HISTORY OF PRINTING.
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The honor of having given existence to
the present method Of printing has been
claimed by the cities Of Haerlcm, Mentz
and Strasburg: and to each Of these il may
be applied in a qualified sense, as they
seserally made many improvements upon
one another. in the art. But the origin,
however, of printing, was at Haerlem: the
first book was printed in the year 1880; and
to Lawrence Coster, of that city, is this
discovery to be ascribed; although there is
no doubt, that soon after, Guttemburg, as
well as Faust and Schoeffer, who invented
aae--d types, the first types being Of srood,
all added materially 20 the perfection Of
this important discovery. Itis said, indeed,
that Guttemburg not only inrented movea-
bic types, but that he began his expert
ments at Strasbury,, and completed them at
MentZ; il is also said that Coster's method
was to cut out the letters upon a wooden
block; that he took for apprentice John
Faust or Faustus, md bound him TO secrecy,
but that Faust. notwithstanding his oath,
went off, not only with the knowledge Of
the art, but with the types and all the inn
plements Of his master; first to Amsterdam,
thence TO Cologne, and afterwards to Mentz.
Here, assisted by Schoeficr, they printed
number of Bibles in imitation of manu-.
script, and Faust carried them to Paris for
sale. The Parisians were astonished at
their exact similarity, and accused Faust of
some diabolical art; hence the origin Of the
story of the Devil and DIR. FaustiIs. Wood
en- types not being found sufficiently dura-
bic, and not answering expectations in
other respects, ii caused the first invention
ofcu metal types. The honor Of compile
ting the discovery is therefore due To Peter
Schoefier, who found out the method of for
ming the characters in a matrice, that the
letters might be cast singly, instead OF being
cut. He privately cut matrices for the
whole alphabet; and when he showed his
master Faust, who appears 70 have assisted
Guttemburg in his attempts to bring the art
to perfection, the letters cast from these ma
trices, Faust was 50 pleased with the CON
trivance, that he promised to Peter his only
daughter in marriage; promise which he
SOON after performed. Faust and Schoeffer
concealed this new improvement, by admin
Istering an oath Of secrecy to all whom they
entrusted, till the year 1862. when, by the
disposition of their servants into different
countries, at the sacking OF Mentz, by the
Archbishop Adolphus, the invention was
publicly divulged.