name alone, says that it was printed "cum suis capitalibus," and as these capitals gradually disappear after 1459 and the type of the 42-line Bible is no longer found after 1456, we must presume that the seven incunabula mentioned above were printed by Peter Schoeffer alone before he entered (in 1457) into partnership with Johan Fust.[1]
There is no such certainty as regards types 1 and 2 and the books printed with them. If the 31-line indulgence may be assumed to have been printed at Main/, its printer was in all probability Johan Gutenberg, though it would seem from a lawsuit of 1455 (see p. 690 below) between him and Fust that in that year Gutenberg had not yet printed anything, and in 1454 (1455) Fust evidently called him "to account for not having produced anything. Certain circumstances point to Albrecht Pfister as the printer of the eight incuna bula in the left-hand column. First, he undoubtedly printed with type 1 in that city as early as 1461, for on 14th February of that year he issued in that type an edition of Boner's Edclstcin (88 k-avcs, fol., with wood engravings), and printed with the same type at least eight other works,[2] one of which was issued in 1462, the seven others without a date. Secondly, most of the copies of the 36-line Bible were at one time or another preserved in the libraries of Bavaria, and a great number of fragments have been discovered in monasteries in that country, even in a register of the abbey of St Michael at Bamberg of the year 1460. Thirdly, a transfer of type from Gutenberg to Pfister is contrary to all analogy in the infancy of printing, when every printer started with a type of his own making. But, as there is no direct evidence as to who really possessed types 1 and 2 before 1460, we have not felt justified in assigning the 31-line indulgence and the other seven incunabula (including the 36-line Bible) to Pfister.
The Catholicon type.It is alleged that, in consequence of the lawsuit between Gutenberg and Fust, the former was deprived of all tools, &c., which he had made, or is supposed to have made, with the money which the latter had advanced to him, and that afterwards a certain Dr Homery or Humery, a syndic of Mainz, lent him fresh money to enable him to establish another printing office. This allegation is made on the strength of a letter of obligation (of 26th February 1468), given by Dr Homery to Adolph, the archbishop of Mainz, by which he acknowledges to have received from the said arch bishop "several forms, letters, instruments, implements, and other things belonging to the work of printing, which Johan Gutenberg had left after his death, and which had belonged and still did be long to him (Dr Homery)." It is presumed that with these types, which we may call the Mainz type No. 5, Gutenberg printed (i. ) Joannes de Balbis, Catholicon, 1460, 373 leaves, folio, 2 columns of 66 lines each, copies of which exist in the Cambridge university libraiy, three in the British Museum, two in the Paris library, in Lord Spencer's library, in the Wolfenbiittel and Mainz libraries, &c.; (ii.) Mattlijeus de Cracovia, Tractatus Rationis, 22 leaves, 4to, 30 lines, three copies of which are in the British Museum, one at Althorp, one in the Cambridge library, two in the Paris library, &c.; (iii. and iv.) Thomas Aquinas, Summa de Articulis Fiili i, two editions in 4to, the first of 13 leaves and 34 lines, two copies of which are in the British Museum, one in Lord Spencer's, the Cambridge library, &c. and the second of 12 leaves and 36 lines, copies in the British Museum and the Paris libraiy; and (v.) indulgence of 1461 of 15 lines.
On 18th January 1465 Adolph II., archbishop of Mainz, ap pointed "Johan Gudenberg, on account of his grateful and willing service, his servant and courtier (dhiener und hqff gesind) for life, promising to supply him with clothing and each year 20 malter of corn and 2 t uder of wine." It has always been inferred from this that Gutenberg had quitted Mainz and gone to Eltville (Elfeld) to reside at the archbishop's court, and that, his dignity as courtier preventing him from printing himself, he passed the Catholicon types on to Henry Bechtermuncze at Eltville. But recent re searches have shown that Gutenberg remained at Mainz till his death in 1468. We certainly find in 1467 the Catholicon type with some additions (already found in the indulgence of 1461) at Eltville near Mainz, in the hands of Henry and Nicholas Bechtermuncze and Wigandus Spyes de Orthenberg, who finished on 4th November of that year (vi. ) focabulariiis ex quo (a Latin-German vocabulary) in 4to, 166 leaves, 35 lines, the only known copy of which is in the Paris library, and (vii. ) Vocabularius ex quo, second edition, with colophon dated 5th June 1469, 4to, 165 leaves, 35 lines, copies of which exist in Lord Spencer's library, at Blenheim, and in the Paris library. Now it is asked how the Bechtermunczes could have been using the Catholicon type in 1467, if we assume that it was this type to which Homery refers in his letter of obligation as being in his possession. Some, therefore, conclude that the Catholicon and the four other works in the same type were printed at Mainz by Henry Bechtermuncze, who may afterwards have transferred his printing oih ce to Eltville. In that case it is difficult to see what type Homery could refer to, unless it were type 2, a close imitation of which, if not the actual type, was used by Nicholas Bechtermuncze at Eltville in printing (12th March 1472) a third edition of the Focabularius e-x quo, 166 leaves, 35 lines, copies of which are preserved in the Paris and Hamburg libraries, and an edition of Thomas Aquinas, Sumina de Articulis Fidei, 12 leaves, 35 lines (Munich library).
