Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum
Gutenberg ( 1398 – February 3, 1468) was a German
goldsmith and printer who is credited with being the
first to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor
of the mechanical printing
press. His major work, the
Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line
Bible), has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical
quality.
Among the specific contributions to printing that are attributed to
Gutenberg are the invention of a process for mass-producing movable
type, the use of oil-based ink, and the use of a wooden
printing press similar to the screw olive and
wine presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the
combination of these elements into a practical system. Gutenberg
may have been familiar with printing; it is claimed that he had
worked on copper
engravings with an artist
known as the
Master of
the Playing Cards. Gutenberg's method for making type is
traditionally considered to have included a
type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting
type.
The use of movable type was a marked improvement on the handwritten
manuscript, which was the existing method of book production in
Europe, and upon
woodblock
printing, and revolutionized European book-making. Gutenberg's
printing technology
spread
rapidly throughout Europe and is considered a key factor in the
European
Renaissance.Gutenberg remains a
towering figure in the popular image; in 1999, the
A&E Network ranked Gutenberg #1 on their
"People of the Millennium" countdown, and in 1997,
Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's
invention as the most important of the second millennium.
Early life
Gutenberg
was born in the German city of Mainz
, the
youngest son of the upper-class merchant Friele Gensfleisch zur
Laden, and his second wife Else Wyrich, who was the daughter of a
shopkeeper. According to some accounts Friele was a
goldsmith for the
bishop at
Mainz, but most likely he was involved in the cloth trade.
Gutenberg's year of birth is not precisely known but was most
likely around 1398.
John Lienhard, technology historian, says "Most of Gutenberg's
early life is a mystery. ... His father worked with the
ecclesiastic mint. Gutenberg grew up knowing
the trade of
goldsmithing." This is
supported by historian Heinrich Wallau, who adds, "In the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries his [descendants] claimed an
hereditary position as ... the master of the archiepiscopal mint.
In this capacity they doubtless acquired considerable knowledge and
technical skill in metal working. They supplied the mint with the
metal to be coined, changed the various species of coins, and had a
seat at the
assizes in forgery cases."
.
Wallau adds, "His surname was derived from the house inhabited by
his father and his paternal ancestors 'zu Laden, zu Gutenberg'. The
house of Gänsfleisch was one of the patrician families of the town,
tracing its lineage back to the thirteenth century."
Patricians (aristocrats) in Mainz were often
named after houses they owned. Around 1427, the name
zu
Gutenberg, after the family house in Mainz, is documented to
have been used for the first time.
px320
In 1411, there was an uprising in Mainz against the patricians, and
more than a hundred families were forced to leave.
As a result, the
Gutenbergs are thought to have moved to Eltville am
Rhein
(Alta Villa), where his mother had an inherited
estate. According to historian Heinrich Wallau, "All that is
known of his youth is that he was not in Mainz in 1430. It is
presumed that he migrated for political reasons to Strasburg, where
the family probably had connections."
He is assumed to have
studied at the University of Erfurt
, where there is a record of a student, in 1419,
named Johannes de Alta villa.
Nothing is
now known of Gutenberg's life for the next fifteen years, but in
March 1434, a letter by him indicates that he was living in
Strasbourg
, where he had some relatives on his mother's
side. He also appears to have been a goldsmith member
enrolled in the Strasbourg militia. In 1437, there is evidence that
he was instructing a wealthy tradesman on polishing gems, but where
he had acquired this knowledge is unknown. In 1436/37 his name also
comes up in court in connection with a broken promise of marriage
to a woman from Strasbourg, Ennelin. Whether the marriage actually
took place is not recorded. Following his father's death in 1419,
he is mentioned in the inheritance proceedings.
Printing press
statues of Gutenberg with Fust and
Schoeffer at
Rossmarkt in Frankfurt
Around
1439, Gutenberg was involved in a financial misadventure making
polished metal mirrors (which were believed to capture holy light
from religious relics) for sale to pilgrims to Aachen
: in 1439 the
city was planning to exhibit its collection of relics from Emperor Charlemagne but the event was delayed by
one year and the capital already spent could not be repaid.
When the question of satisfying the investors came up, Gutenberg is
said to have promised to share a "secret". It has been widely
speculated that this secret may have been the idea of printing with
movable type. Legend has it that the idea came to him "like a ray
of light".
