Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/541

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Later testimonies are mere repetitions, of earlier statements.

There remain, therefore, to be considered the testimonies which bear on the rival claims of Haarlem and Mainz. So far as we know, the controversy between Germany and Holland was publicly started as early as 1499 by the Cologne Chronicle (testimony xxiv.), that between the two towns mentioned not publicly before 1561 (testimony xli.); while the name of the Haarlem inventor was not mentioned publicly in' print earlier than 1588 (testimony xliv.).

The claims of Germany and Mainz, as centred in the person of Johann Gutenberg, have been discussed above while treating of the early printing at Mainz. A few more words about these claims are necessary. Though some of the documents relating to him connect him with the art of printing, they say nothing of him as the inventor of it; nor do any of the books ascribed to him.