Willett in his Essay on Printing, published in the eleventh volume of the Archæologia, not only says that no entire book was ever printed with wooden types, but adds, “I venture to pronounce it impossible.” He has pronounced rashly. Although it certainly would be a work of considerable labour to cut a set of moveable letters of the size of what is called Donatus type, and sufficient to print such a book, yet it is by no means impossible. That such books as “_Eyn Manung der Cristenheit widder die durken_,” of which a fac-simile is given by Aretin, and the first and second Donatuses, of which specimens are given by Fischer, might be printed from wooden types I am perfectly satisfied, though I am decidedly of opinion that they were not. Marchand has doubted the possibility of printing with wooden types, which he observes would be apt to warp when wet for the purpose of cleaning; but it is to be observed that they would not require to be cleaned before they were used. Fournier, who was a letter-founder, and who occasionally practised wood engraving, speaks positively of the Psalter first printed by Faust and Scheffer in 1457, and again in 1459, being printed with wooden types; and he expresses his conviction of the practicability of cutting and printing with such types, provided that they were not of a smaller size than Great Primer Roman. Meerman shows the possibility of using such types; and Camus caused two lines of the Bible, supposed to have been printed by Gutemberg, to be cut in separate letters on wood, and which sustained the action of the press.[III-35] Lambinet says, it is certain that Gutemberg cut moveable letters of wood, but he gives no authority for the assertion; and I am of opinion that no unexceptionable testimony on this point can be produced. The statements of Serarius and Paulus Pater,[III-36] who profess to have seen such ancient wooden types at Mentz, are entitled to as little credit as Daniel Specklin, who asserted that he had seen such at Strasburg. They may have seen large initial letters of wood with holes bored through, but scarcely any lower-case letters which were ever used in printing any book. [Footnote III-35: Oberlin, Essai d’Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg.] [Footnote III-36: “. . . . ligneos typos, ex buxi frutice, perforatos in medio, ut zona colligari una jungique commode possint, ex Fausti officina reliquos, Moguntiæ aliquando me conspexisse memini.”--Paulus Pater, in Dissertatione de Typis Literarum, &c. p, 10. 4to. Lipsiæ, 1710. Heineken, at p. 254 of his Idée Gén., declares himself to be convinced that Gutemberg had cut separate letters on wood, but he thinks that no person would be able to cut a quantity sufficient to print whole sheets, and, still less, large volumes as many pretend.]