who taught Greek in the university of Oxford; and from him the famous Grocyn learned the first elements of it, which he afterwards perfected in Italy under Demetrius Chalcondyles, a learned Greek, and Politian, an Italian, professor of Greek and Latin at Florence.
D'Israeli, in his highly amusing and instructive work the Curiosities of Literature, gives the following anecdote, (amongst many others) of Literary Follies. "About the latter end of the fiftenth century Antonio Cornezano wrote a hundred different Sonnets on one subject, "the eye of his mistress!" to which possibly Shakspeare may allude, when Jaques describes a lover, with his
Woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Not inferior to this ingenious trifler is Nicholas Franco, well known in Italian literature, who employed himself in writing two hundred and eighteen satiric Sonnets, chiefly on the famous Aretin. This lampooner had the honour of being hanged at Rome for his defamatory publications.
1497. The first Grammar printed in England, was published by John Holt, of Magdalen college, and usher of Magdalen school, in Oxford. It was entitled Lac Prierorum, and dedicated to Norton, archbishop of Canterbury.
1497. Printing introduced into the following places in the course of this year:—
Avignon, by Nicholas Lepe. Dominic Anselmus, 1500.
Carmagnole, no printer's name.
Tubingen, by Jonn Otmar. Frederic Meynberger, 1499.
1498, May 25. In Bacon's History of Henry VII. is the following curious note:—Item, for a rewarde geven at the paper mylle, 16s. 9d. This is remarkable, because it is generally asserted that there was no regular paper mill established in England till 1588, by John Spilman, jeweller to queen Elizabeth, at Dartford in Kent.
In Bartholomeus de proprietatibut rerum,[1] printed by De Worde, (see p. 162 ante) mention is there made of a paper mill near Stevenage, in the county of Hertford, belonging to John Tate the younger. The water mark which he used was an eight-pointed star, within a double circle.
Water-marks has at various periods been the means of detecting frauds, forgeries, and impositions in our courts of law and elsewhere—but this evidence is bad. The following is introduced as a whimsical example of such detection: The monks of a certain monastery at Messina exhibited, with great triumph, a letter written by the Virgin Mary with her own hand. Unluckily for them this was not, as it easily might have been, written on the ancient papyrus, but on paper made of rags. On one occasion, a visitor to whom this was shewn, observed with affected solemnity, that "the letter involved also a miracle, for the paper on which it was written was not in existence till several hundred years after the mother of our Lord had ascended into heaven."—Beloe.
The following lines, on a paper-mill, appeared some years ago, and may not be inappropriately inserted in this place:
THE PAPER MILL.
Far from the public road, remote and still,
Stands a neat edifice,—the Paper Mill;
Caught by the rural splendour of the place,
My willing muse would fain its use retrace.
'Tis there, amid the willows foliage green,
Wanders the peaceful rivulet serene;
Its silver stream from springs meandering runs,
And with a constant pace the mill-wheel turns.
Hail! useful structure, hail to thee is due,
Unbounden praise, past ages never knew;
Thanks to the first ingenious artizan,
Whose schemes thus benefit enlighten'd man.
Paper! to thee the world indebted stands,
From Andes tide, to fair Columbia's lands;
In this improving age—accounted wise,
Fair learning with thine aid begins to rise.
By thee is handed down, from age to age,
The sacred truths of Revelation's page;
By thee we trace the pilgrim’s sacred dream,
Or muse o'er Hervey's pure enlighten’d theme;
To thee Religion owes her gratitude,
Salvation now o'er heathen lands is strew'd;
'Mongst Afric's rude and wild ungovern'd clan
To free from ignorance our fellow man!
To lands remote the joyful blessing give,
In mercy thus proclaim—believe and live!
Hail! paper, hail! your humble bard essays
To give his boon in tributary lays;
The improving art this paper does fulfil,
Perhaps it came from Sawston paper mill.
1498. John Petit, a native of Paris, began to print this year. He was mote of a bookseller than a printer, yet kept a greater number of workmen than any of his cotemporaries: he had no less than fifteen presses constantly employed. He printed with the gothic character; but his impressions were so correct and beautiful, that he was sworn printer and bookseller to the university of Paris, and chosen master of the company. The words petit a petit (by little and little) he used in his titles, alluding to his own name.
The women of France have distinguished themselves in the art of printing, particularly Charlotte Guillard, the widow of Berthold Rembolt, Uldric Gering's partner, who, for the space of fifty years, kept several presses at work, and printed a great number of large and very correct editions, both in Latin and Greek. Her best impressions were published after she became a widow the second time, namely, the Bible, the Fathers, and the works of St. Gregory, in two volumes, which were so accurate as to contain but three faults.
Charlotte Guillard's fame as a printer at length spread so much abroad, that the learned
- ↑ This work was originally composed by Bartholomuæs de Glanville, otherwise quaintly denominated Barthelmew Glentuyle, descended of the noble family of the earls of Suffolk. He was a Franciscan friar, and wrote this work about the year 1360, and seems to have been the Pliny of his time. His present work, the History of the Properties of Things, is a general history of nature, and was first written in Latin. It became exceedingly popular, and was many times printed abroad from 1470 to 1494. It was also translated into the English, French, Dutch, and Spanish languages. Of the Latin work there were many early editions, but Panzer notices none before 1480. The edition of Wynkyn de Worde was printed from a translation by John Trevisa. Jehan Corbichon, an Augustine monk, translated it into French, by order of Charles V.
