lished at Rome in 1591. Rocca says that this statement is in the handwriting of Mariangelus Accursius, who affixed his name to it. On this page it is not necessary to point out the many errors of Accursius about the origin of the invention at Mentz; it is enough to show that he believed that the Donatus was printed in Holland before types were made in Germany. It is not known, however, whether he acquired this information from the Cologne Chronicle or from another source.

Joseph Justus Scaliger, an eminent scholar of the sixteenth century, says that printing was invented in Holland, and that the first block-book with text was a breviary or manual of devotion. It seems that this book was like the Horarium, of which a fac-simile will be shown on an advanced page.

Printing was invented at Dordrecht, by engraving on blocks, and the letters were run together as in writing. My grandmother had a psalter printed after this fashion with a cover two fingers thick. Inside of this cover was a little recess in which was placed a little crucifix of silver. The first book that was printed was a breviary or manual, and one would have thought that it had been written by hand. It belonged to the grandmother of Julius Cæsar Scaliger. A little dog destroyed it, much to his vexation, for the letters were conjoined, and had been printed from a block of wood, upon which the letters were so engraved that they could be used for this book and for no other. Afterward was invented a method of using the letters separately.

This record is of interest for its specification of Dordrecht in Holland as the birthplace of block-books, but it does not give any date, nor the name of the first printer. As it has not been corroborated by the testimony of any other chronicler, it is now regarded by the historians of typography as imperfect evidence-incorrect, probably, in its assertion of the priority of the breviary, but trustworthy so far as it shows that this learned antiquarian had some really valuable evidences concerning a very early practice of block-printing in Holland.

Sweinheym and Pannartz, the German printers, who introduced typography in Rome, and published more books than they could sell, in the year 1472 petitioned Pope Sixtus IV

for relief. In the catalogue accompanying their petition they describe this Donatus as the "Donatus for Boys, from which we have taken the beginning of printing." Their language is not clear, for it may be interpreted as the first book printed by Sweinheym and Pannartz, or as the first book made by the art of printing.

The National Library at Paris has two very old xylographic blocks' of this book, which some bibliographers suppose were made about the middle of the fifteenth century.

Sepolttoquideft.Sarloze tionis queppolita alys par tibus oĉatóisliqnif cation" leazautcomplet. autmarat autminuit.Szepofitiöiquot accidit Unuz.Amo Calusti. Quotcalus Buo Quietusravltus.Dappo litiones acticalus:vtað.apud. âîte, aduerfum.ds.ètra.èircu.circa, cotra.

Fac-simile of part of a Block of the Donatus in the National Library at Paris.

The letters on these blocks were more carefully drawn and sharply engraved than the letters of any known block-book. The wood is worm-eaten, but the letters are neat and clear, and do not show any evidences of wear from impression.

One of these blocks has been attributed to John Gutenberg, for its letters resemble those of the Mazarin Bible. It 'There can be no doubt what- many, about two hundred years ago, ever about the genuineness of these by Foucault, the minister of Louis blocks. They were bought in Ger- XIV of France.

has been conjectured that this block may have been one of Gutenberg's earlier experiments in printing. Apart from the similarity of the characters, there is no warrant for this conjecture. This similarity is entirely insufficient as evidence; it is not even proof of age. The block was probably engraved during the last quarter of the fifteenth century.

Koning, author of a treatise on early printing in Holland, has given in his book the fac-simile, which is here copied, of

in the manuscripts of Holland during the fifteenth century, and that they closely resemble the engraved letters of one edition of the Ars Moriendi. Holtrop gives a fac-simile of the entire page of a xylographic Donatus with similar letters, which he claims as a piece of early Dutch printing.

The arrangement of words in Koning's fac-simile of this fragment cannot be passed by without notice. The words are more readable than those of many block-books, but I have reset a small portion in modern type, that they might be more clearly contrasted with the modern method of composition. The words that do not appear in the mutilated fragment given by Koning are restored from the perfect copy of Holtrop.

This fac-simile gives an imperfect notion of the abbreviations, the blackness and obscurity of a page of the Donatus, but it is a fair specimen of the forbidding appearance of all the printed work of the fifteenth century. The illustration of the modern method of arranging the same letters shows the superior perspicuity of modern types and of modern typographic method. Not every reader of this age has a just idea of the extent of his obligation

to what may be called rbātruminpate,@miz the minor improvements grantoculimet falutare of typography. It may uod par antefa be safely said that many momnipopulo

men owe much of their

scholastic knowledge to enabreuelatione gentu the systematic arrange- glouam plebistue iftact ment and the inviting lonapatri.cuterat.

appearance of modern

types and books. The

school-boy who glances

over this fac-simile will tra/berabniacaro, der quickly see the depth of Bintegraberus homo.

the quagmire from which he has been delivered by the invention of types.

Copperfanguisdomini trilelistbutt/ruttopiat

To support his the-fimameam corpus me ory that this fragment bian eternākas

Fac-simile of an early Dutch Horarium.
[From Koning.]

of the Donatus is but a part of one of the many copies of the book which were printed in Holland before the invention of typography, Koning submits the fac-simile of a page from an old Horarium, or manual of devotion, which was He says that this copied by him from the original block. block once belonged to Adrien Rooman, a Haarlem printer of the seventeenth century, who had received it from one of the descendants of Coster. That Coster engraved or printed this block is highly improbable, but it is, without doubt, a

very old piece of engraving. It can be fairly attributed to the fifteenth century, but no good evidence has been adduced to show that it was made before the invention of types. The block is practically worn out: the letters have been so flattened by impression that many of them are illegible.

It must here be noticed that the letters of this Horarium do not interlock, as they do in many of the block-books. A ruled line drawn between the printed lines will show only a few and unimportant interferences of letters. This evenness in lining, which is properly regarded as one of the peculiarities of typography, seems out of place in an early block-book. But it is not confined to the Horarium. There are copies of the xylographic Donatus that closely resemble typographic editions of the same period. They agree, line with line, page with page, and almost letter for letter, with the typographic model. That these xylographic copies were made from the engraved transfers of some typographic model is proved not only by the uniformity and parallelism of the letters, but by the square outline to the right of every page. These peculiarities are never produced in the workmanship of men who draw letters on a block.

It is not strange that the block-book printers should have imitated the work and the mannerisms of the typographers. It was easier to transfer the letters than to draw them; easier to cut the letters for a book of twenty or thirty pages than to cut the punches, make the moulds, and cast and compose the types. The blocks having been engraved, the block-printer had the superior advantage. His blocks, like modern stereotype plates, were always ready for use. He could print a large or small edition at pleasure. And what was of much more importance, he could print more legibly from his smooth plates of wood than the amateur typographer could from his uneven surface of lead.

The significance of the fact that letters were engraved by block-printers after typographic models will be more plainly seen when we examine the editions of the Speculum Salutis,