The Invention of Printing/Chapter 21

by Theodore De Vinne

XXI

Gutenberg and his Earlier Work at Mentz.

Gutenberg appears in Mentz as a Borrower of Money … Was then Ready to Begin as a Printer. Donatus of 1451 … Letters of Indulgence of 1454 and 1455 … Made from Founded Types … Circumstances attending their sale … Fac-simile of Holbein's Satire … Fac-simile of the Letter dated 1454, with a Translation … Almanac of 1455 … Gutenberg's two Bibles … Dates of Publication Uncertain … Bible of 36 lines, with Fac-simile … Evidences of its probable Priority … Apparently an Unsuccessful Book … John Fust, with Portrait … Fust's Contract with Gutenberg in 1450. Probable Beginning of the Bible of 42 lines … Description of Book, with Fac-simile … Colophon of the Illuminator … Must have been Printed before 1456 … Fust brings Suit against Gutenberg. Official Record of the Trial … Gutenberg's Inability to pay his debt … Suit was a Surprise … Portrait of Gutenberg … Fust deposes Gutenberg and installs Schœffer at the head of the Office.

---

There is material in this event for an affecting drama: a genial inventor, indefatigably occupied in realizing an idea, an usurious and crafty money-lender, abusing the financial carelessness of a genius, to get him more and more into his power; a clever servant courting the daughter of the usurer, and conspiring with him against the great master; the inventor robbed of all the fruit of his exertions during many years, at the moment that it was ripe to be gathered.

Van der Linde.

---

Gutenberg's last act upon record in Strasburg was the selling out of the last remnant of his inheritance. The first evidence we have of his return to Mentz is an entry, on the sixth day of October, 1448, in a record of legal contracts, in which he appears as a borrower of money. It seems that Gutenberg had persuaded his kinsman, Arnold Gelthus, to borrow from Rynhard Brömser and John Rodenstein, the sum of 150 guilders, for the use of which Gutenberg promised to pay the yearly interest of 8½ guilders. Gutenberg had no securities to offer; Gelthus had to pledge the rents of some houses for this purpose. How this money was to be used is not stated, but it may be presumed that Gutenberg needed it for the development of his grand invention. His plans, whatever they were, met with the approbation of his uncle John Gensfleisch, by whose permission he occupied the leased house^[1] Zum Jungen, which he used not only for a dwelling, but as a printing office.

At this time Gutenberg was, no doubt, nearly perfect in his knowledge of the correct theory of type-founding, and had also acquired fair practice as a printer. Helbig thinks that he had ready the types of the Bible of 36 lines. Madden says that he was then, or very soon after, engaged in printing a small edition of this book. There is evidence that these types were in use at least as early as 1451. Two leaves of an early typographic edition of the Donatus, 27 lines to the page, printed on vellum from the types of the Bible of 36 lines, have been discovered near Mentz, in the original binding of an old account book of 1451.^[2] In one word the letter i is reversed, a positive proof that it was printed from types, and not from blocks. The ink is still very black, but Fischer says that it will not resist water.^[3] As this fragment shows the large types of the Bible of 36 lines in their most primitive form, it authorizes the belief that it should have been printed by Gutenberg soon after his return to Mentz.

During the interval between 1440 and 1451, about which history records so little, Gutenberg may have printed many trifles. He could not have been always unsuccessful: he could not have borrowed money for more than ten years, without

Fac-simile of the Types of the Donatus of 1451.
[From Fischer.]

a demonstration of his ability to print and to sell printed work. It is probable that he had to postpone his grand plans, and that his necessities compelled him to begin the practice of his new art with the printing of trivial work. There is evidence that the branch of typography which is now known as job printing is as old as, if not older than, book printing. This evidence is furnished in the Letters of Indulgence, which have distinction as the first works with type-printed dates.

Three distinct editions of the Letters of Indulgence are known. The copies are dated 1454 or 1455, but are more clearly defined by the number of the lines in each edition, as Letters of 30, or 31, or 32 lines. Each Letter is printed from movable types, in black ink, upon one side of a stout piece of parchment, about nine inches high and thirteen inches wide. The form of words is substantially the same in all editions, and all copies present the same general typographical features, as if they were the work of the same printing office. In all copies, the presswork is good; they seem to have been printed by a properly constructed press on damp vellum with ink mixed in oil. The types
Pica Body.
English Body. of the three editions have a general resemblance,^[4]
Paragon Body.
Double-pica Body.yet they differ seriously as to face and body. They were certainly cast from different matrices and adjustments of the mould,^[5] and were composed by different compositors. In the edition of 30 lines, the types of the text are on a body smaller than English, and those of the large lines are on Paragon body; in the edition of 31 lines the types of the text are on English body, and those of the large lines approximate Double-pica body.
(From De la Borde.) The types on Double-pica body are those of the Donatus of 1451 and the Bible of 36 lines; the types on Paragon body are those of the Bible of 42 lines. The appearance of these types in the Bibles is presumptive evidence that the printer of the Bibles was the printer of the Letters. The small types are unique; they were never used, so far as we know, for any other work. The large initials may have been engraved on wood, but the text and the display lines were founded types. The illustration on the previous page shows that although the matrices were fitted with closeness, each type was founded on a square body.

The circumstances connected with the publication of the Letters require more than a passing notice, for they present the first specific indication of a demand for printing. These circumstances give us a glimmer of the corruption of some of the men who sold the indulgences—a corruption which, in the next century, brought down upon the sellers and the system the scorn of Holbein and the wrath of Luther.

Fac-simile of Holbein's Satire on the Sale of Indulgences.
[From Woltmann.]

The canon at the right absolves the kneeling young man, but points significantly to the huge money-chest into which the widow puts her mite. Three Dominicans, seated at the table, are preparing and selling indulgences: one of them, holding back the letter, greedily counts the money as it is paid down; another pauses in his writing, to repulse the penitent but penniless cripple; another is leering at the woman whose letter he delays. The pope, enthroned in the nave, and surrounded by cardinals, is giving a commission for the sale of the letters.

