the MSS. in which Jenson found the prototypes of his famous roman
characters, which in the judgment of some are still unsurpassed, could
not have been very remote from these. Some of the more striking features
which distinguish the early printed books from the later were not
original with them, but only survivals from the MSS. The abbreviations
and contractions in which both abound were the labor-saving devices of
the copyists, adopted without hesitation by the printers who used the
MSS. as copy and only slowly abandoned. The copyist left spaces in his
MS. for initials to be supplied by the illuminator, without which his
work was not considered complete, and for about a hundred years the
printer continued to do the same. If the copyist saw fit to attach his
name to his work, we look for it at the end of the volume and there also
the printer placed his colophon. Signatures and catchwords, to guide the
binder in the arrangement of the sheets, did not come in with the
printed book, but had long been in use in the MSS.

Although out of the hundreds of presses active during the first century
only a score are here represented, leaving wide gaps in the series, it
is better, because more nearly in the natural line of development, that
the books should be ranged under the country, the locality and the press
to which they severally belong, than that they should be kept in strict
chronological order. A general chronological order underlies the
geographical even where it does not come to the surface. By right of
seniority Germany stands at the head, and Mainz, the birthplace of
printing, is followed by the other German towns in the order of their
press age. Next come the presses of Italy, France, Holland and England,
arranged in like order. To prevent, however, too wide a departure from
the chronological succession which would result from the strict
application of this rule, the later, i.e., the sixteenth century, Venice
and Paris books are separated from the earlier and transferred to the