made with Fust's money for the common profit; it did not cover the large types on Double-pica body, which were used upon the Bible of 36 lines, and other materials which might have been made in Strasburg. As these types were subsequently used in several little books which may be attributed to Gutenberg, we may conclude that he retained the punches and matrices in his own possession.
We have indirect evidence that the new printing office of Gutenberg was in operation at the close of the year 1456. With the types of Double-pica body he printed on one side of the paper, obviously made to be pasted on a wall, a broadside, now known as the Calendar of 1457. Of this curious document, only the half of a copy has been found—a fragment which contains the festivals and notable days for six months.It is fairly printed in black ink on coarse paper.
It is the belief of several historians that Gutenberg, hot with anger at the bad faith of Fust, in wresting from him the honor of printing the first Bible, immediately undertook in his new office to publish a rival edition of the same book, or the edition herein described as the Bible of 36 lines. The annotation in one copy of the book of the year 1459, which is supposed to be the date of publication, accords with the conjecture that the book begun in 1456 could have been finished in three years. But there is no evidence that it was begun in 1456, while there are many indications that it was done or should have been done in 1450. Gutenberg had earned fame as a printer[1] in 1458, but no writer of that time has said that he was then at work on the Bible of 36 lines.
- ↑ Philip de Lignamine, in a book entitled A Continuation of the Chronicles of the Popes, which he printed in Rome in 1474, writes concerning the year 1458: "Jacob Gutenberg of Strasburg, and another called Fust, very skillful in the art of printing with characters of metal on been parchment, each printed three hundred leaves daily at Mentz." Jacob is an error of memory or of typography, and the mention of Strasburg as Gutenberg's birthplace is incorrect, but the statement that he printed in 1458 is, no doubt, true. It seems the testimony of a printer, whose knowledge of the facts had derived either from personal observation, or from the reports of workmen once employed at Mentz.
