Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/29

 THE SPREAD OF THE ART OF PRINTING 17 while later on, in Borne, they brought out their works under the patronage of the bishop Giovanni Andrea, librarian of Pope Sixtus IV. In 1466 the famous Dominican Cardinal, Turrecremata, sent for the printer, Ulrich Hahn, from Ingolstadt to Borne ; three years later George Lauer, of Wurtzburg, was summoned there by Cardinal Caraffa, and both these had for their patrons the well-known papal biographers Campano and Platina. In 1475 there were as many as twenty printing-presses in Borne ; and up to the end of the century there appeared there 925 works, which were chiefly owing to the exertions of the clergy. But the clergy were not content with giving nominal patronage and co-operation to the new art ; they also contributed material help by the purchase of its pro- ductions. 1 Nearly the whole immense book supply of the fifteenth century in Germany aimed chiefly at satisfying the needs of the clergy, and only by their active participation was it possible for its influence to spread simultaneouslv and in all directions throughout the entire population. This German book trade was a continuation and a development of the trade in manuscripts, which had already grown to large and extensive business propor- tions in German v, where there was so great a demand for books long before the invention of printing. In the large 1 Falk, Druchhunst, pp. 8-25. This work gives a brilliant list of wit- nesses for the helpful and encouraging attitude of the clergy towards the art of printing. Hase and the Kobergers concede that the clergy were amongst the foremost of their patrons. The cry that the clergy bad opposed printing was as groundless as the flight of the imagination of the poet of the jubilee year 1840, who said that Gutenberg had lighted a torcb and thrown it into the world while the priests would have extinguished it. VOL. I. C