them _matrices_, of all the letters of the Roman alphabet, from which they again cast letters of copper or tin, sufficient to bear any pressure to which they might be subjected, and which they had formerly cut by hand. As I have heard, nearly thirty years ago, from Peter Scheffer, of Gernsheim, citizen of Mentz, who was son-in-law of the first inventor, great difficulties attended the first establishment of this art; for when they had commenced printing a Bible they found that upwards of four thousand florins had been expended before they had finished the third _quaternion_ [or quire of four sheets]. Peter Scheffer, an ingenious and prudent man, at first the servant, and afterwards, as has been already said, the son-in-law of John Faust, the first inventor, discovered the more ready mode of casting the types, and perfected the art as it is at present exercised. These three for some time kept their method of printing a secret, till at length it was divulged by some workmen whose assistance they could not do without. It first passed to Strasburg, and gradually to other nations.”[III-26] [Footnote III-26: Trithemii Annales Hirsaugienses, tom. ii. ad annum 1450. The original passage is printed in Prosper Marchand’s Histoire de l’Imprimerie, 2nde Partie, p. 7.] As Trithemius finished the work which contains the preceding account in 1514, Marchand concludes that he must have received his information from Scheffer about 1484, which would be within thirty-five years of Gutemberg’s entering into a partnership with Faust. Although Trithemius had his information from so excellent an authority, yet the account which he has thus left is far from satisfactory. Schœpflin, amongst other objections to its accuracy, remarks that Trithemius is wrong in stating that the invention of moveable types was subsequent to Gutemberg’s connexion with Faust, seeing that the former had previously employed them at Strasburg; and he also observes that in the learned abbot’s account there is no distinct mention made of moveable letters cut by hand, but that we are led to infer that the improvement of casting types from matrices immediately followed the printing of the Catholicon from wood-blocks. The words of Trithemius on this point are as follows: “Post hæc, inventis successerunt subtiliora, inveneruntque modum fundendi formas omnium Latini alphabeti litterarum, quas ipsi _matrices_ nominabant, ex quibus rursum æneos sive stanneos characteres fundebant ad omnem pressuram sufficientes quos prius manibus sculpebant.” From this passage it might be objected in opposition to the opinion of Schœpflin:[III-27] 1. That the “subtiliora,”--more subtle contrivances, mentioned _before_ the invention of casting moveable letters, may relate to the cutting of such letters by hand. 2. That the word “quos” is to be referred to the antecedent “æneos sive stanneos characteres,”--letters of copper or tin,--and not to the “characteres in