Part 1

Transcriber’s Note

Text originally printed in Old English or Black Letter is indicated here by =equals signs=. Superscripts are indicated with a circumflex: “y^e”, and italics text by _underscores_. Other notes will be found at the end of this ebook.

GUTENBERG,

AND

THE ART OF PRINTING.

BY EMILY C. PEARSON,

AUTHOR OF “RUTH’S SACRIFICE,” “THE POOR WHITE,” “PRINCE PAUL,” “OUR PARISH,” ETC.

BOSTON: NOYES, HOLMES AND COMPANY, 117 WASHINGTON STREET. 1871.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by EMILY C. PEARSON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

TO THE GIFTED INTELLECTS, WILLING HEARTS, AND DEXTEROUS FINGERS ENGAGED IN MAKING THE GREAT ART A BLESSING TO THE WORLD.

PREFATORY.

Printing has been styled “The telescope of the soul.” As the optical instrument brings near and magnifies objects remote and invisible, so printing puts us in communication with minds of the past and present, and preserves the thoughts of this age for future generations.

But no one of the good and great of the past was permitted to lead the way in embodying thought on the printed page, save the wonderful man sketched in this volume. Out of a full heart of reverence, then, it is most fitting to embalm the memory of Gutenberg.

While musing on certain old archives touching the history of printing, it was suggested by literary friends, that we weave a memorial narrative of the chevalier and artisan honored in bringing the art to light. Accordingly we engaged in the work, having culled the most authentic warp and woof within reach.

Devised in the quiet of old libraries, and in the hush of peace, our little history finds itself heralded by the march of armies, and the clash of empires. War, ever to be deplored as the author of almost unmingled evil, has turned attention to the cradles of printing,--Strasbourg and Mentz. Directly we recognize them, shake hands, and are at home with those glorious old Rhenish cities, made famous for all time.

It is an interesting fact that the final completion of the world-famed Minster or Cathedral of Strasbourg, closely preludes the time when the art of printing had its rise. Earth’s loftiest spire may well mark the place where Heaven gave the greatest treasure-art to man.

Pains have been taken to harmonize the accounts of early printing by various credible authors, and when in doubt from conflicting statements, for safety and defense, we have taken shelter under the wings of the encyclopædias.

Led on by the romance of the broken betrothal, and afterwards most happy marriage, we love to linger over the art devised and cherished in the sanctity of the inventor’s home. Nobly did the Lady Anna exercise her “right” and to her, almost equally with her husband, are we indebted, since she cheered his way, inspiring courage in his work.

In a cell of St. Arbogast, our hero found a quiet retreat for some of his secret experiments; never was an old ruin turned to better account. The Library and Scriptorium of the great Cathedral also paid tribute to this man’s genius. But magnificent things were accomplished in Mentz, after his unparalleled overthrow in Strasbourg. “Organizing victory out of defeat,” he took into partnership the two men of the time best fitted for the purpose, and engaged anew in his chosen vocation. One is startled at the sequel of this fraternal alliance in the estrangement of those so knit together in pursuit and interest; but the stupendous enterprise of the firm, and the stricken man mysteriously “betrayed in the house of his friends,” were alike upheld by an Unseen Hand.

His persistence and noble purpose in inventing--how infinitely more worthy of a place on immortal records than are the deeds of the warrior!

The design of our work allows only a brief sketch of the progress of the art subsequent to the days of Gutenberg.

It is gratifying to note that certain ladies early engaged in the ennobling employment, and for many years won golden opinions.

We gratefully acknowledge obligations to Messrs. Rand, Avery, and Frye, 3 Cornhill, Boston; and also to Messrs. H. O. Houghton and Co., Riverside, Cambridge, for their courtesy in explaining the various processes of their model establishments, to assist the writer in forming a correct idea of the present state of the art.

ANDOVER, _December, 1870_.

CONTENTS.

I. PAGE

Strasbourg and its Cathedral.--Gutenberg’s Early Life.--Civil Strife.--Romantic Lawsuit 7

II.

Gutenberg in Exile.--His Trade as Lapidary.--Curious Law.-- Ancient Cuts.--A Picture of a Saint.--Legend.--The Bible for the Poor.--A Secret discovered.--Gutenberg’s Experiment 14

III.

