Correspondence from
Rosa Peña to Ron Koster
(2003–08–13)

Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 19:52:05 -0400

To: [email address withheld]

From: [email address withheld]

Subject: SUBMISSION - CONTACT PSYMON

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by [email address withheld] on Wednesday, August 13, 2003 at 19:52:04

FIRST NAME: Rosa Irene

LAST NAME: Peña

E-MAIL: [email address withheld]

SITE SECTION: The Legend of Koster

URL: www.psymon.com

COMMENTS:

Cuernavaca, Morelos a 18 de Julio del 2003

Psymon

To Whom It May Concern:
Dear Sirs:

We are High School teachers developing Reading Comprehension text books. In this creative work, we would like to include part of the text the legend of Koster in your website which will help our students to understand the importance of these elements in the analysis of the text.

This work is only for didactic purposes. We would greatly appreciate you sending us the authorization to use them in the entitled texts books “Inglés Técnico I” and “Inglés Tecnico II”.

We would be very grateful for all the help you can give us in this matter.

Respectfully

Moisés Heriberto Córtes Cruz
Poet, Writer
[email address withheld]

M.P.D. Rosa Irene Peña Angón
Teacher
[email address withheld]

[street address withheld]
Cuernavaca, Morelos,
México

 

Lee cuidadosamente el siguiente texto:

Once upon a time, it is said around the year 1370, there was born a man in the city of Haarlem, in the Netherlands, by the name of Laurens Janszoon Koster (var. Coster). In his life, he was purported to have held a variety of modes of employ, from candle-maker and innkeeper, to sheriff, treasurer and an officer of the city guard, but most notably and assuredly he held the position known in Dutch as koster (meaning sacristan, sexton or warden) of the great church of Haarlem, a position which at that time was one held in high esteem, and hence he used that surname, Koster, as was a common practice in that age.

As a magnate of that fine city, in or around the year 1423 (by some accounts as late as 1428 or 1430) he found himself walking in the nearby woods one day with his grandchildren, and for their amusement he began to idly cut letters from the bark of a beech tree. The letters fell into the sand, and from the impression that they left the idea came to him that letters such as these might also be impressed upon paper in order to print books — and thus, in that inspired moment, was planted the seed that would later become the invention in Europe circa 1440 of the wondrous art of printing with moveable type, an innovation which came a dozen-odd years before Gutenberg printed his acclaimed 42-line Bible (from 1452 to 1455)....

Could this legend be true? There are no books in existence which carry Koster’s name as printer — however, this is not necessarily evidence in favour of Gutenberg as neither are there any which bear his name...

...even if it is a legend which should prove to be steeped only in eternal mystery...

Fuente: The Legend of Koster

Contesta las siguientes preguntas:

1. ¿De que tipo de texto se trata? Marca con una x la opción correcta:
    Narrativo b) Informativo c) Descriptivo d) Instructivo
2. ¿Qué pasó en 1730?
3. ¿Qué significa koster?
4. ¿Cómo es que Koster obtuvo la idea de imprimir?
5. ¿Porqué se dice que es una leyenda?

Correspondence reproduced with permission
from Rosa Peña