by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
New York D.Appleton and Company 1901
against him by Fust, in 1455, when Gutenberg had to give an account of the receipts and expenditure
relating to his work, and to hand over to Fust all his apparatus in discharge of his debt. The partnership
was of course dissolved, Gutenberg left Mentz, and Fust continued the printing assisted by Peter
Schoeffer. Schoeffer was a servant of Fust's, who had furt her associated himself with the establishment
by marrying Fust's daughter, and to him some attribute the improvement of the methods then employed
by devising matrices and punches for casting metal types.
It has even been suggested that this device of his, communicated to Fust, induced the latter to rid
himself of Gutenberg by demanding repayment of his advances when Gutenberg was unable to meet the
call, and that having gained possession of his partner's apparatus, he was able, with the help of
Schoeffer and his inventions, to carry on the work to his own profit and glory. But it is difficult to know
whether to look upon Fust as a grasping and treacherous money-lender, or as a prudent and
enterprising man of business. However this may be, at' the time of the lawsuit the work of years was
already perfected, printing with moveable types was now an accomplished thing, and the great Mazarin
Bible, if not finished, was at any rate on the point of completion.
The earliest extant specimens of printing from types, however, are assigned to the year 1454. These are
some Letters of Indulgence issued by Pope Nicholas V. to the supporters of the King of Cyprus in his war
with the Turks. They consist of single sheets of vellum, printed on one side only, and measuring c. 11 X 7
inches. They fall into two classes, of each of which there were various issues; that is to say, (1) those
containing thirty lines, and (2) those containing thirty-one lines. The thirty-line Indulgence is printed
partly in the type used for the Mazarin Bible. The thirty-one-line Indulgence is partly printed in type which
is the same as that used for books printed by Albrecht Pfister at Bamberg, and for a Bible which disputes
with the Mazarin Bible the position of the first printed book. Who printed these Indulgences is not
certainly known. Both emanated from the Mentz press, and it is not unreasonable to believe that both
were executed by Gutenberg, since the Mazarin Bible is most probably his work, and since the types used
by Pfister were perhaps at one time possessed by Gutenberg.
that they were the work of two different printers. Some
attribute the thirty-line Indulgence to Schoeffer, on the
ground that some of its initial letters are reproduced in an
Indulgence of 1489 known to be of Schoeffer's
workmanship. Yet there seems no reason why Schoeffer in
1489 should not have made use of Gutenberg's types
indeed, it is very probable that he had every chance of
doing so, as may be seen from the above account of the
dissolution of partnership between Gutenberg and Fust.
Those who assign the thirty-line specimen to Schoeffer
consider the thirty-one line specimen to be Gutenberg's
work. "And though we have no proof of this," says Mr. E.
Gordon Duff, who holds this view, "or indeed of
Gutenberg's having printed any book at all, there is a
strong weight of circumstantial evidence in his favour." It
Indulgences, and perhaps both. In any case, these are the first productions of the printing-press to
which a definite date can be assigned. Some of them have a printed date, and in other copies the date
has been inserted in manuscript. The earliest specimens of each class belong to the year 1454.
The next production of the Mentz press, as is generally believed, is the beautiful volume known as the
Gutenberg Bible, or the Mazarin Bible, because it was a copy in the. library of Cardinal Mazarin which first
attracted attention and led bibliographers to enquire into its history. It illustrates a most remarkable fact-
that is, the extraordinary degree of perfection to which the art of printing attained all but simultaneously
with its birth. Even though we cannot tell how long Gutenberg experimented before producing this book,
it is none the less amazing that as a specimen of typographic art the Mazarin Bible has never been
excelled even by the cleverest printers and the most modern and elaborate apparatus. It was probably
not begun before 1450, the year when Gutenberg and Fust joined forces, and was completed certainly
not later than 1456.
This latter date is fixed by a colophon written in the second volume of the copy in the Bibliotheque
Nationale at Paris, which informs us that "this book was illuminated, bound, and perfected by Heinrich
Cremer, vicar of the collegiate church of St. Stephen in Mentz, on the Feast of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin, in the year of our Lord 1456. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah." A similar note is affixed to
the first volume.
It is believed by competent authorities that this and all very early printed books were printed one page at
a time, owing to an inadequate supply of type, a process exceedingly slow and productive of numerous
small variations in the text. The work of printing the Mazarin Bible was in all probability interrupted to
allow of the execution of the more immediately needed Letters of Indulgence, in certain parts of which, as
we have said, some of the types used in the Mazarin Bible are employed.
We must not omit to mention here another Bible issued from Mentz about this time. It has thirty-six
lines to a column, and is therefore known as the thirty-six line Bible, in distinction to the forty-two line or
Mazarin Bible. It exhibits a larger type, and is regarded by some as the first book printed at the Mentz
press, and, for all that can be proved to the contrary, it is so. Although the point is still undecided, this
volume may at any rate be safeIy regarded as contemporary with the Mazarin Bible.