no
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
- The consequence of his happj and simple
discovery was a rapid series of improvements in every art and science, and a general diffusion of knowledge among all orders of society. Hitherto the tedious, uncertain, and expensive mode of multiplying books by the hand of the copyist, had principally confined the treasures of learning to monasteries, or to persons of rank and fortune. Yet even with all the advantages of wealth, libraries were extremely scarce and scanty; and principally consisted of books of devotion, and superstitious legends, or the sophistical disqui- sitions of the schoolmen. An acquaintance with the Latin classics was a rare qualification, and the Greek language was almost unknown in Europe; but the Art of Printing had scarcely become general, before it gave new impulse to genius, and a new spirit to inquiry. A singular concurrence of circumstances contributea to multiply the beneficial effects derived from this invention, among which the most considerable were, the protection afforded to literature and the arts by the states of Italy, and the diffusion of Greek learning by the literati who sought an asylum in Europe after the capture of Con- stantinople."
Opmer, who was a native of Holland, and who died about 1596, bestows the following elegant panegyric upon the art and its inventor, " That in the decline of the world, when the last day seemed to approach, so many men of accomplish- ed learning and singular piety should break forth, like bright stars, with unusual lustre through the tempestuous clouds of deadly discord; so that you would have thought the world had been recovered from a long disease, and gradually re-assumed its lost strength, in the arts and sciences. This was effected by the assistance of that art, which from metal characters of letters ingeniously cast, dis- posed in the order in which we write, spread over with a convenient quantity of ink, and put under the press, has ushered into the world books in all languages, and multiplied their copies like a nu- merous offspring, and has obtained the name of TypoGRAPHV. This art of printing was most certainly invented and brought to light by John Faust in the year 1440. It is amazing that the author of so important a discovery, and so g^ener- ous a promoter of divine and human learning, should be unworthily forgotten, or only casually remembered as a mere artist. Surely such a person deserves a place amongst the geatest be- nefactors of mankind!" — Lemoine.
Erasmus, who was born during the life-time of Gutenberg (1467) and who was probably writing within fifty years of the alleged time of Coster, is totally silent on the subject. Mr. Home thus elegantly sums up his opinion on the claim in favour of the Dutch pretenders. After the conclu- sive arguments which he had previously adduced, " It is evident, therefore," says he, " that Haerlem is not the city where the art of printing was dis- covered. If we examine all the authors without exception who have written in favour of that city, we shall not find the least cotemporary document on which to support their pretensions. Every
assertion they make is reduced to the nansfin of Junius, solely composed of hearsays, on which every one comments according to his faDcv oi prejudices. Yet on the authority of this iable, nave the Dutch proceeded to strike medals, en- grave inscriptions, and erect statues, and other monuments, to the glory of the ' immortal and incomparable first printer, Laurent Janssoen.' whom they have sometimes represented to be a disturber of the public peace, and have condemned him as such; sometimes as a sacristan, or church- warden; afterwards as a sheriff; then as a trea- surer; and finally, as an illustrious branch of the House of Brederode, a descendant in the right line from the ancient sovereigns of Holland."
" Thus, in a compendious, but impartial man- ner," says Lemoine, I have traced the rise and progress of an invention, the practice and im- provement of which has altered the manners as well as the opinions of the whole world. Before the invention of this divine art, mankind were ab- sorbed in ^the grossest iterance, and oppressed under the most abject despotism of tynumy. The clergy, who belore this aera held the key of all the learning in Europe, were themselves igno- rant, though proud, presumptuoiLs, arrogant, and artful; their devices were soon detected through the invention of typography. Many of them, as it may naturally be imagined, were very averse to the progress of this invention; aswell asthein'cf- men, or writers, who lived by their manuscripts for the laitv. They went so far as to attribute this blessed invention to the devil; and some of them warned their hearers from using such diabo- lical books as were written with the blood of the victims who devoted themselves to hell, for the profit or fame of instructing others. Such was the fate of its first rise : but, like all other useful inventions, it soon soared far above the malignant reach of invidious objections: the more liberal part of mankind, amongst whom it is but justice to say were some ecclesiastics, gave it every ne- cessary encouragement; and kings and princes became, for the first time, the patrons of learning. Genius, like beaten Rold, spreiad over the world; and the latter end of the fifteenth century saw a complete revolution in the human mind; for this art brought with it that of discovering deception and exposing hypocrisy : and, by its rapid multi- plication of copies, more could be accommodated with the labours of the learned, than before by the tedious operation of the solitary pen. The diffusion of knowledge, by this art, was astonish- ing and rapid. The most bigoted, as well as the most libera], joined in spreading its influence. Even the Jews, who are to this day so tenacious of their ancient customs, allowed the use of ihb art to propagate their sacred books. Those pal- ladiums of their faith and liberty then, for the first time, became mechanically impressed on paper. Thus we see how. eariy this art was an auxiliary to the spreading of the sacred light of the word of God, even among those of the .con- fined and prejudiced minds. Many rehgious establishments in Europe encouraged the ait of printing, insomuch that theyestabUshed printing
VjOOQ IC
