The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-04-13
Printing and Books.

Before the invention Of printing, books
were multiplied by copying in manuscript.
This process, which looks tedious enough
when we think of one person sitting Ia
boriously down to transcribe page after
page of voluminous treatise, will be
somewhat relieved when we remember
that, in some countries, at least the max |
ing Of books became O manufacture, in |
which were employed large numbers of
menials trained for the purpose, and who
learned to perform the labor of copying
with singular neatness, accuracy and
facility. During the Middle Ages, many
copies of books deemed valuable were
made by Monks in the solitude of their
cells: but not only in Greece and Rome,
but in the cities of Modern Europe, there
were copyists by profession, and those
habits Of division of labor by which all
the processes for the multiplication of
books were rendered as cheap and as ex-
peditious as possible. a....
The trade of the bookseller was known
in Europe previous to the invention of
the art of printing. The dealers were
denominated stationarii, and appear to
have sold books mostly upon commission
The first printers were always booksellers,
and sold their own impressions. In the
Fifteenth century, celebrated printing
firm state, in a petition addressed to His
Holiness SIxTUs ~, the number of i'm
pressions they were accustomed to make
of works in each branch of literature
OF the classical authors, they generally
printed 275; ofVIRGIL and the philosoph-
ical works of CICERO, and also of theolog-
ical publications, twice that number. By
the invention of printing, the price of
books was diminished by about four-ffths.
1t is very striking circumstance, in
the history of human enterprise and in
vention, that the inventors of the art of
printing not only had the courage, as
their first essay, to print the whole Bible,
but that they had the good fortune to exc
cute the work with astonishing success.
"It was" says Mr.. HALLAM, "the MINERVA
leaping on the Earth in her divine strength
and radiant armor, ready, at the moment
of her nativity, to subdue and destroy her
enemies. The Mazarin Bible is printed,
some copies on vellum, some on paper Of
choice quality, with strong, black and tol-
erably-handsome characters, but with
some want Of uniformity, which has led,
perhaps unreasonably, to doubt whether
they were cast in matrix. We may see,
in imagination, this venerable and splen-
did volume leading up the crowded my
riads of its followers, and imploring as
it were, blessing on the new art by
dedicating its first fruits to the service Of
Heaven" The next publication, how
ever, in point of time, was not quite 80
unexceptionable; it was an exhortation
to a war against the Turks-urging relig-
ious motives as cause of hostility. And
from that day to this, while many noble
works of genius have been multiplied and
made useful to mankind through its in
strumentality, the art of printing has also
done its share of mischief in aiding to
disseminate falsehood, prejudice and fa-
naticism. 1t has, perhaps as often been
enlisted in the service of ignorance as of
learning, of darkness as of light, of error
as of truth; though not always with the
same efficiency.
The copiousness Of modern book publ
cation, and the magnitude of modern edi-
tions, as compared with those of three or
four centuries ago, would furnish proper
food for reflection to such as are of the
opinion that the world is daily growing
worse, and society rapidly rushing to it
ruin. Whether the European races are
more religious now than they were in tn,
Middle Ages, may, by some, be denied
z but that they are more intellectual ant