Coster

Coster, the usual name of LAURENS JANSZON, according to the Dutch the inventor of printing, who was born at Haarlem about the year 1370. He is supposed to have made his great invention between the years 1420 and 1426, to have been sacristan (Koster) at Haarlem, and to have died of the plague about 1440. No question has caused much discussion than that between Coster and Gutenberg; an account of this controversy is given under PRINTING. It is unpatriotic not to argue for the native hero, whose relics are exhibited and to whom monuments have been raised. Yet the most thoroughgoing assault on the claims of Coster and of Haarlem, as being founded on local legends, was made in 1870 by a Dutchman, Dr A. van der Linde. See, however, Hessels, Haarlem the Birthplace of Printing (1888).