson Branson of Sheffield read a paper before the Society of Arts, in which he detailed some experiments in nature-printing. He had taken impressions from plants, &c., in gutta percha, for the purpose of having them printed. The experiment failed through the softness of the material. Dr Branson then betook himself of the electrotype process; but appears to have found it too tedious and costly, and he abandoned the idea.

In 1849 Professor Leydolt of Vienna availed himself of the facilities afforded by the imperial printing-office to carry out experiments in the representation of flat objects of mineralogy,—such as agates, fossils, and petrifications,—and obtained great results. Soon after, Haidinger and Abbate suggested the former the reproduction of plants, &c., and the latter the representation by this means of different sorts of ornamental woods on woven fabrics, paper, and plain wood; and lastly, Andrew Worring, of the imperial printing-office, Vienna, perfected the application of these processes to printing, 1853.

These circumstances are dwelt upon at some length, because nature-printing is yet in its infancy, and appears capable of development to a degree at which it will be an impressorial art of greater importance than any which has been invented since the art of printing itself. Worring's services were so highly estimated that the emperor rewarded him with a munificent gift, and with the Order of Merit.

The plant, perfectly dry, or any other suitable subject, is placed on a plate of fine rolled lead, the surface of which has been polished by planing. The plate and subject are then passed between rollers, by the pressure of which the subject is forced into the surface of the lead. The leaden plate is then subjected to a moderate heat, by the action of which the subject is loosened from its bed and easily removed. This mould is then subjected to the galvanoplastie process, the second cast being a perfect fac-simile of the leaden mould. When the subject to be printed is of one colour only, that pigment is rubbed in, and any superfluous removed; but when it is of two or more colours, the process is simple, but, it is believed, perfectly novel in any process of printing heretofore practised. In the case, for instance, of flowering plants, having stems, roots, leaves, and flowers, the plan adopted in the inking of the plate is to apply the darkest colour, which generally happens to be that of the roots, first; the superfluous colour is cleaned off; the next darkest colour, such, perhaps, as that of the stems, is then applied, the superfluous colour of which is also cleaned off; this mode is continued until every part of the plant in the copperplate has received the right tint. In this state, before the plate is printed, the colour in the different parts of the copper looks as if the plant were embedded in the metal. The plate thus charged, with the paper laid over it, is placed upon a copperplate-press, the upper roller of which is covered with five or six layers of blanket of compact fine texture. The effect of the pressure is, that all the colours are printed by one impression; for when the paper is removed the plant is seen quite perfect, highly embossed, with the roots, stems, and other parts, each of its proper tint.

The great national work which the Austrian establishment has produced as the exemplar of the new art is truly imperial. The Physiotypia Plantarum Austriacarum consists of 5 volumes large folio, containing 500 plates (about 600 plants), with a quarto volume of plates and text. The first production of the English press, though it will bear no comparison in extent with the imperial magnificence of the Austrian work, fully equals it in beauty of execution. It is The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland, by Thomas Moore, edited by Dr Lindley, imperial folio, with 51 plates. It is printed by Mr Bradbury. (See notices of meetings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, part v., 1855; and the printed Lecture delivered at the same Institution, May 11, 1855.)