“Besides, the printers of the fifteenth century very commonly omitted to put their names to the editions printed by them. The number of books existing of this century, without either the name of the printer or the place of their publication is prodigious. Ulric Zell, for example, according to Santander, printed eighty books, and, out of this number, has only put his name to two or three. With what appearance of reason is it insisted, that the works, which are attributed to Laurent Janssoen Coster, are not his, because they are not signed with his name?
“But it is said, that neither Coster nor his descendants ever vindicated their claims, against the pretensions put forth by the Mentz printers.... Neither did Gutenberg vindicate his, against Faust and Schœffer; who, in the colophon of the Psalter of 1457, and in the subscriptions of numerous other books, took all the honor to themselves, making no mention of him whatever; although it is not doubted that Gutenberg set up a printing office of his own in 1455, and he is regarded by the writers on the side of Mentz as the inventor and perfector of the art of printing.”
As to the inventor having no idea of the astonishing influence which his art would have in the world in future ages, it is plain from the evidence given in the Strasburg law-suit, that Gutenberg and his partners were fully persuaded, that the work they had undertaken was one by which they would make their fortunes. And, although it is asserted that Gutenberg never vindicated his claim against Faust and Schœffer, yet it is certain that his merit as the inventor of printing was known to the Elector of Mentz, and the King of France, and it is also expressly admitted, not only by his contemporaries, in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere, but by Peter Schœffer himself, who besides the detailed account of the origin of the invention which he gave to the Abbot Trithemius in the year 1484, allowed the insertion of the following among other Latin verses at the end of the “Institutes of Justinian,” printed by him in 1468:—
Hos dedit eximios sculpendi in arte magistros,
Cui placet en mactos arte sagire viros,
Quos genuit ambos urbs moguntina Johannes
Librorum insignes protocaragmaticos;
Cum quibus optatum Petrus venit ad polyandrum,
Cursu posterior, introeundo prior;
Quippe quibus præstat sculpendi lege sagitus