It was in 1462 that the first examples of printed books were seen in Paris. In that year, Fust brought from Mayence a supply of his folio Bible, copies of which he was able to sell for fifty crowns. The usual price for manuscripts of this compass had been from four to five hundred crowns. It seems probable that there was little or no foundation for the stories that were, later, told of Fust’s being harshly treated as a magician, on the ground that the volumes he was offering for sale could not have been produced by human hands, or without the aid of the powers of evil. There was a manifest improbability in the idea that Satan would interest himself in securing a wider circulation for the holy Scriptures, unless possibly he had taken occasion to inject into falsified texts some heretical or pernicious doctrine. It is probable also that, by the time of Fust’s arrival, more or less information must already have reached Paris about the new art, and that, while it was still regarded as mysterious and wonderful, it was recognised as a human invention that had in other cities already been applied to practical uses. The first publishing office in Paris was founded, in 1469, at the request of two _savants_ of the Sorbonne, Fichet and Heynlin, by Gering, Krantz, and Friburger from Constance. The work was carried on in one of the Halls of the Sorbonne. Forty years later, there were in Paris over fifty printing concerns. The policy of cordial encouragement still prevailed, and no restrictions had as yet been placed upon the business. After the introduction of printing, the printers took a position in society much above that occupied by their predecessors, the copyists. The difference could have been due only in part to the possession of greater scholarly attainments, for the better class of copyists must themselves have had some knowledge of the subject-matter of their manuscripts. The business of the printers required, however, the control of a certain amount of capital, while the selection of works for reproduction and the preparation for the compositors of trustworthy texts called for a wide range of literary information and scholarly training. The printers were, in the first place, left as free as had been the copyists to reproduce such works as they might select. No claim had thus far been made for exclusive ownership in, or control of, literary productions, and no censorship supervision had been established on the part of the Government. This state of things continued during the reign of Louis XII., and, in an edict issued April 9, 1513,[2] the King confirmed and extended the privileges previously acquired by booksellers as officials of the University.