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A historical survey traces the emergence and spread of letterpress printing from early Chinese methods to its European perfection, explaining its cultural significance and role in disseminating knowledge and liberty. The author examines competing origin claims, evaluates material evidence such as paper, types, and costume, and recounts biographies and legal disputes surrounding early printers. Technical topics include press invention, type-founding, composing tools, and bindings, while discussions of block-books, movable type, and bibliographic and paleotypographic issues support the narrative. Appendices collect contemporary testimonies and scholarly debates that illuminate contested traditions and early practices.
[147] The name of Lourens Janszoon, the sheriff of Haarlem who died in 1439, is mentioned seventy-six times in the archives of the city, but never with the name of Coster. The name of the tallow-chandler Lourens Janszoon Coster, appears much later, (as late as 1483); but his name was never brought before the public, in connection with the origin of printing, until the year 1867.—See Haarlem Legend, pp. 124, 125.