| Points made in the 1897 National Encyclopedia (per excerpt by Jd) | Closest match in The Invention of Printing (De Vinne, 1787) [OVERALL SUMMARY IN CAPS] |
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Gutenberg invented printing. |
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UNCERTAIN BUT POSSIBLE: “The period of the invention of typography may be placed between 1438 and 1450. There have been many claimants for the honor of the invention...The names of the alleged inventors are, Castaldi, Coster, Fust, Gensfleisch, Gresmund, Gutenberg, Hahn, Mentel, Jenson, Regiomontanus, Schoeffer, Pannartz and Sweinheym, and Louis de Vaelbaeske...The limits of the controversy have been greatly contracted: but four of the alleged inventors of types, Castaldi, Coster, Gutenberg and Schoeffer, have living defenders.” (p. 27) |
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C. 1423, Coster of Haralem did block printing of “Speculum Humnae Salvationis”. |
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DISAGREE, though STORY IS INCLUDED:
“Some have said that there are were no types in any of the editions, and that the letters...were cut on blocks of wood...This error is almost pardonable...but it can be shown that the letters are types, and founded types...tracings testing...establishes the fact that the letters are founded types...The errors...are those of types.” (p. 274)
"By the record...Coster was...a printer and a publisher. He cut blocks and made types, he mixed printing inks, he printed books..." (p. 338)
"...faith fails us when Junius says that Coster printed his book with types of wood. The statement must be put aside as entirely unworthy of belief, for it has been shown that types of wood are impracticable, and that the types of every known edition of the Speculum were made of founded metal." (p. 339)
The oldest document that mentions Coster as a printer is the c. 1550 pedigree (p. 362). The Coster story is a legend without historical evidence. Professionally, Coster seemed to have sold lamp lighting equipment and then ran a tavern. There was a more famous Lourens/Lowreijs possibly confused with Coster, but he also did not appear to be a printer. |
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Coster’s Speculum Humnae Salvationis had one-sided prints pasted together. |
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PARTIALLY MENTIONED:
“The Speculum Salutis was popular as a manuscript for at least two centuries before the invention of typography.” (p. 264)
In the text from the 1588 book “Batavia by Hardianus Junius or Adrein de Jonghe, "...the edition in Dutch of the Speculum Salutis…the blank sides of the leaf were united by paste…" (p. 330-331)
HOWEVER, “...it has been shown that...the types of every known edition of the Speculum were made of founded metal…” (p. 339) |
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A few years after 1423, John Gutenberg partnered with John Faust/Fust and experimented |
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A FEW YEARS LATER TRANSLATES TO A FEW DECADES LATER: “...in 1450...Gutenberg...went, as a last resort, to one of the professional money-lenders of Metnz...John Fust.” (p. 416) |
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Gutenberg printed the first movable metal type book, a Vulgate Bible. |
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NOT CERTAIN, BUT POSSIBLE “It is unfortunate that Gutenberg did not, as was customary with the book-makers of that time, put his name and the date of printing on the book.” (p. 424) |
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Gutenberg’s bible was started c. 1450 and completed c. 1460. |
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ROUGHLY THE SAME, though INEXACT: “The thoroughness of the workmanship in the books printed by Gutenberg after 1450 is a thoroughness which could have been acquired only by practice.” (pg. 391)
“These [annotation...1461...1460...original binding...waste leaves…], the earliest evidences of date, prove that this edition [the 36-line bible] could not have been printed later than 1459” (p. 414)
“That it [the 36-line bible] was done in 1450, as asserted by Madden, has not been decisively proved…” (p. 414) |
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In 1452, Peter Schoffer (Faust’s son in law) actually invented complete cast metal type printing. |
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UNCLEAR [Regarding the invention of types] “The evidences in favor of Schoeffer are more plausible, but they are not admitted by the writers who have carefully investigated the documents upon which this pretension is based.” (p. 28) |
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Some say a second edition of Mainz bible was printed in cast type. |
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AGREE ON CAST TYPES; (NOTE, MAINZ WAS MENTZ) “Typography, in which the subject is printed from a combination of moveable metal types cast in high relief.” (p. 18)
“Although…practical types can be made only by casting, many popular books repeat the old story that the first typographic books were printed with types which had been cut by hand out of wood or metal.” (p. 53)
“Cut types were as impractical in the infancy of the art as they are now. There is no trustworthy evidence that they were ever used for any purpose other than that of experiment.” (pp. 53-54)
"Gutenberg's fame as a great printer is more justly based on his two editions in folio of the Holy Bible in Latin...one...of 42 lines, in types of Paragon body...the other...of 36 lines, in types of Double-pica body...It is not certainly knonw which was printed first...The Bible of 36 lines was definitely described for the first time by the bibliographer Schwartz, who, in 1728, discovered a copy in the library of a monastery near Mentz." (pp.410-411) |
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Gutenberg and Faust’s relationship dissolved. |
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AGREE: “It was fully understood by the three conspirators that Gutenberg could make no proper defense; it was determined that he should be expelled from his place in the partnership and that Schoeffer should succeed him in the management of the printing office.” (p. 430) |
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Gutenberg could not repay Faust for capital advanced by Faust. |
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AGREE: “On the sixth day of November, 1455, Fust brought a suit for the recovery of the money advanced to Gutenberg. As Gutenberg was unable to pay the demand, we may suppose that the Bible had not been completed, or, had not met with a ready sale.” (p. 425) |
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Faust took all of the printing tooling. |
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MOSTLY AGREE: “Fust won the suit...took possession of all the materials made by Gutenberg for the common profit, and removed them to his own house.” (p. 430) |
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Faust printed many bibles to imitate manuscripts in style. |
