Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/31

THE SPREAD OF THE ART OF PRINTING 19 confined to the volumes which they themselves pro- duced ; they received also for sale books printed else- where. Their business extended over the districts of Ltibeck and Schleswig, and even to Denmark. Gutenburg's partner, Peter Schoffer, had developed a printing business in Paris which was valued in 1475 at 2,425 golden thalers, a large sum for that period. The joint establishment founded by the Kobergers of Nuremberg at the same time was already in full swing by the year 1500. In the South of France, Lyons was the centre of this book-traffic ; three hundred copies of a single work were sent there on one occasion. The produce of this firm had also an extensive sale in Hungary, in the Netherlands, and in Italy, especially at Venice. ' Koberger,' says Neudorfer, ' has agents in every country, and in the principal cities he has as many as sixteen shops and stores. His business extends into Poland : and he manages his affairs so well that he is at all times cognizant of the condition of each branch, and able to supply the wants of one shop from the superfluous stock of another.' The magnitude of his business may be estimated by the fact that over two hundred of the works he published before 1500, mostly thick volumes in large folio, can be enumerated. He also carried on a brisk competition with the flourishing Basle firm of Froben and Lachner in the sale of classic publications from the Italian press. ' At this very moment,' writes a scholar of Basle to a friend, ' "Wolfgang Lachner, the father-in-law of our Froben, is having a whole waggon-load of classics of the best Aldine editions brought over from Venice. Do you wish for any of them ? If so, tell me immediately, and send the money, for no sooner is such a freight landed c 2