Doubtless the Hall of Learning would crown them with rays of glory Since 'tis by them a thousand Chairs with books are instructed! These rude verses (of which several faulty translations have appeared) are found at the end of "Justiniani Institutiones," printed by Schoeffer in 1468. They were written, as is evident, by Johann Brunnen (Joannes Fons, Joannes de Fonte), the corrector and reader of Schöffer's press, who also wrote the metrical Latin Grammar which Schöffer had printed in 1466. They contain a brief notice of five persons who continuously formed or worked the first printing-establishment in the world; namely, and in this succession, John the first of Maintz, John the second (Fust), Peter (Schöffer), Francis the compositor, and (John Brunnen) the reader. Therefore the fact, on which Mr. Hessels dwells, that Schöffer's house was not the identical building in which Guttenberg had first worked, was manifestly one of no importance in the eyes of Brunnen, and consequently the words in his Grammar (second edition, 1468) me domus genuit unde caragma venit are simply a loose form of expression, on which no argument can be based.-The above testimony as to the inventor of printing only needs to be supplemented and completed by the letter of Fichet to Gaguin which forms a preliminary to the edition of Gasparinus Pergamensis printed at Paris in 1470. There it is stated by the Prior of the Sorbonne that "John who styles himself Gutenberg and who dwells near Maintz" had invented the art of reproducing books by little metal types of letters, according to the information given him by the three Germans who had come to Paris to introduce the same art into that city.-The next special evidence on this point appeared in 1474 in the Chronicle published by Lignamine at Rome in 1474; and a confirmation from Mentz itself, from the Schoeffer press in 1505, will be found in the German Livy described infra. (Johann Gutenberg alone.) 35952 CATHOLICON. Incipit suma que vocat' Catholicon edita a fre Johanne de ianua ordis frm pdicator', large folio, Editio Princeps, printed in small Gothic characters, in double columns, 66 lines per page, the capitals and the above intitulation painted in by hand; russia, gilt edges, gilt tooling, by Roger Payne, £420. Altissimi presidio cuius nutu infantium lingue funt diserte. Qui q3 nuosepe puulis reuelat quod sapientibus celat. Hic liber egregius. catholicon. dnice incarnacionis annis Mcccclx Alma in urbe maguntina nacionis inclite germanice. Quam dei clemencia tam alto ingenii lumine. dono q3 gtuito. ceteris terrar' nacionibus preferre. illustrareqz dignatus est Non calami. stili. aut penne suffragio. 83 mira patronar' formar'q3. concordia pporcione et modulo. impressus atq; confectus est. Hinc tibi sancte pater nato cũ flamine sacro. laus et honor dno trino tribuatur et uno Ecclesie laude libro hoc catholice plaude Qui laudare piam semper non linque mariam Deo. Gracias (1460) In spite of the extraordinary interest which attaches to the Mazarine Bible, Schoeffer's Psalter, and the Durandus-the Catholicon is not excelled by any of them as an important document in the early history of Printing. Those three works may have all been produced in one establishment by Peter Schoeffer between 1455 and 1459, as Mr. Hessels concludes; this can only be considered the production of the other printer, the "John of Mentz called Gutenberg" whom we have long heard of as the inventor of the Art. The language of the colophon in the Catholicon, so far as it relates to the new art and the glory of the city of Mentz, is strikingly more emphatic, more original, and more stamped with the tokens of priority than any of the similar statements made in Schoeffer's colophons. 35953 THOMAS AQUINAS. Beginning: (P)ostulat a me uestra dileccio. ut de articulis fidei. colophon : Explicit summa de articulis fidei et ecclesie sacramentis. edita a fratre thoma de aquino. ordinis fratrum predicatorum. Deo. Gracias, sm. 4to. 13 leaves, 34 irregular lines per page, in the identical Gothic type which is used in the Catholicon, boards, UNCUT, £42. 10s Sine notâ [Maguntiæ, Joannes Guttenberg, circ. 1460] This is one of the ten recorded copies-this and another being the only two which are not yet locked up in the great libraries. It is a volume of considerable importance for the history of typography, seeing that it is in the exact type of the famous Catholicon and that only three books altogether (besides the Catholicon) can be so specified. Johann Fust (1455-66). Peter Schoeffer (1457-1502). 35954 PSALTERIUM cum Canticis, Hymnis, Litania, et precibus. Fol. 1: BEATUS | VIR large folio, Gothic missal type of two sizes, 136 leaves, 23 lines or 26 lines per full page; PRINTED ON VELLUM; rubricated with an enormous number of printed capitals, and embellished with about 280 very large initials printed in two colours (red with blue floreation, and blue with red floreation;) the MUSIC written on a staff of four lines in the spaces left for that purpose at the beginning of each psalm or canticle; large and beautiful copy (17 x 14 inches), in red morocco extra, gilt edges, with the Sykes arms on the sides; enclosed in a blue morocco case, 5000 guineas Presens psalmor' codex: venustate (1459) The second book printed with a date; the grandest work ever produced by typography; and one of the rarest of the early monuments of Printing. In the two Psalters (one dated 1457, the other as above 1459) Schoeffer achieved a work which amply justified the boast translated on a preceding page. In Jackson and Chatto's Wood-Engraving (p. 201) it is very justly stated that "the large initial letters engraved on wood and printed in red and blue ink, are the most beautiful specimens of this kind of ornament which the united efforts of the wood engraver and the pressman have produced. They have been imitated in modern times, but not excelled. As they are the first letters in point of time printed with two colours so are they likely to continue the first in point of excellence."