On the twelfth day of April, 1451, a plenary indulgence of three years was accorded by Pope Nicholas v to all who, from May 1, 1452, to May 1, 1455, should properly contribute with money to the aid of the alarmed king of Cyprus, then threatened by the Turks. Paul Zappe, an ambassador of the king of Cyprus, selected John de Castro as chief commissioner for the sale of the indulgences in Germany. Theodoric, archbishop of Mentz, gave him full permission to sell them, but held the commissioner accountable for the moneys collected. The precaution was justified. When the dreaded news of the capture of Constantinople (May 29, 1453) was received, John de Castro, thinking that Cyprus had also been taken, squandered the money he had collected. De Castro was arrested, convicted and sent to prison, but the scandal that had been created by the embezzlement greatly injured the sale of the indulgences. As the permission to sell indulgences expired by limitation on May 1, 1455, Zappe, the chief commissioner, made renewed and more vigorous efforts to promote the sale. It was found that, in the limited time allowed for sale, the customary process of copying was entirely too slow. There was, also, the liability that a hurried copyist would produce inexact copies; that an unscrupulous copyist or seller would issue spurious copies. These seem to have been the reasons that led Zappe to have the documents printed, which was accordingly done, with blank spaces for the insertion of the name of the buyer and the signature of the seller.

The typography of this Letter of 31 lines is much better than that of the Donatus, but it has many blemishes. The text is deformed with abbreviations; the lines are not evenly spaced out; the capital letters of the text are rudely drawn and carelessly cut. The white space below the sixteenth line, and the space and the crookedness in the three lines at the foot, are evidences that the types were not securely fastened in the chase. These faults provoke notice, but it must be admitted that the types were fairly fitted and stand in decent line. They were obviously cast in moulds of metal; it would be impracticable to make types so small in moulds of sand.

Eighteen copies of these Letters of Indulgence are known, all bearing the printed date of 1454 or of 1455. The places where they were sold having been written on the document by the seller, we discover that they must have been sold over a large territory, for one was issued at Copenhagen, another at Nuremberg, and another at Cologne. The large number of copies preserved is evidence that many copies must have

Reduced Fac-simile of a Letter of Indulgence, dated 1454.
[From De la Borde.]

Translation.

To all the faithful followers of Christ who may read this letter, Paul Zappe, counselor, ambassador, and administrator-general of his gracious majesty, the king of Cyprus, sends greeting:

Whereas the Most Holy Father in Christ, our Lord, Nicholas V, by divine grace, pope, mercifully compassionating the afflictions of the kingdom of Cyprus from those most treacherous enemies of the Cross of Christ, the Turks and Saracens, in an earnest exhortation, by the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, freely granted to all those faithful followers of Christ, wheresoever established, who, within three years from the first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1453, should piously contribute, according to their ability, more or less, as it should seem good to their own consciences, to the procurators, or their deputies, for the defense of the Catholic religion and the aforementioned kingdom, — that confessors, secular and regular, chosen by themselves, having heard their confessions for excesses, crimes, and faults, however great, even for those hitherto reserved exclusively for the apostolic see to remit, should be licensed to pronounce due absolution upon them, and enjoin salutary penance; and, also, that they might absolve those persons, if they should humbly beseech it, who, perchance might be suffering excommunication, suspension, and other sentences, censures, and ecclesiastical punishments, instituted by canon law, or promuIgated by man, — salutary penance being required, or other satisfaction which might be enjoined by canon law, varying according to the nature of the offence; and, also, that they might be empowered apostolic authority to grant to those who were truly penitent, and confessed their guilt, or if perchance, on account of the loss of speech, they could not confess, those who gave outward demonstrations of contrition—the fullest indulgence of all their sins, and a full remission, as well during life as in the hour of death—reparation being made by them if they should survive, or by their heirs if they should then die: And the penance required after the granting of the indulgence is this—that they should fast throughout a whole year on every Friday, or some other day of the week, the lawful hindrances to performance being prescribed by the regular usage of the Church, a vow or any other thing not standing in the way of it; and as for those prevented from so doing in the stated year, of any part of it, they should fast in the following year, or in any year they can; and if they should not be able conveniently to fulfill the required fast in any of the years, or any part of them, the confessor, for that purpose shall be at liberty to commute it for other acts of charity, which they should be equally bound to do: And all this, so that they presume not, which God forbid, to sin from the assurance of remission of this kind, for otherwise, that which is called concession, whereby they are admitted to full remission in the hour of death, and remission, which, as it is promised, leads them to sin with assurance, would be of no weight and validity: And whereas the devout Judocus Ott von Apspach, in order to obtain the promised indulgence, according to his ability hath piously contributed to the above-named laudable purpose, he is entitled to enjoy the benefit of indulgence, of this nature. In witness of the truth of the above concession, the seal ordained for this purpose is affixed. Given at Mentz in the year of our Lord 1454, on the last day of December.

The Fullest Form of Absolution and Remission During Life: May our Lord Jesus Christ bestow on thee His most holy and gracious mercy; may he absolve thee, both by his own authority and that of the blessed Peter and Paul, His apostles ; and by the authority apostolic committed unto me, and conceded on thy behalf, I absolve thee from all thy sins repented for with contrition, confessed and forgotten, as also from all carnal sins, excesses, crimes and delinquencies ever so grievous, and whose cognizance is reserved to the Holy See, as well as from any ecclesiastical judgment, censure, and punishment, promulgated either by law or by man, if thou hast incurred any,—giving thee plenary indulgence and remission of all thy sins, inasmuch as in this matter the keys of the Holy Mother Church do avail. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Plenary form of remission at the Point of Death: May our Lord [as above]. I absolve thee from all thy sins, with contrition repented for, confessed and forgotten, restoring thee to the unity of the faithful, and the partaking of the sacraments of the Church, releasing thee from the torments of purgatory, which thou hast incurred, by giving thee plenary remission of all thy sins, inasmuch as in this matter the keys of the Mother Church do avail. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost Amen.

