The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-08

prints in the form of book was an OBJ
vious requirement; and thus we got the
famous block books, which mark an era in
the history of printing. and of which the
British Museum contains many remark
able examples. such as the 'Biblia Paup-
erum" or bible of the Poor" which is
supposed to be the earliest Of the block
books
The bind stamping. then, OF plastic
materials having been succeeded by print
ing on parchment or on paper with a pig
ment, the next step was one Of which the
desirability must, one would suppose. have
occurred to many men long before Guten-
berg. This step was simply the employ
ment OF separate characters or movable
types" which could be used over and over
again in new combinations. 1t is here that
John Gutenberg. or Geinsfeisch. comes
upon the scene He was born, some think,
in 1899. or. as the Germans have recently
assumed. in 1i4O. and he died in 1868. In
partnership with Faust, or Fust, he pro-
duced at Mentz.. or Mayence. the first book
printed from movable type-the celebrated
Gutenberg or Mazarin Bible. 1t is printed
in Latin, from presumably cut metal
types. in the Gothic or blackletter char
acter. and owes its alternative name to the
fact that 1t was discovered in the library
OF Cardinal Mazarin. perfect copy of 1t
was sold quite recently for more than
$4,000; and even inferior or defective
copies have reached half that price. Gut
enberg dissolved partnership with Faust
In 1855. and the business was carried on
by Faust and Schoeffer. who, in 1853. pro-
duced Durand's Rationale Divinorum. :"
which is reputediy the first book printed
with cast types.
ntJ ctr ~ Ean ha
(probabIy apocryphaD is worth repeating
for the benefit of the readers who may
never have met with 1t. The characters
used in the early Bibles were close imi-
tation Of the handwriting Of the scribes
or copyists of the time. just as, at a later
date the first italic characters were imi-
tated from the beautiful handwriting OF
Petrarch. The story goes that Faust car
ried number of copies of his Bible TO
Paris-where. of course. the art OF print
ing was then unknown-and there endeav-
ored to palm them off as INNS. His will
jngnsss to sell his copies at 60 crowns
each. says the elder D'Israeli. while the
scribes demanded 500 crowns. caused much
establishment, which was intensified when
the vendor produced copies as fast as they
were wanted. and even lowered the price
as the demand increased. The uniformity
of the copies increased the wonder until 1t
reached the pitch of intense excitement.
He was denounced to the magistrates as
magician. His lodgings were searched and
great number of copies were found The
red ink (and Faust red ink is peculiarly
brilliantly which embellished his copies was
declared to be his blood. and it was SOL
EMMY decided that he was in league with
the devil. To save himself from bonfire
Faust was at length compelled to reveal
the secret OF his art to the Parliament Of
Paris, who discharged him from all pros
ecution in consideration of his useful in
vention."
To the layman the statement may seem
paradoxcal that. while the invention OF
movable types was an enormous step in the
direction of speed and economy. and estab-
lished the art of printing on an effective
basis. those very attributes have been. in
comparatively recent times. enhanced a
hundredfold by the introduction OF proc
ess which is. in effect. return to the
principles of block printing Ged. about
1725. and Tilloch. about 1873. introduced
methods of stereotyp!ng. They saw that
it would be an immense advantage to be
able to multiply pages of type, or type
forms. without the trouble and expense OF
setting up the type many times over. They
proceeded by taking molds (of plaster.
papier-mache. or other. plastic materially
of the movable type forms or pages. BY