Chapter I: Page

Strasbourg and its Cathedral.--Gutenberg’s Early Life.--Civil
Strife.--Romantic Lawsuit 7

II.

Gutenberg in Exile.--His Trade as Lapidary.--Curious Law.--
Ancient Cuts.--A Picture of a Saint.--Legend.--The Bible
for the Poor.--A Secret discovered.--Gutenberg’s Experiment 14

III.

Ancient Books and their Materials.--Sculptures.--Printing in
China.--Use of Metals.--Seal.--Stencils.--Waxen Tablets.
--Bark, Leaves, Shells.--Papyrus.--Parchments.--Paper.
--Palimpsests.--Books written by Hand.--The Scriptorium.
--Copyists and their Habits.--Illuminations.--Character of
Ancient Books.--Scarcity and Costliness of Books.--Richard
de Bury and Library.--Statutes of St. Mary’s College.--Books
chained.--Abundance of Books in Modern Times 29

IV.

An Important Step.--Engraving a Name.--Engraving Pictures.--
Superstitions.--Difficulties overcome.--An Improvement.--
Experiment and Progress.--A New Book.--Cheerful Thoughts 45

V.

Pecuniary Troubles.--An Expedient.--Disappointment.--The
Jewels.--A Sale.--Apprentices.--Visit to the Cathedral.--
A New Enterprise 52

VI.

Unwelcome Visitors.--Unjust Demand.--A Compromise.--Secret
Firm.--A Removal.--Teaching the Workmen.--Block Printing.
--Success 61

VII.

Small Receipts.--Printing the “Donatus.”--“Ars Memorandi.”--
“Ars Moriendi.”--An Interesting Fact.--Extract from “Ars
Moriendi” 71

VIII.

Effect of Gutenberg’s Books.--His Times and Ours.--His Books at
the Cathedral.--Curiosity of the Monks.--Proposition of the
Abbot.--The “Bible for the Poor.”--A Great Work well done.--
A Good Sale.--The Canticles issued.--A Difficult Undertaking.
--Discontent.--An Accident.--Discovery of Separate Types.--
The First Font of Movable Type.--Difficulties mastered.--The
Great Helper 75

IX.

Anna’s Disappointment.--Dritzhn’s Regrets.--Comfort for Anna.
--Gutenberg’s Progress described.--The Great Enlightener.--
Advantages of Movable Type.--Another Book.--Obstacles.--
Criticisms.--Invention.--A Press contrived.--New Cause of
Disquiet 92

X.

A Partner at the Confessional.--His Death.--Consequences.--A
Lawsuit.--Thieves.--Dangerous Curiosity.--Destruction of
Gutenberg’s Type.--Curious Testimonies.--Value of the Legal
Document.--Proof that Gutenberg was the Real Inventor.--The
Magistrate’s Just Judgment.--Public Excitement 107

XI.

Benighted.--Minstrel of the Hearth.--The Black Art.--A
Barefoot Friar.--Popular Prejudice.--Hopes and Fears.
--Gutenberg returns to his Trade.--Dissolution of the
Copartnership 118

XII.

Congenial Quiet.--Making Type again.--Gutenberg issues
“Absies.”--Peter Schoeffer.--Decides to remove to Mentz.--
Emotions of Gutenberg.--Fraternal Sympathy.--The Meeting
with Faust.--Gutenberg reveals his Art.--A Rich Partner 127

XIII.

The Zum Jungen.--The Old Valet.--A Happy Change.--Going over
the Process anew.--Good Progress.--Peter Schoeffer 140

XIV.

Working of the Press.--The Medallion.--An Acquisition.--
Experiments.--A Failure.--Schoeffer’s Invention.--Discovery
of Cast Metal Type 148

XV.

