l “ 45 i lisher capable of giving a sound judgment as to the value of the l hook! Why does an author rather have his book published at Cotta`s than at any other publishers? Because the former is known to publish only valuable books at his shop, and, for that reason, his publication is sure to meet with a readier sale at Cotta`s. In time of yore an established rule was followed, that no printer was considered capable of carrying on his business, if , he was not able to print every Greek or Latin classic, of which he must have read himself the proofs, free of errors. Let us com- pare this with the pretensions of the present day, and we shall —·- with a few honorable exceptions -—~ find many of our printers who are not able to correct a German book, how much less one in a foreign language; this is the reason of the difference, with regard y to correctness, between works printed in England and France and some of our German works. This induced me to place the character of an apprentice -—— as far as the young typographers in the imperial printing-otlice contided to my care are concerned —-· on a footing different from the one usually granted; that is my motive for having them in- structed not only in all the departments of typography, but also in ’ reading and writing, in their native tongue and in foreign lan- guages; I have even lectures held to them on geography and his- tory, in order that the number of well educated typographers may by this means be increased — and I am happy to say that from the course of the first tive years I have experienced the most r pleasing results. On treating the section typography, I must not pass by a nuissance without mentioning it, namely that the literary produc- tions of Austrian authors are printed and published abroad. It is from foreign countries that we obtain almost every important lite- rary work. Medical works ·— the intrinsic worth of which is acknowledged abroad, owing to the high position occupied by the general inlirmary of Vienna - mostly form the publications of foreign booksellers and are often published in some of the smaller
