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TYPOGRAPHY
[HISTORY

Hence there is nothing to connect these two broadsides with any locality or any printing-office, except that one of the initial M’s of the Indulgence30 re-occurs as the initial M of the second absolution of a 33-line Indulgence of 1489, which was unquestionably printed by Peter Schoeffer at Mainz, for “Raymundus Peyraudi archidiaconus Alniensis in ecclesia Xanton,” who issued it at the order of Pope Innocent VIII., “pro tuicione orthodoxe fidei contra Turchos.” For this reason types 3 and 4 and the books printed with them, including B42, must all be ascribed to him, all the more as he printed, with the type of B42, the 35-line Donatus, which bears his name in the colophon. As Schoeffer, in the colophon of this Donatus (ii.) which bears his name, 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 some of the twelve incunabula mentioned above (in col. B) were printed by Peter Schoeffer alone before he entered (in 1457) into partnership with Johan Fust (see Hessels, Gutenberg, p. 166 seq.).

During the last two decades, however, the two types (3 and 4) and most of the books mentioned above in column B, including B42, together with the two types (1 and 2), and several of the books in column A, including B36, have been attributed by German bibliographers to Gutenberg. This singular proceeding is chiefly owing to the late Dr Dziatzko’s treatises (Beiträge zur Gutenbergfrage, 1889; Gutenberg’s früheste Druckerpraxis, 1890) on Gutenberg’s supposed work as a printer. This author, noticing that the two types of B36 and B42, their signs of contraction, marks of punctuation, &c., though differing in size, closely resemble each other in form, concluded that they were manufactured in one and the same office, by one and the same printer, that is, Gutenberg. He thought his conclusion confirmed by the two Bibles being printed on the same kind of paper showing the same watermarks, and arranged in quires in the same way, and divided off into parts at the same place. Finally, from a misprint in B42 being rectified in the Stuttgart copy of B36 by a cancel (Druckerpraxis, p. 95), he concluded: (a) that B36 was a reprint of B42; that the latter was printed by Gutenberg during his partnership (1450–1455) with Fust, who supplied the money and the material, while he himself superintended the manufacture of the type, instructed the compositor and printer, and therefore was its printer; and that the type came afterwards into Schoeffer’s possession; (b) as B42 was Gutenberg’s first work, and had been begun in 1450, B36, a reprint of it, could not be dated before this year; but as its type already existed in 1454 (in the Indulgence31), Gutenberg, foreseeing his quarrels with Fust, must have been preparing it since 1453, and have printed with it, first, some Donatuses, the Indulgence31, &c., and finally B36, with the technical and financial assistance of Albrecht Pfister who, shortly before 1458, acquired its type and printing-material (see further, Hessels, “A Bibliogr. Tour,” in The Library, July 1908). Dr Dziatzko, noticing also a “resemblance” between the types and the workmanship of the two indulgences, attributed both these broadsides likewise to Gutenberg.

His conclusions, and the method of research by which he reached them, the German bibliographers of the present day have adopted and amplified into a bibliographical and typographical “system,” which professes to examine minutely the form and size of every letter, capital or small; the combined letters like do and de cast on one type; the signs of contraction above, or by the side of or through certain letters, the marks of punctuation, the habits and workmanship of the printer, the arrangement of the quires, the paper and its water-marks, &c.

The “system” divides the Gothic or Church types with which B36 and B42 and the other books mentioned above are printed into “chief” and “by-forms” (Haupt- und Nebenformen). The tops and bottoms of the former are ornamented with minute protruding tags, angles and points, while the “by-forms” miss most of these ornaments, their limbs being straight on the left or right, so as to be easily joined to the protruding tags, angles and points of the “chief forms,” whenever the two come together. For instance, if a u or a t follows an e, the “by-form” of u with straight limbs was to be used, while the t was to be without its crossbar protruding on the left.

The bibliographers who deal with the incunabula enumerated above, in accordance with this “system,” regard the books in which they find these chief and by-forms used in their proper places as the earliest, and therefore as the products of Gutenberg’s “creative genius and skill,” while they ascribe the books which bear evidence of the misuse of those forms to other printers, but their types to him. But this is an uncertain guide, as by errors in the distribution of the types after the printing of the first or second pages this misuse may already occur in the third and further pages of a book. In this way, however, the “system” arranges the books enumerated above in the following approximately chronological order:—

1443–1444. “First phase” of the Gutenberg type (=the Donatus type). The numbers ii., iii., iv. (with the suspicious date 1451) and v.

