many; and among the testimonies of affection and respect which he received from his foreign admirers, he was presented with a gold medal by the Empress Catherine of Russia. He died of an attack of apoplexy, in 1788, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

A pretty long catalogue, indeed, might be given of literary booksellers and printers, among whom, in former times especially, even profound learning was not uncommon. At the head of this list would stand the celebrated ALDUS MANUTIUS, one of the earliest of the Italian printers, whose services to literature, and we may add to civilization, it is scarcely possible to enumerate. Manutius received a learned education, and passed the early part of his life in literary pursuits, and in the society of some of the most distinguished scholars of his time. He was forty years old before he set about the establishment of his printing office at Venice; and it was six years later before the first production of his press made its appearance. The period, therefore, of his labours as a printer, as he died at the age of sixty-six, only extended over twenty years; and even this space was broken in upon by various difficulties and interruptions, arising from his limited resources and the distracted condition of the country. The latter cause, on one occasion, obliged him to retire altogether from Venice for above a twelvemonth; when not only was his property pillaged during his absence, but he himself, on quitting the city of Milan, in which he had taken refuge, was seized as a spy, and consigned to a prison, from which he only obtained his deliverance through the good offices of one of his friends, who happened to be vice chancellor of the Milanese senate. All this being kept in mind, it is impossible not to be astonished at the immense professional labours of this father of the typographical art. During these

twenty years, partially disturbed as they were, and in spite of the scanty means by which his spirit of enterprise was frequently cramped and restrained, he gave to the world editions of nearly all the Greek and Roman authors whose works were then known to be in existence-transcribing the text, in almost every instance, from manuscripts which it required the utmost learning, sagacity, and patience to decypher; and, with great critical acumen, selecting from the various readings which presented themselves, those which appeared best entitled to be considered genuine. He was, in fact, the editor of nearly every work which he published; and, in the performance of his duties. in that character, had difficulties to struggle with and surmount, with which those that have fallen to the share of the generality of his successors are not for a moment to be compared. And yet it was in these circumstances, as we have said, that he produced, in the course of a few years, the first printed editions of many of the Greek and Roman classics; thus entitling himself, in common with other editors of editiones principes (original editions), to the gratitude of all succeeding times, as not only the author of the earliest general diffusion of this most precious literature, but not improbably the preserver of much of it from irretrievable destruction. Had Manutius not exerted himself as he did to rescue the writings in question from their insecure existence in a few half-defaced and rapidly-perishing manuscripts, and to bestow on them a sure immortality through the printing press, we know not how many of those of them we now possess it might never have been our fate to look upon, nor how much slower that. march of civilization might have proceeded which owed to their wide-spread influence so much both of its excitement and of its conquests. For, whatever opinion may be entertained as to the present and future

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value of the productions of Greek and Roman literature, or their importance in guiding and sustaining the intellectual progress of the world at the point which it has now reached, it can hardly be disputed that Europe never would have made the advancement it did in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but for them, and that it is to their inspiration that we owe, in a great measure at least, the beginnings of our existing refinement. But if this be so, it is to Manutius that a part of our gratitude is due; since, had it not been for him, some, very probably, of these ancient poets, orators, historians, and philosophers, would have written, both for us and for our fathers, in vain.

But his admirable labours, in restoring and preserving the works of others, did not by any means form the only occupation of this great printer during those twenty years. Beside carrying through the press the productions of several of his contemporaries, he found time for the composition of many works of his own, all of them full of erudition, and some of considerable magnitude. Among these may be mentioned grammars of the Greek and Latin languages, and a Greek and Latin dictionary in folio, being the earliest work of the kind that had been given to the world. He also founded at his own house a literary association, known by the name of the Aldine Academy, which obtained great celebrity, and reckoned among its members the celebrated Erasmus, Cardinal Bembo, and several others of the most distinguished persons of that age. During the first years, too, of his residence at Venice, and while he was making preparations for commencing business as a printer, he delivered several courses of lectures on Greek and Roman literature.

Aldus Manutius died in 1515; but he left a son, named Paul, who afterwards distinguished himself as

much as his father had done, both as a printer and a man of letters. Many of the works which proceeded from his press were enriched by learned commentaries from his own pen. When the Venetian Academy was founded, in 1558, PAUL MANUTIUS was appointed Professor of Eloquence, and director of the printing establishment; but that association continued in existence only for three years. He was afterwards induced to settle as a printer in Rome, at the invitation of the Pope; and, although he still kept his press at work in Venice also, the last years of his life were spent in that city. He died there in 1574, leaving a son, commonly called the younger Aldus (to distinguish him from his grandfather), who, although a person of some learning and talent, did not quite sustain the reputation of his family in either of the two departments in which its preceding members had acquired so much and such wellmerited distinction. Under him, the printing-office fell into discredit and decay; and he at last gave up the business to one of his workmen. He died, it is said, from the effects of a surfeit, in 1597; and the valuable library, collected by his father and his grandfather, was soon afterwards seized upon by his creditors, and sold to pay his debts.

Contemporary with the Manutii in Italy were the Estiennes or STEPHENSES in France. Of this family, celebrated as printers for nearly a hundred and fifty years, about a dozen members are enumerated as distinguished for their literary attainments; but we can only afford to notice the two most eminent names in the list, the first Robert and his son Henry. The former was born at Paris in 1503, and commenced business in that city as a printer on his own account about the year 1526. He had before this time acted as chief manager of the establishment of his fatherin-law, Simon de Colines, and had, in that situation,

superintended an edition of the New Testament, the publication of which gave great umbrage to the Doctors of the Sorbonne, or Theological College, and first drew upon him that suspicion of an inclination towards Protestantism which he afterwards justified by his formal abandonment of the Catholic faith. He was not only the most distinguished printer, but one of the most learned scholars of his time, as his works, and especially his great Thesaurus of the Latin language, amply testify. All the works which proceeded from his press are remarkable both for their extreme beauty of execution and their almost immaculate correctness. In order to secure for them this latter quality, he was wont, we are told, in many cases to exhibit the proofs for public inspection, and to offer a reward for every error any one should detect in them. One of his editions of the Greek New Testament is known by the strange name of the "Pulres" edition, which was given to it in consequence of the word Plures" in the Latin preface being so printed,- an error which was long supposed to be the only one in the work, till a more diligent examination in recent times discovered four others in the Greek text.

The supposed religious opinions of Robert Stephens exposed him, during a great part of his lifetime, to incessant annoyance and menace from zealots of the Catholic church, from whose hostility he was with difficulty protected even by the patronage of the king, Francis I. When Francis died, Stephens felt that the security he had hitherto enjoyed in Paris was gone with his royal patron; and after a short time he retired to Geneva. He resided in that city for several years, carrying on his business as a printer, and died there in the year 1559, at the age of fiftysix. From many honourable testimonies that have been borne to the learning of this great printer, it is