352
THE GROWTH OF THE LEGEND.
| 1428 | .. | Laurens Coster engraved a few letters upon the bark of a tree. |
| 1429 | .. | He gave one year to experimental engraving on wood. |
| 1431 | .. | He printed the Temptations of Demons or Ars Moriendi. |
| 1432 | .. | Printed the Bible of the Poor. |
| 1435 | .. | He began to engrave and print an edition of the Donatus. |
| 1436 | .. | He cut separate letters or single types out of lead. |
| 1437 | .. | After prolonged experiment, he abandoned this method. |
| 1438 | .. | He invented a method of casting types of lead. |
| 1439 | .. | He began to print an edition of the Donatus, and the Dutch edition of the Speculum. In this year Gutenberg took service with Coster, and began to print for him, by which he earned the title of the Book-printer of Haarlem. (!) |
| 1440 | .. | Gutenberg absconded with some knowledge of the invention. He was able to cut, but not to cast types. (!) |
| 1441 | .. | He established a printing office in Mentz. |
| 1442 | .. | Gutenberg printed an A b c book, the Doctrinal of Alexander Gallus and the Treatise of Peter of Spain. By this time Coster had repaired the damages of the theft. |
| 1443 | .. | Coster printed the second edition of the Speculum in Dutch. |
| 1444 | .. | Coster printed a Latin edition of the Speculum. |
| 1446 | .. | Gutenberg also induced Gensfleisch, called afterward Faust, (!) and Meydenbach to join him in printing a Latin Bible. |
| 1457 | .. | Coster's art was well known, and excited the envy of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of King Henry vi of England. |
| 1457 | .. | The Archbishop persuaded the king to get a knowledge of the art from Gutenberg, the first book printer of Haarlem. (!) |
| 1459 | .. | Tumour and Caxton, who were sent on this mission, bribed Frederick Corsellis, a workman of Coster, to run away from Haarlem in disguise. To prevent his escape, Corsellis was taken to Oxford, in which town he began to print in 1468. |
| 1457 | .. | Coster died, about the same time that Gutenberg and Faust died. (!) His printing office ceased to exist.[1] |
Seiz has not told us where he obtained this curious information, but we shall make no mistake if we attribute it to an imagination disordered by national pride. His chronology is so absurd that serious criticism would be a waste of time.
Notwithstanding the strong efforts of Seiz to remove the impression created by the contradictory accounts of his predecessors, the citizens of Haarlem seemed to be involved in
- ↑ Condensed from Hessels' translation in Haarlem Legend, p. 123.
