[79] Author of “Speculum Humanæ Salvationis. Le plus ancien Monument de la Xylographie et de la Typographie réunis reproduits en fac-simile, avec Introduction Historique et Bibliographique.” Londres, 1861. fol. [80] Authorities differ in respect to Gutenberg’s age, the year of his birth not having been precisely ascertained. It is broadly stated by WETTER, that he was born between the years 1393 and 1400. He must therefore have been at least 68 years of age, and he may have been 75, at the time of his death. [81] Published at Heidelberg in 1499. [82] _History of England_, vol. ii. pp. 526-7. Early Typography. CHAPTER IV. THE CLAIMS OF COSTER AND HAARLEM CONSIDERED, AS OPPOSED TO THOSE OF GUTENBERG AND MENTZ.--CLAIMS BASED UPON TRADITION.--NO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES IN THEIR FAVOR.--ABUNDANCE OF SUCH TESTIMONY IN FAVOR OF GUTENBERG AND MENTZ.--PROBABLE ORIGIN OF TRADITION.--BLOCK BOOKS.--SPECULUM HUMANÆ SALVATIONIS.--EVIDENCE OF THE TYPES: WOOD OR METAL, CUT OR CAST?--BOOKS “JETTEZ EN MOLLE.”--AGE OF THE PAPER.--DATE OF COSTUME.--FRATERNITY OF BRETHREN AND CLERKS OF THE COMMON LIFE. Clear and convincing as the evidence appears to be, that the Art of Typography originated in Germany, and that the honor claimed for Gutenberg as its inventor is rightly his; both positions are stoutly contested by the Dutch, who assert that the Art originated at Haarlem, and was the invention of one Laurence Janssoen, the Coster or Sacristan of the great church of that city, who according to some of their writers, was not only the first engraver of block-books, and cutter of separable letters, but also the first who cast fusile metal types. It is necessary therefore, before proceeding further, to examine the grounds upon which these assertions are based, and to ascertain what amount of truth they contain. The claim on behalf of Haarlem was first made by Jan Van Zuyren, (_b._ 1517; _d._ 1591), between the years 1549 and 1561,--(upwards of a century, at least, after the appearance of the first printed book in Germany),--in “A Dialogue on the first Invention of the Art of Typography,” of which only a part of the Dedicatory Preface remains. In this fragment, reprinted by Scriverius, the writer says:-- “It is from the love of my country alone, that I undertake this work, and that I institute further inquiries upon the subject of it; as I cannot consent that our claims to a portion of this glory;--claims which are even at this day fresh in the remembrance of our fathers, to whom, so to express myself, they have been transmitted from hand to hand from their ancestors, should be effaced from the memory of men, and be buried in eternal oblivion; claims of which it is our duty to preserve the memorial, for the benefit of our latest posterity.