te of A. D.
1454. These documents are two different editions of the same Letters
of Indulgence issued in that year by Pope Nicholas V. in behalf of the
Kingdom of Cyprus. We do not know, however, whether they were printed
from metal or wood type.

[Illustration]

As to the _exact_ date of the invention of printing from individual
movable type in Europe, we know only that it was some time prior to
A. D. 1454. Where and by whom the invention came about, a dispute has
been waged for more than four hundred years; one of the most hotly
contested questions in history. In short, Koelhoff was in part
responsible for starting this dispute. He published in his "Cologne
Chronicle" a statement by Ulrich Zell, a printer of Mainz in Germany
and a contemporary of Gutenberg, that Gutenberg _had improved_, but
_not invented_ the art, which he attributes to Coster of Haarlem, in
the Netherlands, in the year 1440. Gutenberg stole Coster's type,
according to Zell, and printed from them in 1442. Other unrefutable
evidence shows that Gutenberg could not have begun printing at Mainz
before the end of 1450.

In addition to Gutenberg and Coster we also find Waldfoghel of
Avignon, in France, and Castaldi of Felte, in Italy, mentioned as
claimants of this invention. The value of their respective pretensions
has been summed up by one well known authority in the words, "Holland
has books, but no documents. France has documents, but no books. Italy
has neither books, nor documents, while Germany has both books and
documents."

As the case stands at present, after careful and impartial examination
of all available evidence, no choice is left but to attribute the
invention of printing with individual movable cast-metal type to
Lourens Janszoon Coster of Haarlem in the Netherlands between the
years 1440 and 1446 and not to Gutenberg of Mainz in Germany.

Zell's statement in the "Cologne Chronicle" of 1499 is further
substantiated by Hadrianus Junius in his "Batavia." Junius stated that
printing from individual movable type was invented by Coster in
Haarlem, and that the "Speculum Humanae Salvationes" was one of his
first productions. These two statements were made independently of
each other and both are corroborated by books to which they refer.

The "Speculum Humanae Salvationes," attributed to Coster by Junius was
partly a folio Latin block-book, and partly typographically printed.
From this and other records it has been clearly established