This was the invention of printing. From the difficulty experienced in securing books for the great libraries at Florence, Urbino, and Rome, as we have seen (Rs. 130, 131, 132), and the great cost of reproducing single copies of books, we can see that the work of the humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Italy probably would have had but little influence elsewhere but for the invention of printing. To disseminate a new learning involving two great literatures by copying books, one at a time by hand, would have prevented instruction in the new subjects becoming general for centuries, and would have materially retarded the progress of the world. The discovery of the art of printing, coming when it did, scattered the new learning over Europe. [Illustration: FIG. 73. AN EARLY SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PRESS "The prynters have founde a crafte to make bokis by brasen letters sette in ordre by a frame." An engraving, dated 1520. The man at the right is setting type, and the one at the lever is making an impression. A number of four-page printed sheets are seen on the table at the right of the press.] SPREAD AND WORK OF THE PRESS. The dates connected with this new invention and its diffusion over Europe are: 1423. Coster of Harlem made the first engraved single page. 1438. Gutenberg invented movable wooden types. 1450. Schoeffer and Faust cast first metal type. 1456. Bible printed in Latin by Gutenberg and Faust at Mainz. This the first complete book printed. [20] 1457. The Mayence Psalter, the first dated book, printed. [21] 1462. Adolph of Nassau pillaged Mainz, drove out the printers, and in consequence scattered the art over Europe. 1465. Press set up in the German monastery of Subiaco, in the Sabine Mountains, in Italy. 1467. This press moved to Rome. 1469. Presses at Paris and Vienna. 1470. Printing introduced into Switzerland. 1471. Presses set up at Florence, Milan, and Ferrara. 1473. Printing introduced into Holland and Belgium. 1474. Printing introduced into Spain. 1474-77. Printing introduced into England. Caxton set up his press in 1477. 1476. First book printed in Greek at Milan. 1490. The Aldine press established at Venice, by Aldus Manutius. 1501. First Greek book printed in Germany, at Erfurt. 1563. First newspaper established, in Venice. Inventions traveled but slowly in those days, yet in time the press was to be found in every country of Europe. The professional copyists made a great outcry against the innovation; presses were at first licensed and closely limited in number; in France the University of Paris was given the proceeds of a tax levied on all books printed; and in England the beginnings of the modern copyright are to be seen in the necessity of obtaining a license from the ecclesiastical authorities to be permitted to print a book. [Illustration: FIG. 74. AN EARLY SPECIMEN OF CAXTON'S PRINTING]