_At the very epoch when the greatness of Burgundy was most swiftly
ripening, another weapon was secretly forging, more potent in the great
struggle for freedom than any which the wit or hand of man has ever
devised or wielded. When Philip the Good, in the full blaze of his
power, and flushed with the triumphs of territorial aggrandizement, was
instituting at Bruges the order of the Golden Fleece, “to the glory of
God, of the blessed Virgin, and of the holy Andrew, patron saint of the
Burgundian family,” and enrolling the names of the kings and princes who
were to be honoured with its symbols, at that very moment, an obscure
citizen of Haarlem, one Lorenz Coster, or Lawrence the Sexton, succeeded
in printing a little grammar, by means of movable types. The invention of
printing was accomplished, but it was not ushered in with such a blaze
of glory as heralded the contemporaneous erection of the Golden Fleece.
The humble setter of types did not deem emperors and princes alone worthy
his companionship. His invention sent no thrill of admiration throughout
Christendom; and yet, what was the good Philip of Burgundy, with his
Knights of the Golden Fleece, and all their effulgent trumpery, in the
eye of humanity and civilization, compared with the poor sexton and his
wooden type?_
MOTLEY’S RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, Vol. i, 45.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The American Printer.