Schoeffer admitted to the Firm.--A Grand Project.--How a Bible
was borrowed.--The Early Press.--Processes in Bookmaking.--
Ingenuity of Peter Schoeffer.--Industry of the Firm.--Ink.--
Cast Type.--Three Ingenious Men.--Letter-founding.--Faust
compliments Peter.--The first Printed Page of the Bible.--A
Memorable Year 155

XVI.

Faust’s Discontent.--Conspiracy against Gutenberg.--A Secret
kept.--The Lawsuit.--Gutenberg supplanted.--A New Firm.--
Gutenberg’s Sorrow 168

XVII.

The Story of Faust’s Visit to Paris.--Was it Witchcraft?--
Popular Excitement.--Scene in a Court Room.--Issue of the
Psalter 182

XVIII.

New Friends.--The Nun.--Gutenberg at Work again.--Printing of
the “Balbus de Janua.”--Other Works.--A Curious Record.--
Death of the Great Inventor.--Fadeless Laurels 192

XIX.

Faust and Schoeffer’s Success.--More Books issued.--An Eventful
Year.--Greek Type.--Struck by the Plague.--The Parisians
and Faust’s Descendants.--Schoeffer’s Death.--Testimony
to Gutenberg.--Extension of the Art.--Piety and Chess.--
Education in the Olden Time.--Unveiling the Statue 206

XX.

Peculiarities of the First Printed Books.--Early Printers.--
Piety and Chess.--Education in the Olden Time.--A Great
Enterprise.--Unveiling Gutenberg’s Statue 217

XXI.

Modes of making Type.--Varieties of Type.--Cylindrical
Ink-distributor.--A Modern Printing Establishment.--
Composition Room.--Cases.--Proof-reading 225

XXII.

Type-setting by Machinery.--Its Practicability.--Various
Machines devised.--The Brown Type-setter and Distributer
described.--Simplicity.--Reliability.--Speed 235

XXIII.

Stereotyping.--Plaster Moulds.--Planing and Beveling.--
Correcting Stereotype Plates.--Process of Electrotyping.--The
“Guillotine.”--Ornamenting 247

XXIV.

The Hand-press.--Earl Stanhope’s Press.--Improvements.--
Cylinder Presses.--Press-room.--Drying Room.--Sewing Room.
--Elevator.--Books for the Blind.--Type, Press, and Paper
invented.--Catalogue of Great Exhibition.--Estimate of Rapid
Labor by Machinery 263

XXV.

Time of the Great Invention.--A First Gift.--Discovery of the
Alphabet.--A New Era.--Royal Printers.--Knights of Type
and Pen.--A Mighty Engine.--Gutenberg’s Dream.--The Press
mighty 281

GUTENBERG,

AND

THE ART OF PRINTING.

I.

Strasbourg and its Cathedral.--Gutenberg’s Early Life.--Civil
Strife.--Romantic Lawsuit.

Who has not heard of the noble Rhine, which winds many hundred miles through Central Europe? Castles, vineyards, farms, and forests, with now and then a village or a city, diversify its banks.

Prominent among its cities is Strasbourg; a strongly fortified border town, founded ages ago by the Romans, but held recently by France. It was an imperial city of the German empire in 1681, when Louis XIV. got possession of it, by an unwarrantable attack in a time of peace. It is in shape a triangle, with walls six miles in circuit, entered by seven gates. The fortifications extend to the Rhine, although the main city, of 85,000 inhabitants, is situated a mile and a half back on the Ill, a branch of the Rhine. The tourist, while still far distant, sees the spire of the famous Cathedral, Nôtre Dame. It is the highest spire in the world, a masterpiece of airy open-work, of elaborate tracery and delicate workmanship, towering aloft four hundred and sixty-six feet, twenty-four feet higher than the great Pyramid of Egypt, and more than twice as high as Bunker Hill Monument. The great Minster of which it is a part, was nine hundred years in building, and was finished shortly before our story begins. When the late war came, the Rhine, Strasbourg, and its Cathedral, were not wholly unlike what they were at that time,--four hundred and thirty-five years ago. It is true, railroad trains would shriek on either side of the river, and gaudy steamers bustle up and down, and occasionally a “water-cure” or a “juvenile reformatory” meet the eye, signs of modern progress; but in strange contrast with these the Roman and mediæval remains. Rhineland is at once ancient and modern. Here are “ruins of the Middle Ages, and marks of the French Revolution; the bones of great feudal giants, and scars of modern disturbance.” The old homes of the warlike barons still stand, and the incense-flavored churches, whose corner-stones were laid in the dim past.

