“Richelet’s account seems to me the truest; it is thus in English:— They who are most disinterested think that Strasburgh is the veritable place of its birth, and fix the date 1440. The most probable opinion is that Guttenburg conceived at Strasburgh the first idea of printing — that, not being able to accomplish that work or bring it to perfection alone, he went to Mentz, where he took Faust for a partner, and where they began their first impressions with a Bible in 1450 arid Tully’s Offices.
“This account agrees in the main with our John Fox’s. Does it follow that because Mr. Maittaire never saw these books, therefore there never were any such? He relies upon the evidence of Caxton, the Register of the Garter, and Fabian — the former of whom tells us Printing was invented at Mentz, 1455 — the other two, 1457. But if, as Maittaire intimates, there were books printed in 1457, the invention must have been before that time. Caxton tells us in his Chronicle that Printers of bookes were mightily multiplied in Mentz, 1460. Is this likely, if it was invented but three years before?”
In the next generation Dr. Jortin, while making use of Maittaire’s Annals, ungratefully depreciated him as “a useful compiler and nothing more.” But in the generation after Jortin, the Rev. William Beloe, lauding the editio princeps of Homer, gives a grateful and generous verdict. He says:—
“It becomes me to affirm that I have derived the most satisfactory information from Maittaire, whose work, now of great rarity, is so intrinsically valuable that no writer on these subjects can proceed with security or confidence without his aid. Indeed it may be asserted of Maittaire that he laid the foundation of this branch of knowledge. . . . Maittaire, unlike the generality of biographers, is not contented with giving a dry and accurate description of the book before him, but improves us by his learning and interests us by his taste. He is elevated almost to rapture when speaking of this first Homer. Milan (he observes) and Venice had some reason to be proud as having produced the first Greek books; but Florence could not bear to be outdone (erubuit vinci) and accordingly produced what made ample amends for her delay. What had hitherto been done in Greek typography might be said to resemble slight skirmishings before a great battle. For what is a single sheaf compared with the fulness of the harvest? What is the Grammar of Lascaris compared with the Homer of Florence? Whilst other cities were making feeble and immature efforts on the threshold, as it were, of learning, Florence, by one mighty effort, arrived at once at the summit and produced what defied all competition”[1]
In 1742 Maittaire’s influential admirers encouraged him to publish by subscription a collection of his own Latin and Greek poems, consisting of translations from the Bible; also of odes to his friends — to John, Lord Carteret; to the ducal family of Rutland; to Sir Richard Ellys, Baronet; to John Freind, M.D., &c. He himself had a modest opinion of these verses, and openly characterised the collection thus:—
“Pauca bona hic, quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura.”
The title of the well-printed quarto was, “Senilia, sive poetica aliquot in argumentis varii, generis tentamina.” About half of his subscribers were connected with the peerage. Among the other subscribers I note Mr. Peter Debury, Rev. Dr. Robert Freind, Mr. Latouche. The late James Joye, Esq., and Mr. Paul Vaillant; also foreign ambassadors, including “Archbishop of Nazianzo, Monsigneur Crescenzi, Nuncio from Rome to his most Christian Majesty.”
We have a glimpse of him in old age, giving encouragement to younger authors. To Ames, who was preparing a book on typographical lore, he gave many good suggestions. Lewis wrote to Ames on 2d July 1741:—
“Mr. Mattaire is right in observing to you the use which is to be made of Caxton’s and other printers’ prologues, See. We should not have known as much of Caxton as we do, had he not told us himself. Maittaire has not thought proper to reprint these Prologues, but only to extract from them what relates to the purpose of history.”
Three years later he showed his interest in a younger editor of Latin classics by writing thus:—
“As among the poets, Virgil is the chief, so the accurate English translation and learned notes which Dr. Martyn has made with much pains and labour upon the Georgicks — the most complete and exactly finished work of that poet — deserve to be recommended. M. Maittaire. Southampton Row [London], 1st July 1746.”
In Dcs Maizeaux’s collected correspondence all the refugees write in French, except Maittaire, who always uses colloquial English. On the 7th August 1734 he writes, with regard to two of his manuscripts which a printer had lost, and which Des Maizeaux had unsuccessfully endeavoured to recover, “Good Sir, I am obliged to you for the trouble you have been at . . . I own I had taken some pains in both
- ↑ Beloe’s “Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books,” vol. iii. pp. ix. and 305 (London 1808).
