PRINTING

(Fr. imprimerie.) Letterpre printing, to which this article is confined, is the art of taking impre ions from engravings in relief. The proce is generally limited to printing from types, and from engravings on wood. The history of its origin is enveloped in mystery; and this art, which commemorates all other inventions, which hands down to posterity every important event, which immortalizes the actions of the great, and which, above all, extends and diffuses the word of God to all mankind; this very art has left its own origin in obscurity, and has given employment to the studies and researches of the most learned men in Europe, to determine to whom the honour of the invention is due. Some writers maintain that the art was practised as far back at least as the buihling of Babylon; and hold that the characters impre ed on the bricks found on the supposed site of that city are literally printed: we are in po e ion of metal stamps, with words engraved in relief, which the Romans made use of to mark their various articles. On this subject Mr.Landseer, in his Lectures on the Art of Engraving, 8vo. 1807, observes, " Had the modern art of making paper been known to the ancients, we had probably never heard the names of Faust and Finiguerra; for, with the same kind of stamps wliich the Roman tradesmen used for their pottery and packages, books miglit also have been printed; and the same engraving which adorned the MCCCCLXXVIII. Caxton, during a long residence on the Coat in ent on [s. 988]