The honour of the invention of movable types has been disputed by two cities, Haarlem and Mentz. The claims of Haarlem rest chiefly upon a statement of Hadrien Junius, who gave it upon the testimony of Cornelius, alleged to be a servant of Lawrence Coster, for whom the invention is claimed. The claims of Mentz, which appear to be more conclusive, are in favour of Peter Schaeffer, the assistant and son-in-law of John Faust, better known as Dr. Faustus. The first edition of the _Speculum humanae salvationis_ was printed by Coster at Haarlem, about the year 1440, and is one of the earliest productions of the press of which the printer is known. The celebrated Bible, commonly known as the Mentz Bible, without date, is the first important specimen of printing with moveable metal types. This was executed by Gutenberg and Faust, or Fust, as it is sometimes spelt, between the years 1450 and 1455. The secret of the method then becoming known, presses were speedily established in all parts of Europe, so that before the year 1500 there were printing-offices in upwards of 220 different places in Austria, Bavaria, Bohemia, Calabria, the Cremonese, Denmark, England, Flanders, France, Franconia, Frioul, Geneva, Genoa, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Lombardy, Mecklenburg, Moravia, Naples, the Palatinate, Piedmont, Poland, Portugal, Rome, Sardinia, Upper and Lower Saxony, Sicily, Silesia, Spain, Suabia, Switzerland, Thessalonica, Turkey, Tuscany, the Tyrol, Venice, Verona, Westphalia, Wurtemberg, &c. This vast and rapid extension of the art, combined with the skill which the earlier printers displayed in it, seems to be totally incompatible with the date assigned to the invention, and it is more than probable, that the art having been long practised in private under continued attempts at secrecy, it at length broke into publicity after it had already attained a considerable degree of perfection. THE PROTEUS ANGUINUS.