Joseph, abbot of the Monastery of Saint Burckard,⁠
Duly qualified to make this engagement.

been printed. It is probable that Gutenberg was required to compose and print the form at three different times; but we do not know why he found it necessary to make a new face of text type for the second and third editions,^[6] for it is very plain that the types of the first edition were not worn out.

The Appeal of Christianity against the Turks, sometimes called the Almanac of 1455, is another small work attributed to Gutenberg. It is a little quarto of six printed leaves, in German verse, in the large type of the Bible of 36 lines. As it contains a calendar for the year 1455, it is supposed that it was printed at the close of 1454. Its typographical appearance is curious: the type was large, the page was narrow, and the compositor run the lines together as in prose, marking the beginning of every verse with a capital, and its ending by a fanciful arrangement of four full points. It is the first typographic work in German, and the first work in that language which can be attributed to Gutenberg. But one copy of this book is known.

Gutenberg's fame as a great printer is more justly based on his two editions in folio of the Holy Bible in Latin. The breadth of his mind, and his faith in the comprehensiveness of his invention, are more fully set forth by his selection of a book of so formidable a nature. There was an admirable propriety in his determination that his new art should be fairly introduced to the reading world by the book known throughout Christendom as The Book. These two editions of the Bible are most clearly defined by the specification of the number of lines to the page in the columns of each book: one is the Bible of 42 lines,^[7] in types of Paragon body, usually bound in two volumes; the other is the Bible of 36 lines,^[8] in types of Double-pica body, usually bound in three volumes.

It is not certainly known which was printed first. Each edition was published without printed date, and, like all other works by Gutenberg, without name or place of printer. They were not accurately described by any contemporary author. In the sixteenth century they were obsolete, and the tradition that they had been printed by Gutenberg was entirely lost. When a copy of the Bible of 42 lines was discovered in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, and was identified as the work of John Gutenberg, it was not known that there was another edition. The Bible of 42 lines was consequently regarded as the first—as the book described by Zell, which, he says, was printed in 1450. This belief was strengthened by the subsequent discovery, in another copy of this edition, of the certificate of an illuminator that, in the year 1456, he had finished his task of illumination in the book. More than twenty copies of this edition (seven of which are on vellum) have been found, and they have generally been sold and bought as copies of the first edition.

The Bible of 36 lines was definitely described for the first time by the bibliographer Schwartz, who, in 1728, discovered a copy in the library of a monastery near Mentz. In the old manuscript catalogue of this library was a note, stating that this book had been given to the monastery by John Gutenberg and his associates. Schwartz said that this must have been the first edition. A still more exact description of this edition was published by Schelhorn in 1760, under the title of The Oldest Edition of the Latin Bible. He said that this must have been the edition described by Zell.

The Bible of 36 lines is a large demy folio of 1764 pages, made up, for the most part, in sections of ten leaves, and usually bound in three volumes. Each page has two columns of 36 lines each. In some sections, a leaf torn out, possibly on account of some error, has been replaced by the insertion of a single leaf or a half sheet. The workmanship of the first section is inferior: the indentation of paper by too hard pressure is very strongly marked; the pages are sadly out of register; on one page the margins and white space between the columns show the marks of a wooden chase and bearers, which were used to equalize impression and prevent undue wear of types. This section has the appearance of experimental or unpractised workmanship. It is apparent, almost at a glance, that the printer did not use a proper chase and bearers, nor a frisket, nor points for making register.^[9] All other sections were printed with the proper appliances, with uncommon neatness of presswork, in black ink, with exact register, and with a nicely graduated impression, which shows the sharp edges of the types with clearness.

The types of this book closely resemble, in face and body, many letters being identically the same, the types of the display line in the Letter of Indulgence of 31 lines, and of the Donatus of 1451. In some features they resemble the types of the Bible of 42 lines. It is possible that the types of each edition were designed and made by the same letter cutter, and that they were made for and used by the same printer. This opinion is strengthened after an inspection of the mannerisms of the composition, which are those of the Bible of 42 lines. The colon, period, and hyphen are the only marks of punctuation. The lines of the text are always full: the hyphen

Fac-simile of the Types of the Bible of 36 Lines, with the Rubricator's Marks on the Capitals. Verses 17 to 22 of the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Wisdom.
[Photographed from a Fragment of the Original in the Collection of Mr. David Wolfe Bruce.]

Gutenberg</noinclude>is frequently seen projecting beyond the letters. A blank space was left for every large initial which, it was expected, would be inserted by the calligrapher. Red ink was not used by the printer; the rubricated letters were dabbed over with a stroke from the brush of the illuminator. One copy of the book contains a written annotation dated 1461. An account book of the Abbey of Saint Michael of Bamberg, which begins with the date March 21, 1460, has in its original binding some of the waste leaves of this Bible. These, the earliest evidences of date, prove that this edition could not have been printed later than 1459. That it was done in 1450, as asserted by Madden, has not been decisively proved, but the evidence favoring this conclusion deserves consideration. Ulric Zell's testimony that the first Bible was printed in 1450 from missal-like types,^[10] points with directness

Some of the Abbreviations of the Bible of 36 lines.
[From Duverger.]

to the Bible of 36 lines, for there is no other printed Bible to which Zell's description can be applied. Its close imitation of the large and generous style in which the choicer manuscripts of that period are written marks the period of transition between the old and the new style of book-making. The prodigality in the use of paper seems the work of a man who had not counted the cost, or who thought that he was obliged to disregard the expense. As not more than half a dozen copies are known, it is probable that the number printed was small. Nearly all the copies and leaves of this edition were found in the neighborhood of Bamberg. This curious circumstance may be explained by the supposition that the entire edition, probably small, had been printed at the order of, or had been mortgaged to, one of the many ecclesiastical bodies of that town. There is evidence that Gutenberg frequently borrowed money from wealthy monasteries. The imperfect workmanship of the first section is, apparently, the work of a printer in the beginning of his practice, when he had not discovered all the tools and implements which he afterward used with so much success.^[11]

