. Printing and writing materials: their evolution . or types which are cast are the only ones thatcan be used to advantage. There is no evidenceto prove that engraved wooden types were everused except in an experimental way. A fiercecontroversy has waged as to who first gave theworld a knowledge of typography, but the weightof evidence is strongly in favor of John Guten-berg, a printer of Mainz. We do not know when and where Gutenbergmade his first experiments with movable types, butbefore 1439 he seems to have been at work at Stras-burg, endeavoring to perfect his art. From Stras-burg he went
. Printing and writing materials: their evolution . or types which are cast are the only ones thatcan be used to advantage. There is no evidenceto prove that engraved wooden types were everused except in an experimental way. A fiercecontroversy has waged as to who first gave theworld a knowledge of typography, but the weightof evidence is strongly in favor of John Guten-berg, a printer of Mainz. We do not know when and where Gutenbergmade his first experiments with movable types, butbefore 1439 he seems to have been at work at Stras-burg, endeavoring to perfect his art. From Stras-burg he went to Mainz, where his name appearsin 1448, in a record of a legal contract. Here,about 1450, he entered into partnership with Jo-hann Fust or Faust, a wealthy money-lender, whofurnished the means necessary to set up a print-ing-press. In a few years (1455), Fust brought alawsuit against Gutenberg, to recover the sum ofmoney he had advanced. The verdict was inFusts favor and the printing-press passed out ofthe hands of Gutenberg. Although now nearly. INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 29 sixty years old, Gutenberg did not despair, butdetermined to found another office. Some of hisprinting materials still remained to him, and theclerk of the town of Mainz provided him withmoney. He continued his work for some time,but in 1462 all printing in Mainz was interruptedfor several years, by the sacking of the townduring the quarrel of the archbishops. In 1465Gutenberg was made a courtier by Adolph II.,Count of Nassau. His death occurred beforeFebruary, 1468, but nothing is known of thecircumstances. The earhest specimen of printing from mov-able metal types know^n to exist at the present dayis the famous Letter of Indulgence,^ of PopeNicholas V., to such persons as should contributemoney to help the King of Cyprus against theTurks. A copy of this Indulgence is now pre-served in the Meerman-Westreenen Museum atthe Hague. It bears the earliest authentic dateon a document printed from types,—Novembe
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