[11] Monumens Typographiques des Pays Bas au XVe Siècle, 20 livraisons, imp. 4to. 120 plates of fac-similes. _La Haye_, 1857-66. Of this magnificent work only 200 copies were printed. [12] Classified Index of Fifteenth Century Books in the Collection of the late M. J. de Meyer of Ghent. 8vo. _London_, 1870. pp. 15-16. [13] TRÜBNER’S American and Oriental Literary Record, July, 1870. [14] Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing, by W. Y. OTTLEY. 4to. 37 plates, and other engravings. _London_, 1863. [15] A History of the Art of Printing: Its Invention and Progress to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century, by H. Noel HUMPHREYS. imp. 4to. 105 photo-lithographic fac-similes. _London_, 1869. Early Typography. CHAPTER II. DATE OF THE ORIGIN OF TYPOGRAPHY IN EUROPE.--ALLEGED EARLY ENGRAVINGS.--PLAYING CARDS.--BLOCK-BOOKS.--MR. F. HOLT’S HYPOTHESIS.--EVIDENCE OF COSTUME.--GERMAN “BRIEF-MALERS.”--DECREE OF GOVERNMENT OF VENICE.--STATE OF EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.--CULTIVATION OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE AT THE CLOSE OF THE FOURTEENTH AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. It has been a question much debated, whether the Art of Printing was not introduced to Europe from the East at a much earlier period than that generally assigned as the date of its invention; and we are informed by Klaproth, that it might have been known in Europe a hundred and fifty years prior to its discovery by the Germans, if Europeans had been able to read and translate the Persian historians, as the Chinese method of printing is clearly explained in the _Djemm’a-et-tewarikh_, by Rachid-Eddin, who finished this immense work about the year 1310. On this subject, Mr. William Savage, a well-known printer, and a gentleman to whom the public and the profession are indebted for several valuable works on the art, states, in the preface to a volume published in 1841,--“The dates given of the introduction of the practice into Europe by previous writers, are unquestionably erroneous, as we have conclusive evidence of its being followed as a profession for nearly a century before the earliest date they give:”--and he announced his intention of embodying the facts and information he had been for a long period collecting, in another work, as hitherto, he declares, there has in reality been but little said on the History or Practice of Printing, the numerous works on the subject being chiefly copies from one or two of the earlier writers. This is true enough. From the very nature of the case it can scarcely be otherwise, until and unless the discovery of fresh facts, or the investigations of fresh inquirers lead to conclusions different to those which had previously been generally received.