At least up to 1444, he lived in Strasbourg, most likely in the
St. Arbogast suburb. It was in
Strasbourg in 1440 that Gutenberg perfected and unveiled the secret
of printing based on his research, mysteriously entitled
Kunst
und Aventur (art and enterprise). It is not clear what work he
was engaged in, or whether some early trials with printing from
movable type may have been conducted there. After this, there is a
gap of four years in the record. In 1448, he was back in Mainz,
where he took out a loan from his brother-in-law
Arnold Gelthus, presumably for a
printing press.
By 1450, the press was in operation, and a
German poem had been
printed, possibly the first item to be printed there. Gutenberg was
able to convince the wealthy moneylender
Johann Fust for a loan of 800
guilders.
Peter
Schöffer, who became Fust's son-in-law, also joined the
enterprise.
Schöffer had worked as a scribe in Paris
and designed
some of the first typefaces.
Gutenberg's workshop was set up at Hof Humbrecht, a property
belonging to a distant relative. It is not clear when Gutenberg
conceived the Bible project, but for this he borrowed another 800
guilders from Fust, and work commenced in 1452. At the same time,
the press was also printing other, more lucrative texts (possibly
Latin grammars). There is also some speculation that there may have
been two presses, one for the pedestrian texts, and one for the
Bible. One of the profit-making enterprises of the new press was
the printing of thousands of
indulgences
for the church, documented from 1454–55.
In 1455 Gutenberg published his
42-line Bible, commonly
known as the
Gutenberg Bible. About
180 were printed, most on paper and some on
vellum.
Court case
Sometime in 1455, there was a dispute between Gutenberg and Fust,
and Fust demanded his money back, accusing Gutenberg of misusing
the funds. Meanwhile the expenses of the Bible project had
proliferated, and Gutenberg's debt now exceeded 2,000 guilders.
Fust sued at the archbishop's court. A November 1455 legal document
records that there was a partnership for a "project of the books,"
the funds for which Gutenberg had used for other purposes,
according to Fust. The court decided in favour of Fust, giving him
control over the Bible printing workshop and half of all printed
Bibles.
Thus
Gutenberg was effectively bankrupt, but it appears he retained (or
re-started) a small printing shop, and participated in the printing
of a Bible in the town of Bamberg
around 1459,
for which he at least supplied the type. But since his
printed books never carry his name or a date, it is difficult to be
certain, and there is consequently a considerable amount of
scholarly literature on this subject. It is also possible that the
large
Catholicon
dictionary, 300 copies of 744 pages, printed in Mainz in 1460,
may have been executed in his workshop.
Meanwhile, the Fust–Schöffer shop was the first in Europe to bring
out a book with the printer's name and date, the
Mainz Psalter of August 1457, and while
proudly proclaiming the mechanical process by which it had been
produced, it made no mention of Gutenberg.
Later life
In 1462, during a conflict between two archbishops, Mainz was
sacked by archbishop
Adolph von
Nassau, and Gutenberg was exiled. An old man by now, he moved
to Eltville where he may have initiated and supervised a new
printing press belonging to the brothers Bechtermünze.
In January 1465, Gutenberg's achievements were recognized and he
was given the title
Hofmann (gentleman of the court) by
von Nassau. This honour included a
stipend,
an annual court outfit, as well as 2180 liters of grain and 2000
liters of wine tax-free. It is believed he may have moved back to
Mainz around this time, but this is not certain.
Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried in the Franciscan church at
Mainz, his contributions largely unknown. This church and the
cemetery were later destroyed, and Gutenberg's grave is lost.
In 1504, he was mentioned as the inventor of typography in a book
by Professor Ivo Wittig. It was not until 1567 that the first
portrait of Gutenberg, almost certainly an imaginary
reconstruction, appeared in Heinrich Pantaleon's biography of
famous Germans.
Printed books
Between 1450 and 1455, Gutenberg printed several texts, which are
not known; his texts did not bear the printer's name or date, so
attribution is possible only through external references. Certainly
several church documents including a papal letter and two
indulgences were printed. Some printed editions of
Ars
Minor, a schoolbook on Latin grammar by
Aelius Donatus may have been printed by
Gutenberg; these have been dated either 1451–52 or 1455.
