Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 51034-h.htm or 51034-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51034/51034-h/51034-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51034/51034-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/inventionofprint00deviuoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Original small capital letters have been replaced by all capitals. Text originally printed in boldface is rendered as all capitals in this edition. The first page of each chapter includes a chapter heading and an epigraph. Both were originally printed in Gothic blackletter scripts, perhaps similar to textura script. Both are rendered as unmarked plain text in this edition. Images of the blackletter are included in the html and epub editions. In other places, as for example in the note on page 133, or in the text body on page 201, text originally printed in blackletter is enclosed by ‹f› and ‹/f› tags (example: ‹f›A Collection of Facts and Opinions‹/f›). Original page numbers are shown like this: [p023]. Illustrations have been moved from within paragraphs to nearby places between paragraphs. This results in some missing page numbers, since illustration pages and even blank pages were numbered. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. [Illustration: THORWALDSEN’S STATUE OF JOHN GUTENBERG.] THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. A Collection of Facts and Opinions Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates. Illustrated with Fac-Similes of Early Types and Wood-Cuts. by THEO. L. DE VINNE. * * ‹f›Hereby tongues are knowne, knowledge groweth, judgement encreaseth, books are dispersed, the Scripture is seene, the doctors be read, stories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falshood detected, and with finger pointed, and all, as I said, through the benefit of Printing.‹/f› _Fox’s Acts and Monuments._ New-York: Francis Hart & Co. 12 & 14 College Place. 1876. Entered, According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1876, by Theodore L. De Vinne, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. TO DAVID WOLFE BRUCE, IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INSTRUCTION ABOUT TYPES, NOT TO BE HAD BY READING, OF ASSISTANCE IN STUDIES, NOT TO BE FOUND IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, OF COMPANIONSHIP MORE PLEASANT THAN BOOKS, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED BY HIS FRIEND, THEO. L. DE VINNE. CONTENTS. I THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING . . . 17 II ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION AND THEIR FAILURE . . . 29 III THE KEY TO THE INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY . . . 49