We have mentioned the xylographic publications, because in a certain number of them ornamental initials are to be met with. These, as would naturally be supposed, are of the same style as those found in manuscripts of the same period. It may be observed here, that whilst books of price were embellished with expensive work, the less valuable manuscripts were left either without initials at all, or with ornamental letters of a few stereotyped patterns, that experience had shown to be most harmonious to the written text. Of these patterns the most popular is the Maiblümchen, or lily of the valley design, constantly seen in manuscript books, and adopted by many of the early printers. This design will be seen in many of the first initials of the Augsburg printers, and especially of Rihel of Basle. Historiated initials are less frequent in the block-books, the only one we have found being the S of an _Ars Memorandi_, of which a reproduction is given. We have noted briefly the successive changes in the manuscript book, the different phases of its evolution towards its final formula and expression as an impression from movable type. This brings us to the invention of printing, but it must be noted that printing, which revolutionised in so many ways the world, did not immediately put an end to the professions of the rubricator and illuminator. Some printed works of the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries are embellished with miniatures of the very highest merit and illuminated letters of the greatest beauty. CHAPTER I BLOCK-BOOKS: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING: THE PSALTER OF MAYENCE Printing, with the discovery or invention of which the name of Gutenberg is intimately associated, goes back to the year 1454, or, if we accept the recent discovery of an almanac which can only refer to 1448, some six years earlier. This is not the place to relate its general history, which is to be found in all the special works on the question. We shall set down here only the facts which concern our subject more particularly, and show the evolution of ornamental letters in books of the first period after the discovery of the new art. It is known that Gutenberg, after the expensive experiments that had crippled his resources, had borrowed money from his fellow-citizen Fust, for the purpose of developing his new discovery. His methods were, however, incomplete, and, according to one of many conjectures, it was not until two or three years later that Peter Scheffer, presumably a workman in Gutenberg’s office, perfected it by the invention of punches and matrices, so discovering a means of founding the type for which he devised a more suitable alloy instead of engraving each letter. This brought Scheffer into favour with Fust, who gave him his daughter in marriage. A quarrel with the original inventor ensued, and Gutenberg, nearly ruined, was forced to retire, leaving the two others in possession of the field.