1447 (end of) till 1457(?). “Second phase” of the same type (=the Kalendar type). The numbers vi. to xiv.

1450–1453. B42 presumed to have been finished in or before 1453, taking this year, written in the Klemm copy, as genuine.

1453. “Third phase” of Gutenberg’s type, B36 (xviii., of which the earliest known date is 1461).

1454. The two Indulgences with their types (1, 3; 2, 4).

1457. The two Psalter types.

1461, 1462 till (?). Pfister, who is said to have acquired the type of B36 from Gutenberg, is known to have issued a book with the date 14 February 1461, and another with the year 1462. Hence, Schwenke says that the 36-line Bible type, which he regards as a “continuation” of the Donatus, and the Kalendar types, had a life of nearly 20 years (Veröffentl. ii. 1). Type v. is thought to be Gutenberg’s earliest (before 1443!) by the few who regard the “Missale speciale” and the “Missale abbreviatum” as his work.

The “Donatus type” is so called from the Paris Donatus, on one of whose leaves the year 1451 is written. Zedler, somewhat unreasonably, considers this date to be a forgery of Professor Bodmann, though he is known to have forged other Gutenberg documents. This type is regarded as the same as that of the Astronomical Kalendar, but in an earlier, more imperfect stage. As this Kalendar calculates the ephemerides of the sun, moon and stars, either for the year 1429 or for 1448 or 1467, it is presumed to have been printed for 1448, that is at the end of 1447, and as its type looks new and almost perfect, the Paris Donatus is placed considerably earlier because its type looks old. The poem on the “Weltgericht” (No. ii.) is said to show all the forms of the Donatus type, but as its workmanship looks primitive, it is dated back to 1443–1444. The Heiligenstadt Donatus (No. iii.) is placed after the “Weltgericht” (ii.), but before the Paris Donatus (iv.) and the other Heiligenstadt Donatus (v.).

Some German bibliographers do not feel sure that Gutenberg manufactured types v., vi. and vii., though they have no doubt as to the remaining. Others are of opinion that Pfister printed some of the books in the type of B36, Schwenke thinks this Bible could not have been begun before 1457, but all agree that every book in the above lists must have been printed either by Gutenberg himself, or in his office, or with his type, or under his superintendence.

Though the church type 1 cannot be said to be identical with that of B36, and no further trace of the brief type 2 has been found, we see no reason for separating Indulgence31 from Mainz printing. And assuming that it was printed there, its printer may have been Johan Gutenberg, who was at Mainz in 1454.

A peculiarity of the above-mentioned “system” is that it ascribes two types, so different in size, shape and form, as those of B36 and B42, to one and the same printer, merely because they “resemble” each other. This shows that the “system” takes no account of the fact that the inventor of printing, and all the early printers who came after him, in manufacturing their types necessarily imitated the forms of the written characters of their time. Hence if two printers simultaneously erected their presses in one town, their types, though cut and cast independently, were apt to resemble each other, as appears from various examples. The printers of B36 and B42 are no exception to this rule; they each took a MS. as their model, and the types which they produced are simply imitations of the Gothic or Church hand, which, from its first beginnings in the 10th century, if not earlier, can clearly be traced down to, and reached its greatest development in, the 15th century.[1]

The written characters of all ages and countries resemble and yet differ from each other in various respects; and as their resemblances and differences are closely reproduced by the metal printing types of every country, we are able to ascribe MSS. as well as incunabula to definite countries, some manuscripts even to “schools,” a few even to definite scribes. But when two types differ in size and form, however slightly, and there is no evidence that they belonged to one and the same printer, some of their characteristics may justify us in ascribing both to the same country or town, but not to the same printer. It is, moreover, not safe to ascribe incunabula to one and the same printer on account of their similarity of the quires and divisions into volumes, their paper or water-marks (which Dziatzko observed in the two Bibles), as these particulars are nothing but a continuance of the MSS.


  1. The Cambridge University Library possesses two folio volumes (press-mark Dd. 7. 1, 2), the writing of which, ascribed in the catalogue to 1490, resembles the types of B42 with all its chief and by-forms so much, that at first sight they might be mistaken for copies of this Bible.