Opening the text

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 AssociatesDe Vinne, Theodore Low

History

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

Name: 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
Author: De Vinne, Theodore Low

De Vinne, Theodore Low

Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents

By many authors the question of his possible priority has been decided,
not from an examination of known and proved facts, but from the
assertions of prejudiced and untrustworthy witnesses. The frequent
presentation of the statement of the _Cologne Chronicle_, and of the
legends that find their support in it, has not been without effect.
There is a general belief in the tradition that types were first made
in Haarlem by Coster, and that the German method was the outgrowth of
the Dutch method. This proposition has been repeated so frequently and
so confidently that it becomes necessary to give a critical examination
to the legend of printing in Haarlem.




[p326]

XVII

The Legend of Loureus Janszoon Coster.


 Coornhert’s Notice of Printing in Haarlem . . . Notice by Van Zuren
 . . . By Guicciardini . . . The Statement of Junius . . . Fac-simile
 of Scriverius’s Portrait of Coster . . . Sketch of Junius’s life and
 Works . . . Examination of his Statement . . . Vagueness of the Date
 . . . Junius’s Story is Incredible . . . Wood Types could not be Used
 . . . Metal Types made too soon . . . This story an Imitation of a
 Spurious German Story . . . Fust was not the Thief . . . Absurdity
 of the Accusation . . . Evidence of Cornelis . . . Our knowledge of
 Cornelis from other Sources . . . Cornelis not an Eye-Witness . . .
 Talesius not a Satisfactory Witness . . . Disappearance of the Art
 more Wonderful than its Invention . . . Legend Cherished for Patriotic
 Reasons . . . Its Growth and its Exaggerations.

       *       *       *       *       *

 He who is satisfied, as regards a fact like that of the invention of
 typography, with the simple assertion of people who talk of things
 which are said to have happened more than a century before their time,
 is destitute of scientific morality: he is ignorant of the passion of
 truth; in short, he belongs to the plebeians. We have not only the
 right to reject the fable fabricated by Junius, . . . but as honest
 men we are bound to do it.

 _Van der Linde._

       *       *       *       *       *

In the year 1561, Jan Van Zuren and Dierick Coornhert, with other
partners, set up a printing office in Haarlem. Van Zuren was a native
and burgomaster of the town of Amsterdam; Coornhert, who was a notary
and an engraver, is said to have been the instructor of the famous
engraver Goltzius. Their first book was an edition of _Cicero de
Officiis_, to which they prefixed the following quaint dedication:

 To the burgomaster, sheriffs and councilors of the town of Haarlem, D.
 V. Coornhert wishes as his honorable and commanding masters, salvation
 to soul and body.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

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

De Vinne, Theodore Low

Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents

By many authors the question of his possible priority has been decided,
not from an examination of known and proved facts, but from the
assertions of prejudiced and untrustworthy witnesses. The frequent
presentation of the statement of the _Cologne Chronicle_, and of the
legends that find their support in it, has not been without effect.
There is a general belief in the tradition that types were first made
in Haarlem by Coster, and that the German method was the outgrowth of
the Dutch method. This proposition has been repeated so frequently and
so confidently that it becomes necessary to give a critical examination
to the legend of printing in Haarlem.




[p326]

XVII

The Legend of Loureus Janszoon Coster.


 Coornhert’s Notice of Printing in Haarlem . . . Notice by Van Zuren
 . . . By Guicciardini . . . The Statement of Junius . . . Fac-simile
 of Scriverius’s Portrait of Coster . . . Sketch of Junius’s life and
 Works . . . Examination of his Statement . . . Vagueness of the Date
 . . . Junius’s Story is Incredible . . . Wood Types could not be Used
 . . . Metal Types made too soon . . . This story an Imitation of a
 Spurious German Story . . . Fust was not the Thief . . . Absurdity
 of the Accusation . . . Evidence of Cornelis . . . Our knowledge of
 Cornelis from other Sources . . . Cornelis not an Eye-Witness . . .
 Talesius not a Satisfactory Witness . . . Disappearance of the Art
 more Wonderful than its Invention . . . Legend Cherished for Patriotic
 Reasons . . . Its Growth and its Exaggerations.

       *       *       *       *       *

 He who is satisfied, as regards a fact like that of the invention of
 typography, with the simple assertion of people who talk of things
 which are said to have happened more than a century before their time,
 is destitute of scientific morality: he is ignorant of the passion of
 truth; in short, he belongs to the plebeians. We have not only the
 right to reject the fable fabricated by Junius, . . . but as honest
 men we are bound to do it.

 _Van der Linde._

       *       *       *       *       *

In the year 1561, Jan Van Zuren and Dierick Coornhert, with other
partners, set up a printing office in Haarlem. Van Zuren was a native
and burgomaster of the town of Amsterdam; Coornhert, who was a notary
and an engraver, is said to have been the instructor of the famous
engraver Goltzius. Their first book was an edition of _Cicero de
Officiis_, to which they prefixed the following quaint dedication:

 To the burgomaster, sheriffs and councilors of the town of Haarlem, D.
 V. Coornhert wishes as his honorable and commanding masters, salvation
 to soul and body.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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

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

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