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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
was manifestly written much earlier. Our au- thor refers to sir Nicholas Bacon, vho began to he high in the department of the law in queen Mary s time, and died in 1579. See page 1 16, where Puttenham tells a story, from lus own Imowledge, in the year 1553, of a ridiculous oration made in parliament by a new speaker of the house of commons, &c.
In a copy of this book, formerly belonging to Ben Jonson, is the following list of the works of Puttenham. The list is in the hand-writing of old Ben himself.
Hierotechini. A Bri^e Romance of the Isle of G. Brittyn. Trinmphallet. GytuBcoeratia. The OriginaU and Pedigree of the Engl. Toung. The Enter-view of two great Princesses. Elpine, an Eclogue. Lnstie London, an Enterlvde. Epitaphi Partheniades. The Wooer, an Enter- lude. Minerva an Hymne. Philoealia. A Book de Decoro.
Webster Puttenham was a travelled courtier, and has interspersed his carious work with many lively anecdotes of the times.
1589. Certaine articles collected, and (as it is thought) by the byshops out of a liUe boke entituled. An admonition to the parlieanent, wyth an answere to the same ; containing a confirma- tion of the said booke in shorte notes. Esay. v. ^ 20. The prynter to the reader :
IUb waike i» iyiiistaed thankes b« to Ood, And be onljr wll keepe us from the searchers rod. And Uiough master DB7, and Toye, watch and war ' We hope the living God is our sauegarde.
Let U>em seek, loke, and doe now what the; can. It Is but innentlons, and pollices of man. But you wU maruel where it was finished. And yon shall know(percbance)when domesday is ended. Imprinted we know when, and whan Jndge you the place and you can.^J.T. J. S.*
/> 1589. TTie Spanish Masgnerado, wherein,
under a pleasant Device, is discovered effectuallie in certaine hriefe Sentences and Mottos, the pride and insoletieie of the Spanish Estate; with the disgrace conceived hy their losse, and the dis- mayed confusion oj their troubled thoughts. Whereunlo by the Author, for the better under- standinge of his device, is added a breefe Glosse. By Robert Greene, in Artibus Magister.
Twelve articles of the state of Spaine.
The CardinallM MOlUcUe ail.
The King grauntea all.
The Nobta confirme all.
The Pope determines all.
The Cleargie ditpoteth all.
The Duke of Medina hopes for alt.
Atonn receives alt.
The Indiana miniiier alt.
The Souldiowrs eat all.
The People pale all.
The Menkes and Friers consume all.
And the Devill at length will carry aumv all.
This Tract is thus inscribed.
To t/te right worshipful M. Hugh OfUy, Sheriffe of the Citie of London, Robert Greene witheth increase of worship and verlue.
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- This Is one of the Marprelate Tracts.
1589, iXerf, Christopher PLANTiN,thejustlv celebrated printer at Antwerp, the beauty anJ correctness of whose workmanship is attested by numerous publications in almost every branch of literature. He was born at Mont Ix>uis, near Tours, in France, in the vear 1514, and was instructed in the typographic art under Robert Mstci, the king's printer at Caen, from whence he went to Antwerp, and formed by degrees one of the greatest establishments for printing in Europe, and said indeed te be unique. The earliest production of his press is a piece trans- lated from the Italian, entitled. La institutione di una fanciulla nota nobilmente, bearing his imprint, with the date 1555. It is a small duo- decimo of sixty pages, and is expressly named by Plantin, in the dedication, as the first-ii-uits 01 his press : cesttty premier bourjon tortant du jardin de man imprimerie.
" I am well aware," says Scribanius, " that many illustrious men have flourished as printers ; I have known the Alduses from Italy — the Fro- bens from Germany — and the Stepbenses from France ; but these are all eclipsed in the single name of Plantin ! If they were the stars of their own hemispheres, you, Plantin, are the sun — ^not of Antwerp, nor of Belgium only — but of the world." His office was upon the most magni- ficent 8cale,and even the building was accounted one of the ornaments of the city of Antwerp, and was so amply furnished with presses, founts of letter of all sorts, and a foundery, as to have cost an immense sum of money. It is stated that Plantin's ideas were so magnificent, as that he cast some founts in silver, and considered himself as having in that respect done what no other printer had attempted ; but this is a mis- take, as Robert Stephens had before indulged himself in the luxury of silver types, although not so rich a man as Plantin. In its prosperous days,upwards of one hundred golden crowns PER DAY were spent in the pajrment of correctors and pressmen. When the celebrated De Thou paid him a visit, in 1576, he had seventeen presses at work, and the wages of his workmen amounted to 200 florins (or £17 Is. 8d. sterling) a-day. But what redounds most to his credit, was the number of the men of learning whom he retained in his service, and rewarded with great liberality for their assistance in correcting them. Among these were Victor Giselin, Theo- dore Pulman, Antony Gesdal, Francis Har- douin, Cornelius Kilien, and Francis Raphe- leng, who became his son-in-law. Cornelius Kilien, one of the most learned and accurate of them, spent fifty years in this printing-house. It is added that he was so fastidious as not alto- gether to trust to the assistance he received, nor even to rely on his own skill and knowledge, .-both of which were great, but used also to hang up the proof sheets, often undergoing every possible degree of correction, in some conspicu- ous place, promising reward for the detection of errors. In this likewise, he followed the example of Robert Stephens. The king of Spain gave him the title of archi-typograpbus, and accom-
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