Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/294

 THE LAMBETH MAZARINE TESTAMENT. Dy tLc Rev W. J. LOITIE, F.S.A. Tni: great obscurity which envelops tlic history of the invention of printing is well illustrcated by the present volume. We head occasion recently, under the guidance of ])r. Van del- Linde's book on what he calls the " Haarlem Legend/" ' to see huw many collateral stories complicated the true story, and how hard a matter it has been to tell the true from the false. It is much better to make up our minds to the fact that the real history of the great invention is not known with any degree of certainty, and this, too, for a reason, which the discovery of the Testa- ment at Lambeth puts })romincntly before us. It is this : The first i)rintcd books wei'C made to look as like manu- scripts as possible. Tiiey deceived the literary' men of the 15th century, and they even deceived the bibliographers of the ISth century: the first, because they were not acquainted with printing, the second, because they were not thorouglily acquainted with writing of this character. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find that this book has always been reckoned at Lambeth as a manuscript, a fine manuscript, no doubt, but not in any way specially remark- able among the crowd of more curious, more magnificent, or more inq)ortant manuscrij)ts in the same noble collection. ])uring .some joint researches con<luctcd l)y ]Ir. Kenshaw, the librarian, and Mr. Sims, of tin- Ihitish Museum, the identity of the book with )iart of the Ma/ai-ine Ihblc in the Mu.seum wa.s establi.shed, although it had even deceived so acute an observer as the late l)r. Toild, an. .'Ml.