Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/477

words of the colophon of the Catholicon of 1460;^[1] but, unlike the printer of that book, Fust and Schœffer here advertise themselves as the men most intimately connected with the great invention. We can plainly see their strong desire to be regarded as the first printers, but there is as yet no clear statement that Schœffer was the real inventor of printing.

In the same year was printed by Fust and Schœffer an edition of The Offices of Cicero, a small quarto of 88 leaves, in their smaller size of Round Gothic types. To make the book of proper thickness, and perhaps to improve the appearance of the types, which show signs of wear, Schœffer put thick leads, about one-tenth of an inch thick, between the lines. As it is the first book in which leads of perceptible thickness were used, this real improvement in printing may be attributed to Schœffer. This edition of Cicero is also distinguished as the first book in which Greek letters were printed; but these letters were not types—they we're engraved on wood in a rude manner.^[2] This edition of Cicero has the following colophon:

This very celebrated work of Marcus Tullius, I, John Fust, a citizen of Mentz, have happily completed, through the hands of Peter, my son, not with writing ink, nor with pen, nor yet in brass,^[3] but with a certain art exceedingly beautiful. Dated 1465.^[4]

The Cicero was reprinted on February 4, 1466. Soon after its publication, Fust made another journey to Paris.^[5] Before he could perfect his arrangements for the sale of his books, Paris was depopulated by the plague, and it is the common

1. See page 435 of this book.
2. In this year Conrad Sweinheym and Arnold Pannartz, who had established a printing office in the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, printed an edition of Lactantius, in which Greek types were used.
3. The phrase, neque ærea, must be understood as, not by engraving in brass or copper plates, or not by the process then employed by the copper-plate printers.
4. The use of the words, Peter, my son, may be understood as the first acknowledgment by Fust of the marriage of his daughter to Schœffer.
5. The Library of Geneva has a copy of this edition of Cicero, which contains, in his own handwriting, the acknowledgment of Louis de Lavernade, first president of Languedoc, that the book had been presented to him in Paris, by John Fust, in July, 1466.