The first printed object is the indulgence of Nicolas V to raise money for the King of Cyprus to fight the Turks.
November 15th 1454 is the big date!
Gutenberg enters the historical record when he is sued by George Dritsehn for money advanced.
He is sued again by Johan Fust in 1455, again over debt.
At least two of his servants set up their own print shops later.
First two books printed at Mainz are:
36 line bible (called the Bamberg bible) 42 line bible (called the Mazarine bible, named for Cardinal Mazarin who owned a copy)
What is the pauper’s bible?
Cicero recommended the use of moveable type by the arrangement of letters into sentences in De Nat Deorum.
France and Dutch academics claim their own Gutenbergs but the evidence is not there.
Read Henry Bradshaw’s article on typography for the encyclopaedia Brittanica.
The earliest extant printed work is from Mainz and was printed in 1454.
Based on a date by the rubricator the 42 line bible definitely existed on the 15th of August, 1456.
30 line bible is probably earlier based on the quality of the work (larger type, rougher execution)
The Psalmorum Codex of 1457 is the first printed book with a date. Printed by Gutenberg collaborator Schoeffer.
There are a number of religious texts printed with Gutenberg-Schoeffer-Fust type.
What is a missal?
HEC EST LITTERA PSALTERAE is the first type specimen, printed on Schoefer’s catalogue in 1469. He has 21 books for sale, 3 of them are completely lost to history:
Look up Schoeffer’s Durandus which contains book type
Look up woodcuts in Breyden Bach of 1488. It uses cross hatching before the famous Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493.
Gutenberg seems to have stopped printing and sells his stock in 1468. He was a pensioner of Nicolas II in 1465
Mainz was indeed sacked in 1462 by Adolf von Nassau but two other presses in Strasbourg and Bamberg respectively had started before then, so it’s fair to say printing was already spreading.
Who is Valerius Maximus
Look into curious half-gothic half-roman type of Schoeffer.
Nuremberg type is distringuished by a mirrored ‘N’!
What is the postillia super apocalypsis?
Look up the anti-semitic 1475 work by P Niger, Contra perfidos Judeos.
Look up remarkable type of Helyas de Loysens Mammotrectus?
Look up the polycronicon
Earl of Pembroke and Lord Spencer have extensive early book collections
Are scribendi artifficialter is the name for printing during early period.
Joseph Bade of Asch, early professor of philosophy?
Look up Dr Cotton’s typographical gazetteer.
Caxton printed 100 books with 7 types
Wynkyn de Worde printed 15 books per year, totally 600.
It’s lovely that you can follow a type as it is sold between printers.
What is the golden legend?
Read Richard Atkyns’ 1664 text Original and growth of printing’
READ ARS MORIENDI
Cool index of typographic dates:
http://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?cat=34&era=0
Published December 20, 2018 in Reading notes