Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/652

 556 Outlines of European History After the supply of papyrus — the paper of the Eg}^ptians, Greeks, and Romans — was cut off from Europe by the con- quest of Egypt by the Mohammedans the people of the Middle Ages used parchment^ made from the skin of lambs and goats. This was so expensive that printing would have been of but little use, even if it had been thought Kffmapralmoiirot^mutt&atrrapiraliutero'' jtatuo *rubrifariombufrp feffirimtrr Diftmdue- [aOmuf nronf amfiriora imprimmOi arrarailm^anDi: ' abf^DlIa talami f ? araranr fu rffigia tue * tt aH lauttm lliar^aoiefandilarobuftotumat^.ptrjio^tmfufl- riufmagStmu*fr^ftra^ilpiflp'trgfmf^)iiidm^ '^luio DnipllefunD mr^Iif *0i^Die*mnifi6^ugiilli, Fig. 20 1. Closing Lines of the Psalter of 1459 (Much reduced) The closing lines (that is, the so-called colophoti) of the second edition of the Psalter, which are here reproduced, are substantially the same as those of the first edition. They may be translated as follows : " The present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome capitals and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by writing with a pen but by an ingenious invention of printed characters ; and was completed to the glory of God and the honor of St. James by John Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year of our Lord 1459, on the 29th of August " of, before paper was introduced into Europe by the Moham- medans.-^ Paper began to become common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was already replacing parchment before the invention of printing. The earliest book of any considerable size to be printed was the Bible, which appears to have been completed at Mayence in the year 1 456. A year later the famous Mayence Psalter was fin- ished, the first dated book (Fig. 201). There are, however, earlier 1 The Arabs seem to have derived their knowledge of paper-making from the Chinese.