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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1686. The famous Olaus Ruobeck erected a press in his own house at Upsal, an ancient ana celebrated city of Sweden, which, toother with the fourth volume of his great work, the Atlantica, was consumed in the dreadful fire which laid waste that city in the year 1702: not more than three or four copies are supposed to have escaped, one of wfaicn is treasured up in the library of the university of Upsal, and another in the roval library at Stockholm. Only two hundred and ten pages of the volume were finished at the press when the fire occurred. The first volume of the Atlantica was published in 1075, (and with a reprinted title in 1679, and again in 1684,) the second in 1689 ; the third, printed in the author's own house, in 1698; and the fourth has no title. The best and most minute account of this valuable work is to be found in the travels of M. Fortia, to whom it was communicated by one of the best bibliogra- phers of Sweden, in the year 1791. Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and Runic types were used at Upsal soon after the commencement of the seventeenth century. In 1637 Grotius notices, in one of his epistles, that the Greek types then used were dencient in elegance, and that the paper was of inferior quality. The first Arabic types ever used in Sweden were brought to Upsal by Peter Kirstenius, of Breslau ; at whose death, in 1640, his printing apparatus was pur- chased by the university. His tjyies were thought to be cast in imitation of those of the Medicean press at Florence.
It is believed that printing was first exercised in this city about the year 1510, by Paul Griis, three of whose books are named, the earliest of them being a Latin psalter, with the imprint, Impreuum Uptalia in domo VenerabilU patrit damini doctorit Rataldi Archidiachoni iindem per Paulum Griit anno Dei MDX : but Al- nander observes that there is some little uncer- tainty about the exact period of the introduction of the art. It appears to have declined about 1541, after the publication of an edition of the Swedish bible in that year, [a small folio with wood-cuts, a copy of which (on the authority of Fortia) is preserved in the library of the academy of sciences at Stockholm; a second, in the col- lection of M. Giteurwell, librarian to the king; and a third, in the university librarv of Upsal,] and to have revived in 1604. Charles XI. granted to the college of national antiquities a typographer of their own : the university like- wise possessed a printing establishment peculiar to themselves.
1686. Louis XIV. king of France, by an edict, separated the corporation binders from the printers of books in the university of Paris ; but by the same edict, the binders were always rated and reputed of the number of the agents of the university, and enjoyed in this quality the same privileges they had done before. Louis erected a press in the Louvre ; and the editions of the Greek Testament, of Terence, Virgil, Ho- race, Juvenal, and Salliut, which were issued from this press, were, indeed princely, and ob-
serves Dr. Harewood, the institution of a royal typog^phy in the Louvre, in the estimation of every wise and judicious person, added prodi- gious splendour to the enlarged and exalted views of Louis XIV.* and redound more to his true glory, than the false and momentary splen- dour tie acquired by sacking peaceful cities, and desolating nappy provinces.
1686, Sept.28. The following certificate serves as a curious instance in what manner the censora of books clipped the wings of genius when it was found too daring and excursive.
" I, the under-written John Paul Manna, author of a manuscript Italian volume, entitled L'Etploratore Tmrco, tomo terzo, acknowledge that Mr. Charpentier, appointed by the lord chancellor to revise the said manuscript, has not granted me his certificate for printing the said manuscript, but on condition to rescind four passages. The first beginning, &c. By this I promise to suppress from the said manuscript the places above marked, so that there shall remain no vestige ; since, without agreeing to this, the said certificate would not have been granted to me by the said Mr. Charpentier; and for surety of the above, which I acknow- ledge to be true, and which I promise punctually to execute, I have signed the present writing, Paris, 28th September, 1686.
" John Paul Marana."
These rescindings of the censor appear to be marked by Marana in the printed work. We find more than once chasms, with these words : the beginning of thit letter is wanting in the Italian transution ; the original paper being torn:'
The ingenious writer of the Turkish Spy is John Paul Marana,t an Italian, so that the Turkish Spy is just as real a personage as Cid Hamet, from whom Cervantes says he had his Hiatory of Don Quixote. Marana had been imprisoned for a political conspiracy ; after his release he retired to Monaco, where he wrote the HtMlory of the Plot, which is said to be valuable for many curious particulars. Marana was at once a man of letters and of the world. He had long wished to reside at Paris; in that emporium of taste and luxury his talents pro- cured him patrons. It was during his residence there that he produced his Turkith Spy. By this ingenious contrivance he gave the history of the last age. He displays a rich memory, and a lively imagination ; but critics have said that he touches every thing, and penetrates nothing.
• Lonb XIV., wu born at St Oenmins, Sept 4, iCSt, •nd died at VemiUea, Sept. I, I7K.
t JohD Paul Manna waa descended at a dlaOngniilied Italian family, and waa born in tlie city of Milan, or iti immediate vicinity, in the year 1043. In conaeqaence ct betn; concerned in a political oonaplracy, tw went to France, and aetUed at Paris, where be aeema to have met with patronage and friendstiip from the noble and the learned. It was during hia residence in tills city that he wrote hia Turkith Spg, in 6 vols. 12mo. He waa alio the author of two or three other works, which prove him to have been a keen observer and a man of learning. Befaag restored to hia native country, he died in l(H)3.
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