rne in mind, were then the great artists in all kinds of
metal work, and extremely skilful in modelling, engraving, and casting,
which were exactly the arts required for type-founding.

The new partnership immediately commenced operations, hired a house
called Zumjungen, and took into their employ Peter Schoeffer, who had
been Faust's apprentice, as their assistant. Faust is supposed to have
employed himself in cutting the type, which is an extremely slow process,
till Peter Schoeffer, afterward his son-in-law, suggested an improved
mode of casting it in copper matrices struck by steel punches, pretty
much in the same manner as was till recently practised throughout Europe.
The firm had for some time previously adopted a method of casting type in
moulds of plaster, which was a tedious process, as every letter required
a new mould.

Although to Gutenberg are undoubtedly due all the main features of
metal-type printing, yet we owe, perhaps, to the practical skill of
Faust, and the taste of Schoeffer, who was an accomplished penman, the
exquisite finish and perfection with which their first joint effort came
forth to the world. This was a Latin Vulgate, printed in a large cut
metal type, and commonly called the Mazarin Bible, because the first copy
known to bibliographers was found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin.
It consists of six hundred and forty-one leaves, forming two, sometimes
four, large volumes in folio; some copies on paper of beautiful texture,
some on vellum. It was without date or names of the printers, as it was
evidently intended to present the appearance of a manuscript; but it is
supposed, on good evidence, to have been printed between 1450 and 1455,
and it is not improbable the volumes were all that time, that is,
five years, and some say more, at press; for we know, by certain
technicalities, that every page was printed off singly.

These precious volumes, as splendid as they are wonderful, have excited
the admiration of all beholders. The sharpness and elegant uniformity of
the type, the lustre of the ink, and the purity of the paper leave that
first great monument of the typographic art unsurpassed by any subsequent
effort; nor could it be exceeded with all the appliances of the present
day.

"It is a striking circumstance," says Mr. Hallam, "that the high-minded
inventors of this great art tried, at the very outset, so bold a flight
as the printing of an entire Bible, and executed it with aston