mpletion of the copy on
the 18th of December 1338 and ending--

"Explicit iste liber, scriptor sit crimine liber,
Christus scriptorem custodiat ac det honorem."

Both in manuscripts and also in early printed books authors made use of
such a final paragraph for expressing similar feelings. Thus the
Guillermus who made a famous collection of sermons on the gospels for
Sundays and saints' days records its completion in 1437 and submits it
to the correction of charitable readers, and Sir Thomas Malory notes
that his _Morte d'Arthur_ "was ended the ix yere of the reygne of Kyng
Edward the fourth," and bids his readers "praye for me whyle I am on
lyue that God sende me good delyuerance, and whan I am deed I praye you
all praye for my soule." So again Jacobus Bergomensis records that his
_Supplementum Chronicarum_ was finished "anno salutis nostre 1483. 3 deg.
Kalendas Julii in ciuitate Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quadragesimo
nono," and in the subsequent editions which he revised brings both the
year and his own age up to date. Before printing was invented, however,
such paragraphs were exceptional, and many of the early printers,
notably Gutenberg himself, were content to allow their books to go out
without any mention of their own names. Fust and Schoeffer, on the other
hand, printed at the end of their famous psalter of 1457 the following
paragraph in red ink:--_Presens spalmorum (sic for psalmorum) codex
venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque sufficienter
distinctus, Adinuentione artificiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque
calami vlla exaracione sic effigiatus, Et ad eusebiam dei industrie est
consummatus, Per Iohannem fust ciuem maguntinum, Et Petrum Schoffer de
Gernszheim Anno domini Millesimo. cccc. lvii In vigilia Assumpcionis_.
Similar paragraphs in praise of printing and of Mainz as the city where
the art was brought to perfection appear in most of the books issued by
the partners and after Fust's death by Schoeffer alone, and were widely
imitated by other printers. In their Latin Bible of 1462 Fust and
Schoeffer added a device of two shields at the end of the paragraph, and
this addition was also widely copied. Many of these final paragraphs
give information of great value for the history of printing; many also,
especially those to the early editions of the classics printed in Italy,
are written in verse. As the practice grew up of devoting a separate
leaf or page to the title of a book at