Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/469

Rh they had been inked with foul balls and printed on over-wet vellum. The colophon or imprint attached to this book says:

This imprint is ingeniously worded. Fust and Schœffer do not say, in plain words, that they were the inventors of printing; they invite attention to the red ink and the two-colored initials which were here used in printing, with fine effect. They speak of rubricated printing and of the invention of printing as if they were inseparable. They suppress the name of Gutenberg, and induce the reader to believe that Fust and Schœffer were not only the first to print with letters in red ink, but the first to discover and use the masterly invention. This insinuated pretense had the effect which was, no doubt, intended. By many readers of that century, Peter Schœffer was regarded as the man who planned and printed the Psalter, the man who made the types, not only of this book, but of the Bible of 42 lines. Made bold by the silence of Gutenberg, Schœffer allowed, if he did not positively authorize, the statement to be made by his friends, that he was the true inventor of printing; that he took up the art where Gutenberg left it incomplete, and perfected it.

Before this assertion can be examined, it will be proper to consider the date of 1457 in the imprint of the Psalter. If Schœffer planned and printed the book, he did all the work in the twenty-one months following Gutenberg's expulsion from the partnership. This is an unreasonable proposition, for the book should have been in press or in preparation as long as the Bible of 42 lines. It is quite probable that the Psalter was planned and left incomplete by Gutenberg. The types, which are like those of Gutenberg's Bible, are unlike any types