The Bible of 36 lines should have been in press a long time, for it cannot be supposed that Gutenberg had the means to do this work with regularity. His office was destitute of composing sticks and rules, iron chases, galleys, and imposing stones. Deprived of these and other labor-saving tools, without the expertness acquired by practice, frequently delayed by the corrections of the reader, the failures of the type-founder and the errors of pressmen, it is not probable that the compositor perfected more than one page a day. He may have done less. Even if, as Madden supposes, two or more compositors were engaged on this, as they were upon other early work, the Bible of 36 lines should have been in press about three years.^[12]

The newness of the types seems to favor the opinion that this must be the earlier edition. The same types, or types cast from the same matrices, were frequently used in little books printed between the years 1451 and 1462, but they always appear with worn and blunted faces, as if they had been rounded under the long-continued pressure of a press, or had been founded in old and clogged matrices.

Gutenberg deceived himself as much as he did his Strasburg partners, in his over-sanguine estimate of the profits of printing and the difficulties connected with its practice. His printed work did not meet with the rapid sale he had anticipated, or the cost of doing the work was very much in excess of the price he received. The great success which Andrew Dritzehen hoped to have within one year, or in 1440, had not been attained in 1450. During this year Gutenberg comes before us again as the borrower of money. If he had been only an ordinary dreamer about great inventions, he would have abandoned an enterprise so hedged in with mechanical and financial difficulties. But he was an inventor in the full sense of the word, an inventor of means as well as of ends, as resolute in bending indifferent men as he was in fashioning obdurate metal. After spending, ineffectually, all the money he had acquired from his industry, from his partners, from his inheritance, from his friends,—still unable to forego his great project,—he went, as a last resort, to one of the professional money-lenders of Mentz. "Heaven or hell," says Lacroix, "sent him the partner John Fust."^[13]

The character and services of John Fust have been put before us in strange lights. By some of the earlier writers he was most untruly represented as the inventor of typography, as the instructor, as well as the partner, of Gutenberg. By another class of authors he has been regarded as the patron and benefactor of Gutenberg, a man of public spirit, who had the wit to see the great value of Gutenberg's new art, and the courage to unite his fortunes with those of the needy
John Fust.
[From Maittaire.]inventor. This latter view has been popular: to this day, Fust is thoroughly identified with all the honors of the invention. The unreasonableness of this pretension has sent other writers to the opposite extreme. During the present century, Fust has been frequently painted as a greedy and crafty speculator, who took a mean advantage of the needs of Gutenberg, and basely robbed him of the fruits of his invention.^[14]

It is possible that Gutenberg knew John Fust, the money-lender, through business relations with Fust's brother, James, the goldsmith; for we have seen that, during his experiments in Strasburg, Gutenberg had work done by two goldsmiths. What projects Gutenberg unfolded to John Fust, and what allurements he set forth, are not known; but the wary money-lender would not have hazarded a guilder on Gutenberg's invention, if he had not been convinced of its value and of Gutenberg's ability. John Fust knew that there was some risk in the enterprise, for it is probable that he had heard of the losses of Dritzehen, Riffe and Heilmann. In making an alliance with the inventor, Fust neglected none of the precautions of a money-lender. He really added to them, insisting on terms through which he expected to receive all the advantages of a partnership without its liabilities.^[15]

The terms were hard. But Gutenberg had the firmest faith in the success of his invention: in his view it was not only to be successful, but so enormously profitable that he could well afford to pay all the exactions of the money-lender. The object of the partnership is not explicitly stated, but it was, without doubt, the business of printing and publishing text books, and, more especially, the production of a grand edition of the Bible, the price of a fair manuscript copy of which, at that time, was five hundred guilders. The expense that would be made in printing a large edition of this work seemed trivial in comparison with the sum which Gutenberg dreamed would be readily paid for the new books. But the expected profit was not the only allurement Gutenberg was, no doubt, completely dominated by the idea that necessity was laid on him—that he must demonstrate the utility and grandeur of his invention,—and this must be done whether the demonstration beggared or enriched him. After sixteen years of labor, almost if not entirely fruitless, he snatched at the partnership with Fust as the only means by which he could realize the great purpose of his life. The overruling power of the money-lender was shown in the beginning of the partnership. Gutenberg had ready the types of the Bible of 36 lines, and had, perhaps, printed a few copies of the work—too few to supply the demand. Another edition could have been printed without delay, but it was decided that this new edition should be in a smaller type and in two volumes. It was intended that the cost of the new edition should be about one-third less than that of the Bible of 36 lines. Gutenberg was, consequently, obliged to cut a new face and found a new font of types, which, by the terms of the agreement, were to be mortgaged to Fust.

Fust did not assist Gutenberg as he should have done. Instead of paying the 800 guilders at once, as was implied in the agreement, he allowed two years to pass before this amount was fully paid. The equipment of the printing office with new types was sadly delayed. At the end of the two years, when Gutenberg was ready to print, he needed for the next year's expenses, and for the paper and vellum for the entire edition, more than the 300 guilders allowed to him by the agreement of 1450. Fust, perceiving the need of Gutenberg, saw also his opportunity for a stroke in finance, which would assist him in the designs which he seems to have entertained from the beginning. He proposed a modification of the contract—to commute the annual payment of 300 guilders for the three successive years by the immediate payment of 800 guilders. As an offset to the loss Gutenberg would sustain by this departure from the contract, Fust proposed to remit his claim to interest on the 800 guilders that had been paid. Gutenberg, eager for the money, and credulous, assented to these modifications.

