John Gutenberg, First Master Printer: His Acts and Most Remarkable Discourses and his DeathDingelstedt, Franz von
History
John Gutenberg, First Master Printer: His Acts and Most Remarkable Discourses and his Death
Dingelstedt, Franz von
Gutenberg, Johann, 1397?-1468 -- Fiction
In the district of the Rheingau, on the right-hand side of the great
river, some miles below Maïence, is a little town to which, in the
present day, is given two different names, according to fancy; it is
sometimes called Eltvil or Elfeld. When those smoking Leviathans, the
steamboats, pass roaring before the modest houses of Eltvil, the sound
of the silvery bell has scarcely echoed in the air, when a little
boat, carrying a white and red flag, is unmoored and cuts swiftly
through the water. It arrives alongside, the passengers mount the large
vessel, but the tourists, strutting up and down the deck, scarcely
condescend to cast even a vacant look on their new fellow-travellers.
And why should they? Of what importance to the fair daughter of Albion,
reclining on one of the benches, is the graceful Rheingau peasant,
who, with her basket on her arm, and her knitting in her hand, mounts
silently the side of the boat, and after addressing her parting adieus
to her friends, male and female, whom she leaves on the bank, goes
quietly and takes her seat on a rustic wooden stool.
It is at Eltvil that we shall take up again the thread of our story,
which was so abruptly broken by the incendiary of Maïence. Three years
have passed since that event, three cruel years to the poor inhabitants
of the Rhine country. Gutenberg has resumed, as before, his pilgrim’s
staff. Claude Musny walks in front in charge of the light baggage of
the little caravan, and this joyous child of a light-hearted nation,
thanks to his gaiety, which neither privations nor contrarieties can
reach, has it often in his power to bring back moments of forgetfulness
and serenity to the old man. Lawrence Beildech, inseparable from his
master, walks by his side, sometimes supporting Gutenberg’s faltering
steps, and when necessary coming to the assistance of his failing
eyesight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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