previous patronage sinks into comparative insignificance before the encouragement given to everything connected with literature by Philippe le Bon, who succeeded Jean in 1419. At Bruges where he kept his Court, he gave continual employment to multitudes of authors, translators, copyists, and painters, who were constantly enriching his library with their best productions." In an account of the Duke's library, nearly two thousand works are enumerated, "the greater part being magnificent vellum folios beautifully illuminated, bound in velvet, satin, or damask, studded with gems, and protected by gold clasps jewelled and chased." "The passion for books thus displayed was not confined to France or the French princes. In Italy, Germany, England, and other countries, the same spread. In England Henry VI had a valuable library; many books written and illuminated for him being still among the

taste

royal MSS. in the British Museum. The Duke of Bedford, whose love of literature was probably greatly stimulated while Regent of France, was surpassed by none of his countrymen in his patronage of the Fine Arts; and the celebrated Missal executed for him still remains as the choicest productions of his age. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the Protector of Henry VI, was also greatly attached to his library, and bequeathed many hundreds of volumes to the University of Oxford, and to King's College, Cambridge."

one of

"Owing to these causes the various Artists connected with book-writing and book-binding, as well as the trades necessary to them, received great encouragement, while to ensure speed as well as well as excellence of workmanship, division of labour was carried out to a great extent. Indeed, so important a branch of commerce had the manufacture of books now become, and

SO numerous were the various classes of craftsmen employed in this way at Bruges, that there sprang up in that city a Guild, The Guild of St. John the Evangelist,' the patron Saint of Scribes,-which in 1454 had a formal charter and privileges granted it by the Duke." Other cities also had similar corporations. Thus, at Antwerp the Society of St. Luke was formed in 1450, and at Brussels there was a guild of Writers called 'Les Frères de la plume.' The Guild of St. John the Evangelist contained members of both sexes, and consisted of Bookbinders, Booksellers, Boss - carvers, Cloth - shearers, Curriers, Figure - engravers, Illuminators, Letter engravers, Painters,

Vide vol. i. of The Life and Typography of William

Coincident with this development of a thirst for classical learning, and a passion for literature amongst the great and wealthy, was the invention of Printing in the Western world.

Carton, from the second chapter of which the two preceding paragraphs have been abridged.

Early Typography.

CHAPTER III.

JOHN GUTENBERG.-FIRST ATTEMPTS AT TYPOGRAPHY IN STRASBURG.-DIFFICULTIES.-INVENTION OF THE PRESS.-LAWSUIT.-RETURN TO MENTZ.-CONNECTION WITH FAUST.-SUCCESS.-MAZARIN BIBLE THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED FROM MOVEABLE METAL TYPES.

-SECOND LAWSUIT. FORFEITURE

OF PLANT ΤΟ

BERG 'PRINTING HOUSE.'-GUTENBERG ATTACHED TO THE COURT OF THE ELECTOR OF MENTZ.-Death.

UNTIL the publication in the Hague of Meerman's Origines Typographicæ (1765), --a work based upon the traditions inserted in Hadrian Junius's Batavia, first published in 1588, the man to whom the whole of Europe, with hardly a dissentient voice,