The Discovery of Desroches. -- The Stamping of Lodewyc Van Vaelbeke. -- Early “Prenters” of Antwerp and Bruges Not Typographers. -- Cologne Chronicle. -- Donatuses Printed in Holland. -- Gutemberg’s Birth and Family -- Progress of his Invention -- His Law-Suit with the Drytzehns at Strasburg -- His Return to Mentz, and Partnership with Faust -- Partnership Dissolved. -- Possibility of Printing with Wooden Types Examined. -- Supposed Early Productions of Gutemberg and Faust’s Press. -- Proofs of Gutemberg Having a Press of his Own. -- The Vocabulary Printed at Elfeld. -- Gutemberg’s Death and Epitaphs. -- Invention of Printing Claimed for Lawrence Coster. -- The Account Given by Junius -- Contradicted, Altered, and Amended at Will by Meerman, Koning, and Others. -- Works Pretended to be Printed with Coster’s Types. -- The Horarium Discovered by Enschedius. Before proceeding to trace the progress of wood engraving in connexion with typography, it appears necessary to give some account of the invention of the latter art. In the following brief narrative of Gutemberg’s life, I shall adhere to positive facts; and until evidence equally good shall be produced in support of another’s claim to the invention, I shall consider him as the father of typography. I shall also give Hadrian Junius’s account of the invention of wood engraving, block-printing, and typography by Lawrence Coster, with a few remarks on its credibility. Some of the conjectures and assertions of Meerman, Koning, and other advocates of Coster, will be briefly noticed, and their inconsistency pointed out. To attempt to refute at length the gratuitous assumptions of Coster’s advocates, and to enter into a detail of all their groundless arguments, would be like proving a medal to be a forgery by a long dissertation, when the modern fabricator has plainly put his name in the legend. The best proof of the fallacy of Coster’s claims to the honour of having discovered the art of printing with moveable types is to be found in the arguments of those by whom they have been supported. Meerman, with all his research, has not been able to produce a single fact to prove that Lawrence Coster, or Lawrence Janszoon as he calls him, ever printed a single book; and it is by no means certain that his hero is the identical Lawrence Coster mentioned by Junius. In order to suit his own theory he has questioned the accuracy of the statements of Junius, and has thus weakened the very foundation of Coster’s claims. The title of the custos of St. Bavon’s to the honour of being the inventor of typography must rest upon the authenticity of the account given by Junius; and how far this corresponds with established facts in the history of wood engraving and typography I leave others to decide for themselves.