The Printed Book: Its History, Illustration and Adornment: From the Days of Gutenberg to the Present TimeBouchot, Henri
History
The Printed Book: Its History, Illustration and Adornment: From the Days of Gutenberg to the Present Time
Bouchot, Henri
Bookbinding -- History; Books; Books -- History; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
A legal document discovered in 1760 by Wencker and Schoepflin in the
Pfennigthurm of Strasbourg, and afterwards translated into French by
M. Leon de Laborde, makes us at length acquainted with the work of
Gutenberg and of his associates Andrew Dritzehen and Andrew Heilmann.
Apparently these three men were, as we have said, _Spiegelmacher_,
that is makers of mirrors. They had jointly entered into a deed by
the terms of which, if one of the partners died in the course of
their researches, his heirs would have no rights beyond an indemnity
corresponding to the amount invested by him. It happened that
Andrew Dritzehen did die, and that one of his brothers aspired to
occupy his place in the partnership. The dead man left debts behind
him; he had squandered his florins by hundreds in his experiments.
Gutenberg having offered to pay the amounts expended, the heirs of
Dritzehen, who wanted more, summoned him before the courts to show
why he should not make place for them in the work of experiments and
making of mirrors. The witnesses in their testimony before the court
told what they knew of the inventions of the partnership. One among
them deposed that after the death of Dritzehen, Gutenberg's servant
went to the workshop and begged Nicholas Dritzehen, brother of the
deceased, to displace and break up four formes placed in a press.
A second testified that the works of Andrew had cost him at the
least three hundred florins, an enormous sum for those days. Other
witnesses painted Gutenberg in a curious light: they made him out
to be a savage, a hermit, who concealed from his associates certain
arts of which the deed stipulated nothing. One fact proved that the
experiments referred to the manufacture of metallic characters. A
goldsmith, named Dünne, maintained that he had received more than a
hundred florins for printing material "das zu dem trucken gehoret."
"Trucken!"--"Typography!" The word was found, and from that day usage
has consecrated it.
Before 1439, then, John Gaensefleisch, or Gutenberg, was devoted to the
art of reproduction of texts, and had consecrated his life and feeble
resources to it. Three problems presented themselves to him. He wanted
types less fragile than wooden types and less costly than engraving. He
wanted a press by the aid of which he could obtain a clear impression on
parchment or paper. He desired also that the leaves of his books should
not be anopistograph, or printed only on one side. There were many
unknown things to vex his soul, of which he himself alone could have a
presentiment. Until then, and even long after, the xylographs were
printed _au frotton_ or with a brush, rubbing the paper upon the forme
coated with ink, thicker than ordinary ink. He dreamed of something
better.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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