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Johannes Gutenberg
Printer; regarded as the inventor
of movable-type mechanical printing in Europe. Born Johann
Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, circa 1400, in Mainz,
Germany. Little is known of Gutenberg’s early life. The son of
wealthy parents, he was probably apprenticed to a goldsmith and
also learned the trade of gem cutting as a young man living in
Mainz. Between 1428 and 1430, he moved to Strassburg (now
Strasbourg, France) for political reasons, and would live there
for almost 20 years.
It was in Strasbourg that Gutenberg most likely began the work
that would eventually make him famous, though not in his
lifetime, as the father of the printing press and one of the
most influential people in the history of Western society. He
realized that the traditional methods of handwriting manuscripts
or even the early printing techniques of xylography (printing
from woodcarvings) could not satisfy the great demand for
printed material. For his method of mechanical printing,
Gutenberg eventually combined features of such existing
technologies as wine presses and textile and papermaking devices
with a system of movable metal type, which consisted of over 300
characters. Each character was carved in soft metal, molded, and
cast in a molten alloy of lead, antimony, and tin. This method
of printing from movable type was used, without significant
change, until the twentieth century.
It is not known exactly how far Gutenberg got in his work with
movable type by the time he left Strasbourg.In late 1438, the
heirs of one of his business partners sued him; they lost the
suit, but the trial revealed that Gutenberg was working on a new
invention, presumably the printing press, that he clearly wanted
to keep secret. By late 1448, Gutenberg was back in Mainz, where
he borrowed money from a relative to continue his work. In 1450,
he received a substantial loan from Johann Fust, a wealthy
financier; Fust later loaned Gutenberg even more money.
Gutenberg most likely completed his printed masterpiece, the
42-Line Bible, by 1455 at the latest. The 42-Line Bible, like
all of Gutenberg’s typographic productions, was never attributed
to him during his lifetime, but it later became known as the
Gutenberg Bible. Many of the details of Gutenberg’s work became
known to historians through records of a lawsuit that Gutenberg
lost against Fust and Peter Schöffer, a calligrapher and Fust’s
future son-in-law. Records of the case, dated November 6, 1455,
indicated that Gutenberg was the designer of the press. Though
it has been estimated that the sale of the Bible would have
produced many times the necessary sum owed to Fust by Gutenberg,
it was inexplicably not counted among the latter’s assets at the
trial.
The court awarded Fust control of the type for the Bible and for
Gutenberg’s other major work, a Psalter (the traditional English
term for a book of psalms), as well as at least some of
Gutenberg’s other printing equipment. The first printed book in
Europe to bear the name of its printer was a fine Psalter
produced in August 1457 by Fust and Schöffer.
Most historians agree that it was Gutenberg who had most likely
developed the techniques used to produce the Psalter before he
lost control of his equipment in November 1455. Strong evidence
to support Gutenberg’s claim to the invention of typography came
not only from the trial records but from Schöffer’s son and
Fust’s grandson, Johann Schöffer, who wrote in 1505 that “the
admirable art of typography was invented by the ingenious Johan
Gutenberg at Mainz in 1450.” (From 1509 on, Johann Schöffer
became one of Gutenberg’s chief detractors, however, claiming
that his own father and grandfather were solely responsible for
the invention.)
Gutenberg himself was forced to start over. He is believed to
have produced at least several further works over the next
decade, including the Catholicon, an encyclopedia. In January
1465, Gutenberg began receiving a pension from the archbishop of
Mainz, including an annual measure of food and clothing and
exemption from certain taxes. He died on February 3, 1468, and
was buried in Mainz’s Franciscan church
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