It is in the year 1436; and the visitor, if he approaches the city from the French side, before entering the west gate will be sure to seek out John Gutenberg, a noted man who lives in the suburbs in yonder pretty cottage, half hidden in ivy and honeysuckle, and the ancient turrets of St. Arbogast Monastery, not a stone’s throw distant, frowning upon it. There is a woman of taste within; the well-trained vines speak of her, as do the tulips and wall-flowers. And the eye glances admiringly from these to the apple-trees, with their wealth of blossoms, and the lilacs, jubilant with plumes.

Gutenberg was born at Mentz, a free and rich city on the Rhine, about the year 1400, and, when yet a young man, fled, on account of political dissensions, to Strasbourg, sixty miles distant. Of his childhood little is known; yet some German and other writers draw pleasing pictures of his youth. They represent him as high-spirited, thoughtful, and devout; influenced by a desire that good books might be made common, and as having “a foreseeing consciousness” of the part he was to act in bringing it about. “He said to himself, from his earliest years,” says one of his biographers, “God suffers in the great multitudes whom his sacred word cannot reach. Religious truth is captive in a small number of manuscript books, which guard the common treasure, instead of diffusing it. Let us break the seal which holds the holy things; give wings to the truth, that by means of speech, no longer written at great expense by the hand that wearies itself, but multiplied as the air by an unwearied machine, it may fly to seek every soul born into the world!”

If this was true of Gutenberg while young, no wonder that his manhood was crowned so gloriously. He placed before himself at the outset a great and worthy object; he felt through life the thrill of an inspiring purpose, which stimulated and ennobled his nature, and tended naturally to success. Had he, like thousands, been contented to drift through the world with the current wherever it chanced to bear him, living for himself and the fleeting present, never should we have heard of John Gutenberg.

But there is a fact in Gutenberg’s early history which does not seem to present him in an amiable light, as he figures in a lawsuit, having been sued by the father of his betrothed, to compel him to fulfill his promise of marriage. There is, however, no evidence that Gutenberg intended any wrong in this affair, as he sincerely loved Anna von Isernen Thür,[1] the young lady to whom he was engaged. She was of noble family, of the city of Strasbourg. His property had been confiscated in Mentz in the struggle between the plebeians and the nobility, and his failure in keeping his troth is attributed to his sensitiveness to his misfortunes.

[1] Family name, it is said, from the possession of a feudal
castle on the heights of the Rhine.

It has been remarked, that if Mentz, Gutenberg’s native place, had not been a free city, he might not have conceived or executed his invention; for despotism, like superstition, imposes silence. “It was fitting that printing and liberty should be born of the same sun and the same air.” Mentz, Strasbourg, Worms, and other municipal cities of the Rhine, were small federative republics; as Florence, Genoa, Venice, and the republics of Italy. The youth of our country find freedom favorable to thought and invention; thus young Gutenberg found it. Yet civil strife marked the history of those cities. “In them were the warlike nobility, the aspiring burghers, and the laboring people, who floated between these two contending classes, alternately caressed and oppressed by them, yet at times themselves striving for the supremacy. In these commotions, victory rested sometimes with the patrician, sometimes with the plebeian, and numbers on either side were from time to time outlawed. But these had not the sea to cross to fly the country; they traversed the Rhine. Those banished from Strasbourg, went to Mentz; those from Mentz, to Strasbourg, to await a turn of events, or the recall of the exiles.”