The delays and difficulties which Gutenberg encountered in the printing of this edition were great, but no part of the work was done hastily or unadvisedly. He may not have received practical education as a book-maker, but he had the rare good sense to accept instruction from those who had. The Bible of 42 lines was obviously planned by an adept in all the book-making skill of his time. It was laid out in 66 sections, for the most part of 10 leaves each. To facilitate the division of the book in parts (so that it could be bound, if necessary for the convenience of the reader, in ten thin volumes), some of the sections have but 4, some 11, and some 12 leaves. The book proper, without the summary of contents, consists of 1282 printed pages, 2 columns to the page, and, for the most part, with 42 lines to the column.^[16]

A wide margin was allowed for the ornamental borders, without which no book of that time was complete, and large spaces were also left in the text for the great initial letters. It was expected that the purchaser of the book would have the margins and spaces covered with the fanciful designs and bright colors of the illuminator. In some copies, this work of illumination was admirably done; in others it was badly done or entirely neglected. The rubrics were roughly made by dabbing a brush filled with red ink over a letter printed in black. On the pages of 40 lines, the summaries of chapters were printed in red ink; on other pages the summaries were written, sometimes in red and sometimes in black ink. It would seem that it was Gutenberg's original intention to print all the summaries in red ink, and that he was obliged, for some unknown reason, to have them written in.

The general effect of the typography is that of excessive blackness,—an effect which seems to have been made of set purpose, for the designer of the types made but sparing use of hair lines. It may be that the avoidance of hair lines was caused by difficulties of type-founding. The type-founding was properly done: the types have solid faces and stand in line. The letters are not only black but condensed, and are so closely connected that they seem to have been spread by pressure. Double letters and abbreviations were freely used. Judged by modern standards, the types are ungraceful; the text letters are too dense and black, and the capitals are of rude form, obscure, and too small for the text. The presswork is unequal: on some vellum copies, the types are clearly and sharply printed; on other copies, they show muddily from excess of ink. On the paper copies, the ink is usually of a full black, but there are pages on paper and on vellum, in which, for lack of ink and impression,^[17] the color is of a grimy gray-black. Van der Linde and others say that the ink will not resist water, but the ink on the fragments of vellum belonging to Mr. Bruce stood a severe test by water, without any weakening of color. The register on the paper copies is very good; on the vellum copies it is offensively irregular, a plain proof that the vellum had been dampened, and had shrunk or twisted before the second side was printed.

It has been said that this Bible of 42 lines was printed with intent to cheat purchasers, so that it might be sold as a manuscript. There is a legend that Fust did attempt the cheat at Paris, but there is no good authority for the libel, ⟨which⟩ scarcely deserves examination. There were, no doubt, ⟨during the⟩ fifteenth century, many who could not perceive the dissimilarities between manuscript and printed books, but these men were not book-buyers. To the intelligent book-buyer, the features of dissimilarity were conspicuous.^[18] It is not at all probable that Gutenberg entertained any thought of deception: he imitated his manuscript copy only because it was in an approved style of book-making.

Although the types of this Bible are obsolete, there is something pleasing in their boldness and solidity to a reader who is wearied with the small trim letters, light lines and apparently paler ink of modern books. The effect of rugged strength is relieved by the flowing lines, vivid colors and complex ornamentation of the odd borders and initials which have been added by designer and illuminator. How much of the pleasure derived from an inspection of the work is due to the skill of the printer, and how much to the art of the illuminator, has not always been judicially weighed by those who represent the book as a specimen of perfect printing. It cannot be denied that the most attractive features of the book are those made, not by printing, but by illumination, but it is plain that the designs and ornamentation are not of a character appropriate to the text. They would not be allowed in any modern edition of the book.

The workmanship of the printer in his own proper field is wonderful when we regard the circumstances under which it was done, but it would not satisfy the requirements of a modern publisher or book-buyer. It is of its own time, with the faults of that time, in manner and matter. The promise of legibility, which seems warranted by the bold and black types, is delusive. The ordinary Latin scholar cannot read the book, nor refer to any passage in it, with satisfaction. It is without title and paging figures. The blank spaces which indicate changes of subject, and give relief to the ⟨eye, were⟩ seized by the illuminator. Verse follows verse, ⟨and chapter⟩ follows chapter, and one line chases another ⟨with a ⟩

Fac-simile of the Types of the Bible of 42 Lines, with the Rubricator's Marks on the Capitals. Verses 10 to 20 of the Fifteenth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
[Photographed from a Fragment of the Original in the Collection of Mr. David Wolfe Bruce.]

grudging of white space and of true relief which is not atoned for by the dabs of red in the rubrics, nor by the profuse wealth of ornamentation in the centre column and margins. The composition is noticeably irregular: the lines are not always of uniform length. When a word was divided, the hyphen was allowed to project and give to the right side of the column a ragged appearance. When there were too many letters for the line, words were abbreviated. The measure was narrow, and it was only through the liberal use of abbreviations that the spacing of words could be regulated. The period, colon and hyphen were the only points of punctuation.

The manuscript taken for copy was not strictly accurate, and the errors of the scribe were repeated by the compositor. The liberties taken by scribe and compositor in the making of abbreviations, and in the spelling out of abbreviations, were a prolific source of error. It was quite as much on account of the frequency of these errors, as the obsoleteness of the types, that this famous edition was so soon laid aside and was so quickly forgotten. It was supplanted by the editions of the more scholarly printers of the sixteenth century, who collated a great many manuscript and printed copies before they prepared a new copy for the printer.

It is unfortunate that Gutenberg did not, as was customary with the book-makers of that time, put his name and the date of printing on the book. The omission was partially supplied by an illuminator who suffixed the following colophons or subscriptions to his copy of the book:

First Volume. Here endeth the First Part of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, which was illuminated, rubricated and bound by Henry Albech, or Cremer, on Saint Bartholomew's Day (August 24), in the year of our Lord 1456. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah.

Second Volume. This Book was illuminated, bound and perfected by Henry Cremer, vicar of the Collegiate Church of Saint Stephen in Mentz, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (August 15), in the year of our Lord 1456. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah.

As the second volume was illuminated nine days before the first volume, it may be supposed that, on this copy, the work of illumination was started on the sheets, as soon as they had been printed and before they were bound. It is possible that the last sheet was printed in 1456, but it is a more general belief that the work was completed in 1455.

