And again (in a later hand) Inventionem artis Typographicæ ad Annum 1453. aut exerciter referunt Sabillicus En. 10.lib.6. & Monsterus. Alij ad Annum 1460. Vide Polid. Virg.lib. 2. de Invent. Rerum, Theod. Bibland. de Ratione communis linguarum. cap. de Chalcographia.
At Harlem and some other places in Holland, they pretend to have Books Printed somewhat ancienter than this; but they are most of them (if not all) done by way of Carving whole Pages in Wood, not by single Letters Cast in Mettal, to be Composed and Distributed as occasion serves, as is now the manner.
The chief Inventer at Harlem is said to be Laurens Jansz Koster.
After these two places (Mentz and Harlem) it seems next of all to have been practised at Oxford: For by the care, and at the charge of King Henry the 6th, and of Thomas Bourchier then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury (and Chancellour of the University of Oxford) Robert Turner Master of the Robe, and William Caxton a Merchant of London were for that purpose sent to Harlem, at the charges partly of the King, partly of the Arch-Bishop, who then (because these of Harlem were very chary of this secret) prevailed privately with one Frederick Corseles an under-Workman, for a sum of Money, to come over hither; who thereupon did at Oxford set up the Art of Printing, before it was exercised any where else in England, or in France, Italy, Venice, Germany, or any other place, except only Mentz and Harlem (aforementioned): And there be several Copies yet extant (as one in the Archives of the University of Oxford, another in the Library of Dr. Tho. Barlow, now Bishop of Lincoln) of a Treatise of St. Jerome (as it is there called (because found among St. Jerom’s Works) or rather Ruffinus upon the Creed, in a broad Octavo) Printed at Oxford in the year 1468. as appears by the words in the close of it.
Explicit expositio Sancti Jeronimi in sembolo Apostolorum ad papam Laurentium Impressi Oxonie & finita Anno Domini M CCCC LX VIII. xvij die Decembris.
Which is but three years later than that of Tullies Offices at Mentz, in 1465. and was perhaps one of the first Books Printed on Paper; (that of Tully being on Vellom.) And there the excercise of Printing hath continued successively to this day.
Soon after William Caxton (the same I suppose who first brought it to Oxford) promoted it to London also, which Baker in his Chronicle (and some others) say to have been about the year 1471. but we have scarce any Copies of Books there Printed remaining (that I have seen) earlier than the year 1480. And by that time, or soon after, it began to be received in Venice, Italy, Germany, and other places, as appears by Books yet extant, Printed at divers places in those Times. Thus far Dr. Wallis.
But whoever were the Inventers of this Art, or (as some Authors will have it) Science; nay, Science of Sciences (say they) certain it is, that in all its Branches it can be deemed little less than a Science: And I hope I say not to much of Typographie: For Dr. Dee, in his Mathematical Preface to Euclids Elements of Geometrie, hath worthily taken pains to make Architecture a Mathematical Science; and as a vertual Proof of his own Learned Plea, quotes two Authentique Authors, viz. Vitruvius and Leo Baptista, who both give their descriptions and applause of Architecture: His Arguments are somewhat copious, and the Original easily procurable in the English Tongue; therefore instead of transcribing it, I shall refer my Reader to the Text it self.
Upon the consideration of what he has said in behalf of Architecture, I find that a Typographer ought to be equally qualified with all the Sciences that becomes an Architect, and then I think no doubt remains that Typographie is not also a Mathematical Science.
For my own part, I weighed it well in my thoughts, and find all the accomplishments, and some more of an Architect necessary in a Typographer: and though my business be not Argumentation, yet my Reader, by perusing the following discourse, may perhaps satisfie himself, that a Typographer ought to be a man of Sciences.