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276 General History of Europe precisely alike. Even with the greatest care a scribe could not avoid making some mistakes, and a careless copyist was sure to make a great many. With the invention of printing it became possible to produce in a short time a great many copies of a book which were exactly alike. Consequently, if _ ma-mbwaiionibufcp faffmmtrrDiftmttua; flDmufnfonfarrifiriorairnprimmDiarrarartfnsanDi: abf^Dlla ralami ffararonr fir f tfitjiarue -rr a& lauttm Jlnno Dnipliefimo mrli?'frir'0if -mmfw Jtogulli, CLOSING LINES OF THE PSALTER OF 1459. (Mucn REDUCED) The closing lines (that is, the so-called colophon) of the second edition of the Psalter, which are here reproduced, are substantially the same as those of the first edition. They may be translated as follows: "The present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome capitals and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by writing with a pen but by an ingenious invention of printed characters ; and was completed to the glory of God and the honor of St. James by John Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year of our Lord 1459, on the 2gth of August" sufficient care was taken to see that the types were properly set, the whole edition, not simply a single copy, might be relied upon as correct. 460. Paper introduced into Western Europe. After the supply of papyrus the paper of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans was cut off from Europe by the conquest of Egypt by the Moham- medans the people of the Middle Ages used parchment, made from the skin of lambs and goats. This was so expensive that printing would have been of but little use, even if it had been thought of, until paper invented by the Chinese was introduced into Europe by the Mohammedans. Paper began to become common