The bearing of these influences upon the publishing conditions of Germany in the sixteenth century is obvious. There was, after 1517, an enormous increase in the circulation of printed matter and a very great development in the habit of reading on the part of the people at large, and the intellectual activities engendered by the popular interest in the religious and ecclesiastical controversies had in the end a very important part in furthering the growth of the literary and the publishing activities of Germany. During the earlier years of the contest, however, the first result was an actual diminution in the demand in Germany for the class of books to the production of which publishers of the higher grade had devoted themselves. Some of the firms, who could not easily adapt themselves to the new conditions, or who did not find themselves in sympathy with the new influences, decided, like the Kobergers, to retire altogether. New men took the lead in the publishing business of Germany. The first period in the age of printing, the period in which its service had been rendered almost exclusively to scholars, came to a close. German replaced Latin, and the Press became the servant of the people at large. In the general course of Koberger’s publishing undertakings, the question of compensation for authors, or at least for original work of authors, could have arisen but very seldom, and in this respect his experience was identical with that of publishers generally in his generation. Their publications consisted chiefly, and with some firms exclusively, of works of an earlier time, the authors of which had long been dead; in the limited instances in which they used their presses for the books of living writers, the main purpose of these writers was to bring their productions before the public, and they considered themselves under obligations to the publishers who were willing to incur the risk and expense of the undertaking. The books written by the few authors of Koberger’s generation were for the most part works of doctrine or having a dogmatic purpose of some kind. The object of their production was not the possibility of gain, but the influencing of public opinion, the furthering of a cause, the overthrow of abuses, or the defence of institutions that had been assailed. For such aims the chief thing, almost the only thing, to be considered was the securing of as wide a circulation as possible. Apart from this consideration, these writers might easily have considered it presumptuous to expect compensation for the publication of their productions, when the publishers had available for their use all the literary heritage of antiquity, together with the long series of writings of the Church Fathers. It was also, of course, the case that under the publishing and bookselling conditions of the time, when it was by no means easy to bring effectively before a reading public the works of authors whose