wood-engraving.

The sixteenth century opened with another invention in type, the Italic,
which was beautifully exemplified in a pocket edition of Vergil, the
first of a portable series of classical works commenced in 1501 at Venice
by the celebrated Aldus Manutius, who, after some years of preparation,
had entered actively on his career as a printer in 1494, and deservedly
ranks as one of the best scholars of any age.

Then came the Giunti, the learned family of the Stephenses, of whom
Robert is accredited as the author of the present divisions of our
New Testament into chapters, and Henry, author of the great Greek
_Thesaurus_, the most valuable Greek lexicon ever published. To the
opprobrium of the age, he died in an almshouse.

Among many others immortalized by their successful contributions to the
great cause we must not forget the Plantins, whose memories are still so
cherished at Antwerp that their printing establishment remains to this
day untouched, just as it was left two centuries ago, with all the
freshness of a chamber in Pompeii, the type and chases of their famous
Polyglot lying about, as if the workmen had but just left the office.

The accordance of the art of printing with the spirit of the times which
gave it birth must be regarded as singularly providential. The Protestant
Reformation in Germany was brought about by Luther's accidentally
meeting, in a monastic library, with one of Gutenberg's printed Latin
Bibles, when at the age of twenty. "A mighty change," says Luther, "then
came over me," and all his subsequent efforts are to be attributed to
that event. His recognition of the importance of printing is given in
these words: "Printing is the best and highest gift, the _summum et