Antiquaries and Bibliomaniacs have found considerable difficulty in ascertaining by what process Guttenberg manufactured types; but it appears to be the prevalent opinion, that those which he first used were individually cut by the hand; and being all made as near a height and thickness as possible, they were thus put together in the forms. The cutting of these types must have been a tedious, as well as laborious, occupation. This ingenious man, however, soon discovered the mode of casting his types, by means of moulds; for without this great accessory to the art of printing, he conceived it was next to impossible to carry on his business. The art of type-founding is therefore given to John Guttenberg, in which it would appear he has had no competitor for the honour; but, it is but justice to state that the plan of striking the moulds with punches was a subsequent invention of Peter Schoeffer, his successor, who became partner with Faust, and afterwards his son-in-law. That Guttenberg was a person of refined taste in the execution of his works, is sufficiently obvious to every person who has had the opportunity of seeing any of them. Adopting a very ancient custom common in the written copies of the Scriptures and the missals of the church, he used a large ornamental letter at the commencement of books and chapters, finely embellished, and surrounded with a variety of figures as in a frame. The initial letter of the first psalm thus forms a splendid specimen of the art of printing in its early progress. It is richly ornamented with foliage, flowers, a bird, and a greyhound, and is still more beautiful from being printed in a pale blue colour, while the embellishments are red, and of a transparent appearance. What became of Guttenberg immediately after the unsuccessful termination of his law-suit with Faust, is not well known. Like the illustrious discoverer of the great Western Continent, he seems to have retired almost broken-hearted from the service of an ungrateful world, and to have spent most of the remainder of his days in obscurity. It is ascertained, however, that, in 1465, he received an annual pension from the Elector Adolphus, but that he only enjoyed this trifling compensation for his extraordinary invention for a period of three years, and died in February 1468.