and had no features to justify their preservation. We cannot wonder that copies of the engraved Donatus are scarce, but we must not infer from their present scarcity that they were not common before the year 1450. It is probable that more copies were printed of this than of any pictorial block-book; although we find no copies, we have trustworthy evidences that the Donatus was printed before types were made.
That the Donatus was engraved and printed before the invention of typography is distinctly stated in the book now known as the Cologne Chronicle, which was published in that city by John Koelhoff, in the year 1499. The name of the author is unknown, but he writes with the confidence of a clear-minded thinker and a candid chronicler. He says that the following statement was communicated to him, by word of mouth, "by Master Ulric Zell, of Hanau, now a printer in Cologne, through whom the art was brought to Cologne."
Although the art [of printing], as has been said, was discovered at Mentz, in the manner as it is now generally used, yet the first prefiguration was found in Holland, in the Donatuses which were printed there before that time. From these Donatuses the beginning of the said art was taken, and it was invented in a manner much more masterly and subtle than this, and became more and more ingenious.[1]
Mariangelus Accursius, a learned Italian of the fifteenth century, made a similar acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the men whom he regarded as the inventors of typography to the unknown printers of the Donatus in Holland. He says:
John Fust, a citizen of Mentz, and the maternal grandfather of John Schœffer, was the first who devised the art of printing with types from brass, which he subsequently invented in lead. Peter Schœffer, his son, added many improvements to the art. The Donatus and Confessionalia were printed first of all, in the year 1450. But the suggestion [of typography] was certainly made by the Donatuses that had been printed before in Holland, from wooden blocks.
This extract first appeared in an Appendix to the Library of the Vatican, which was written by Angelo Rocca, and pub-
- ↑ This extract is from the chapter entitled, "When, where, and by whom was found out the unspeakably useful art of printing books?" It contains statements of value, which will be quoted at greater length on an advanced page.
