[Footnote III-71: Wimpheling, who was born at Sletstadt in 1451, thus addresses the inventor of printing,--whose name, Gænsfleisch, he Latinises “Ansicarus,”--in an epigram printed at the end of “Memoriæ Marsilii ab Inghen,” 4to. 1499. “Felix _Ansicare_, per te Germania felix Omnibus in terris præmia laudis habet. Urbe Moguntina, divino fulte Joannes Ingenio, primus imprimis ære notas. Multum Relligio, multum tibi Græca sophia, Et multum debet lingua Latina.” In his “Epitome Rerum Germanicarum,” 1502, he says that the art of printing was discovered at Strasburg in 1440 by a native of that city, who afterwards removing to Mentz there perfected the art. In his “Episcoporum Argentinensium Catalogus,” 1508, he says that printing was invented by a native of Strasburg, and that when the inventor had joined some other persons engaged on the same invention at Mentz, the art was there perfected by one John Gænsfleisch, who was blind through age, in the house called Gutemberg, in which, in 1508, the College of Justice held its sittings. Wimpheling does not seem to have known that Gænsfleisch was also called Gutemberg, and that his first attempts at printing were made in Strasburg.] Having thus provided Gutemberg with an elder brother also named John, Meerman proceeds to find him employment; for at the period of his writing much light had been thrown on the early history of printing, and no person in the least acquainted with the subject could believe that Faust was the thief who stole Coster’s types, as had been insinuated by Junius and affirmed by Boxhorn and Scriverius. Gænsfleisch the Elder is accordingly sent by Meerman to Harlem, and there engaged as a workman in Lawrence Coster’s printing office. It is needless to ask if there be any proof of this: Meerman having introduced a new character into the Harlem farce may claim the right of employing him as he pleases. As there is evidence of Gutemberg, or Gænsfleisch the Younger, being engaged at Strasburg about 1436 in some experiments connected with printing, and mention being made in the same documents of the fair of Aix-la-Chapelle, Meerman sends him there in 1435. From Aix-la-Chapelle, as the distance is not very great, Meerman makes him pay a visit to his elder brother, then working as a printer in Coster’s office at Harlem. He thus has an opportunity of seeing Coster’s printing establishment, and of gaining some information respecting the art, and hence his attempts at printing at Strasburg in 1436. In 1441 he supposes that John Gænsfleisch the Elder stole his master’s types, and printed with them, at Mentz, in 1442, “Alexandri Galli Doctrinale,” and “Petri Hispani Tractatus,” as related by Junius. As this trumpery story rests solely on the conjecture of the writer, it might be briefly dismissed for reconsideration when