The Dutch claim that Lorenz Coster, a native of Harlem, in the
Netherlands, was the first person who printed with movable type.
They say that Coster was one day taking a walk in a beech forest
not far from Harlem, and that he cut bark from one of the trees
and shaped it with his knife into letters.
Not long after this the Dutch say Coster had made movable types
and was printing and selling books in Harlem.
The news that books were being printed in Mainz by Gutenberg went
all over Europe, and before he died printing-presses like his were
at work making books in all the great cities of the continent.
About twenty years after his death, when Venice was the richest
of European cities, a man named Al'-dus Ma-nu'tius established
there the most famous printing house of that time. He was at work
printing books two years before Columbus sailed on his first voyage.
The descendents of Aldus continued the business after his death for
about one hundred years. The books published by them were called
"Aldine," from Aldus. They were the most beautiful that had ever
come from the press. They are admired and valued to this day.