Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A29442
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A Brief discourse concerning printing and printers
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1663
(1663)
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Wing B4578; ESTC R10943
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13,231
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28
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nihil par habet that all Antiquity hath nothing equal to them But he cites Bodin speaking higher Una Typographia cum omnibus omnium veterum inventis certare facile potest That Printing alone may contend for the prize with them all He alleadges likewise Polydore Virgil who having spoken of the Ancients famous Libraries addes thus Fuit illud omnino magnum mortalibus munus sed nequaquam conferendum cum hoc c. i.e. That was indeed a great benefit to mankinde but not to be compared with this which our Age hath found out and enjoyed since a new kinde of writing was brought to light and practised by means whereof as much may be printed by one man in one day as could be written by many in a whole year or as Sabellicus as much as the readiest Pen-man could well dispatch in two years He shews the benefit of Printing also by its redeeming Books out of the bondage of Monasteries where they were formerly confin'd whereby the Monks had opportunity to sophisticate them and make them speak their sense whence arose such a confusion in most Authors whereof Erasmus complains both in his Preface to St. Augustines Works and that to St. Hieromes He further commends it for the fairness and brings in Cardane again thus speaking of it Mira certa ars qua mille chartarum una die conficiuntur nec facile est judicare an in tanta facilitate ac celeritate pulchritudo an in tanta pulchritudine celeritas facilitas sit admirabilior i.e. An admirable Art sure it is by which a thousand sheets may be dispatcht in one day neither is it easie to judge whether in so great easiness and quickness of dispatch the fairness of the letter or in the fairness of the letter the quickness of dispatch and easiness thereof be more to be wondred at His last benefit accruing by Printing he places in the dispersing of Books into abundant particular hands so that there can no more be such a decay of Learning by the spoyling or burning of Publike Libraries as formerly when Learning was stored up onely in them He concludes thus Since then by this means Books are become fairer and cheaper and truer and less subject to a total perishing and since by this Art THE PRESERVER OF ARTS the acts and writings of worthy men are made famous and commended to posterity it were a point of hainous ingratitude to suffer the Inventor thereof to be buried in oblivion And so goes on to speak of the Author of this Invention which being not to my present purpose I shall pretermit for this time Mr. Fox in his Martyrologie Vol. 1. p. 926. having discoursed of Printing and shewed how that by means thereof upon its discovery the light of the Gospel brake out in Germany whence it hath since spread into many Countries and Kingdomes sticks not to compare it to the Gift of Tongues since as the knowledge of the Gospel was at first dispersed by that so now by this I have seen a small Book of ancient print written by one John Payne then in the Low-countries and directed to his friends of several faculties that used to frequent the Royal Exchange London wherein he gives them all very sober and Christian counsel among the rest he mentions Printers acknowledging their Art profitable excellent and necessary for Church and Commonwealth and that God is to be praised for it and prayed to for its better use and less abuse Nay such fame hath it had in the world that Countries have been at strife about the honour of bringing forth the Inventor of it neither is the question very well resolved yet whether it were High or Low Germany And the Spaniard envying that either of them should have the honour of it pretends they borrowed it from the Chineses which as it is no way probable neither is the China-print in any measure comparable to ours for beauty perfection or speed But saith Salmuth Germania certè nunquam sibi hanc laudem patietur extorqueri Hence Beroaldus thus O Germania muneris repertrix Que nil utilius dedit vetustas Libros scribere quae doces premendo With whom agrees Laurentius Valla though an Italian Abstulerat Latio multos Germania libros Nunc multò plures reddidit ingenio Et quod vix toto quisquam perscriberet anno Munere Germano conficit una dies Our Author having spoken of the Inventor and endeavoured to reconcile the differences about the persons Guttenberg and Fust who both pretend to it gives to both their commendation and not to them onely but to such as since have added to the grace and perfection of it as Aldus Minutius Operinus Raphelengius Plantin Erobenius and the Stephens who were famous Printers for four Generations successively See more to this purpose Leigh's Foelix Consort p. 54 55. and a little Book of Manual Arts lately published quibus plus debet