Ancient Books and their Materials.--Sculptures.--Printing in China.--Use of Metals.--Seal.--Stencils.--Waxen Tablets. --Bark, Leaves, Shells.--Papyrus.--Parchments.--Paper. --Palimpsests.--Books written by Hand.--The Scriptorium. --Copyists and their Habits.--Illuminations.--Character of Ancient Books.--Scarcity and Costliness of Books.--Richard de Bury and Library.--Statutes of St. Mary’s College.--Books chained.--Abundance of Books in Modern Times 29

IV.

An Important Step.--Engraving a Name.--Engraving Pictures.-- Superstitions.--Difficulties overcome.--An Improvement.-- Experiment and Progress.--A New Book.--Cheerful Thoughts 45

V.

Pecuniary Troubles.--An Expedient.--Disappointment.--The Jewels.--A Sale.--Apprentices.--Visit to the Cathedral.-- A New Enterprise 52

VI.

Unwelcome Visitors.--Unjust Demand.--A Compromise.--Secret Firm.--A Removal.--Teaching the Workmen.--Block Printing. --Success 61

VII.

Small Receipts.--Printing the “Donatus.”--“Ars Memorandi.”-- “Ars Moriendi.”--An Interesting Fact.--Extract from “Ars Moriendi” 71

VIII.

Effect of Gutenberg’s Books.--His Times and Ours.--His Books at the Cathedral.--Curiosity of the Monks.--Proposition of the Abbot.--The “Bible for the Poor.”--A Great Work well done.-- A Good Sale.--The Canticles issued.--A Difficult Undertaking. --Discontent.--An Accident.--Discovery of Separate Types.-- The First Font of Movable Type.--Difficulties mastered.--The Great Helper 75

IX.

Anna’s Disappointment.--Dritzhn’s Regrets.--Comfort for Anna. --Gutenberg’s Progress described.--The Great Enlightener.-- Advantages of Movable Type.--Another Book.--Obstacles.-- Criticisms.--Invention.--A Press contrived.--New Cause of Disquiet 92

X.

A Partner at the Confessional.--His Death.--Consequences.--A Lawsuit.--Thieves.--Dangerous Curiosity.--Destruction of Gutenberg’s Type.--Curious Testimonies.--Value of the Legal Document.--Proof that Gutenberg was the Real Inventor.--The Magistrate’s Just Judgment.--Public Excitement 107

XI.

Benighted.--Minstrel of the Hearth.--The Black Art.--A Barefoot Friar.--Popular Prejudice.--Hopes and Fears. --Gutenberg returns to his Trade.--Dissolution of the Copartnership 118

XII.

Congenial Quiet.--Making Type again.--Gutenberg issues “Absies.”--Peter Schoeffer.--Decides to remove to Mentz.-- Emotions of Gutenberg.--Fraternal Sympathy.--The Meeting with Faust.--Gutenberg reveals his Art.--A Rich Partner 127

XIII.

The Zum Jungen.--The Old Valet.--A Happy Change.--Going over the Process anew.--Good Progress.--Peter Schoeffer 140

XIV.

Working of the Press.--The Medallion.--An Acquisition.-- Experiments.--A Failure.--Schoeffer’s Invention.--Discovery of Cast Metal Type 148

XV.

Schoeffer admitted to the Firm.--A Grand Project.--How a Bible was borrowed.--The Early Press.--Processes in Bookmaking.-- Ingenuity of Peter Schoeffer.--Industry of the Firm.--Ink.-- Cast Type.--Three Ingenious Men.--Letter-founding.--Faust compliments Peter.--The first Printed Page of the Bible.--A Memorable Year 155

XVI.

Faust’s Discontent.--Conspiracy against Gutenberg.--A Secret kept.--The Lawsuit.--Gutenberg supplanted.--A New Firm.-- Gutenberg’s Sorrow 168

XVII.

The Story of Faust’s Visit to Paris.--Was it Witchcraft?-- Popular Excitement.--Scene in a Court Room.--Issue of the Psalter 182

XVIII.

