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his liberality. But Bomberg was not the only Christian who engaged in publishing Hebrew Bihlet : the, Stephenses of raris, the Giunti of Venice, Frobenius of Basil, and others of less note, printed various editions, though none of them can be compared with Bomberg for the number of impressions which issued from bis press, or the general services which be rendered to Hebrew literature.

A pretty correct idea may be formed of the prog^ress of Biblical typography, during the etrly part of the sixteenth century, by referring to Panzer's Anmdet Typograpkict.

1549. Mexico has ever been re^;arded as the first spot on which the art of printing was exer- cised throughout all the vast dominions of the newly-discovered world. The precise time, mode, and circumstances of its introduction have not been investigated with successful accuracy. Tho- mas, the only professed historian of American typography, merely st&tes that a printing-press was establi^ed in the city at some period previ- ous to the year 1569 ; and the earliest specimen of Mexican printing known to him was a Spanish and Mexican Vocabulary in folio, printed in 1571. A copy of this curious volume is pre- served in the Bodleian library, among the various and rich collection of the learned John Selden: where also are to be found two other volumes printed at Mexico, which precede by four rears that which has hitherto been considered the earliest specimen. The first of these as-yet-un- described morceaux is entitled, Doctrina Christi- ana en lengtM Caslellana y capoleca ; compuesta par el muy Revermdo padre Fray Pedro de Feria, provincial de la Orden de Sancto Domingo, en la prmincia de Sanctiago de la nxicra Hespana. En Mexico, en easa de Pedro Ocharle. M.DS.XVII. Anot. The volume contains one hundred and sixteen leaves of text, besides eight of prefatory matter, and is licensed for the press by the arch- bishop of Mexico. The other work bears for its tide, Incipiunt Hora Beatee, Virginis, secun- dton ordinem, 1567. This volume contains thirty-nine leaves, on the first and last of which, as well as on several others, there are wood-cuts.

A work still earlier than either of these three occurs for sale in Messrs. Longman's Catalogue of books for 1820 and for 1823, where it is entered as Fr. Bartholonuei a Ledesma de VII. none legis sacramentis lummarium. Mexici, Antouius de Espinosa, 1566, 4to. In Marsden's Catalogue of Dictionaries and Grammars, (Lon- don, 1796, 4to.) three books printed at Mexico at a period still more remote are set down. Mars- den owns, however, that he had not himself seen them, nor does he refer to any collection in which they may be found.

Antonio, in whose elaborate work, Bibliotheca Hispana, a great deal of information is to he found respecting Mexican typography,notices in various parts of his book no fewer than forty- ~-ht productions of this press; to the earliest of

which, namely, Doctrina Christiana in lingva ifexicana, ab Alphonso de Molina, he assigns the date 1546, (found to be a misprint for 1564,)

which is followed by other publications of the rears 1566, 1566, 1665, &c, In Sotuellus' en- larged edition of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Jetu, composed by Ribadmeira, will be found notices of many books printed in this city, (as also in Lima and other places,) several of which are entirely passed over in silence by Antonio.

Dr. Cotton says, a publication which I under- stand has been but recently imported into Eng- land, and one copy of which has been deposited in the Bodleian librarv, bids fair to bnng us nearer to a right apprehension of ihe hitherto- undiscovered epoch of the birth of typography on the continent of America, than any which was previouslr known: it is the Bibliotheca Mexicana, written by J. J. Eguiara et Eguren, comprising an account of the authors and learn- ed men of Mexico, as also the proceedings of three or four of the earliest Mexican councils, holden during the XVIth centunr.

From an attentive perusal of this volume I gather, (says Dr. Cotton, from whom this article is taken,) that for the commencement of its acquaintancewith the advantages of typography, Mexico is indebted to the exertions of its &mt viceroy, Antonius de Mendoza, who arrived in the year 1536, to occupy bis exalted station. He appears to have been a man whose mind was steadily directed to the advancement and im- provement of the people committed to his care; and his esteem for literature is seen in the peti- tion forwarded bv him to the emperor Charles V. for the foundation of an universi^ in the new world, the prayer of which was duly carried into effect by au edict issued by the emperor in the year 1561. Previously to this, however, the historian remarks, that Mendoza had taken care that the art of printing should be brought from the old world into the new, and had established the first printer in his capital of Mexico. " Prius vero disertissimus homo curaverat typographiam in novum hunc orbem ex antiquo deferri, prim- umque typographum Mexici instituit, cujus formis multi statim libri excudi cceperunt." p. 221. The name of this printer we discover from one of his colophons to have been Joannes Paulus Brissensis, or Lombardus, a native, it seems, of Brescia, in Italy. In this account Gonzales, a Spanish writer, is corrected for having asserted that printing was in use at Mexico in 1632. Before the removal of the viceroy to the govern- ment of Peru, an event which took place in the year 1551, he caused to be printed Ordinationes legumqite collectiones pro conventu juridico Mexi- cano, a folio volume, executed by Joannes Pau- lus in 1549, which therefore at present claims the honour of being the first book ever printed on the shores of the new world! " But where," a man may feelingly exclaim, " where is so inter- esting and valuable a relic to be now found ? has it never stept beyond the confines of its native country ? or, if a single copy has chanced to be conveyed to Europe, does it still slumber amid the dust and gloom of the Escurial ? or, still unhappier, has it g^one the way of every

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