In the Black book or Register of the Garter, it is said with reference to the 35th year of the reign of Henry VI, anno 1457, “In this year of our most pious king, the art of printing books first began at Mentz, a famous city of Germany.” And in _Fabian’s Chronicle_, the writer, a contemporary of Caxton, says, “This yere (35th of Henry VI,) after the opynyon of dyverse wryters, began in a citie of Almaine, namyd Mogunce, the crafte of empryntynge bokys, which sen that tyme hath had wonderful encrease.” It was in this year 1457, that the first book appeared which has the printer’s name, date, and place of printing, affixed. This is the celebrated Psalter printed by Faust and Schœffer. In 1486, Berthold, Archbishop of Mentz, in a mandate which will be quoted at length in a subsequent chapter, states, “this art, [printing] was first discovered in this city of Mentz.” A single testimony similar to either of the above in favor of Haarlem, would have been hailed with delight by any of the writers in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and their tribe of followers who advocate the claims of that city; but what follows is much more forcible and decisive. “Of all the authors to whom the world is indebted for a particular account of the discovery of printing,” says, Mr. Palmer,[94] “Abbot Trithemius justly claims pre-eminence; both upon account of his living nearest to the time when the art originated, which he tells us was in his younger years; as well as his care to derive his intelligence on the subject from the purest sources. We have two noble testimonies out of his chronicle; one from the first part entitled _Chronicon Spanheimense_, wherein, speaking of the year 1450, he says: ‘That about this time, the art of printing and casting single types was found out anew in the city of Mentz, by one John Gutenberg, who having spent his whole estate in this difficult discovery, by the assistance and advice of some honest men, John Faust and others, brought his undertaking at length to perfection; that the first improver of this art, after the inventor, was Peter Schœffer de Gernsheim, who afterwards printed a great many volumes; that the said Gutenberg lived at Mentz, in a house called _Zum-junghen_, but afterwards known by the name of the printing house.’