Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/357

 XVIII

Locke.

the end of the sixteenth century, the legend had two strong supports—the authority of an eminent scholar, and the patriotic pride of the Hollanders, who accepted it as truthful history. It did not, however, pass the ordeal of criticism unharmed: the weaker points of the legend were exposed by many German authors, and the weight of their objections compelled Dutch writers to attempt new explanations. Bertius, writing in 1600, and evidently perplexed by the carelessness with which Junius had noticed Coster's first experiments, says, but without producing any proof, that "Coster invented the art of printing with engraved blocks or xylography. … the three-fold villain John Faust stole the invention." Here we see the unavoidable result of Junius's