The Fourth Part of the Prosperity of Germany

TO THE READER.

they were forced to submit themselves to the Roman Empire. For at that time, that most noble art of printing books was unknown to them, and they were accustomed to inscribing their sciences on parchment with great labor and at much expense, and undoubtedly they did not possess an abundant supply of such books, which the Romans could search for and consign to Vulcan i.e., to the fire with ease. For that which has once been committed to letters can be printed with types and multiplied, as it were, into the infinite, by the printing press itself, which in one day writes out more with types than the greatest multitude of scribes could write. Therefore, who would gather and search for such a multitude of books from all places in an entire region, so that all copies, as was done by the Romans, could be destroyed by burning and reduced to nothing in these our times? I say one thing here: if it were known to me, that which has been sent into the light by me so far