The eloquent author of an article upon Printing in the Encyclopædia Britannica, writes as follows regarding this invention:--“It is very likely that the combination of character and qualifications of the three men, John Gutenberg, John Faust, and Peter Schœffer, may afford a good clue not only to the wonderful taste and beauty which distinguished the works issued from their press, but also to the general improvement of the art during their connection with it. The ingenuity of Gutenberg (the inventor of the new mode of printing) would readily suggest a novel and expeditious method of manufacturing types; the practical skill of Faust as a worker in metals (for the working of gold and silver had at that time attained a most extraordinary nicety and cunning), as well as his large pecuniary resources, would promptly provide the necessary appliances; while the taste of Schœffer, would give all possible grace and missal-like excellence to the new forms. For Schœffer, it should be borne in mind, was a scribe,--one of that ancient and honorable craft whose occupation was destined to fall before the new art,--a transcriber and perhaps an illuminator of the manuscript works in use before books; and those who have had the happiness of viewing the exquisite specimens of skill which beguiled our ancestors into study and devotion, will readily conceive that Schœffer’s eye was already schooled for the conception, and his hand for the execution, of all the beauty which the trammels of a new art and limited skill would allow. Aided by his own taste, Schœffer, it is said, proceeded to a new enterprise--viz. the casting of type. The entire conception and execution of this invention has generally been attributed and allowed to Schœffer. It seems most probable, however, that where three ingenious men are bound together by art and interest, none of them can lay exclusive claim to any invention or undertaking, executed in the workshops for the benefit of all. Allowing therefore to Schœffer the honor of having suggested some such plan (as the design of the types to be used) the other two may fairly put in a claim for their portion of the approbation attached to the invention, on the score of their practical suggestions in carrying it out; especially since Faust, as a worker in metals, would have been the party whose function it was to engage the workmen necessary to carry out the particular design.”