To the like effect is the testimony of Marc Ant. Coccius Sabellicus (_b._ 1436; _d._ 1506,) in the sixth chapter of his Universal History, printed at Venice in 1504. In 1502, Wimpheling, the earliest writer in favour of the pretensions of Strasburg, states, in his _Epitome Rerum Germanicarum_, that Gutenberg was “the inventor of a new art of writing (_ars impressoria_), which might also be called a divine benefit, and which he happily _completed at Mentz_.” In 1505, John Schœffer, _eldest son and successor to Peter_, Faust’s son-in-law, declares in a Dedication to the Emperor Maximilian of an edition of Livy, printed that year, that the admirable art of Typography was invented at Mentz in the year 1450, by John Gutenberg, and afterwards improved and perfected by the study, perseverance and labour of John Faust and Peter Schœffer.[97] This work was edited by the learned Dr. Ivo Wittig, the same who in 1508 erected the memorial tablet in front of the house Zum Gutenberg, the inscription on which is given at page 198. About 1510, Mariangelus Accursius, a Neapolitan scholar of distinction, wrote on the first page of a Donatus, printed on vellum, “Johan Faust, a citizen of Mentz, the maternal grandfather of Johan Schœffer, first found out the art of printing with types of brass, for which he afterwards substituted those of lead; his son-in-law, Peter Schœffer, greatly assisting him in perfecting the art. But this _Donatus_ and _Confessionalia_ was first of all printed in the year 1450. It is certain that he took the idea from a Donatus which had been before printed from engraved wooden blocks in Holland.” The Donatus in which this was written was in the possession of the younger Aldus, who shewed it to Angelo Rocca, by whom the memorandum was copied, and printed in the year 1591. Erasmus of Rotterdam, who was intimate with the most learned men and principal printers of Germany, Holland, Italy, and France, and whose inquisitive mind led him to obtain information on every possible topic; who had beside him for many years in the capacity of Secretary, the same Quirinus Talesius from whom Junius obtained the confirmation of the story of Nicholas Galius; who greatly eulogised the productions of the Fleming, Jodocus Badius, a printer in France, and moreover wrote the epitaph over his friend Theodore Martens, the first printer in Belgium, and who was as jealous of the honor of his fatherland as any Hollander could be; nevertheless repeatedly declared Faust to be the earliest printer, and Mentz the city where printing was first practised. This he did in 1518, in his dedicatory Epistle to an edition of Livy, published by John Schœffer, and again in his own edition of the Epistles of St. Hieronymous, published at Leyden in 1530.