In 1453, Fust made a journey to Paris in order to find sale there for his big Bible. This was four years before the first Paris printing-press began its work, and it was in connection with this big Bible that the gossip arose of Fust being able, through compact with the Devil, to produce an indefinite number of copies of a book. It could not be understood how in any other way these copies could be offered so cheaply. The University of Paris was at that date the most important in Europe, and the influence of the University upon the cultivation of the city and its close relations with the old book-trade in manuscripts, had made Paris the most important European centre for literary production and the place where scholars were in the habit of looking for their material. It was in Paris, if anywhere, that it should prove possible to find sale for the Latin Bible, and Fust’s efforts appear to have met with a prompt success. The first Bible bearing a date was completed in 1462, and is known as the Mayence Bible. At the time it was in readiness (in October) nothing could be done in getting it into the market, as Mayence was being besieged by Adolph of Nassau. In 1466, Fust is again in Paris with copies of the second edition of his _De Officiis_, and with other of his publications. There is still preserved in the city library of Geneva a copy of this edition of Cicero, which contains the record that it was bought by Louis de la Vernada, in Paris, in July, 1466, from Fust.[435] Fust & Schöffer may claim to have been the first printers who acted also as publishers and booksellers. Notwithstanding the many difficulties with which they had had to contend, they were able to offer their books at prices which, to the old dealers in manuscripts, seemed astounding and which gave some pretext for the charge of magic. Madden says that a copy of the “48 line Bible” printed on parchment, could be bought in Paris, in 1470, for 2000 francs, and that the cost of the same text a few years earlier in manuscript form would have been five times as great. Bishop John of Aleria, writing in 1467 to Pope Paul II., says that it is now possible to purchase in Rome for 20 gulden, gold, works which a few years earlier would have cost not less than 100 gulden, and that other books now selling as low as 4 gulden would previously have cost not less than 20 gulden. The first results of the printing-press appear, therefore, to have been a reduction of about four fifths in the price of work of a scholarly character.