In these intestine quarrels, young Gutenberg, himself of the nobility, “and naturally combating for the cause most holy in the eyes of a son, that of a father,” was twice vanquished and expelled by the burghers, with all the chevaliers of the family,--his mother and sisters being permitted to remain in possession of their property. Later, the free city of Frankfort offering to mediate between the nobles and plebeians, it obtained the return of those who had been banished, on condition of the equality of the two classes in the administration of the government. Meanwhile Gutenberg, having become absorbed in his inventive studies, did not return; and his mother petitioned the Republic to give him as a pension a portion of the revenue of his confiscated property. Answer was given, that the refusing to return to his own country, by the young patrician, was a declaration of hostility; and he must therefore be treated as one of its enemies. So his mother continued to send him secret supplies from her own resources.

But the faithful Lady Anna did not seek to free herself from her plighted faith, because of the adversities of her lover. If he shrank from receiving her to the humble circumstances in which he had been thrown, she was still true to her vows. And as his humility and thoughtful scruples could not be overcome in any other way, she vanquished them by a legal summons; her father citing him before a magistrate of Strasbourg, to cause him to fulfill his promise of marriage. This summons of the Lady Anna to Gutenberg remains to-day as an authentic memorial of his marriage. For the faltering artisan yielded to “this generous violence of affection,” and consummated his happiness by marrying the fair plaintiff in the suit.

II.

Gutenberg in Exile.--His Trade as Lapidary.--Curious Law.--Ancient
Cuts.--Picture of a Saint.--Legend.--The Bible for the Poor.--A
Secret discovered.--Gutenberg’s Experiment.

After his banishment, Gutenberg was not an idler. During his exile, we are told that he devoted time to travelling from city to city, studying monuments, and visiting men celebrated in art, science, or handicraft. For not only was he educated, but he cultivated a literary taste, and had chosen a trade, that of the lapidary, or polisher of precious stones. Then, in Germany, the artisan, or one trained to a trade, and the artist, held nearly the same rank; since the trades, scarcely discovered, were confounded with the arts. Indeed, when the humbler professions brought forth their first _chefs-d’œuvre_, they were admired as prodigies, because new. The mechanic arts held an honorable place, only people of property being permitted to learn them; this matter being regulated by the statutes. Thus in England at that period it was decreed concerning persons whose income was less than twenty shillings by the year, “They shall be put to other labors, upon pain of one year’s imprisonment.”

Hence artisans were a wealthy and influential class in society, and, in some cases, with their daily occupation cultivated a love of knowledge. And Gutenberg, by learning the lapidary’s trade, did not descend to the lowest social level, while at the same time he acquired that mechanical skill which was afterwards to turn to the benefit of the whole human race.

He is pictured as occupying the front room of his dwelling as a work-shop, where he plied his trade during the day, and men of standing sought the society of the cultivated artisan, “so high a popularity did he enjoy in Strasbourg for his character and scholarship.”

At this time, he seemed scarcely thirty, although six years older; a health-tinted face, high fair forehead, large blue expressive eyes, gave him a youthful look. The precise turn of his chin was hidden in a thick tawny beard. There was an air of grave thoughtfulness about him, as if he was influenced by some earnest purpose.

One evening, just after supper, the serving woman Elsie having cleared the table and swept the hearth, Gutenberg, always busy even in the cozy comfort of his fireside, became absorbed in examining a playing-card. The Lady Anna was seated beside him, and after a little time looked up from her work, and said in her own pleasant way,--

“Prithee, John, what marvel dost thou find in that card? One would think it the face of a saint, so closely thou dost regard it.”

“Nay, little wife; but didst thou ever consider in what way this is made?”

“I suppose that it was drawn in outline, and then painted, like other pictures.”

