[111] “The Horarium (or more correctly A B C Darium) rendered so
celebrated by the detailed notice of so many learned Bibliopolists,
as one of the earliest efforts of Koster, and by some considered
positively his first experimental work with moveable types, either
of bark (?), wood (?), or metal, I have examined very closely, and
do not consider that it has any claim whatever to be so considered.
It is true, that both type and printing are rude, but that is no
sufficient reason for assigning to it a strictly primitive character,
as many rudely executed works might be cited long after the practical
establishment of the Printing Press. The fact is, that its being
printed on both sides, and the imposition for folding being arranged
after the regular manner adopted when printing with moveable types
was in general use, induce me to believe that it was printed long
after the ‘Speculum,’ probably by the successors of Koster who used
his types. Even the specimens of Donatuses, which I have examined in
Holland (and elsewhere) especially in the Royal Library of the Hague,
under the learned guidance of Dr. Holtrop and Mr. Campbel, lead me to
the conviction that they were not essays by Koster anterior to the
production of the ‘Speculum.’ It is true, that I was shewn a specimen
of a Donatus printed on vellum, and _on one side only_, which has been
recovered from the binding of an old Dutch book. But I look upon it as
a rough ‘proof,’ that was never completed, and eventually used like
ordinary waste to stiffen bindings.”--HUMPHREYS, p. 215. This Horarium
was discovered in the binding of an old book, forming in fact a portion
of the binding. The pages are printed on vellum on both sides; and it
has been pointed out that the letter i has a modern peculiarity in
being dotted, instead of having, as in the ancient manuscripts and
printed books, a stroke above it, thus, í. Enschedé who discovered the
work, published a fac-simile of it in 1768. Chatto, who critically
examined it, says, in Jackson’s Treatise on Wood-engraving (2d edit.
1861, p. 162,) “It is certainly such a one as he was most wishful
to find, and which he in his capacity of type-founder and printer
would find little difficulty in producing. I am firmly convinced that
it is neither printed with wooden types, nor a specimen of early
typography. I suspect it to be a Dutch typographic essay on popular
credulity.”--This I think a harsh judgment; and, of the two, I prefer
to believe, with Humphreys, that Enschedé was mistaken in supposing
the pages he found to be a work, perhaps the earliest work, of Coster,
rather than with Chatto, to suspect that he forged it himself.
[112] The Town-hall at Haarlem possesses a collection of Costerian
relics, but Mr. Humphreys says (p. 215) “they are not, as it seems to
me, so important as many writers have deemed them.”
[113] _Inquiry_, pp. 202-203.
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