1037 



FUST, JOHN. 



FUST, JOHN. 



1058 



[GUTENBERG.] Schoffer, by inventing the punch, is supposed to | 

 have given completion to the discovery. Fust, like all the goldsmiths | 

 of bis time, was no doubt an engraver also ; and might in that capacity ! 

 have been of use in forwarding the invention. It is not certain how- | 

 ever that Fust did more than supply money to Gutenberg, who had 

 been making experiments with types at Strasbourg, before he removed 

 to Mainz in 1444-45. lu 1450 the partnership commenced between 

 Fust and Gutenberg; it lasted only till 1455, when Fust sued 

 Gutenberg for money lent. The sum really advanced appears to 

 have been 1600 florins, swollen by charges for interest and expenses 

 to 2020 florins. The judges decided that a certain sum was due from 

 Gutenberg [GDTENBERG], and in consequence the whole of Gutenberg's 

 printing apparatus* fell into Fust's hands, who ultimately, with the 

 assistance of Peter Schoffer, made the invention useful to the world. 

 The earliest production of the press of Gutenberg and Fust is sup- 

 posed to te an indulgence of Pope Nicolas V. to Paulin Zappe, the 

 ambassador of John, king of Cyprus, issued August 12, 1451, of 

 which four copies are known, printed on vellum, and dated 1454, 

 though in all the copies but one the date has been altered with a pen ; 

 a second was ' F,yn manung der Cristenheit widder die durken ' (' An 

 Appeal to Christendom against the Turks'), of which the date is 

 plausibly supposed to be 1454. The ' Latin Bible," in folio, commonly 

 called the ' Mazarine Bible,' was published in 1456, and as the disso- 

 lution of partnership did not take place till November 1455, a gt'eat 

 part of it must have been printed before that event. 



The books with dates which bear the joint names of Fust and 

 Schoffer are: 1, 'The Latin Psalter' of 1457, in large folio; the 

 type of the size used in the great service books of the Romish Church. 

 At the end is this subscription 



11 Ad inuentionc artiftciosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi 

 absque calami ulla exaralione sic effigiiitus. Et ad euse- 

 biam dei induslric est consummatus per Johanncm Fust 

 Ciuem M:iRuntinum. Et Petrum Schoffer de Gernszheim. 

 Anno dni Millesimo CCCC.LVII. In Vigilia As- 



sumptionis." 



2, ' The Psalter ' of 1459; with some variations from the preceding, 

 but in the same size and letter. 3, ' The Rationale divinorum 

 Officiorum' of Durand, 1459, fol. maj. ; the first specimen of the 

 smaller type of Fust and Schoffer. 4, ' The Clementine Constitu- 



tions,' H60, fol. maj. 5, 'The Latin Vulgate Bible,' 2 vols., 1462, 

 fol. maj. Copies of this Bible are oftener found printed upon vellum 

 than on paper, but both are rare. 6, ' The German Bible,' fol. maj. 

 [Known to have been printed in 1462, or thereabout.] Reprinted in 



1465. 7, 'Bulla Papa) Pii II.,' Germ., 1463, fol. maj. 8, 'Liber 

 sextus Decretalium Bonifacii VIII.,' Pont. Max., 1465, fol. maj.: a 

 second, or at least a varying impression of this work appeared in the 

 same rear. 9, ' Cicero's Offices and Paradoxa,' 1465, sui. fol. : the 

 first edition of Cicero with a date. 10, ' Cicero's Offices aud Paradoxa,' 



1466, sm. fol. Copies of this edition are more common upon vellum 

 than on paper: that of 1465 is very rare upon vellum. 11, ' Gram- 

 matica rhythmica,' 1466, fol. min. It consists of eleven leaves in tha 

 smallest fount of type of these printers, aud is of extreme rarity ; 

 two or three copies only are known. 



The following works without date, from the close resemblance of 

 their typography, are assigned without scrupla by our best biblio- 

 graphers to the press of Fust aud Schoffer:!, 'Bulla Cruciati 

 sanctissimi Domini uostri Papse contra Turcos,' fol., in six printed 

 leaves. It has no place or name. The typo is like the Durand. 2, 

 ' Laus Virgims,' folio, nine leaves. The device of the shields in reel, 

 at the end, seen in so many of these printers' works, decidedly justifies 

 its being placed as the production of Fust and Schoffer's press. 3, 

 ' S. Aurelii Augustini de Arte prsedicandi Tractatus,' folio : supposed 

 to have been printed about 1466. It consists of twenty-two leaves. 

 4, ' JOlius Donatus de Octo partibus Or itionis," 4to ; the type of the 

 smaller size, resembling the Latin Bible of 1462 and the Cicero, of 



1465. The conclusions however drawn from a similarity of type 

 must be very doubtful, as, when punches were invented and types 

 cast, the appearance might be the same, whatever the date and whoever 

 the printer. 



With an exception or two, the whole of Fust and Sohbffer's 

 productions are in the collection at the British Museum. 



Fust, whose name appears with Schoffer's for the last time in 



1466, is supposed to have died in that, or at latest in the next year, 

 of the plague, at Paris. Schoffer continued to print in his own name 

 for a long time. 



(Panzer, Annal. Typogr., vol. ii., p. 111-17; Biblioth. Spenceriana, 

 passim. ; Biogr. Umverselle, torn, xvi., p. 205 ; Peignot, Vanftet, 

 Notices, et Rarctfs Biblioyraphiqites, 8vo, Par., 1822, p. 78.) 



END OF VOLUME II. 



UlLiUUUKY AND LVANS, IKI.VIK!,^, 