In 1455 (possibly starting 1454), Gutenberg brought out copies of a
beautifully executed folio
Bible (
Biblia
Sacra), with 42 lines on each page. The pages of the books
were not bound, and the date 1455 is documented on the spine by the
binder for a copy bound in Paris.
The Bible sold for 30
florins each, which
was roughly three years' wages for an average clerk. Nonetheless,
it was significantly cheaper than a handwritten Bible that could
take a single scribe over a year to prepare. After printing the
text portions, each book was hand illustrated in the same elegant
way as manuscript Bibles from the same period written by
scribes.
48
substantially complete copies are known to exist, including two at
the British
Library
that can be viewed and compared online. The
text lacks modern features such as
pagination,
indentations, and
paragraph breaks.
Another, 36-line edition of the Bible was also printed, some years
after the first edition, and in large part set from a copy of it,
thus disproving earlier speculation that this may have been the
first Bible of the two.
Printing method with movable type
Movable metal type, and composing stick, descended from Gutenberg's
press
Gutenberg's early printing process, and what tests he may have made
with
movable type, are not known in
great detail. His later Bibles were printed six pages at a time,
and would have required 100,000 pieces of type—making the type
alone would take years. Setting each page would take at least half
a day, and considering all the work in loading the press, inking
the type, hanging up the sheets, etc., it is thought that the
Gutenberg–Fust shop might have employed about 25 craftsmen.
Gutenberg's technique of making movable type remains unclear. In
the following decades, punches and copper matrices became
standardized in the rapidly disseminating printing presses across
Europe. Whether Gutenberg used this sophisticated technique or a
somewhat primitive version has been the subject of considerable
debate.
In the standard process of making type, a hard metal punch (with
the letter carved back to front) is hammered into the soft metal
copper, creating a mould or
matrix. This is then placed
into a holder, and cast by filling with hot type-metal, which
cooled down to create a piece of type. The matrix can now be reused
to create hundreds of identical letters, so that the same type
appearing anywhere in the book will appear similar, giving rise to
the growth of
fonts. Subsequently, these
letters are placed on a rack and inked; using a press, many hundred
copies can be made. The letters can be reused in any combination,
earning the process the name of 'movable type'. (For details, see
Typography).
Was the type produced by punches and copper matrices?
Such is the process that has been widely attributed to have been
Gutenberg's invention, but it appears from recent evidence that
Gutenberg's actual process was somewhat different. If he used the
punch and matrix approach, all his letters should have been
identical, within some variation possibly due to inking. However,
the type used in Gutenberg's printed Bibles were quite
irregular.
In 2001,
the physicist Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Princeton
librarian Paul Needham, used digital scans of the
Gutenberg Bible in the Scheide
Library, Princeton, to carefully compare the same letters
(types) appearing in different parts of the Gutenberg 42-line
Bible. The irregularities in Gutenberg's type, particularly
in simple characters such as the hyphen, made it clear that the
variations could not have come from either ink smear or from wear
and damage on the pieces of metal on the types themselves. While
some identical types are clearly used on other pages, other
variations, subjected to detailed image analysis, made for only one
conclusion: that they could not have been produced from the same
matrix. Transmitted light pictures of the page also revealed
substructures in the type that could not arise from
punchcutting techniques. They hypothesized that
the method involved impressing simple shapes to create alphabets in
"cuneiform" style in a mould like sand. Casting the type would
destroy the mould, and the alphabet would need to be recreated to
make additional type. This would explain the non-identical type, as
well as the substructures observed in the printed type.
Thus, they feel that "the decisive factor for the birth of
typography", the use of reusable moulds for casting type, might
have been a more progressive process than was previously thought.
They suggest that the additional step of using the punch to create
a mould that could be reused many times was not taken until twenty
years later, in the 1470s.
Other hypotheses about European origins
The nineteenth century printer and typefounder
Fournier Le Jeune suggested that Gutenberg
might not have been using type cast with a reusable matrix, but
possibly wooden types that were carved individually. However, this
appears unlikely given the uniformityof the bulk of the type he
used.
