DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7597#0224
chap, in ] SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS.
191
or with moveable characters : in this place M. Larnbinet is evidently
endeavouring to mislead his reader.
" But the opinion of the learned in general, and of Meerman
" himself, is, that six or seven other works of the same kind had
" been engraved on blocks of wood, previous to these Donatuses,
" in Germany and in Italy."
Here an acknowledgment of Meerman is ingeniously brought
against himself. Of this I shall not complain, as it is only what I
am endeavouring to do with Larnbinet.
" Besides, if it had been certain that these Donatuses were en-
" graved at Harlem, Ulric Zell would not have failed to mention this
" birth-place of Coster, as he has expressly mentioned Strasburg
" and Gutenburg for the first attempts of the art, and Mentz as
" the place where it was perfected."
This kind of negative argument is now become very fashion-
able ; it implies that each old writer must have known every
thing which, when he wrote, could be known; and, as a matter
of course, that he must have recorded every thing that he knew.
Supposing, however, for a moment, that M. Larnbinet is right in
the opinion that the earliest block-books were printed in Germany
and in Italy; and not in Holland; it will then be fair to infer that
the Donatuses printed in Holland, which Ulric Zell mentions as
having given the hint of typography to the printers of Mentz, must
have been printed with moveable characters: for, if block-printing
had been in use in Germany, or elsewhere, before it was practised
in Holland, he could never have intended to say, that the idea of
typography was taken by the German printers from the block-
books fabricated in Holland; since those of Germany would have
had at least equal claims to his mention, and he would never have
travelled to Holland for that which could be found at home.
The testimony of Ulric Zell, as preserved in " the Cologn Chro-
nicle," of 1499, is as follows; and is certainly, as far as it goes,
entitled to be considered as most unexceptionable evidence on the
side of LTolland, generally; since Zell, who was the father of the
191
or with moveable characters : in this place M. Larnbinet is evidently
endeavouring to mislead his reader.
" But the opinion of the learned in general, and of Meerman
" himself, is, that six or seven other works of the same kind had
" been engraved on blocks of wood, previous to these Donatuses,
" in Germany and in Italy."
Here an acknowledgment of Meerman is ingeniously brought
against himself. Of this I shall not complain, as it is only what I
am endeavouring to do with Larnbinet.
" Besides, if it had been certain that these Donatuses were en-
" graved at Harlem, Ulric Zell would not have failed to mention this
" birth-place of Coster, as he has expressly mentioned Strasburg
" and Gutenburg for the first attempts of the art, and Mentz as
" the place where it was perfected."
This kind of negative argument is now become very fashion-
able ; it implies that each old writer must have known every
thing which, when he wrote, could be known; and, as a matter
of course, that he must have recorded every thing that he knew.
Supposing, however, for a moment, that M. Larnbinet is right in
the opinion that the earliest block-books were printed in Germany
and in Italy; and not in Holland; it will then be fair to infer that
the Donatuses printed in Holland, which Ulric Zell mentions as
having given the hint of typography to the printers of Mentz, must
have been printed with moveable characters: for, if block-printing
had been in use in Germany, or elsewhere, before it was practised
in Holland, he could never have intended to say, that the idea of
typography was taken by the German printers from the block-
books fabricated in Holland; since those of Germany would have
had at least equal claims to his mention, and he would never have
travelled to Holland for that which could be found at home.
The testimony of Ulric Zell, as preserved in " the Cologn Chro-
nicle," of 1499, is as follows; and is certainly, as far as it goes,
entitled to be considered as most unexceptionable evidence on the
side of LTolland, generally; since Zell, who was the father of the