500
The Spread of Printing.
Gouda and Antwerp. Gerard Leeu, the most industrious[1] printer of his time, began to print at Gouda in 1477, but he went to Antwerp in 1484, where he continued to print until his death in 1493. Imitating Verard of Paris, he gave his later years to the translation and printing of romances and popular books. In 1493, he began to print Caxton's Chronicle of England, in English and obviously for sale in England, but he died before the work was finished.[2]
IN ITALY.
This is the order in which printing was established in Italy:
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Subiaco | Sweinheym & Pannartz | 1465 |
| Rome | Sweinheym & Pannartz | 1467 |
| Venice | John de Spira | 1469 |
| Milan | Anthony Zarot | 1470 |
| Foligno | John Nummeister | 1470 |
| Trevi | John Reynard | 1470 |
| Verona | John of Verona | 1470 |
| Treviso | Gerard de Lisa | 1471 |
| Bologna | Balthazar Azzoguidi | 1471 |
| Ferrara | Andrew Belfort | 1471 |
| Naples | Sixtus Riessinger | 1471 |
| Pavia | Antonio de Carcano | 1471 |
| Florence | Bernard Cennini | 1471 |
| Fivizano | Jacobus and others | 1472 |
| Padua | Balt. de Valdezochio | 1472 |
| Mantua | Pietro Adam de Michael | 1472 |
| Place. | Printer. | Date. |
| Mondovi | Antonio Mathiae, et al. | 1472 |
| Jesi | Frederic Veronensis | 1472 |
| Cremona | Paravisinus, et al. | 1472 |
| Parma | Andrew Portiglia | 1473 |
| Brescia | Thomas Ferrandus | 1473 |
| Messina | Henry Alding | 1473 |
| Vicenza | John de Reno | 1473 |
| Como | De Orcho, et al. | 1474 |
| Turin | Fabri and John de Petro | 1474 |
| Genoa | Matthew Moravus, et al. | 1474 |
| Modena | John Vurster | 1475 |
| Trent | Hermann Schindeleyp | 1476 |
| Palermo | Andrew de Wormatia | 1477 |
| Ascoli | William de Linis | 1477 |
| Lucca | Bart. de Civitali | 1477 |
| Casal | William de Canepa | 1481 |
Cotton, in his Typographical Gazetteer, specifies thirty-seven other places in Italy in which printing was done before 1500.
- ↑ He printed eight books in 1478; seven in 1479; nine in 1480; ten in 1482. In fifteen days he printed three books, one of 85, and another of 305 leaves. During the seventeen years he was in business he printed 150 books. His last book at Gouda was dated June 23, 1484; on the 18th of September, 1484, he published at Antwerp, a book of 400 pages. Fifteen days after, he completed another book. During the first six months of 1485, he published one volume each month. One of these books had 34, and another 76 engravings specially cut for the work.
- ↑ The colophon of this book is a queer piece of mysterious English: … Enprentyd in the duchye of Braband, in the town of Andewarpe, in the yere of our Lord M. CCCC. XCIIII. By maistir Gerard de Leew, a man of grete wysedom in all maner of kunyng: whych nowe is come from Lyfe unto the doth, which is grete harme for many of poure man. On whas sowle God almythy for hys hygh grace haue mercy. Amen. Van der Meersch. Imprimeurs Belges et Néerlandais, vol. I, p. 119.