“But there is a more excellent way,” said Gutenberg. “These lines, I find, were first marked on a wooden block, and then the wood was cut away, so that they were left raised; this portion was then smeared with ink and pressed on the paper. And this, my Anna, is shorter than by drawing and painting, because when once a block is engraved, it can be used to impress any number of cards.”

Playing-cards were at this period in common use. Of their origin, there is some doubt. Some have supposed they were invented to amuse Charles VI., King of France, as early as 1393. They are mentioned at nearly the same date in the laws of both England and Spain.

The first cards made were doubtless painted with a stencil; that is, a piece of pasteboard or thin metal plate perforated with holes in the shape of the figures desired. The stencil being placed over paper, the color is applied with a brush, leaving the shape of the figures underneath. As they were so common and so cheap, it has been thought that the outline must have been made by some rude form of wood-engraving. There is proof that cards were _printed_ before the middle of the fifteenth century; for there is a petition extant from the Venetian painters to their magistracy, dated 1441, setting forth that the art and mystery of card-making and of printing figures, which was practiced in Venice, had fallen into decay, because of the large quantity of playing-cards and colored printed figures which were brought into the city. What foreigners brought them to Venice? Evidently the Germans; for they were the chief card-makers of the time. A wood-engraver is still called, in Germany, _Formschneider_, meaning figure-cutter; and this name is found in the town-books of Nuremburg as early as 1441.

As a specimen of the early cards,--which were very rude,--we have here the Knave of Bells.

Perhaps some may think Knave a good name for the article, in view of the characters who sometimes “play cards.” But this word had not always the same meaning. Originally, it signified a boy or young man, then a servant, and lastly a rogue.

“An unsightly figure,” said Anna, as she examined the one in her husband’s hand, “and not to be compared to our St. Christopher,”--glancing at the wall opposite, where hung a picture of the saint,--“which was made with a pen!”

“Nay, it was made from an engraved block, like the card,” said Gutenberg.

“Was our picture made in that manner?” eagerly asked the wife. “What an excellent art, since it keepeth before us the memory of the saints! The good St. Christopher!” she exclaimed, and with clasped hands for a moment gazed devoutly at the picture,--a curious wood-cut, representing the legendary saint in the act of carrying the infant Jesus across the sea; beneath, was the date, 1423. The art of engraving had doubtless existed long before, but this is the only positive proof that wood-engraving was used in devotional pictures at that early period. Some years after, the art made an onward and most important step,--an inscription being added to this picture; and the famous block books, complete with cuts and written explanations, appeared.

The picture Anna so earnestly regarded, was one of the later-date impressions, accompanied with a Latin legend. It was of folio size, and colored, like playing-cards. Beneath was the inscription, or legend:--

Christofori faciem die qua cumque tueris
Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris.
Millesimo cccc^o xx^o terno.
]

“We almost worshipped that picture in my father’s house,” said Anna; “but prithee tell me the meaning of the inscription; there was none upon ours.”

“It saith,” explained Gutenberg, “that one cannot be overtaken by evil, or die, on the day that he looks upon the face of this saint.”

“Since that is true, we do well to gaze upon the picture early and late,” remarked the wife.

“I revere the saint,” returned Gutenberg, smiling, “but am free to confess that I do not see how there can be any power to shield one from harm in simply looking at his picture. The good saint himself had not so easy a path to prosperity.”

“Pray tell me of him,” said she; “I do not remember to have heard the story since, when a little child, I sat upon my father’s knee.”

“I will even tell it to thee,” answered Gutenberg, “as I heard it in my childhood.

