Gutemberg was descended of an honourable family, and he himself is said to have been by birth a knight.[III-10] It would appear that the family had been possessed of considerable property. They had one house in Mentz called zum Gænsfleisch, and another called zum Gudenberg, or Gutenberg, which Wimpheling translates, “Domum boni montis.” The local name of Sulgeloch, or Sorgenloch, was derived from the name of a village where the family of Gænsfleisch had resided previous to their removing to Mentz. It seems probable that the house zum Jungen at Mentz came into the Gutembergs’ possession by inheritance. It was in this house, according to the account of Trithemius, that the printing business was carried on during his partnership with Faust.[III-11] [Footnote III-10: Schwartz observes that in the instrument drawn up by the notary Ulric Helmasperger, Gutemberg is styled “_Juncker_,” an honourable addition which was at that period expressive of nobility.--Primaria quædam Documenta de Origine Typographiæ, p. 20, 4to. Altorfii, 1740.] [Footnote III-11: “Morabatur autem prædictus Joannes Gutenberg Moguntiæ in domo _zum Jungen_, quæ domus usque in præsentem diem [1513] illius novæ Artis nomine noscitur insignita.”--Trithemii Chronicum Spanhemiense, ad annum 1450.] When Gutemberg called himself der Junge, or junior, it was doubtless to distinguish himself from Gænsfleisch _der Elter_, or senior, a name which frequently occurs in the documents printed by Koehler. Meerman has fixed upon the latter name for the purpose of giving to Gutemberg a brother of the same christian name, and of making him the thief who stole Coster’s types. He also avails himself of an error committed by Wimpheling and others, who had supposed John Gutemberg and John Gænsfleisch to be two different persons. In two deeds of sale, however, of the date 1441 and 1442, entered in the Salic book of the church of St. Thomas at Strasburg, he is thus expressly named: “_Joannes dictus Gensfleisch alias nuncupatus Gutenberg de Moguncia, Argentinæ commorans_;” that is, “John Gænsfleisch, otherwise named Gutemberg, of Mentz, residing at Strasburg.”[III-12] Anthony à Wood, in his History of the University of Oxford, calls him Tossanus; and Chevillier, in his Origine de l’Imprimerie de Paris, Toussaints. Seiz[III-13] is within an ace of making him a knight of the Golden Fleece. That he was a man of property is proved by various documents; and those writers who have described him as a person of mean origin, or as so poor as to be obliged to labour as a common workman, are certainly wrong. [Footnote III-12: In the release which he grants to the town-clerk of Mentz, in 1434, he describes himself as, “Johann Gensefleisch der Junge, genant Gutemberg.”] [Footnote III-13: In “Het derde Jubeljaer der uitgevondene Boekdrukkonst door Laurens Jansz Koster,” p. 71. Harlem, 1740.--Oberlin, Essai d’Annales.]