Johannes Gutenberg
The Mainz craftsman credited with the invention of printing from movable metal type in Europe and with the 42-line Latin Bible of about 1454–1455. No book bears his name; the attribution rests on a lawsuit of 1455 and on later testimony.
Gutenberg appears in the notarial deed of 6 November 1455 as the partner and debtor of Johann Fust in an enterprise it calls “the work of the books”, for which Fust had advanced 1,550 gulden; the court’s ruling went against him (Helmasperger Instrument). He is not named as printer in the Bible or in any of the books attributed to him, as the Göttingen library points out (Gutenberg Bible Göttingen State and University Library, catalogue note). The one fifteenth-century text that links his name to a printed Bible is the Cologne Chronicle of 1499 (Gutenberg Bible Princeton University Library, account of the Scheide copy).
The Library of Congress says that he is generally credited with inventing the making of uniform, interchangeable metal types and with solving the problems of materials and method that printing raised (Gutenberg Bible Library of Congress, exhibition note). See Gutenberg Prints the Bible.
In the timeline
- c. 1454–1455, estimated dateGutenberg Prints the Bible
At Mainz in the mid-1450s the Latin Bible is printed from movable metal type in an edition of well over a hundred copies, the first large book so made in Europe. A visitor who saw sheets of it in 1454 reported that every copy was sold before the work was finished.
Primary sources
The Helmasperger Notarial Instrument
- Helmasperger Instrumentgutenberg-digital.p.sub.uni-goettingen.de
The Gutenberg Bible (42-line Bible)
- Gutenberg Bible Göttingen State and University Library, catalogue notegutenberg-digital.p.sub.uni-goettingen.de
- Gutenberg Bible Princeton University Library, account of the Scheide copydpul.princeton.edu
- Gutenberg Bible Library of Congress, exhibition noteloc.gov