DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7597#0270
chap, in ] SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVAT10NIS. 237
for the existence of a work, of which we have four ancient editions,
neither of them capable of being classed amongst ancient books
printed in Germany, nor among the productions of those printers
who practised the art of typography in various parts of the Low
Countries, after the example of Theodore Martens and John of
Westphalia. This they will probably find no easy task ; and, at all
events, they will not be able to accomplish it without admitting
the fallacy of so many of their former opinions and doctrines, that
it were as creditable for them to give up the point at once, or at
least to acknowledge that, after all, there may be more foundation
for the story of Laurence Coster than they were aware of.
It has already been stated that, except twenty pages of the text,
in one of the Latin editions,* the four early editions of the Spe-
culum were printed with moveable characters; that, in three of the
editions, the type is identically the same, and that it is cast type.
But although this last-mentioned fact, I hesitate not to say, is
certain, there have been, notwithstanding, so many contradictory
opinions respecting the type of the Speculum, that it cannot be
termed uncontroverted. I therefore think it necessary to offer a
few remarks on the subject; and that they may be rendered more
intelligible to the reader, I prefix a fac-simile, shewing the nu-
merous pieces that type is composed of; which have been col-
lected together with no small pains, during a frequent examination
of the text in the two editions called " the second Dutch," and
" the first Latin."f
It would be, perhaps, improper to term this a fac-simile of the
printer's alphabet; since by far the greater number of the pieces
represented, are either double letters, or accompanied by marks
* The pages of the " first Latin edition," 21. 22. 26. 27- 46. and 55.
as it is called, which are printed from wooden f I shall afterwards speak of the different
blocks, are those containing the cuts numbered type used, as before observed, in two pages
1 • 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. is. 14. 16. 17. of the edition called " the second Dutch."
for the existence of a work, of which we have four ancient editions,
neither of them capable of being classed amongst ancient books
printed in Germany, nor among the productions of those printers
who practised the art of typography in various parts of the Low
Countries, after the example of Theodore Martens and John of
Westphalia. This they will probably find no easy task ; and, at all
events, they will not be able to accomplish it without admitting
the fallacy of so many of their former opinions and doctrines, that
it were as creditable for them to give up the point at once, or at
least to acknowledge that, after all, there may be more foundation
for the story of Laurence Coster than they were aware of.
It has already been stated that, except twenty pages of the text,
in one of the Latin editions,* the four early editions of the Spe-
culum were printed with moveable characters; that, in three of the
editions, the type is identically the same, and that it is cast type.
But although this last-mentioned fact, I hesitate not to say, is
certain, there have been, notwithstanding, so many contradictory
opinions respecting the type of the Speculum, that it cannot be
termed uncontroverted. I therefore think it necessary to offer a
few remarks on the subject; and that they may be rendered more
intelligible to the reader, I prefix a fac-simile, shewing the nu-
merous pieces that type is composed of; which have been col-
lected together with no small pains, during a frequent examination
of the text in the two editions called " the second Dutch," and
" the first Latin."f
It would be, perhaps, improper to term this a fac-simile of the
printer's alphabet; since by far the greater number of the pieces
represented, are either double letters, or accompanied by marks
* The pages of the " first Latin edition," 21. 22. 26. 27- 46. and 55.
as it is called, which are printed from wooden f I shall afterwards speak of the different
blocks, are those containing the cuts numbered type used, as before observed, in two pages
1 • 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. is. 14. 16. 17. of the edition called " the second Dutch."