Christianus orbis quà m cuiquam fortissimorum belli ducum ob propagatos fines patria debuit unquam saith Thuanus Upon the said Aldus of Venice the Reverend Beza hath bestowed a Copie of Latine Verses As for Plantin his very Printing-house was counted The eighth Wonder of the world for the great variety and multiplicity of his materials And it is more then probable that the great esteem and veneration which our forefathers had of Printers and Printing occasion'd the places where they exercise their function to be call'd not Shops or Work-houses as in ordinary Trades but Chappels as they are to this day both here and in forraign parts intimating their employment to have something of divine in it Indeed it were endless to repeat what hath been written by learned men in praise of this noble Science there having been whole Treatises of the same I shall onely add a word or two How grateful to the world was the invention of Letters when they were no otherwise to be made legible but upon Pillars and Bark of Trees but how much more when the use of Parchment was found out and after that of Paper with the use of the Pen to write thereupon And yet that compared to this is but as a Rush-candle to a Torch but as a Candle under a Bushel to one upon a Candlestick For Printing is as it were the Firmament in whose Expansion all the Luminaries of Learning and Art are made visible to all above the Horizon of Literature Yea Printing puts Books into every mans hand whereby though we cannot practise all things we may try all things Now the Divine cannot pin anothers Faith upon his sleeve and lead him implicitely because the Bible is at hand whereby a man may try whether what he saith be so or no. Nor can the Lawyer deviate in a cause but he may be discerned by a quick eye by reason of that light which shines round about us in Books of that Faculty Neither can the Physitian prescribe at random without being discover'd by the same means And whereas formerly the common people were entertained with feigned Traditions of the Legendaries in stead of those Divine Oracles of the Old and New Testament and with like fabulous stories of Giants c. in stead of real Histories now they have not onely the Bible but Expositions thereof bringing it to their capacities for their spiritual use and comfort and the civil transactions of former times lively represented whereby they may imitate the good and shun the evil and furnish themselves with Notions and Discourses sutable to rational Creatures And all this by the benefit of Printing Yea by this the Church of Rome hath received such a wound as she will never be able to cure for upon its discovery such a light hath broken forth that many Kingdoms and Countries that formerly had no other glimpse but what proceeded from her Dark Lanthorn have hence received so great Illumination that they finde just occasion to forsake her notwithstanding her pretended Infallibility By this also our modern Pretenders of new lights are discovered to be onely Revivers of old Errours we having hereby the Ecclesiastical Histories of all former Ages wherein we finde the Founders of those Follies and Impieties wherein these ape them To conclude having given you the opinions of the Learned concerning Printing and Printers let us wade a little into the discovery of the usage both it and they finde in other Countries How it fares with them in France the Stationers themselves inform us in a Paper called The humble Remonstrance of the Company of Stationers signed by one Henry Parker Esq who saith That France especially favours that Profession and Trade of men meaning Printers for there they are above Mechanicks and live in the Suburbs of Learning And a little before speaking of Europe The more civil saith he a place is the more regard it hath to Printing Whence he proceeds to commend the Papists as well where the Inquisition is not as where it is for their strict Regulation of Printing whereby their Church is better fortified and the Artists more encouraged then ours Nor are Printers without extraordinary priviledges in most transmarine parts as in Italy France Spain c. where as if they were Church-men they are exempted from those ordinary Taxes and Duties whereunto the rest of the people are liable Nay so great a respect have the Kings of France for this Art that for many years they have maintained the practice of it in their own Royal Palace of the Louvre at Paris allowing the Artists a subsistence sutable to their eminent place and generous employment and in Spain it is mostly exercised in Monasteries and Religious Houses to this day as it was here at its first arrival among us as we have shewn in the beginning Neither is it to be forgotten that those two great Monarchs the one of France the other of Spain seemed to conceive themselves not sufficiently illustrious unless they had eminently concerned themselves in the encouragement of this Art and therefore they took upon them the Patronage of those famous Bibles in several Oriental Tongues which pass under their great Names to this day FINIS ERRATA Pag. 8. l. 15 16. read incapacitates Pag. 12. Marg. read 14.35 16.15 19.12