There is no tradition about the number printed. At the close of the century, three hundred copies were regarded by printers of Italy as a proper number for an edition in folio. It is not probable that Gutenberg printed so large a number. Unbound copies were sold at different times and places, not long after publication, for various sums ranging from twelve guilders to sixty crowns.^[19] It does not appear that the books provoked any enthusiasm: no chronicler of that time thought it worth while to give them even a passing mention. We have to suppose that they attracted no more attention than the books of a copyist. It appears, also, that the Bible of 42 lines from a mercantile point of view, was a very unsuccessful enterprise. This is the evidence.

On the sixth day of November, 1455, Fust brought a suit for the recovery of the money advanced to Gutenberg. As Gutenberg was unable to pay the demand, we may suppose that the Bible had not been completed, or, had not met with a ready sale. The suit of John Fust has been the occasion of discordant criticism. Dibdin fully justifies his action, and intimates that Gutenberg was really a trickster, who would have defrauded Fust if he had not resorted to summary proceedings. The defenders of Fust, who are few, have to admit that he here appears as a keen man of business, destitute of sentiment, and of ungenerous disposition. Sympathizers with Gutenberg denounce Fust as a cunning schemer, who had made the terms of the partnership rigorous with the secret determination to get possession of the invention through Gutenberg's inability to keep his contract.

This is the record of the proceedings before the court:

Instrument of a certain day, when Fust produced an account and confirmed it by an oath. In the name of God. Amen. Be it known to all who shall see this public document or hear it read, that, in the year of our Lord 1455, on Thursday, the 6th of November, between eleven and twelve at noon, at Mentz, in the large dining-hall (refectorium) of the convent of bare-footed friars, appeared before me, notary, and the witnesses to be mentioned hereafter, the honorable and prudent man Jacob Fust, citizen of Mentz, and has, in behalf of Johan Fust his brother, also present, shewn, said and exposed, that to the said Johan Fust on the one side and Johan Gutenberg on the other, should be administered the oath, according to judgment passed on both the parties, and for which this day and this hour had been fixed and the hall of the convent assigned. In order that the friars of the said convent, who were still assembled in the hall, should not be disturbed, the said Jacob Fust did ask through his messenger, whether Johan Gutenberg, or any one for him, were present in the convent, in order to finish the matter. At this message came into the said refectorium the reverend Heinrich Gunther, pastor of St. Christopher's at Mentz, Heinrich Keffer, and Bertolf von Hanau, a servant of Johan Gutenberg, and when they had been asked by Johan Fust whether they had been authorized by Johan Gutenberg, they answered that they had been sent by Junker Johan Gutenberg to hear and see what should happen in this case. Thereupon Johan Fust begged leave to conform to the stipulations of the verdict, after he had waited for Johan Gutenberg till twelve o'clock, and was still waiting for him. He reads the sentence passed on the first article of his claim, from word to word, with its pretension and response, which runs as follows: First, that he, according to the written agreement, should lend Johan Gutenberg about 800 florins in gold, with which he was to finish the work, and whether it would cost more or less was no matter to Fust; and that Johan Gutenberg was to pay six per cent, interest for this money. He had indeed lent him these 800 guilders on a bond, but Gutenberg was not satisfied, but complained that he had not yet received the 800 guilders. For that reason, Fust, being desirous of doing him some service, lent him 800 guilders more than he was bound by his contract to do, for which 800 guilders Fust had to pay forty guilders as interest. And, although Gutenberg had bound himself by contract to pay six per cent, interest on the first 800 guilders, yet he had not done so for a single year, but Fust had to pay this interest himself to the amount of 250 guilders. For, at present, Gutenberg having never paid interest, and Fust having been obliged to borrow this interest from Christians and Jews, for which he had paid about thirty-six florins, his payments, together with the capital, amount to about 2,020 guilders, of which he demands reimbursement. Thereupon, Johan Gutenberg answered that Johan Fust had agreed to lend him 800 guilders, with which money he was to arrange and make his tools, and that these tools should remain as security for Fust. But Fust had moreover agreed to give him every year 300 guilders for expenses, and to advance also wages, house-rent, vellum, paper, ink, etc. If, afterward, they did not agree, Gutenberg should then pay the 800 guilders back, and the tools should be free from mortgage; it should be understood, that with the 800 guilders he had to make the machine, which was to be a pledge. He hopes not [that any one shall pretend] that he was obliged to spend these 800 guilders on the work of the books [i. e., on vellum, paper, etc.] And, although it is said in the contract that Gutenberg was to pay six per cent, interest, Fust had told him that he had no intention of accepting this interest from him. Moreover, he had not received the 800 guilders in full and at once according to agreement, as Fust had pretended in the first article of his claim; and as for the second 800 guilders, he is ready to give an account of them, but declines to give him interest or usury for them, and hopes that he is not bound by law to pay them. We pass, therefore, sentence according to pretension and response: When Johan Gutenberg has submitted an account of all receipts and disbursements spent on the work to their common profit [i. e., printing], this work shall be added to the 800 guilders; if he has spent more than the 800 guilders, which did not belong to their common profit, he should pay it back; if Fust is able to prove, on oath or by witnesses, that he has borrowed the money on interest, and did not lend it out of his own resources, then Gutenberg is bound by contract to pay it.

Now, after this sentence had been read in presence of the aforesaid witnesses, Johan Fust has, with raised fingers, in the hands of me, public notary, taken the oath by all the saints, that everything was comprised according to truth and sentence, in an act which he placed in my hands. He confirmed it on oath, as truly as God and the saints may help him; and the contents of this document were as follows:

I, Johan Fust, have borrowed 1,550 guilders, which have been received by Johan Gutenberg, and spent on our common work, for which I have paid an annual interest, and still owe a part of it. Therefore, I count for every hundred guilders which I have borrowed in this way, six guilders per annum; and for the money spent on our common work, I demand the interest according to judgment passed.