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UNCLEAR: “The first book published by Fust, after his separation from Gutenberg, was the Psalter of 1457...It is obviously an imitation not only of the copyist’s but of the illuminator’s work upon a fine manuscript. It was intended that the book should show the full capacity of the newly discovered art...To the young reader who is accustomed to the...style of modern printing, the boldness and blackness of the stately types of this Psalter...the brightness...the graceful forms...are really bewildering. They lead him to the belief that the book is of the highest order...called the perfection of printing.” (p. 452)
“In 1462 Schoeffer printed a new edition of the Latin Bible...It is the first bible with printed date...Schoeffer’s change...to Round Gothic was not happy, for the new face is inferior in design and execution.” (p. 462) |
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Faust tried selling printed bibles in Paris as manuscripts, at a lower price. |
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NOT EQUIVALENT: “...Fust took the unsold Bibles to Paris, where he believed they would find a more generous appreciation” (p. 465)
“Eager to prevent the threatened rivalry of Jenson, Fust appeared in Paris, in 1462, with copies of the Bible…” (p. 466) |
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Faust was denounced for his magically similar, numerous, inexpensive bibles. Faust was asserted to have been the devil. Faust had to reveal his methods to the Paris parliament, and was not further prosecuted. |
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DISAGREE: “So far from being persecuted in Paris, Fust was received with high consideration, not only by the king, but by the leading men of the city. He was encouraged to establish in Paris a store for the sale of his books, and to repeat his visit.” (p. 466)
“The fable, not yet weeded out of treatises on printing, that Fust was arrested in Paris for selling bibles, supposed to have been manufactured at the instigation of the devil, has served to foster the error.” (p. 416)
“These Bibles have been the occasion of an incredible legend which was first told by one John Walchius. It would not deserve repition here if it had not so often appeared in modern literature. He says that Fust offered one copy of this Bible to the king for sixty crowns, and another copy to the archbishop for fifty crowns. To tempt indifferent puchasers, he abated his price until it was but forty crowns, a price so small and so insufficient as to excite the greatest wonder...As it was clearly impossible that any copyist could write so many books with this precision, it was obvious that Fust was in league with the Devil...we are told that...Fust was arrested, and thrown in prison, from which he was not released until he had revealed the secret. The absurdity of the story is transparent. Bernard has shown that it rests on no valid authority.” (p. 466) |
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A 1457 Psalter came from Faust and Schoffer. |
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AGREE WITH NOTE: “...consider the date of 1457 in the imprint of the Psalter. If Schoeffer planned and printed the book, he did all the work in the twenty-one months following Gutenberg’s expulsion from the partnership. This is an unreasonable proposition, for the book should have been in press or in preparation as long as the Bible of 42 lines. It is quite probable that the Psalter was planned and left incomplete by Gutenberg. The types, which are like those of Gutenberg’s Bible, are unlike any types subsequently made by Schoeffer”. (pp. 459-560) |
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The 1457 Psalter’s colophon announced the invention. |
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AGREE: "...Fust and Schoeffer had boasted, in an imprint to the Psalter of 1457, of their skill as printers." (p. 436)
"The colophon...attached to this book says: This book of Psalms...has been thus made by the masterly invention of printing and also of type-making, without the writing of a pen, and is consummated to the service of God, through the industry of Johan Fust, citizen of Mentz, and Peter Schoeffer of Gernszheim, in the year of our Lord 1457, on the eve of the Asumption [August 14]." (p. 459) |
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The 1465, Faust and Schoffer printed De Officiis (Cicero). |
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AGREE: “In 1465...In the same year as printed by Fust and Schoeffer an edition of the Office of Cicero…” (pp. 466-467) |
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Sweynheym and Paunartz were pupils of the school of Faust and Schoffer. |
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(N/A; not seen as clearly addressed) |
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Sweynheym and Paunartz went to Italy. |
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SIMILAR: “This is the order in which printing was established in Italy: Sweinheym & Pannartz...1465 (Subiaco), 1467 (Rome)” (p. 500) |
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Sweynheym and Paunartz printed Donatus (grammar) and Lactantius in Rome. |
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SIMILAR: “1465...In this year...Sweinheym and...Pannartz...in the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, printed an edition of Lactantius…” (p. 467) |
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John of Spiral in Venice printed classical authors; Latin authors in 1470. |
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SIMILAR: “This is the order in which printing was established in Italy: John de Spira...1469” (p. 500) |
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In 1469, printing got to Paris; 1474, England; 1475, Spain. |
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SIMILAR: “Paris...Ulrich Gering, et al...1469” (p. 505)
“The first book printed in English, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye...does not contain the date of printing, or the name and place of the printer...When and where it was printed is a vexed question.” (p. 507)
“Caxton...1474...Cologne...William Caxton...In 1477...was ‘in the Abbey of Westminster, by London’ and then and there he published the Dictes and the Sayings of Philosophers.” (pp. 507-508)
“Barcelona...N. Spindeler...1473 or 1478...Valencia...Cordova and Palomar...1474” (p. 507) |
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Feudalism ended as an intellectual movement took off. |
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SIMILAR, BUT BE CAREFUL WITH IMPLIED DIRECTION OF CAUSES: “During this period of intellectual darkness, which lasted from the fifth until the fifteenth century, a period sometimes described, and not improperly, as the dark ages, there was no need for any improvement in the old method of making books. The world was not ready for typography. The invention waited for readers more than it did for types; the multitude of book-buyers upon which its success depended has to be created. Books were needed as well as readers.” (p. 45)
“The need for peace and personal liberty as preparations for the introduction of printing maybe more clearly perceived in a glance at the social condition of the people.” (p. 179) |
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