Laurens Janszoon Coster (1370 - 1440) is the name of a purported inventor of a printing press from Haarlem. He discovered printing simultaneously with Gutenberg and is regarded in the Netherlands as having invented printing first. According to Hadrianus Junius, sometime in the 1420s, Coster was in the Haarlemmerhout carving letters from bark for the amusement of his grandchildren, and observed that the letters left impressions on the sand. He proceeded to invent a new type of ink that didn't run, and he began a printing company based on his invention with a primitive typesetting arrangement using moveable type. Using wooden letters at first, he later used lead and tin movable type. His company prospered and grew. He is said to have printed several books including Speculum Humanae Salvationis with several assistants including the letter cutter Johann Fust (often spelled Faust) who, when Laurens was nearing death, broke his promise of secrecy and stole his presses and type and started his own printing company. Coster probably perished in the plague that visited Haarlem in 1439-40. There are no known works printed by Laurens. Illustration from Vies Des Savants Illustrates, Savants Du Moyen-Age by Louis Figuier, 1883.