It is necessary to point out that for nearly seventy years eight books (1) Prognostication or Calendar; (2) Hermann de Saldis, Speculum Saccrdotitm; (3) Tractatus dc, Cclebratione Missarum; (4) a work in German treating of the necessity of councils; (5) Dialogus inter Hiigoncm Cathoncm et Olivr.rium super Libcrtate Ecclesiastica; (6) Sifridus de Arena, Dctenninatio Duarum Qutestionum; (7) Id., Responsio ad Quatuor Qufestiones; (8) Klagspiegcl, or New f/i .tcutscht Rcchtbuch have been ascribed to Gutenberg on the strength (a) of the date 1460, which was said to be found in the Prognostication in the Darmstadt library, and (b) of a so-called imbrication alleged to be in a copy of the Tractatus de Celebrationc Missarum, in which "Johannes dictus a bono monte" and Johannes Numeister are represented as offering this work on 19th June 1463 to the Carthusians at Mainz. But the date in the Prognostication has been falsified from 1482 into 1460, arid the rubrication in the Tractatiis is a forgery.[3] The eight books are now considered to have been printed by Erhard Reuwich.
When we set aside the above works, there is no further difficulty as regards the history of Mainz printing. Fust and Schoeffer worked together from 1457 to 1466, starting in August 1457 with an edition of the Psalterium, printed in large missal types, which, as far as we know, is the first printed book which bears a date, besides the place where it was printed and the name of the printers. It was reprinted with the same types in 1459 (the second printed book with date, place, and name of printer), in 1490, and in 1502 (the last work of Schoeffer, who had manufactured its types). In 1459 Fust and Schoeffer also published Gul. Durantus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, with the small type (usually called Durandus type) with which they continued to print long afterwards. In 1460 they published the Constitutiones of Pope Clement V., the text printed in a type (Clement type) about a third larger than the Durandus. This type was, however, in existence in 1459, as the colophon of the Durandus is printed with it.[4]
Spread of Typography.
Spread of Typography. Having explained the early printing of Mainz, in so far as it bears upon the controversy (see below) as to where and by whom the art of printing was invented, we can follow its spread to other countries. After Mainz it was first established in 1460 at Strasburg, where the first printers were, 1. Johann Mentelin, who completed a Latin Bible in that year, according to a rubrication in a copy at Freiburg in the Breisgau; 2. Adolph Rusch de Inguilen, who is presumed to be the printer of the undated books with a singularly-shaped R,[5] c. 1464; 3. Henricus Eggesteiu, 1471; 4. George Husner; 5. Martin Flach, &c. In 1461 at Bamberg, where the first printer was Albrecht Pfister, who in that year published Boner's Edelstein, though it is still doubtful whether he did not print earlier (see above); 2. Joh. Sensenschmidt, c. 1480. 1465 at Subiaco; first and only printers Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannarts, who completed in that year an edition of Cicero, De Oratore, and Lactantius, and removed to Rome in 1467. 1466 at Cologne, the printers being 1. Ulrich Zell, who published in that year Chrysostom, Sujjcr Psalmo Quinquagesimo Liber Primus, though it is presumed that he printed in 1463; 2. Arnold Ther Hoernen, 1470; 3. Johannes Koelhoff of Liibeck, 1470, who printed the Colognd Chronicle in 1499; 4. Nicolaus Gotz, 1474; 5. Goiswinus Gops, 1475; 6. Petrus de Olpe, 1476 (not 1470); 7. Conradus Winter of Homburg, 1476; 8. Joh. Guldenschaaf, 1477; 9. Henricus Quentel, 1479, &c.[6] 1467 at Eltville; first printers Nicolas and Henry Bechtermuncze and Wygandus Spyes de Orthenberg, who completed in that year a Vocabularius ex quo. 1467 at Rome; first printers Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannarts from Subiaco, who published an edition of Cicero's Epistolfe ad Familiares, and Ulrich Halm or Udalricus Callus, who issued on 31st December 1467 Turrecremata's Meditationcs. 1468 at Augsburg; first printer Giinther Zainer or Zeyner. Same year at Basel; first printer Berthold Rot of Hanau. Same year at Marienthal; Brothers of the Common Life. 1469 at Venice; printers, 1. Johannes of Spires; 2. his brother Vindelinus of Spires; 3. Christopher Valdarfer; 4. Nicolas Jenson, &c. The further spread of typography is indicated by the following data:—1470 at Nuremberg (Johan Sensenschmidt, Friedr. Creusner, Anton Koberger, &c.), Berona or Beromünster in Switzerland (Helyas Helye alias De Llouffen), Foligno (Emilianus de Orfinis and Johannes Numeister), Trevi (Johann Reynard), Savigliano
- ↑ See for details, Hessels, Gutenberg, p. 166 sq.
- ↑ See Hessels, Gutenberg, p. 161
- ↑ See Hessels, Gutenberg, pp. 107-114.
- ↑ See further Bernard, Origine de l'Imprimerie, i. 216 sq.
- ↑ M. Philippe, Origine de l'Imprimerie à Paris, p. 219, mentions two books printed in this type, which contain manuscript notes to the effect that they were purchased in 1464 and 1467, so that Inguilen should be placed before Eggestein.
- ↑ Johan Veldener, who is said to have printed at Cologne, was never established there, but at Louvain (1473-77), Utrecht (1478-81), and Culenborg or Kuilenburg(1483-84); see Holtrop, Mon. Typ., pp. 42, 47, 109.
