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The Preparations for Printing.
Imperfect Preparation of the People of Southern Europe … Repression of Education in England … Early Gropings after Knowledge by English People … The Horn-Book and Clog …Injurious Effects of the Use of Latin in Books … Beginnings of Common Schools … Their Usefulness in Germany and Flanders … Indications of Mental Activity in the Arts … Favorable Condition of Germany as Compared with other States … Profligacy of the Clergy … Growth of Heresy … Early Translations of the Bible … Appreciation of Pictures by the Illiterate … The Dance of Death. Neglect of the People by their Constituted Teachers … Growing use of Paper … Increase of Self-taught Copyists … Guilds of Book-Makers in the North of Europe … Printing as an Aid to Writing … Printing Delayed by Considerations of Expense … Could not be Introduced until there were a Multitude of Readers … Books of Pictures preceded Books of Letters.
To the careless observer of the growth of learning and the state of the mechanical arts at the beginning of the fifteenth century, Italy might be regarded as the nation best prepared to receive and maintain any new method of book-making. The neatly engraved initial letters in manuscript books, the designs printed in many colors on woven fabrics, and the extended manufacture of images and playing cards, prove that the Italians knew how to print from blocks, and that they had mechanical skill in abundance. In spite of her civil wars, Italy was rich and prosperous, and famous all over the world, not only for her universities and learned men, but
