* They printed several years; and after having produced a great number of beautiful and correct editions of books, these ingenious printers were reduced to the most necessitous circumstances. Their learned patron, the bishop of Aleria, presented a petition to pope Sixtus IV, in 1471, in their behalf, in which he takes notice of their great merit, and represents their misery in the most pathetic terms; and, declares their readiness to part with their whole stock for subsistence. They say, "We were the first of the Germans who introduced this art, with vast labor and expense, into the territories of your holiness, in the time of your predecessor; and encouraged, by our example, other printers to do the same. If you peruse the catalogue of the works printed by us, you will admire how and where we could procure a sufficient quantity of paper, or even rags, for such a number of volumes. The total of these books amount in number to 12,475 volumes; a pro

digious heap, and intolerable to us, your holiness's printers, by reason of those unsold. We are no longer able to bear the great expense of housekeeping for want of buyers; of which there cannot be a more flagrant proof, than that our house, though otherwise spacious enough, is full of books, in quires, but void of every necessary of life," [See Palmer's Hist. Print. p. 130.] Those printers first attempted the Roman types, now in use, anno 1466; but, they were not brought to perfection till many years afterward.

*It is probable that he was the inventor of that description of types, which is still called after him, Bourgeois.

† I take notice of Guttemburg as a printer at Strasburg, although historians do not allow that he brought any work to perfection there. He certainly made many attempts at printing in that city.

* Some write Subiaco; but, probably, it should be Subbiaro.

+ Calliergo was born in Crete. He was a learned man; and skilful in printing Greek. He was many years at Venice. In 1515, under the patronage of pope Leo X, he set up a press in the house, and at the expense of the learned Agostino at Rome; where he printed a fine quarto edition of the works of Pindar. This was the first Greek book which was printed at Rome.