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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
spiritual guide and teacher, — and tbe people would have bibles. The first English bible was bought up and burnt; those who bought the bibles contributed capital for making new bibles, and those who burnt the bibles advertised them ; and so great was the rush for this new supply of the most important knowledge, that we have existing three hundred and twenty-six editions of the English bible, or parts of the bible, printed between the years 1626 and 1600. Books be- came, also, during the first fifty years of English printing, the tools of professional men. There were not many works on medicine, but a great many on law. The people, too, required instruc- tion in the ordinances they were called upon to obey ; — and thus the statutes, mostlv written in French, were translated and abridged by Rastell, our first law-printer. Our early printers did not attempt what the Alduses, and Stephenses, and Plantins, with other continental printers, were doing for the ancient classics. Down to 1640 no Greek book had appeared from an English press. Oxford had only printed a part of Cicero's Spittla, executed at the expense of cardinal Wolsey ; Cambridge, no ancient writer what- ever : — only three or four old Roman writers had been reprinted at that period throughout England. The exclusive pnveleges that were pven to individuals for printing all sorts of books, during the reigns of Henry VIII. Mary, and ElizabetD, — although they were in accord- ance with the spirit of monopoly which cha- racterised that age, — were often granted to prevent the spread of books : — but to the honour of our country, the laws of England have never violated the freedom and the dignity of the press. " There is no law to prevent the printing of any book in England, only a decree of the star cham- ber,"* said the learned Selden. Proclamations were occasionally issued against authors and books ; and foreign works were, at times, prohi- bited. But now, Ike professors of the art, enjoy
" Kind equal rule, the eovemment of Umt, And all protecUng; freedom, which alone Siutalns the name and dignity of man."
1001. Pope Alexander VI., whose policy and whose private life were equally strangers to mo- rality and religion, published a bull, relative to the censure of books. After lamenting that Satan sows tares amongst the wheat of Christ's church, the papal pontifi" proceeds thus : " Hav- ing been informed, that by means of the said art, \ot printing,] many books and treatises, fM)ntaining various errors, and pernicious doc- trines, even hostile to the holy christian religion, have been printed, and are still printed, in va- rious parts of the world, particularly in tlie pro- vinces of Cologne, Mentz, Triers, and Magde- burg; and being desirous, without further delay, to put a stop to this detestable evil ;— We, by these presents, and by the authority of the apos- tolic cnamber, strictly forbid all printers, tneir
- Sir Thonuu Crew's eoIlecUon of the Proceedings of
the Parliament, iSig. t Rodetic Borgiie, Alexander VI. died Angnit s, IS09.
servants, and those exercising the art of printing under them, in any manner whatsoever, in the above said provinces, under pain of excommuni- cation, ana a pecuniary fine, to be imposed and exacted by our venerable brethren, the arch- bishops of Cologne, Mentz, Triers, and Magde- burg, and their vicars general, or official in spi- rituals, according to the pleasure of each, in nis own province, to print hereafter any books, trea- tises, or writings, until they have consulted on this subject, the archbishops, vicars, or officials, above mentioned, and obtamed their special and express licence, to be granted free of all expense; whose consciences we charge, that before thejr grant any licence of this kind, they will caie- iully examine, or cause to be examined, bv able and catholic persons, the works to be printed; and that they will take the utmost caie that nothing may be printed wicked and scandalous, or contrary to the orthodox faith." The rest of the bull contains regulations, to prevent works already printed from doing mischief. All cata- logHes, and books printed before that period, are oraered to be examined, and those that contain any thing prejudicial to the catholic religion, to be burnt. ^
1602. One of the most impudent literaiy for- geries that was ever practised on mankind, was by a Dominican monk and master of the sacred palace onder pope Alexander VI. He wrote a work entitled Liber Idem, which pretends to be the genuine works of SanchoniaUio, Manetho, Berosus, the lost works of Xenophon, Fhilo, Fabius, Pictor, &c. The learned soon detected the imposture, for he had no manuscript to produce in nis defence. He died in this year, and his name is now handed down to posterity as the first on the list of impudent impostors. The work was printed at Antwerp, 1645, 8vo.
1602. Died, Peter Schoeffer, who may be justly considered as the father of letter founiung. When he was bom, who were his parents, and what were his cireumstances, are points wholly unknown, and perhaps likely to oontinae so. But this much is certain : Schoeffer was a ^oung man of no mean talents ; and appeared, in the estimation of Faust, of so much impor- tance to the complete success of the discovery of printing, that, as an inducement to incorporate him in the concern with himself and Gutenberg, he offered him the hand of his daughter (Chris- tina) in marriage : an offer which seems to have been readily accepted. Of the age, person, and dowry of Cnristina,- it were now in vain to make inquiries. Previous to his partnership with Faust, it is proved, from an original document of the date of 1449, that he had formerly lived at Paris, and was a calligraphist ; or, " one who taught writing in public schools." Schoeffer's fame, however great, and once generally acknow- ledged as a calligraphist, becomes merged (to borrow a law phrase) in that of a printer. He tells us, in the colophon of the Pmlter of 1457, simply that he was of Geimszheim ; and in that of the Durandtu, 1459, he describes himself "■ clerii in the diocese of Mentz."
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