“Offerus, as he was called, was a giant soldier; a heathen, who lived in the land of Canaan. He had a body twelve ells long. He did not like to obey, but to command. He did not care what harm he did to others, but lived a wild life, attacking and plundering all who came in his way. He only wished for one thing: to sell his services to the mightiest. And he first engaged in the service of the Emperor,--having heard in those days that he was the head of Christendom,--yet was not bound by any promise. Thereupon he went with the Emperor through all the land, and the Emperor was delighted with him. All the soldiers in the combat were miserable, helpless creatures compared with Offerus, with his Samson strength, giant chest, and mighty fists. Once, at even-tide, they pitched the tents near a forest, when the Emperor, in the midst of his eating and drinking and the singing of the minstrel, bade Offerus and his comrades beware of the wicked fiend who was said often to haunt the forest with great rage and fury, adding, ‘Let alone the chase in this forest; for in filling thy larder, thou mightest harm thy soul.’ Then Offerus said, ‘I will enter the service of this lord, who is mightier than you,’ and thereupon took his departure, and strode off cheerily into the thickest depths of the forest. There on a coal black horse he saw a pitch-black rider, who rode at him furiously, and sought to bind him with solemn promises. But Offerus said, ‘We shall see!’ However, one day, as they went together through the kingdoms of the world, along the high road three tall crosses stood before them. The middle cross so appalled Satan that he shrunk away, saying, ‘The Son of Mary, the Lord Christ, now exercises great power.’ Said Offerus, ‘Now will I seek further for the mightiest, whom only I will serve,’ and asking every traveller he met where he dwelt. But alas! few have Him in their hearts, and no one could tell, until he was sent by a pious old hermit to a good priest, who showed him plainly the path of faith, and told him he must fast and pray, as John the Baptist did of old in the wilderness. But that advice was not to the giant’s liking; wherefore the prior said, ‘Give yourself up heartily to achieve some good work. See, there flows a mighty river, which hinders pilgrims on their way to Rome; it has neither ford nor bridge: carry the faithful over on thy back.’ ‘Ah, I have strength for that!’ said Offerus. ‘If I can please the Saviour in that way, willingly will I carry the travellers to and fro.’ And thereupon he built a hut of reeds, and dwelt among the water-rats and beavers on the river’s brink, carrying pilgrims over the river cheerfully, like a camel or an elephant. But if any one offered him ferry-money, he said, ‘I labor for eternal life!’ And when now, after many years, Offerus’s hair had grown white, one stormy night a plaintive little voice called to him, ‘Dear, good, tall Offerus, carry me across.’ Offerus was tired and sleepy; but he thought faithfully of Jesus Christ, and with weary arms seizing the pine-trunk which was his staff when the floods swelled high, he waded through the water, but saw no pilgrim there; so he thought, ‘I was dreaming,’ and went back and lay down to sleep. Again came the little voice, plaintive and touching, ‘Offerus, good, dear, great, tall Offerus, carry me across.’ Patiently the old giant crossed the river again; but neither man nor mouse was to be seen; and he went back again, and fell asleep, when once more came the little voice, clear, and plaintive, and imploring, “Good, dear, giant Offerus, carry me across.” The third time he seized his pine-stem, and went through the cold river. This time he found a tender, fair little boy, with golden hair. In his left hand was the standard of the Lamb; in his right, the globe. He looked at the giant with eyes full of love and trust, and Offerus lifted him up with two fingers; but when he entered the river, the little child weighed on him like a ton. Heavier and heavier grew the weight, until the water almost reached his chin; great drops of sweat stood on his brow, and he had nearly sunk in the stream with the little one. However, he struggled through, and, tottering to the other side, set the child gently down on the bank, and said, ‘My little Lord, prithee, come not this way again, for scarcely have I escaped this time with life.’ But the fair child baptized Offerus on the spot, and said to him, ‘Know, all thy sins are forgiven; and, although thy limbs tottered, fear not, nor marvel, but rejoice; thou hast carried the Saviour of the world! For a token, plant thy pine-trunk, so long dead and leafless, in the earth; to-morrow it shall shoot out green twigs. And henceforth thou shalt not be called Offerus, but Christopher.’ Then Christopher folded his arms, and prayed, and said, ‘I feel my end draws nigh. My limbs tremble; my strength fails; and God has forgiven me all my sins.’ Thereupon the child vanished in light; and Christopher set his staff in the earth. And so, on the morrow, it shot out green leaves and red blossoms, like an almond. And three days afterwards the angels carried Christopher to Paradise.”

