mer kind pass under the
name of block books; at first they were sold as manuscripts. Two of
Faust's workmen commenced printing in Italy, but not until 1465; they
there published an edition of "Lactantius," one of "Cicero de Officiis,"
and one of "Augustine de Civitate Dei." The art was carried to France
1469, and in a few years was generally practised in all the large
European towns. [Sidenote: Early books and booksellers.] The printers
were their own booksellers; the number of copies in each edition usually
about three hundred. Folios were succeeded by quartos, and in 1501
duodecimos were introduced. Very soon the price of books was reduced by
four fifths, and existing interests required regulations not only
respecting the cost, but also respecting the contents. Thus the
University of Paris established a tariff for their sale, and also
exercised a supervision in behalf of the Church, and the State. From the
outset it was clear that printing would inevitably influence the
intellectual movement synchronously occurring.

[Sidenote: Measure of the contemporaneous mental state of nations.] Some
authors have endeavoured to estimate the intellectual condition of
different countries in Europe at the close of the fifteenth century by
the literary activity they displayed in the preparation and printing of
editions of books. Though it is plain that such estimates can hardly be
rigorously correct, since to print a book not only implies literary
capacity, but also the connexions of business and trade, and hence works
are more likely to be issued in places where there is a mercantile
activity, yet such estimates are perhaps the most exact that we can now
obtain; they also lead us to some very interesting and unexpected
results of singular value in their connexion with that important epoch.
Thus it appears that in all Europe, between 1470 and 1500, more than ten
thousand editions of books and pamphlets were printed, and of them a
majority in Italy, demonstrating that Italy was in the van of the
intellectual movement. Out of this large number, in Venice there had
been printed 2,835; Milan, 625; Bologna, 298; Rome, 925; Paris, 751;
Cologne, 530; Nuremberg, 382; Leipsic, 851; Bale, 320; Strasburg, 526;
Augsburg, 256; Louvain, 116; Mentz, 134; Deventer, 169; London, 130;
Oxford, 7; St. Alban's, 4.

[Sidenote: Italy compared with the rest of Europe.] Venice, therefore,
took the lead. England was in a very backward state. This conclusion