-In designating the above volume as the grandest work ever produced by typography, I naturally treat the two Psalters of 1457 and 1459 as substantially the same book; of which there are now in existence 21 copies all varying from each other like different editions, but of which nine have a colophon dated 1457 and twelve a colophon dated 1459. In the copies with the latter date, the Athanasian Creed is given, which does not appear in those of 1457, and the colophon affords a variation in the name and description of one of the printers. In the 1457 colophon, he is simply Petru Schoffer de Gernszheim, in that of 1459 he is (as he probably considered more correct) Petru Schoifher de gerns'heym clerică. The above copy is not only splendidly fine in preservation; it is also perfect. Most copies appear to be imperfect, as are the British Museum copy, and the Windsor copy, of the 1457 Psalter. The Mazarine Bible is comparatively a common book by the side of the Psalter; several copies of the former have been sold during the last twenty years, while this is the only copy of the Psalter which has turned up for the better part of a century. The great public libraries have absorbed nearly all that remain of the few copies originally printed by Schöffer. It is probable that he never produced more than fourteen or fifteen examples of each of the two kinds. The two Psalters are differentiated thus, that one is the service-book of the Church of Maintz, and the other the service-book of the Benedictine monastery of St. James at Maintz; the varying use being shown in the prayers which succeed the Psalter. Peter Schoeffer alone (1466-1502). 35955 THOMAS AQUINAS, SECUNDA SECUNDE. Fol. 1: (P)ost ɔmune cōsideracõem de virtutib, et vicijs .. 35955* In fine: explicit ordo et signatio questionu sedi libri secude ptis bti thome de aquino. bñdictus de' Amē. folio, First dated edition, Gothic letter, 258 leaves, in double columns, 59 lines per column; bound in blue morocco extra, gilt edges, by Bozérian-jeune, £50. Hoc opus preclaru secuda secude Alma in vrbe moguntina inclite nacionis germanice quà dei cle metia tam alti ingenij lumie donoq3 gratuito ceteris terrarum nacōnibs pferre illustrareqz dignatus e. Artificiosa quada adinuencōne imprimendi seu caracterizadi absq3. vlla calami exaratione sic effigiatu et ad eusebia dei industrie est osummatū per Petrum schoiffher de gernszheim. Anno dni. M.cccc.lxvij. die sexta mensz marcij (1467) the same, folio, wanting 19 leaves, and having a few blank margins cut away, but Printed on Vellum, and having the initials richly coloured and illuminated, old calf, from the Sunderland library, 1467 £50. 35956 THOME DE AQUINO (Sci) Opus Quarti Scripti, folio, Editio Princeps, fine copy in veau fauve, gilt edges, by Derome, £48. Moguntice, P. Schoiffer de Gernszheim, 1469 The full colophon in red ink is: Preclaru hoc opus quartiscripti sci thome de aquino. Alma in vrbe mogutina. inclite nacōis germăice. quà dei clemētia tā alti ingenii luine. donoq3 gratuito. ceteris terrar' nacōibo pferre. illustraeq; dignata e. Artificiosa quada adinuencõe imprimendi seu caracterizandi absq3 vlla calami exaracõe sic effigiatu. et ad eusebià dei industrie est cōsumatu. p. petru schoiffher de gernszhem. Anno dni millesimo quadringentesimo sexagesimo nono. Tredecima die Junii. Sit laus deo. The usual two shields are impressed in red beneath. The type throughout is very small Gothic. 35957 MARCHESINI (J.) Mammothrepton. MAMMETRACTUS (sive Expositio super Biblia et Legenda Sanctorum, de Orthographia, etc.), folio, FIRST EDITION, fine copy in red morocco, gilt edges, by Roger Payne, with Wodhull arms in gold on side, extremely rare, £21. Explicit Mametractus Arte imprimendi seu caracterizandi absq; calami exaracōne sic effigiatus. et ad eusebia dei. industrie per Petru schoiffer de gernszhem in ciuitate magutina feliciter cōsumatus Anno dnice incarnacõis. M.cccc.lxx. in vigilia Martini In the same small Gothic type in which the Aquinas is printed. The colophon is in red. The initials and headings are painted in. 35958 [HIERONYMUS.] Ad laudem beatissime trinitatis. exaltationem vl'is eccie & honorificentia gl'iosissimi Jeonimi. Incip lib' Jeronimianus sic dictus eo q' epl'as bti Jeronimi ad diu'sos et diuersoru ad ipm: s; et felice eius transitu ex hoc mudo at; miracl'a 2 vols. roy. folio, very fine copy in old French red morocco extra, gilt edges, by Derome, £24. per Petru Schoiffer de Gernszhem in ciuitate nobili Magutina . . . Anno domini. M.cccc.lxx... (1470) ... The original editor of this text was the famous doctor of law, Joannes Andreae.-The type is Gothic, much larger than that of the Aquinas. 35959 TAMBACO (Joannis de) Consolatio Theologiæ. Fol. 1: Quonia scd'm apl'm. quecüq3 scripta sut Colophon: Explicit osolaco theologie opilata a mgro iohane de tambaco sacre theologie doctore eximio, sm. 4to. Gothic letter, 99 leaves, 27 lines to a full page (except in one leaf which is in larger type), very fine copy in calf neat, tooled in antique pattern, £6. s. n. (Moguntia, Petrus Schoeffer, 1470) VERY RARE. A curious circumstance in the printing of this book is not noticed by Panzer, Hain, and Brunet; which per |