[30] For, says the Bishop in his ‘Philobiblon,’ “Books are masters who instruct us without rods, without hard words and anger, without clothes and money. If you approach them they are not asleep; if investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them they never grumble; if you are ignorant they cannot laugh at you.” [31] _Vide_ vol. i. of _The Life and Typography of William Caxton_, from the second chapter of which the two preceding paragraphs have been abridged. Early Typography. CHAPTER III. JOHN GUTENBERG.--FIRST ATTEMPTS AT TYPOGRAPHY IN STRASBURG.--DIFFICULTIES.--INVENTION OF THE PRESS.--LAWSUIT.--RETURN TO MENTZ.--CONNECTION WITH FAUST.--SUCCESS.--MAZARIN BIBLE THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED FROM MOVEABLE METAL TYPES.--SECOND LAWSUIT.--FORFEITURE OF PLANT TO FAUST.--PETER SCHŒFFER.--INVENTION OF TYPE-FOUNDING.--FAUST AND SCHŒFFER.--THE GUTENBERG ‘PRINTING HOUSE.’--GUTENBERG ATTACHED TO THE COURT OF THE ELECTOR OF MENTZ.--DEATH. Until the publication in the Hague of Meerman’s _Origines Typographicæ_ (1765),--a work based upon the traditions inserted in Hadrian Junius’s _Batavia_, first published in 1588,--the man to whom the whole of Europe, with hardly a dissentient voice, ascribed the honor of the invention of the Art of Typography, was John Gutenberg.[32] a native of Mentz. He was of honorable descent; his family being included among the junckers and nobility, the equestrian order of the country, and possessing a small estate situated in the neighbourhood of Mentz, called Sulgeloch, on which estate he was born, about the year 1399. His father, Frielo, had besides him, an elder son, Conrad, who died some time previous to the year 1424, and Frielo, a younger, who was living in 1459; and two daughters, Bertha and Hebele, both of whom became nuns in the Convent of St. Clair at Mentz. In addition to the above-mentioned estate, the family owned two houses in the city of Mentz, one of which was called ‘Zum Gansfleisch,’ and the other ‘Zum Gutenberg.’ The latter of these formed part of the property of his mother, Elsy of Gutenberg. John Gutenberg, junior,[33] left Mentz in early life for Strasburg, where he settled and obtained rights of citizenship, and established himself in business as a polisher of precious stones, and a mirror and looking-glass manufacturer, in both which arts he is said to have shewn considerable skill. The precise date of his arrival and settlement in Strasburg has not been ascertained, but that it was prior to 1424 is known from a letter written to his sister Bertha, on the 24th March of that year;[34] probably it was about the year 1420, and may have been occasioned by the political disturbances of the time. His name frequently appears in the city documents and registers, and he occasionally visited Mentz. He left Strasburg finally about the year 1444. Of great natural sagacity, gifted with an inventive genius, and of indomitable perseverance, the