ecclesiastical robes were interwoven with pearls, and the windows were large, and glazed. The dormitory of the monastery was capable of containing eight hundred monks; the offices were magnificently constructed; the cloister enclosed an extensive garden; and on its lofty walls the whole of the Old and New Testaments was inscribed, in characters rendered sufficiently legible, by increasing in magnitude in proportion to their distance and height.* The Calixtines, having obtained the use of the eucharistical cup by papal permission, soon began to persecute, in their turn, the Taborites; who in many points resembled the Waldenses, and who having laid aside their martial principles, were become more moderate, and more deeply pious. Various sorts of torture were inflicted on them, numbers were barbarously murdered, and many died in prison; the sick were thrown into the open fields, where many perished with cold and hunger; and others were expelled from the cities and villages, with the forfeiture of all their effects. Thus driven from their homes, they were obliged to hide themselves in mountains and woods; and to escape detection by the smoke, to kindle no fires, except in the night, when they met to pray, and read the WORD OF GOD. In 1480, they received a great increase of their numbers, from the accession of Waldensian refugees, who escaped out of Austria, where their bishop, Stephen, had been burnt alive, and where a dreadful persecution had been raised against them. From these Bohemian refugees, the Moravians, or United Brethren, are descended, deriving the former term from the country they inhabited, and the latter from their brotherly union in the plan of discipline, &c., formed in 1457, by Gregory, the founder of the unity.† Such were the noble struggles for the truth, and for the Holy Scriptures, as the grand rule of faith and practice, made by these ancient worthies: but the papal authorities knew too well, that their deeds could not bear the light, and therefore sought their safety in darkness. A striking instance of this occurred in 1418, when Eric, of Pomerania, requested permission from Pope Martin V. to found a university at Copenhagen, and only obtained it, on the express condition, that the Holy Scriptures should neither be read nor explained in it, but that the lectures should be confined to profane literature ! * Æneæ Sylvii Historia Bohemica, cap. xxxvi, pp. 74, 75. Earberry's Pretended Reformers, b. ii, p. 10. † Milner's Hist. of the Church of Christ, vol. iv, cent. xv, ch. iii, passim. Dr. Henderson's MS. Hist. of Danish Versions, in wich he refers to Pontoppidan's Annal. Eccles. Dan., vol. ii, p. 521. Other difficulties, also, besides those arising from papal opposition, presented themselves to such as were desirous of reading the Scriptures; for copies of them were rare and expensive, and could seldom be obtained but by the wealthy; except when the indefatigable advocates of gospel purity happened to have the opportunity, possessed the ability, and submitted to the labour of transcribing. Even those who had acquired the important art of writing, obtained with difficulty the materials requisite for transcription or epistolary correspondence.* Happily about this period the noble and important ART OF PRINTING was discovered, and the sources of knowledge soon became comparatively easy of access. Our honest martyrologist thus enumerates the advantages resulting from this incomparable invention: "Hereby tongues are known, knowledge groweth, judgment increaseth, books are dispersed, the Scripture is seen, the doctors be read, stories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falsehood detected, and with finger pointed, and all through the benefit of printing. Wherefore, I suppose that either the pope must abolish printing. or he must seek a new world to reign over: or else, as this world standeth, printing doubtless will abolish him. Both the pope, and all his college of cardinals, must this understand, that through the light of printing the world beginneth now to have eyes to see, and heads to judge. He cannot walk so invisibly in a net, but he will be spied. And although, through might, he stopped the mouth of John Huss before, and of Jerome, that they might not preach, thinking to make his kingdom sure: yet, instead of John Huss, and others, God hath opened the PRESS to preach, whose voice the pope is never able to stop, with all the puissance of his triple. crown. By this printing, as by the gift of tongues, and as by the singular organ of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the gospel soundeth to all nations and countries under heaven: and what God revealeth to one man is dispersed to many, and what is known in one nation is open to all."t * Beckman's History of Inventions, vol. ii, p. 223. 1 PART III. FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. CHAPTER I. FIFTEENTH CENTURY CONTINUED. Invention of Printing-Early Printers-First printed Bibles-Book Censors-Indices Expurgatorii-Licensers of the Press. PRINTING appears to be indebted for its origin to the art of engraving on wood, which was probably borrowed from the Chinese, among whom it was in use from the remotest periods. The first attempts at block-printing, in Europe, were made about the commencement of the fifteenth century, by the manufacturers of playing cards, who, after having employed blocks, or woodengravings for their cards, began to engrave on wood the images of the saints, which the clergy distributed on certain occasions to the people. Prints of this description, of the same size as the playing cards, representing different subjects of sacred history and devotion, with a text analogous to the subject, opposite to the figure, are preserved in the library of Wolfenbuttle. But that they also engraved images of a larger size is proved by the very curious wood-cut of St. Christopher, found by Baron Heinecken, in the convent of the Chartreux, at Buxheim, near Memmingen, and now in the superb collection of Earl Spencer; a fac-simile of which is given in Dibdin's splendid Bibliotheca Spenceriana. From the inscription engraved and printed at the foot of the print, it is proved to have been executed A. D. 1423.