FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
no
gentlespiritof Nicholas, and helped to terminate his days. — Betringttm.
The curates of London procured a hull from pope Nicholas V. commanding every householder within the city and liberty, that is in the rent of ten sliillings by the year, to pay to God and his curate, every offering day, one farthing : and so by the scale for the more wealthy inhabitants.
1465, May 23. Battle of St. Albans, this was tiie first batde fought between the house of Lan- caster or the red rose, and the house of York or white rose. The Yorkists conducted Henry their king and prisoner with a mock authority to London.
There is no situation of human affairs,howeTer disagreeable and calamitous, which is not con-
- verted by divine Providence to the production of
! tame advantage. Even the civil wars had their nse, at least in one respect, as they contributed to the declension of slavery. The contending par- ties, in order to carry on the purposes of their ambition, and to supply their armies with suffi- cient forces, were occasionally obliged to settheir bondmen at liber^. Some little enlargement of mind upon this subject began likewise to prevail, and experience served to convince our ancestors by degrees, that agriculture and other services were better performed by hired labourers than by nn willing and refractory slaves. It is certain that, at this period, the number of bondmen had con- siderably decreased ; and though ' this may be thought to have been principally a political event, yet, so far as it might proceed from any justice or uberality of principle, it deserves to be noticed in •history of the progress of knowledge and mental improvement
It is worthy of observation, that we are not to look to the English historians for the best ac- eoonts of the public transactions of this age. Foreign writers must be applied to, as the most copious sources of information. To Froissart, Philip de Comines, and Montstreset, recourse Bust be had for the fullest, the most interesting, and the most entertaining intelligence concerning the political events and revolutions of our own coontiy.
M55, Not. 6. Thesums advanced by Faust to Gatenlerg, under whose superintendence the establishment had been carried into'effect, having become very considerable, the result was a litiga- tion between them ; Faust instituted a process against Gutenbere for the recovery of 2,020 gold ftorins which he had furnished, and the interest accming thereon. The judges, having taken the depositions of each party, Gutenberg was sen- teaced to pay the interest, as well as Uiat part of the capital which his accounts proved to have been employed for his particular use. The con- Kquence was a dissolution of partnership. Gu- tenberg being unable to discharge his debt, he was obliged to cede to Faust all the moulds, types, presses, and utensils, which were previ- oioly engaged to him as surety for the payment of the sums he had advanced. Faust obtained the record of this sentence from Helmasperger, t)ie notary, on this day. By the pecuniary aid of
Conrad Humery, syndic of Mentz, and others, Gutenberg opened another printing office in the same city.
Luigi Pulci, a learned Italian, and one of the restorers of classical literature, translated the following beautiful lines from the Greek of Menecrates. Pulci was born at Florence, on the 3rd of December, 1431.
THZ POETS PEN. T wu an naelen reed ; no cliuter hon; Mr brow with purple grapes, no blonom flniif The coronet of crimson on my stem } No apple blnshed upon me, nor (the rem Of flowers) the violet strewed the yeltow heath Around my feet nor jessamine's sweet wreath Robed me in silver : dajr and nliht I pined On the lone moor, and sUver'iTin Uie wind. At lenf^ a poet found me. Prom mj side He smoothed the pale and withered leaves, and dyed My lips in Helicon. From that high hour I sTozi I My words were flame and livinK power. All the wide wonders of the earth weM mine. Far as the surges roll, or sunbeams shine ; Deep as earth's bosom hides the emerald ; High u the hills with thunder doads are paU'd. And there was sweetness round me, that the dew Had never wet so sweet on violeti blue. To me the mighty sceptre was a wand. The roar of nations pesl'd at my command ; To me, the dungeon, sword, and scourge wve vain ; 1 smote the smiter, and 1 brolte the eh^ j Or towMng o'er them all, without a plume, I pierced the purple air, the tempnfs gloom. Till blaz'd th' Olympian glories on my eye. Stars, temples, thrones, and Qodt— infinity.
1457. A specimen from Gutenberg's press was discovered some years since by Mr. Fischer, among a bundle of old accounts, in the archives of Mentz. It is an almanack for this year, and in order to be effectual, must have been publish- ed quite at the opening of the year, and, there- fore, it would follow that this almanack was executed before the psalter of this year, which was not finished until the month of August; and may consequently be deemed the most ancient specimen of typographic printing extant with a certain date. From this discovery, Mr. Fischer observes, that those bibliographers are mistaken, who think the earlier presses were employed only upon works of greater interest.
1457, Aug. 14. The first publication which is known to have issued from the press of Faust and Schoeffer was a beautiful edition of the Ptalnu, in Latin of this day, which from the place where it was printed, is usually demominatea the Mentz Psalter. It is the first book* known to be extant, which has the name of the place where it wot printed, and that of the printer), together with the date of the year, when it was executed. The most perfect copy known, is that, in the imperial library of Vienna. It was discovered in the year 1665 near Inspruck, in the castle of Ambras, where the Archduke Francis Sigismund had col- lected a prodigious quantity of manuscripts and printed books; taken for the most part, from the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, from whence it was transportM to Vienna. The book is printed in folio, on vellum, and of such extreme variety, 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 psalter occupies 135
Diqitized bv
