Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/296

286 different mould. A book which contains the Fables of Lorenzo Valla and the Witty Speeches of Great Men, two little works of some popularity in the fifteenth century, is the only known specimen of this type. The paper of this book, which is like that of the Speculum, contains many of the strange blemishes, previously described, of useless letters embossed in the whitelines and near the margins. As the written preface of the author is dated May, 1438, it is apparent that the book must have been printed subsequently to this date.

. Of this face, the fragments of four copies, and presumably of four distinct editions, of the Donatus have been found. This type, which does not closely resemble the faces previously described, was founded on a body a little larger than Paragon. The largest book in this type is a treatise on the Roman Law, apparently an abridgment of the fifth book of the Pandects of Justinian. It is described in the preface as The Peculiarities of Criminal Law, by Lewis of Rome. This treatise, which consists of forty-four pages, is printed in the form of small folio, twenty-six lines to the page. It was the largest book and contains the largest type of the unknown printer.