New Friends.--The Nun.--Gutenberg at Work again.--Printing of the “Balbus de Janua.”--Other Works.--A Curious Record.-- Death of the Great Inventor.--Fadeless Laurels 192

XIX.

Faust and Schoeffer’s Success.--More Books issued.--An Eventful Year.--Greek Type.--Struck by the Plague.--The Parisians and Faust’s Descendants.--Schoeffer’s Death.--Testimony to Gutenberg.--Extension of the Art.--Piety and Chess.-- Education in the Olden Time.--Unveiling the Statue 206

XX.

Peculiarities of the First Printed Books.--Early Printers.-- Piety and Chess.--Education in the Olden Time.--A Great Enterprise.--Unveiling Gutenberg’s Statue 217

XXI.

Modes of making Type.--Varieties of Type.--Cylindrical Ink-distributor.--A Modern Printing Establishment.-- Composition Room.--Cases.--Proof-reading 225

XXII.

Type-setting by Machinery.--Its Practicability.--Various Machines devised.--The Brown Type-setter and Distributer described.--Simplicity.--Reliability.--Speed 235

XXIII.

Stereotyping.--Plaster Moulds.--Planing and Beveling.-- Correcting Stereotype Plates.--Process of Electrotyping.--The “Guillotine.”--Ornamenting 247

XXIV.

The Hand-press.--Earl Stanhope’s Press.--Improvements.-- Cylinder Presses.--Press-room.--Drying Room.--Sewing Room. --Elevator.--Books for the Blind.--Type, Press, and Paper invented.--Catalogue of Great Exhibition.--Estimate of Rapid Labor by Machinery 263

XXV.

Time of the Great Invention.--A First Gift.--Discovery of the Alphabet.--A New Era.--Royal Printers.--Knights of Type and Pen.--A Mighty Engine.--Gutenberg’s Dream.--The Press mighty 281

GUTENBERG,

AND

THE ART OF PRINTING.

I.

Strasbourg and its Cathedral.--Gutenberg’s Early Life.--Civil Strife.--Romantic Lawsuit.

Who has not heard of the noble Rhine, which winds many hundred miles through Central Europe? Castles, vineyards, farms, and forests, with now and then a village or a city, diversify its banks.

Prominent among its cities is Strasbourg; a strongly fortified border town, founded ages ago by the Romans, but held recently by France. It was an imperial city of the German empire in 1681, when Louis XIV. got possession of it, by an unwarrantable attack in a time of peace. It is in shape a triangle, with walls six miles in circuit, entered by seven gates. The fortifications extend to the Rhine, although the main city, of 85,000 inhabitants, is situated a mile and a half back on the Ill, a branch of the Rhine. The tourist, while still far distant, sees the spire of the famous Cathedral, Nôtre Dame. It is the highest spire in the world, a masterpiece of airy open-work, of elaborate tracery and delicate workmanship, towering aloft four hundred and sixty-six feet, twenty-four feet higher than the great Pyramid of Egypt, and more than twice as high as Bunker Hill Monument. The great Minster of which it is a part, was nine hundred years in building, and was finished shortly before our story begins. When the late war came, the Rhine, Strasbourg, and its Cathedral, were not wholly unlike what they were at that time,--four hundred and thirty-five years ago. It is true, railroad trains would shriek on either side of the river, and gaudy steamers bustle up and down, and occasionally a “water-cure” or a “juvenile reformatory” meet the eye, signs of modern progress; but in strange contrast with these the Roman and mediæval remains. Rhineland is at once ancient and modern. Here are “ruins of the Middle Ages, and marks of the French Revolution; the bones of great feudal giants, and scars of modern disturbance.” The old homes of the warlike barons still stand, and the incense-flavored churches, whose corner-stones were laid in the dim past.

It is in the year 1436; and the visitor, if he approaches the city from the French side, before entering the west gate will be sure to seek out John Gutenberg, a noted man who lives in the suburbs in yonder pretty cottage, half hidden in ivy and honeysuckle, and the ancient turrets of St. Arbogast Monastery, not a stone’s throw distant, frowning upon it. There is a woman of taste within; the well-trained vines speak of her, as do the tulips and wall-flowers. And the eye glances admiringly from these to the apple-trees, with their wealth of blossoms, and the lilacs, jubilant with plumes.

