[Footnote IV-8: The following passage occurs in the colophon of two works printed by John Scheffer at Mentz in 1515 and 1516; the one being the “Trithemii Breviarium Historiæ Francorum,” and the other “Breviarium Ecclesiæ Mindensis:” “Retinuerunt autem hi duo jam prænominati, _Johannes Fust et Petrus Scheffer_, hanc artem in secreto, (omnibus ministris et familiaribus eorum, ne illam quoquo modo manifestarent, jure jurando adstrictis :) quæ tandem anno Domini M.CCCC.LXII. per eosdem familiares in diversas terrarum provincias divulgata, haud parvum sumpsit incrementum.”] [Footnote IV-9: St. Walburg’s day is on the 25th of February; though her feast is also held both on the 1st of May and on the 12th of October. The eve of her feast on the 1st of May is more particularly celebrated; and it is then that the witches and warlocks of Germany hold their annual meeting on the Brocken. St. Walburg, though born of royal parents in Saxony, was yet educated in England, at the convent of Wimborn in Dorsetshire, of which she became afterwards abbess, and where she died in 779.] [Footnote IV-10: A mournful account of the expulsion of the inhabitants and the plundering of the city is given by Trithemius at page 30 of his “Res Gestæ Frederici Palatini,” published with notes by Marquard Freher, at Heidelberg, 4to. 1603.] Until the discovery of Pfister’s book containing the four histories, most bibliographers supposed that the date 1461, in the fables, related to the composition of the work or the completion of the manuscript, and not to the printing of the book. Saubert, who was the first to notice it, in 1643, describes it as being printed, both text and figures, from wood-blocks; and Meerman has adopted the same erroneous opinion. Heineken was the first to describe it truly, as having the text printed with moveable types, though he expresses himself doubtfully as to the date, 1461, being that of the impression. As the discovery of Pfister’s tracts has thrown considerable light on the progress of typography and wood engraving, I shall give an account of the most important of them, as connected with those subjects; with a brief notice of a few circumstances relative to the early connexion of wood engraving with the press, and to the dispersion of the printers on the capture of Mentz in 1462.