and domeftic; and that amidft two hundred and fifty Popes, many of whom had as ample means, he is the moft diftinguifhed, and not only among them, but among all the fovereigns of Europe.

The most illuftrious period of the modern arts commences with the return of Michael Angelo from Rome to Florence about the year 1500, and terminates with the death of Leo the tenth in 1521. The influence of his patronage is defcribed by the moft correct of our English poets, with his accuftomed beautiful imagery:

"But fee each Mufe in Leo's golden days,

Starts from her trance, and trims her wither'd bays;
Rome's antient Genius, o'er its ruins spread,

Shakes off the duft, and rears his reverend head.

Then Sculpture, and her fister arts revive,

Stones leap'd to form, and rocks began to live;
With fweeter notes each rifing temple rung,

A Raphael painted, and a Vida fung.
Immortal Vida! round whofe honour'd brow
The poet's bays, and critic's ivy grow;
Cremona now fhall ever boast thy name,

As next in place to Mantua, next in fame ","

Thefe improvements were foon received in other countries, and fpread their influence over England, France, Spain, and Hungary. The Greek tongue was introduced into England by William Grocyn: he was a fellow of New College, Oxford, and died about the year 1520. To Germany muft be

Pope's Effay on Criticism.

allowed

allowed a very large and diftinguished fhare in the reftoration of letters. And the mechanical genius of Holland, at an aufpicious moment, added to all the fortunate events in favour of fcience, an admirable invention; for to that country the world was indebted for the difcovery of the art of PRINTING. The honour of having given rise to this art has been claimed by the cities of Haarlem, Mentz, and Strafburgh. To each of these it may be attributed in a qualified fenfe, as within a fhort fpace of time they refpectively contributed to its advancement. But the original inventor was Laurentius John Cofter of Haarlem, who made his firft effay with wooden types about the year 1430. The art was communicated by his fervant to John Fuft and John Guttemburgh of Mentz. It was carried to perfection by Peter Schoiffer, the fon-in-law of Fuft, who invented the mode of cafting metal types, and was probably the firft who ufed them in printing. The moft popular of thefe very ingenious

mechanics

• Trithemius, in his Chronicle, written A. D. 1514, fays he had it from the mouth of Peter Schoiffer, that the first book they printed with moveable types was the Bible, about the year 1450, in which the expences were fo enormous as to have coft 4000 florins before they had printed 12 fheets. The author of a MS. Chronicle of Cologne, compiled in 1499, alfo fays, that he was told by Ulric Zell of Cologne, (who himself introduced printing there in 1466) that the Latin Bible was first begun to be printed in the year of the Jubilee 1450, in a large character. Scriptura grandiori quali hodie miffalia folent imprimi. Mr. Edwards of Pall Mall poffeffed

mechanics was Fuft, who is reported to have carried a number of his Bibles to Paris; and when he offered them to fale as mannfcripts, the French, confidering the number of the books, and their exact resemblance to each other, without the variation even of a letter or a stop, and that the best tranfcribers could not poffibly be fo exact in their moft accurate copies, concluded he must have derived affiftance from fome fupernatural agent. Either by actually profecuting him as a magician, or threatening to do fo, they extorted from him the fecret of his new and moft ingenious invention; and it is probable, that from this circumftance arofe the marvellous ftories commonly related of Dr. Fauftus.

The art of printing was foon fpread throughout a great part of Europe. It paffed to Rome in 1466, and the Roman type was in a fhort time brought to great perfection. In the reign of Henry VI. Thomas Bouchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, fent William Caxton, a perfon remarkable in that age for cultivating learning amid the occupations of commerce, to Haarlem, to gain a knowledge of this invention; and "the first book which Caxton printed was an English tranflation of the Recuyell of the Hiftorys of Troye, in 1471, in Flanders. The first book known to have been printed in England by himn was a translation from the French of the Game

poffeffed a copy of this curious Bible, vol. bound in Morocco. In his catalogue it was valued at 1261. There is a beautiful copy of this work, 4 vol. fol. in the Bodleian library.

and

and Play of the Chesse, 1474, with fufile metal types, fuch as are used at prefent. The art of printing advanced rapidly to a high state of improvement. Of its fudden excellence fufficient fpecimens are extant; for many of the books printed during the earliest period may challenge a comparifon, with refpect to the arrangement of the matter, elegance of the type, blacknefs of the letter, colour of the paper, and fize of the margin, with the copies of works beft executed in the prefent times. This elegant and fyftematic form was given to typography by Jenfon, Spira, Zarotus, the Stephani, Turnebus, Plantin and others. Among thefe early printers, no one is to be found more confpicuous than Aldus Manutius fenior, who was born at Baffiano, a village in the Roman territory, 1447. His eminence as a claffical fcholar, and a teacher of the Greek language, introduced him to the fociety of all the learned men of his country. Inftigated by the most honourable motives, and zealous for the diffufion of polite learning, he inftituted a fociety for the purpose of correcting the works of antient authors, and publifhing them in an accurate manner. Venice was the scene of his indefatigable industry, and the earliest production of his prefs was the Poem of Hero and Leander, by Mufæus, publifhed in 1494. During twenty years from that time, exclufive of many Italian and other works, there was fcarcely a claffic which he did not publifh and republifh in different fizes. He effected more for the promotion of learning than any of the crowned or mitred

* See Dibdin's Claffics, p. 513.

heads

heads of his age; and he had the fatisfaction to find, that the encouragement given to his elegant editions was correfpondent to his wifhes. As he was defirous of purfuing his occupations without interruption, except by thofe who came to confult or affift him, he placed an infcription over the door of his study, which fhewed the laudable anxiety of a man of business to exclude thofe idle and impertinent intruders, who wish to fanction the lofs of their own time by engroffing that of their friends'.

At the clofe of the fixteenth century, various editions of books in the Syriac, Arabic, Perfian, Armenian, and Coptic languages, were published. This admirable difcovery of the art of printing was made at a period the moft favourable to its reception and improvement. Not only a tafte for polite learning began, as we have before remarked, to be fashionable in the fifteenth century, but many perfons of the firft rank in feveral parts of Europe, and particularly in Italy, diftinguifhed themfelves by their love of letters, and their patronage of eminent scholars. Many public libraries were about this time erected in the great cities of Europe, and were furnished with manufcripts of antient authors, purchased at a great expence; but from the care

* Quifquis es rogat te Aldus etiam atque etiam, ut fi quid eft quod a fe velis, perpaucis agas, deinde actutum abeas; nifi tanquam Hercules defeffo Atlante, veneris fuppofiturus humeros; femper enim erit quod et tu agas, et quotquot huc attulerint pedes, Rofcoe's Leo the Xth, vol. i. p. 114.

VOL. I.

M m

with