Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/232

208 I. 208 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART the Limousin or Valencian dialect. ^° In the follow- ing year the first ancient classic, being the works of Sallust, was printed ; and in 1478 there appear- ed from the same press a translation of the Scrip- tures, in the Limousin, by father Boniface Ferrer, brother of the famous Dominican, St. Vincent Ferrer. ^^ Through the liberal patronage of the government, the art was widely diffused ; and, be- fore the end of the fifteenth century, presses were established and in active operation in the principal cities of the united kingdom ; in Toledo, Seville, Ciudad Real, Granada, VaJladolid, Burgos, Sala- manca, Zamora, Saragossa, Valencia, Barcelona, Monte Rey, Lerida, Murcia, Tolosa, Tarragona, Alcald de Henares, and Madrid. It is painful to notice amidst the judicious provis- ions for the encouragement of science, one so en- tirely repugnant to their spirit as the establishment of the censorship. By an ordinance, dated at To- ledo, July 8th, 1502, it was decreed, that, " as many of the books sold in the kingdom were defective, or false, or apocryphal, or pregnant with vain and su- perstitious novelties, it was therefore ordered that no book should hereafter be printed without special license from the king, or some person regular- ly commissioned by him for the purpose." The names of the commissioners then follow, consisting mostly of ecclesiastics, archbishops and bishops, 10 The title of the book is " Cer- Mendez, Typographia Espaiiola, tamen poetich en lohor de la Con- p. 50. cccio," A^alencia, 1474, 4to. The ^l Ibid., pp. 61 -63. name of the printer is wanting.