The said Johan Fust demands from me, public notary, one or more public acts of this matter, as many and as often as he should want them; and all these matters recorded here, happened in the year, indiction, day, hour, papacy, month, and town aforesaid, in the presence of the honest men, Peter Grauss, Johan Kist, Johan Knoff, Johan Yseneck, Jacob Fust, citizens of Mentz; Peter Gernsheim and Johan Bone, clerks of the city and diocese of Mentz, asked and summoned as witnesses. And I, Ulrich Helmasperger, clerk of the diocese of Bamberg, by imperial authority, public clerk of the Holy See at Mentz, sworn notary, have been present at all the aforesaid transactions and articles with the witnesses mentioned. Therefore, being requested to do so, I have signed with my hand, and sealed with my common seal, this public act, written by another, as testimony and true record of all the aforesaid matters.^[20]

Ulricus Helmasperger, Notary.

The suit brought by Fust was, apparently, a surprise, for it cannot be supposed that Gutenberg would have been so completely unprepared to meet his obligation if he had not been led to believe that Fust would postpone the collection of his claim. The enforcement of this claim before the book was published, or at least before money had been derived from its sale—taken in connection with the facts that the delay in the publication of the book, and Gutenberg's inability to pay his debt, were largely due to the delay of Fust in furnishing the money as he had promised—seems to warrant the charge that Fust meditated the despoilment of Gutenberg at the formation of the partnership. Gutenberg's defense before the court was very feeble: it is that of a man who knew he had no hope of success. He did not appear in person, but trusted his case to his workmen. Fust was more adroit; he was voluble and positive, and his relative, Jacob Fust, was one of the judges. But the fates were against Gutenberg: the hard terms of the contract he had signed compelled an adverse decision.

That Fust did Gutenberg a grievous wrong is very plain; that Gutenberg had managed the business of the partnership with economy and intelligence is not so clear. At no period of his life did the great inventor show any talent for financial administration. He was certainly deficient in many qualities that should be possessed by a man of business, and Fust may have thought that he was fully justified in placing his money

John Gutenberg…From an Old Print in the National Library at Paris.
[From Lacroix.]

interests in the hands of a more careful manager. This, a copy of the oldest engraving known of Gutenberg, presents him to us as a man of decided character, not to be cajoled or managed by a partner in business. The thin curving lip and pointed nose, the strongly marked lines on the forehead, the bold eyes and arrogant bearing of the head reveal to us a man of genius and of force, a man born to rule, impatient of restraint, and of inflexible resolution. We have but to look at the portrait of Fust to see that he, also, was accustomed to having his own way, and that he and Gutenberg were not at all adapted to each other as partners.

But Fust would not have broken with Gutenberg if he had not been prepared to put a competent successor in his place. In Peter Schœffer, a young man twenty-six years old, who had been employed in the printing office, Fust discerned an intelligent workman who gave promise of ability as a manager. Schœffer, who then hoped to win the hand of Fust's daughter Christina, was, no doubt, more complaisant than the irascible Gutenberg. As he was afterward married to her, it may be thought that she approved his suit in its beginning, and that her influence with her father was used to its utmost in favor of the removal of Gutenberg and the advancement of Schœffer. It was fully understood by the three conspirators that Gutenberg could make no proper defense; it was determined that he should be expelled from his place in the partnership and that Schœffer should succeed him in the management of the printing office. When every thing had been arranged, Gutenberg was summoned to appear before the court. The plot was successful in all points. Fust won the suit almost without a struggle: under the forms of law, he took possession of all the materials made by Gutenberg for the common profit, and removed them to his own house. With the types, presses and books went also many of the skilled workmen, and Peter Schœffer was at their head. From an equitable point of view, Fust was amply recompensed, He got the printing office that he coveted, and, with it, the right to use the newly discovered art of Gutenberg. It appears that he was content. There is no evidence that he afterward made any attempt to collect the claim which was, legally, unsatisfied even after the surrender of Gutenberg's printing materials and the printed books.

1. Schaab says that there is on record in Mentz a document which proves that John Gensfleisch leased this house in October, 1443. Reasoning from the two disconnected facts, that this house was used by Gutenberg for a printing office, and that it had been leased by Gensfleisch in 1443, careless readers have assumed that John Gensfleisch was the first printer in Mentz, and that he was either the true inventor of printing, or the unfaithful workman who stole the invention of Coster or of Mentel. It is not necessary to repeat what has been written concerning the impossibility of a theft from the fictitious Coster, nor about the absurdity of representing the uncle as a printer.
2. Fischer, Essai sur les monuments typographiques, p. 70.
3. Bernard refuses this statement. He says that the fragments of other editions of the Donatus in this type, supposed to be of the same period, which he inspected in the British Museum, show ink that is permanent.
4. The text letters are of the form known to librarians as lettres de somme, or letters of account, which may be understood as the carelessly made letters then used in books of account. The letters of the large lines are of the form known as lettres de forme, or letters of precision, the angular and carefully made letters of fine books. The lettres de somme will be defined in this book under the name of Round Gothic; the lettres de forme, under the name of Pointed Gothic.
5. Deceived by the close fitting-up of the matrices, earlier writers said that the letters were xylographic. The comments of Dr. Van der Linde on this error are pertinent:

   .… It was thought necessary to find the wooden letters of the imagination, and hence bibliography presents the dismal spectacle that almost all monuments of the excellent invention, that fruit of a vigorous mind, of a simple, but ample and grand idea, have been declared by would-be connoisseurs one by one to be xylographic. This caused the double trouble of first making out, with much verbosity and an air of perspicuity, incontrovertibly typographical masterpieces to be wood, and then afterward putting aside this pedantry and returning to the simple truth. The origin of typography presents nowhere anything narrow-minded, worthless, or trifling, for it belongs to the grand facts of history, but trifling minds have soiled it with their own littleness. Haarlem Legend, p. 77.