Anna’s eyes swam in tears as Gutenberg finished his graphic and touching rehearsal, and she said, “A most hopeful history. May you, my husband, worthily achieve some good work, like St. Christopher!”

“Aye, dear; and, God helping me I will do something: the world is full of useful labor, which calleth for willing hearts and hands. And the Lord Christ meeteth with his blessing the patient laborers who faint not.”

“I can never think,” said the wife, “of equaling St. Christopher or thee in good works, since I am neither strong nor wise; but I will even do what I can, and help thee bear thy burdens. But it may be the gentle Christ will freely _give_ me eternal life, since I have no means to purchase it.”

“Aye, Anna, that would be so like Him: and to me also, for I am no saint, and dare not hope to be.”

“But I value the picture the more since your recital,” said Anna. “Even if it cannot, as you think, preserve us from evil, it can incite us to persevere in doing well.”

“Aye, dear,” rejoined Gutenberg, “and devotional pictures like this are much to be prized; they in some sort fill the place of books, which are so rare and costly. But valuable as this picture is, I found it surpassed in the Cathedral. Dost remember I carried thither the jewels which the Abbot employed me to polish? He took me into the library, and showed me books of engraved pictures, each far more excellent than our ‘St. Christopher.’ These books were the ‘Ars Memorandi,’ ‘Ars Moriendi,’ and ‘Biblia Pauperum,’ which last consists of forty pictures, with written explanations.”

“Truly a marvel,--a book of pictures! And what do they signify?”

“The ‘Biblia Pauperum,’ or ‘Bible for the Poor,’ is a history or series of sketches from the Old and New Testaments; it is sometimes so called instead of the name I first mentioned.”

“Aye, I remember to have heard of it, but would fain learn more about it.”

“Its forty pictures were made by impressing paper with engraved blocks, as in the ‘St. Christopher.’ The color is brown, the pictures are placed opposite each other, and the blank backs are pasted together into one strong leaf.”

“Pray, how large are the pictures?” and her interest growing with her husband’s recital, she quite forgot the work on which she was engaged, as he went on to say,--

“They are each ten inches high and seven or eight inches wide, and consist of three pictures which are separated by lines; and, moreover, there are four half-length figures of prophets, two above and two below the larger pictures. Latin inscriptions are on each side of the upper figures, also verses in rhyme on each side of the lower, and other sentences on labels at the bottom of the whole.”

“Wonderful truly! and what more?”

“The middle pictures are from the New Testament, the others from the Old; and the latter in some way allude to or explain the former.”

“But what interests me most in this book,” added Gutenberg, “is the fact that it is printed from blocks, like the ‘St. Christopher.’”

“Dost thou truly think so? Art thou well advised that it is not the handicraft of a skillful scribe?”

“Assuredly I am; it was not made with a pen, but with the engraved blocks, which are to be chosen rather than the slower mode of copying, since being once for all engraved, a number of books can be imprinted as easily as one.”

“Aye,” returned Anna, “and they will be cheaper than the works written out by the scribes, and still be so dear that whoever maketh them must become enriched by their sale. If thou art taken with this tide, it will lead thee on to fortune. Thou art ingenious; and canst thou not make a ‘Biblia Pauperum?’”

“A ‘Biblia Pauperum!’ Little wife, thou must be dreaming.” And Gutenberg saw that she had penetrated his secret.

“But couldst thou not?” she persisted archly; “thou art so wise at devising things difficult to be accomplished.”

Gutenberg laughed, saying, “I will even bethink me of it when nothing of more service can be done.”