It has also been questioned whether Gutenberg used movable types at
all. In 2004, Italian professor Bruno Fabbiani claimed that
examination of the 42-line Bible revealed an overlapping of
letters, suggesting that Gutenberg did not in fact use movable type
(individual cast characters) but rather used whole plates made from
a system somewhat like a modern typewriter, whereby the letters
were stamped successively into the plate and then printed. However,
most specialists regard the occasional overlapping of type as
caused by paper movement over pieces of type of slightly unequal
height.
A 1568
history by Hadrianus Junius of Holland claims that the basic idea
of the movable type came to Gutenberg from Laurens Janszoon Coster via Fust,
who was apprenticed to Coster in the 1430s and may have brought
some of his equipment from Haarlem
to Mainz. While Coster appears to have
experimented with moulds and castable metal type, there is no
evidence that he had actually printed anything with this
technology. He was an inventor and a goldsmith. However, there is
one supporter of the claim that Coster might be the inventor.
In the
Kölner Chronik of 1499 Ulrich Zell, the first printer of Cologne, mentions that printing was performed in
Mainz in 1450, but that some type of printing of lower
quality had previously occurred in the Netherlands. However
the name of Coster is not mentioned in that chronicle.
Legacy
Although Gutenberg was financially unsuccessful in his lifetime,
the printing technologies spread quickly, and news and books began
to travel across Europe much faster than before. It fed the growing
Renaissance, and since it greatly
facilitated scientific publishing, it was a major catalyst for the
later
scientific
revolution.
The
capital of printing in Europe shifted to Venice
, where
visionary printers like Aldus
Manutius ensured widespread availability of the major Greek and
Latin texts. The claims of an Italian origin for movable
type have also focused on this rapid rise of Italy in movable-type
printing. This may perhaps be explained by the prior eminence of
Italy in the paper and printing trade. Additionally, Italy's
economy was growing rapidly at the time, facilitating the spread of
literacy.
Christopher Columbus
had a geographical book (printed by movable types) bought by his
father, and fortunately he got stimulated by it. That book is in a
Spanish museum. Finally, the city of Mainz was sacked in 1462,
driving many (including a number of printers and punch cutters)
into exile.
Printing was also a factor in the
Reformation:
Martin Luther found that the
95 Theses, which he posted on the door of his
church, were printed and circulated widely; subsequently he also
issued
broadsheets outlining his
anti-
indulgences position (ironically,
indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed). The
broadsheet evolved into
newspapers and
defined the
mass media we know
today.
In the decades after Gutenberg, many conservative patrons looked
down on cheap printed books; books produced by hand were considered
more desirable. At one point the
papal
court debated a policy of requiring printing presses to obtain
a license, but this could not be decreed.
Today there is a large
antique market for
the earliest printed objects. Books printed prior to 1500 are known
as
incunabula.
There are
many statues of Gutenberg in Germany, including the famous one by
Bertel Thorvaldsen (1837) in
Mainz, home to the Gutenberg Museum
and the eponymous Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz
.
Project Gutenberg commemorates
Gutenberg's name.
Matthew Skelton's book
Endymion
Spring explores a controversial theory about Johann Gutenberg
and his partner Fust.
In 1961 the Canadian philosopher and scholar
Marshall McLuhan entitled his pioneering
study in the fields of print culture, cultural studies, and media
ecology,
The Gutenberg Galaxy:
The Making of Typographic Man
Johann Gutenberg has been ranked #8 in
Michael H. Hart's controversial book,
The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons
In History.
In 2006,
Gutenberg!
The
Musical!, a musical about two people who wrote a musical
about Johann Gutenberg inventing the printing press, began its
Off-Broadway run in New York City
.
See also
References
- Lienhard, John H. [1]
- Wallau, Heinrich. Johann Gutenberg. The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
[2]
Further reading
Standard biographic works on Gutenberg
- Albert Kapr, Johann Gutenberg: the Man and his
Invention.Translated from the German by Douglas Martin, Scolar
Press, 1996. "Third ed., revised by the author for ... the English
translation.
On the effects of Gutenberg's printing
- Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of
Change, Cambridge University Press, September 1980, Paperback,
832 pages, ISBN 0-521-29955-1
- Marshall McLuhan, The
Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) Univ.
of Toronto Press (1st ed.); reissued by Routledge & Kegan Paul
ISBN 0-7100-1818-5.
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