Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/200

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188
TOUR THROUGH

bricks peep through the white surface, to the great disadvantage of the whole. It is situated at the entrance of an agreeable wood, and is considered as the most elegant modern building in the United Provinces.

Haerlem disputes with Mentz and Strasburg the honour of having invented the noble art of printing, and assigns the merit of that important discovery to Laurence Costar, a citizen of the place, who flourished towards the middle of the fifteenth century. The claim of Strasburg to this honour, has, I believe, been abandoned; and I will not presume to decide between Haerlem and Mentz[1]. Costar is said to have made the discovery by cutting the initial letters of his name on a piece of bark, and using it as a seal. An inscription in Dutch points out the spot where the house of this eminently<references>

  1. The advocates who bestow the honour of the invention of printing on Haerlem, say that Faustus was the servant of Costar, and stole his types, with which he fled to Mentz, on Christmas eve, while his master was attending his devotions at church.