But although the suggestion of Anna had been treated as a new and impracticable idea, it was one, as she had divined, that Gutenberg was revolving; and seizing the first leisure hour, he commenced engraving a block, choosing for his subject as simplest and nearest at hand, one of the images of the playing cards.

Anna’s estimate of Gutenberg was just. He had a passion for mechanical studies; and history tells us that “he invented many wonderful arts,” some of which were connected with his occupation. Not content with following the beaten track, his mind was fertile in expedients for saving labor and perfecting his work. He devised ways to improve the process of polishing stones and mirrors; and these new methods were ranked by the observing among his “arts.” These “arts” were stepping-stones to something better and higher--to the crowning discovery of his life. The great art could only be reached by patiently ascending to it through many lower steps of toil and invention. “It seems,” says one, “that every advancement of humanity is purchased with tears, and that suffering is the fatal law of all great beginnings.”

But how eventful the path he trod, we shall see as we progress.

(Specimen of early engraving.)]

III.

Ancient Books and their Materials.--Sculptures.--Printing
in China.--Use of Metals.--Seal.--Stencils.--Waxen Tablets.--
Bark, Leaves, Shells.--Papyrus.--Parchments.--Paper.--Palimpsests.
--Books written by Hand.--The Scriptorium.--Copyists and their
Habits.--Illuminations.--Character of Ancient Books.--Scarcity
and Costliness of Books.--Richard de Bury and Library.--Statutes
of St. Mary’s College.--Books Chained.--Abundance of Books in
Modern Times.

Leaving Gutenberg occupied with his experiment, let us glance briefly at the books of that day, and the modes in which they were made and given to the world.

The most ancient materials used for recording events were bricks, tiles, shells, and tables of stone. The modes of writing on these different substances were various. The tiles and brick were impressed with a stamp when in a soft state; the shells and tablets of stone were etched or graven, the figures or characters being cut in their surface, and in some cases also stained with various colors. It was by the ancient art of stamping that the walls, palaces, and towers of Babylon were covered with hieroglyphics, which have but recently been brought to light from under the immense mounds of Mesopotamia by Layard and other explorers.

The patriarch Job, who is supposed to have lived about 2,300 years after the creation, exclaimed, “O that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen, and hid in the rock forever!” Stung with the unjust accusation of his friends, he desires to record his words that the generations following might see the justice of his cause. The English translation has given the allusion to printing to the text, the original word signifying rather to ingrave on a plate, which was doubtless the only printing known to Job.

Montfauçon purchased at Rome in 1699 an ancient book entirely composed of lead. It was about four inches long and three inches wide; and not only were the two pieces that formed the cover, and the leaves, six in number, of lead, but also the stick inserted through the rings to hold the leaves together, as well as the hinges and nails. It contained figures of Egyptian idols, and unintelligible writing.

China, our ancestor in invention, from remote ages had a kind of stereotyping or printing. It was not, however, as some have supposed, like our printing, phonetic, or the expression of sound, but, like the Egyptian, hieroglyphical; being purely of an artificial structure, denoting every idea by its appropriate sign without any relation to the utterance, and speaking to the eye like the numerical ciphers of the Europeans, which every one understands and utters in his own way. And like most other nations of antiquity, the Chinese were content to remain without alphabetical writing. It is, however, due to the Chinese to add, that they led the way in making good printing-paper. When they invented making it, does not appear, some affirming that they had the use of it from time immemorial; others that they first discovered it in the second century of the Christian era.

Brass, as more durable, was used for inscriptions designed to last the longest, such as treaties, laws, and alliances. Seals, also, were used by the ancients for impressing soft substances. In the British Museum there is a stamp of metal with raised letters. On the back of it is a ring, enabling the owner to wear it as a signet; his name, Caius Julius Cæcilius Hermias, being engraved in reversed letters upon it.

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| CICAECILI |
| HERMIAE.SN. |
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Expanded according to the modern practice, the signet reads:--