Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Francis de Alopa printed five Greek books entirely in capital letters, the _Anthologia_ of 1494, _Callimachus_, _Euripides_ (four plays only), _Apollonius Rhodius_, 1496, _Poetae Gnomici_, and _Musæus_. It is very probable that the ‘editio princeps’ of _Lucian_, which was printed at Florence, but is ascribed by Ebert to Caliergi at Venice, was also printed at this press. Under the patronage of Ferdinand I., King of Naples, Sixtus Riessinger of Strasburg began to print there in 1471, and continued till 1479. He seems to have been in high favour with the king, who offered him a bishopric, which was, however, refused. In 1472, Arnaldus de Bruxella set up his press, using (unlike most other printers) Roman type only. The large M and small _y_ are of a curious form and easily recognisable, while the final _us_ in words is always represented by an abbreviation. Most of the books printed by him are rare; of the _Horace_ and _Petrarch_, only single copies are known; and it was for the sake of acquiring these two books, so Dibdin tells us, that Lord Spencer bought the Cassano Library. Hain mentions seventeen books printed by this Arnaldus de Bruxella, and out of that number he had seen only one. Van der Meersch gives twenty-three; but some are doubtful. Pavia is more celebrated for the number of books it produced than for their interest, and it is only mentioned here as one of the towns to which printing is said to have been introduced in 1471. The last town to be mentioned in this group is Treviso, where, in 1471, that wandering printer Gerardus de Lisa began to print. In his first year he printed several books, but his industry gradually got less. In 1477 we find him at Venice, in 1480 at Cividad di Friuli (Civitas Austriæ), and in 1484 at Udina. 1472 saw printing established in Cremona, Mantua, Monreale, Padua, Parma, and Verona, and from this time onwards it spread rapidly over the whole of Italy, being introduced into seventy-one towns before the end of the fifteenth century. For the study of typography the Italian presses are not nearly so interesting as those of other countries, but from a literary point of view they are immeasurably superior. The Renaissance movement had been at work in Italy during the whole of the fifteenth century, and the great impetus given by the fall of Constantinople was acting most powerfully when the printing press was introduced. Italy was then the sole guardian of the ancient civilisation, and was prepared for a more rapid method of reproducing its early treasures and spreading the learning of its newer scholars. CHAPTER V. FRANCE.