* To the images of the saints succeeded historical subjects, chiefly Biblical or devotional, generally denominated Books of Images, with a text or explanation engraven on the same tablet, the fullest account of which is given by Baron Heinecken, in his Idée Generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes, avec une dissertation sur l'origine de la Gravure, et sur les premiers Livres des Images. Leipsic et Vienne, 1771, 8vo. A judicious abridgment of this work, so far as refers to Books of Images, with corrections and notices of recently discovered works of this description, is contained in the appendix to * Heinecken, Idée Generale d'Estampes, pp. 246, 248–251. Horne's "Introduction to the Study of Bibliography," and is accompanied with a fac-simile of the first plate of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, supposed to have been executed between the years 1440 and 1457; and another of the Biblia Pauperum, supposed to have been executed between A. D. 1420 and 1425. Several facsimiles of works of this nature are engraved from rare copies in the possession of Earl Spencer, in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, with bibliographical descriptions by the ingenious editor. Of all the xylographic works, that is, such as are printed from wooden tablets, the Biblia Pauperum, and the Speculum Salvationis, are the most celebrated. The BIBLIA PAUPERUM, which consists of forty plates of Biblical subjects, with analogous extracts and sentences, is unquestionably a very rare and ancient book. The few copies of it which are now extant, are, for the most part, either imperfect, or in a very bad condition; which ought not to excite surprise, when it is considered that this work was executed for the use of young persons and common people, (whence its name, the Bible of the Poor,) who were thus enabled to acquire at a low price a knowledge of some of the events recorded in the Scriptures. This will account for the destruction of almost every copy, by repeated use; for in those times, when the present art of printing was unknown, there were but few persons who could afford to give a hundred louis d'or for the manuscript of a complete Bible. A somewhat later edition has fifty instead of forty plates. The SPECULUM HUMANE SALVATIONIS, or as it is frequently termed, Speculum Salutis, is confessedly, both in its design and execution, the most perfect of all the ancient Books of Images which preceded the invention of printing. This compilation, which is in small folio, is a collection of historical passages from the Scriptures, with a few from profane history, which allude to them; and is ascribed by Heinecken (and after him by Lambinet) to a Benedictine monk, named brother John, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. So popular was this Mirror of Salvation, that it was translated into the German, Flemish, and other languages, and very frequently printed. The preface is printed with fusile types. These Books of Images, chiefly executed in Holland,† though generally regarded as the first attempts of printing, were neverthe * Horne's Introduction to Bibliography, vol. ii, App., pp. ii, x. + It is probable that many of these Books of Images were printed at Haerlem, and that from hence arose the opinion, that LAWRENS COSTER of Haerlem was the inventor of printing. See Horne's Introduction to Bibliography, vol. i, pp. 145-154; and Classical Journal, vol. xxi, No. 41, pp. 117-137. Lond., 1820. less a different art from the modern printing, which consists in the use of separate moveable types; which at first were cut in wood, afterward in metal, and the art at length completed by the invention of founding types in moulds or matrices. For the invention of moveable types we are indebted to John Guttenberg, of Mayence, or Mentz, a celebrated town in Germany. HENNE GOENSFLEISCH de Sulgeloch, or Sorgenloch, commonly called JOHN GUTENBERG, was born at Mentz, of noble and wealthy parents, about the year 1400. In the year 1424 he took up his residence at Strasburg, as a merchant. The abbé Mauro Boni says, that "stimulated by his genius to discover something new," he travelled in his youth through various countries, where he learned several arts unknown to the Germans. In 1430 he returned to his native city, as is evident from a deed of accommodation between himself and the nobles and burghers of the city of Mentz. A document adduced by Schoepflin proves him to have been a wealthy man in 1434. Between that period and 1439 he had conceived, and perhaps made some few trials of the art of printing with moveable, and probably with metal types, though his first attempts are supposed to have been with moveable characters cut in wood. In the year 1441-2 Gutenberg lived at Strasburg, where he continued till about 1443, when he returned again to Mentz, and toward the year 1450 appears to have opened his mind fully to FUST, a goldsmith, of the same place, and prevailed on him to advance large sums of money, in order to make further and more complete trials of the art. Between the years 1450 and 1455 the celebrated BIBLE of six hundred and thirty-seven leaves, the first important specimen of printing with metal types, was executed between Gutenberg and Fust.† * This Bible, the first ever printed, is an edition of the LATIN VULGATE. It forms two volumes, in folio, is printed in the large Gothic or German character, and is said to be "justly praised for the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register, the lustre of the ink, and the general beauty and magnificence of the volumes." It is without date, a circumstance which has occa * Santander observes, that moveable wooden types could not have been used in printing any work, owing to their fragile and spongy nature, which rendered them liable to be easily broken, as well as constantly subject to contraction or dilation. See Santander, Dict. Bibliographique, tom. i, p. 80, note 47. + Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, vol. i, p. lxxxvii, note. Santander, Dictionnaire Bibliographique choisi du quinzieme siècle, tom. i, ch. i, pp. 10-107. Bruxelles et Paris, 1805, 8vo. |