DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 24 ) fully told in prose and verse. Having quarrelled with Faust, Gutenberg took Faust’s son-in-law, Peter Schéffer, into his employment, and to the latter we owe the further invention of cast-metal types. The most famous of the books they printed was a large folio Bible in Latin, of which but few copies are known. One of these was recently sold in London at a public auction for 28001. This book is known as the Mazarin Bible, as the first copy was found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin at Paris in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Great Britain may pride herself on having led the van during the nineteenth century in the march of invention and discovery, but it must be admitted that. foreigners were in the past the chief promoters of civilisation. So it was only towards the latter part of the fifteenth century that printing was intro- duced into this country. The first English printer was William Caxton, of whom about as little is known as of Gutenberg. Even the dates of his birth and death are matters of controversy, but his life ranged between the years 1412 and 1490. An inhabitant of Hadlow, in Kent, he was apprenticed to a rich London mercer, who sent him to Bruges on matters relating to his busi- ness. During his residence abroad Caxton became acquainted with Gutenberg’s invention, and, under