[Illustration] CHAPTER VII. THE KOBERGERS OF NUREMBERG. 1440-1540. ANTHONI KOBERGER (the elder), who for a number of years held the position of the leading publisher of his time, came of an old Nuremberg family. One of his ancestors had been a burgomaster of Nuremberg as far back as 1349, and took an active part at that time in a successful effort to overthrow the rule of the nobles over the city, and, during the two centuries following, the Kobergers continued to be leading citizens. Anthoni was born about 1440, or ten years before the completion of Gutenberg’s printing-press. He was probably brought up as a jeweller, an occupation in which in the later years of his life he was again interested, but in 1472, he devoted himself to the new art of printing, and in 1473 he issued the first volume, bearing a date, which is certainly identified as his. The work chosen was one of the great books of the world’s literature, _Boethii Liber de Consolatione Philosophiæ cum Commentario Thomæ de Aquino_, a dignified and judicious selection with which to initiate the publishing undertakings of the Kobergers, and one which was fairly representative of the general character of their subsequent issues. Albert Dürer, whose original trade was that of a goldsmith, had served as godfather for Anthoni Koberger, and Anthoni’s eldest son was apprenticed to Dürer. There was a close connection, in Germany as well as in Italy, between the earlier book illustrators and the goldsmiths and other artificers in metals, and not a few of the first designers and engravers, together with some of the best of the printers, came, like Dürer, from the ranks of the metal-workers. The first printing-office in Nuremberg had been established in 1470, by Heinrich Kefer, of Mayence (who had been an assistant of Gutenberg), in company with Sensenschmid from Eger, and their first publication was a tract on the Song of Solomon, by Dr. Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, who had died in 1429. It was very exceptional for printers of this time to begin their operations with a work by a contemporary or recent writer. Anthoni’s active work as a publisher continued until about 1513. His contemporary, Johann Neudorffer, writing about 1509, says that he was then employing about twenty-four presses, with over a hundred workmen, the latter comprising compositors, pressmen, binders, correctors, illuminators, and designers.[73] All of these, says Neudorffer, were provided with their meals by their employer, in a building apart from the works, and they were obliged to go between the two buildings at regular hours and with military discipline. It is noteworthy to find so fully organised and disciplined a book-manufacturing concern within half a century after the beginning of printing, and we may fairly assume that the founder was a man of distinctive character and ability.