Gutenberg was born at Mentz, a free and rich city on the Rhine, about the year 1400, and, when yet a young man, fled, on account of political dissensions, to Strasbourg, sixty miles distant. Of his childhood little is known; yet some German and other writers draw pleasing pictures of his youth. They represent him as high-spirited, thoughtful, and devout; influenced by a desire that good books might be made common, and as having “a foreseeing consciousness” of the part he was to act in bringing it about. “He said to himself, from his earliest years,” says one of his biographers, “God suffers in the great multitudes whom his sacred word cannot reach. Religious truth is captive in a small number of manuscript books, which guard the common treasure, instead of diffusing it. Let us break the seal which holds the holy things; give wings to the truth, that by means of speech, no longer written at great expense by the hand that wearies itself, but multiplied as the air by an unwearied machine, it may fly to seek every soul born into the world!”

If this was true of Gutenberg while young, no wonder that his manhood was crowned so gloriously. He placed before himself at the outset a great and worthy object; he felt through life the thrill of an inspiring purpose, which stimulated and ennobled his nature, and tended naturally to success. Had he, like thousands, been contented to drift through the world with the current wherever it chanced to bear him, living for himself and the fleeting present, never should we have heard of John Gutenberg.

But there is a fact in Gutenberg’s early history which does not seem to present him in an amiable light, as he figures in a lawsuit, having been sued by the father of his betrothed, to compel him to fulfill his promise of marriage. There is, however, no evidence that Gutenberg intended any wrong in this affair, as he sincerely loved Anna von Isernen Thür,[1] the young lady to whom he was engaged. She was of noble family, of the city of Strasbourg. His property had been confiscated in Mentz in the struggle between the plebeians and the nobility, and his failure in keeping his troth is attributed to his sensitiveness to his misfortunes.

[1] Family name, it is said, from the possession of a feudal castle on the heights of the Rhine.

It has been remarked, that if Mentz, Gutenberg’s native place, had not been a free city, he might not have conceived or executed his invention; for despotism, like superstition, imposes silence. “It was fitting that printing and liberty should be born of the same sun and the same air.” Mentz, Strasbourg, Worms, and other municipal cities of the Rhine, were small federative republics; as Florence, Genoa, Venice, and the republics of Italy. The youth of our country find freedom favorable to thought and invention; thus young Gutenberg found it. Yet civil strife marked the history of those cities. “In them were the warlike nobility, the aspiring burghers, and the laboring people, who floated between these two contending classes, alternately caressed and oppressed by them, yet at times themselves striving for the supremacy. In these commotions, victory rested sometimes with the patrician, sometimes with the plebeian, and numbers on either side were from time to time outlawed. But these had not the sea to cross to fly the country; they traversed the Rhine. Those banished from Strasbourg, went to Mentz; those from Mentz, to Strasbourg, to await a turn of events, or the recall of the exiles.”

In these intestine quarrels, young Gutenberg, himself of the nobility, “and naturally combating for the cause most holy in the eyes of a son, that of a father,” was twice vanquished and expelled by the burghers, with all the chevaliers of the family,--his mother and sisters being permitted to remain in possession of their property. Later, the free city of Frankfort offering to mediate between the nobles and plebeians, it obtained the return of those who had been banished, on condition of the equality of the two classes in the administration of the government. Meanwhile Gutenberg, having become absorbed in his inventive studies, did not return; and his mother petitioned the Republic to give him as a pension a portion of the revenue of his confiscated property. Answer was given, that the refusing to return to his own country, by the young patrician, was a declaration of hostility; and he must therefore be treated as one of its enemies. So his mother continued to send him secret supplies from her own resources.

But the faithful Lady Anna did not seek to free herself from her plighted faith, because of the adversities of her lover. If he shrank from receiving her to the humble circumstances in which he had been thrown, she was still true to her vows. And as his humility and thoughtful scruples could not be overcome in any other way, she vanquished them by a legal summons; her father citing him before a magistrate of Strasbourg, to cause him to fulfill his promise of marriage. This summons of the Lady Anna to Gutenberg remains to-day as an authentic memorial of his marriage. For the faltering artisan yielded to “this generous violence of affection,” and consummated his happiness by marrying the fair plaintiff in the suit.

