He died in poverty, but the ``expression''
of his particular inventive genius lived after him.
Soon Aldus in Venice and Etienne in Paris and Plantin in
Antwerp and Froben in Basel were flooding the world with
carefully edited editions of the classics printed in the Gothic
letters of the Gutenberg Bible, or printed in the Italian type
which we use in this book, or printed in Greek letters, or in
Hebrew.
Then the whole world became the eager audience of those
who had something to say. The day when learning had been
a monopoly of a privileged few came to an end. And the
last excuse for ignorance was removed from this world, when
Elzevier of Haarlem began to print his cheap and popular
editions. Then Aristotle and Plato, Virgil and Horace and
Pliny, all the goodly company of the ancient authors and
philosophers and scientists, offered to become man's faithful
friend in exchange for a few paltry pennies. Humanism had
made all men free and equal before the printed word.
THE GREAT DISCOVERIES
BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN
THROUGH THE BONDS OF THEIR NARROW
MEDIAEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO
HAVE MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS.
THE EUROPEAN WORLD HAD
GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS.
IT WAS THE TIME OF THE GREAT
VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY
THE Crusades had been a lesson in the liberal art of travelling.
But very few people had ever ventured beyond the well-
known beaten track which led from Venice to Jaffe.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243