6. It is possible that other books, now lost and forgotten, may have been printed in the small types, but Helbig thinks that the types were some made expressly for the Letters of Indulgence, as bank-notes are now made, with the intention that the copies of each edition should be exactly alike in appearance, and that they should be difficult of imitation. Bernard dissents from the belief that the Letters of Indulgence were printed by Gutenberg. He attributes them to some printer of unknown name in Mentz, supposed by him to have been either the false workman described by Junius, or graduate or seceding malcontent of Gutenberg's printing office. But we have no evidence of a typographical printer before Gutenberg. Jäck has endeavored to prove that two Letters were printed by Pfister of Bamberg. De la Borde thinks one of the faces of type used in the Letters was cut by Schœffer in a friendly competition with Gutenberg. These conjectures cannot be made plausible.
7. It is sometimes described as the Mazarin Bible, and sometimes as Gutenberg's First Bible.
8. This is known as the Bamberg Bible, because nearly all the known copies of this edition were found in the the neighborhood of the town of Bamberg; as Pfister 's Bible, because it has been attributed, incorrectly, to Albert Pfister, a printer of Bamberg; as the Schelhorn Bible, because it was fully described by the bibliographer of that name; as Gutenberg's Second Bible, because it is belief of many authors that it should have been printed by Gutenberg about 1459, after his rupture with John Fust.
9. Bernard, De l'origine et des debuts de l'mprimerie, vol. ii, p. 30.
10. In the year of our Lord 1450, they began to print, and the first book they printed was the Bible in Latin: it was printed in a large letter, resembling the letter with which, at present, missals are printed. Cologne Chronicle of 1499.
11. In the first essays of printing, great difficulties were encountered. For when they [the first printers] were printing the Bible, they were obliged to expend more than four thousand florins before they had printed three sections. Trithemius, as reprinted by Wolf, Monumenta Typographica, vol. ii, p. 654
12. These evidences, which seem to favor the theory of the priority of the Bible of 36 lines, combine many features of probability, but they are not free from objections. Too little printed by is known about the book to warrant a positive statement as to its age. In nearly all the popular treatises on printing, the Bible of 42 lines is specified as the first book of Gutenberg, but it is the belief of many of the most learned bibliographers, from Zapf to Dldot and Madden, that the Bible of 36 lines is the older edition. The theory that it must have been printed by Gutenberg between 1457 and 1459, and the proposition that it may have been Albert Pfister of Bamberg at or soon after that time, will be examined on an advanced page.
13. His name is often improperly written as Faust. In all the books subsequently printed by Fust and his partner, Schœffer, the name appears as Fust. It was so written and printed by all his contemporaries, and is so seen, wherever it occurs, in the record of the famous trial he instituted. It is so spelt in the church record of his burial, During his lifetime, and for at least thirty years after his death, the name is always given as Fust. The notorious reputation subsequently made by Dr. John Faust, who was born in Wurtemberg in 1480 (several years after the death of Fust), who studied magic in Cracow, and, by his learning and wickedness, horrified wise men like Luther and Melancthon; whose life, deeds and death are involved in a mystery that dramatists have turned to such good account, has been transferred by carelessness to John Fust, the printer. The confusion has been perpetuated by a legend. The fable, not yet weeded out of treatises on printing, that Fust was arrested in Paris for selling bibles, supposed to have been manufactured at the instigation of the devil, has served to foster the error.
14. Those who favor this view of Fust's character, find a peculiar significance in the radical meaning of his name, Fust—in German, fist, the symbol of all that is hard, close, grasping, and aggressive.
15. These were the terms of the contract, made in August, 1450:

    The partnership between Gutenberg and Fust should be for five years, in which time the work projected by Gutenberg should be completed.—For the purposes of this partnership, not specified, Fust should advance to Gutenberg 800 guilders, at 6 per cent, interest, The tools and materials made by Gutenberg for the uses of the partnership should remain mortgaged to Fust, as security for this loan of 800 guilders, until the whole sum should be paid.—When the aforesaid tools and materials should be made, Fust should, every year, furnish Gutenberg with 300 guilders to provide for the payment of the paper, vellum, ink, wages and the other materials that would be required for the execution of the work.—For these advances Fust should have one-half of the profits made from the sale of the products of the partnership.—Fust should be exempted from the performance of any work or service connected with the partnership, and should not be held responsible for any of its debts.
16. There are two kinds of copies, with differences which seem to justify the opinion that they belong to two distinct editions. In one kind, all the copies have 42 lines to the column, and all the summaries of chapters are written and not printed. In the other kind, the first eight pages of the first section have 40 lines to the column; the ninth page has 41 lines; the tenth and all other pages (except two 40-line pages in the book of Maccabees) have 42 lines; and the pages of 40 and 41 lines have their five summaries printed in red ink. The same face of type is used in both kinds of copies, but the pages of 40 and 41 lines occupy the same space as the pages of 42 lines, begining and ending, for the most part, with the same words. Bernard says that the 40-line pages were reset by Peter Schœffer after Fust had acquired the unsold copies of the Bible, with intent to lead the purchaser of the book to form the belief that it was an entirely new edition. Other writers suggest that a portion of the first section may have been spoiled, and replaced by a subsequent reprinting. But the differences are not confined to the first section. In many other sections there are differences in the spelling and abbreviation of words which clearly prove that the two kinds of copies were printed from separately composed and distinct forms. The double composition of every page for the same edition seems a ridiculous waste of labor, but the proofs of this double labor are unmistakable.
17. ⟨Bernard says that⟩ over-colored ⟨and under-colored⟩ pages are by ⟨no means rare. He attributes⟩ this unequal blackness to imperfections in the inking implements. De l'origine de l'imprimerie, vol. I, p. 182.
18. See the fac-similes of Sotheby and Humphreys. The written summaries of this ⟨Bible, as they present⟩ them, are ⟨unlike the printed text.⟩
19. At the sale of the Perkins library near London, June 6, 1873, a copy of the Bible of 42 lines, on vellum, was sold for £3,400, and a copy on paper for £2,690—more than the first printers got for all the copies.
20. Hessels' translation, as printed in the Haarlem Legend, pp. 24 and 25.