II.

Gutenberg in Exile.--His Trade as Lapidary.--Curious Law.--Ancient Cuts.--Picture of a Saint.--Legend.--The Bible for the Poor.--A Secret discovered.--Gutenberg’s Experiment.

After his banishment, Gutenberg was not an idler. During his exile, we are told that he devoted time to travelling from city to city, studying monuments, and visiting men celebrated in art, science, or handicraft. For not only was he educated, but he cultivated a literary taste, and had chosen a trade, that of the lapidary, or polisher of precious stones. Then, in Germany, the artisan, or one trained to a trade, and the artist, held nearly the same rank; since the trades, scarcely discovered, were confounded with the arts. Indeed, when the humbler professions brought forth their first _chefs-d’œuvre_, they were admired as prodigies, because new. The mechanic arts held an honorable place, only people of property being permitted to learn them; this matter being regulated by the statutes. Thus in England at that period it was decreed concerning persons whose income was less than twenty shillings by the year, “They shall be put to other labors, upon pain of one year’s imprisonment.”

Hence artisans were a wealthy and influential class in society, and, in some cases, with their daily occupation cultivated a love of knowledge. And Gutenberg, by learning the lapidary’s trade, did not descend to the lowest social level, while at the same time he acquired that mechanical skill which was afterwards to turn to the benefit of the whole human race.

He is pictured as occupying the front room of his dwelling as a work-shop, where he plied his trade during the day, and men of standing sought the society of the cultivated artisan, “so high a popularity did he enjoy in Strasbourg for his character and scholarship.”

At this time, he seemed scarcely thirty, although six years older; a health-tinted face, high fair forehead, large blue expressive eyes, gave him a youthful look. The precise turn of his chin was hidden in a thick tawny beard. There was an air of grave thoughtfulness about him, as if he was influenced by some earnest purpose.

One evening, just after supper, the serving woman Elsie having cleared the table and swept the hearth, Gutenberg, always busy even in the cozy comfort of his fireside, became absorbed in examining a playing-card. The Lady Anna was seated beside him, and after a little time looked up from her work, and said in her own pleasant way,--

“Prithee, John, what marvel dost thou find in that card? One would think it the face of a saint, so closely thou dost regard it.”

“Nay, little wife; but didst thou ever consider in what way this is made?”

“I suppose that it was drawn in outline, and then painted, like other pictures.”

“But there is a more excellent way,” said Gutenberg. “These lines, I find, were first marked on a wooden block, and then the wood was cut away, so that they were left raised; this portion was then smeared with ink and pressed on the paper. And this, my Anna, is shorter than by drawing and painting, because when once a block is engraved, it can be used to impress any number of cards.”

Playing-cards were at this period in common use. Of their origin, there is some doubt. Some have supposed they were invented to amuse Charles VI., King of France, as early as 1393. They are mentioned at nearly the same date in the laws of both England and Spain.

The first cards made were doubtless painted with a stencil; that is, a piece of pasteboard or thin metal plate perforated with holes in the shape of the figures desired. The stencil being placed over paper, the color is applied with a brush, leaving the shape of the figures underneath. As they were so common and so cheap, it has been thought that the outline must have been made by some rude form of wood-engraving. There is proof that cards were _printed_ before the middle of the fifteenth century; for there is a petition extant from the Venetian painters to their magistracy, dated 1441, setting forth that the art and mystery of card-making and of printing figures, which was practiced in Venice, had fallen into decay, because of the large quantity of playing-cards and colored printed figures which were brought into the city. What foreigners brought them to Venice? Evidently the Germans; for they were the chief card-makers of the time. A wood-engraver is still called, in Germany, _Formschneider_, meaning figure-cutter; and this name is found in the town-books of Nuremburg as early as 1441.

As a specimen of the early cards,--which were very rude,--we have here the Knave of Bells.

Perhaps some may think Knave a good name for the article, in view of the characters who sometimes “play cards.” But this word had not always the same meaning. Originally, it signified a boy or young man, then a servant, and lastly a rogue.