HEJfXF. 



GUTENBERG, HENNE. 



totsc*UrfOrip)Mlm,wbre b gave in hi. abdication. On the 

 th tber. app-arrithed.-ri.iun of i bo Diet, by wUch Ouaavus IV. 



i : - 



i delMd to have forfeited their right* 



to MM Bwwiish crown, and tbe Dak* of Sudermania ai-cended the now 

 TMUit throo* of 3wdn under the name of Charles XIII. 



GaeUtu. left tl,e Swedi.h territories very shortly after hii depo- 

 1 j4f m During hit nil* he traTelled through moet of tbe countries 

 of Europe, but Uved chiefly in the little town of St. Gall, the 

 capital of the 8wi canton of the lame name. He assumed 

 the name of Colonel Goatavson, and renounced all external obser- 

 vance* that might remind him of bi former rank. He refuged the 

 appanage which Sweden offered him ; ho urged forward a suit of 

 divorce from hi" wife, which he succeeded in obtaining on the 17th 

 of February 1818; and he declined having any communication with 

 hia family, and obstinately rejected all atmstanee from them. Ho 

 nbateted on the produce of hia labour* as an author, together with 

 a little pcnuion which be drew aa a colonel 



Among hii printed work*, which appeared during hi residence in 

 Switzerland, one very systematically developes the mystical-religious 

 and ultra-royal political tendencies of hia mind. The moderation and 

 discretion, aa well aa the stedfast tranquillity with which he endured 

 his fall did him honour, and go some way towards atoning for the 

 worse than follies through which he trifled awny the possession of a 

 throne. He was a martyr to his principles, which were founded 

 poo bin extravagant notions of the divine right of kings over their 

 subjects. 



He died at St. Gall, toward the end of the year 1837, lamented by 

 all who h.ul known him in the latter years of his life. Hia son, the 

 heir of the line of Vasa, became a colonel of an Austrian regiment. 



GUTKN 1JKUG, HENNE, or JOHN, was born at Mainz, or near it, 

 about 1400. The family name was Geusfleisch or Giinsfleisch, of 

 honourable descent and of considerable property. Sulgeloch was the 

 name of an estate belonging to them near Mainz, where it hag been 

 stated that Gutenberg was born, and which he sometimes appended 

 to hi* name as a title. The family also possessed two bouses in 

 Maim, mm Giiusfleincb, and zum Gutenberg, in which latter house he 

 is reported to have carried on his printing business in partnership 

 with Fust, and thence he derived the name by which he is best 

 known. 



It has been said that in his youth Gutenberg was implicated in an 

 insurrection of the citizens of Mainz against the nobility, niul was 

 forced to fly to Strasbourg. This story U not well authenticated, and 

 is rendered the more doubtful by the fact that in 1430, in an accom- 

 modation between the nobility and burghers of Mainz, Gutenberg is 

 named among ths nobility " who aro not at present in the country." 

 It appears from a letter to his sister Bertha, written in 1424, tluit he 

 was then residing in Strasbourg, and there he appears to have remained 

 many yean, aa from 1436 to 1444 his name appears among the civic 

 nobility of that town. In 1437 an action was commenced against 

 him for a breach of promise of marriage, but it is supposed that he 

 married the lady ; be certainly married a lady of the same Christian 

 name, and there was no trial 



lim.-mVrg would appear to have had an inventive mechanical genius 

 and to have exercised it in various directions. While at Strasbourg 

 he was applied to by several persons to teach them some of his arts 

 and contrivances. One of these was the art of polishing stones, which 

 he taught to a certain Andrew Drytzehen, who made a considerable 

 profit thereby. Some time afterwards Gutenberg, in company with 

 John It iff, " began to exercise a certain art whose productions were in 

 demand at tbe fair of Aix-la-Cbapelle." Drytzehen and two Heilmans 

 applird to be made acquainted with it. Gutcnburg assented, with 

 regard to Drytiehen and one of the Heilmans, upon tbe condition of 

 their each paying down eighty florins of gold, for which they were to 

 receive a fouith of the profits between them ; lliff was to have another 

 fourth, and Gutenberg the remaining half. The fair was deferred 

 for a year, when they petitioned to be made acquainted " with all his 

 wonderful and nre inventions." Gutenberg assented, stipulating 

 that each should pay 125 florins more, of which 50 were to be paid 

 immedutcly, and the remaining 75 at three instalments. The part- 

 Mnhip was to be for five years, and if any one of the partners died 

 within that time, the survivors were to pay to the representatives of 

 the deeeaeod the sum of 100 florins for his share of the stock and 

 teadsi Dryteehen paid only a part of his contribution, and died 

 in about two years, when hi brothers claimed the hundred florins, or 

 that one of them should be admitted as a partner. Gutenberg 

 pleaded, that as 86 florins remained unpaid of Drytzehen' a contribu- 

 tion, that Him should be deducted, and the balance, IS florins, he was 

 ready to pay. This view was adopted by the judges, whose decision 

 wan given on December 12, 1439. 



The chief importance of this trial however lies in the evidence of 

 tbe various partial, showing that tbe " wondrous art," was in fact 

 printing. Lead was one of tbe materials purchased. Some of the 

 operations were earned on in Drytzehen'* house, and upon his death, 

 Gutenberg sent a menage by his servant Bcildeok to Clans Drytzehen 

 stating that " your late brother has four piece* (stiicke) lying beneath 

 a praia, and John Gutenberg prays you to take them out and off the 

 pres, and separate them, so that no one may see what it in." 

 ("Andrea* Dritz*hen uwer bmder sclige halt iv. ntlicke undeuan inn 



einer ptemu ligen, da butt uch Hans Gutenberg gebettet das ir die 

 daruai nemet, und uff die pretae legent von einauder, so kau man nit 

 gesahen was das int.") This witoesjs, Hani Sohultheiss, deposes also 

 that A. Drytzehen had complained of the 'werck' having already 

 cost him 300 guilders. Another witness, Conrad Sahspaoh, depose* 

 that after Drytzehen's death, Gutenberg addressed him thus : " Go, 

 and take the pieces out of the press and dutribute (zerlege) them ; " 

 when he went however tbe work had been removed. He likewise 

 mentions Drytzehen's complaint of the expense. Gutenberg's servant 

 states that he was sent "to open (or undo) the press, which was 

 fastened with two screws, so that the pieces (which were in it) should 

 fall asunder." Heilman, brother of one of the partner*, proves that 

 shortly before Drytzehen's death, Gutenberg had sent to "bring away 

 all the form* (formen), that they might be separated in his presence, 

 as he found several things in them of which he disapproved." One 

 Hans Diinne, a goldsmith, also proves that, three years before, be had 

 done work that " belongs to printing " (" das zu den trucken gehoret "), 

 to the amount of 100 guilders. It does not appear that Gutenberg 

 succeeded in producing any printed books at Strasbourg, but the above 

 facto, we think, go far to prove that he possessed moveablo types of 

 metal ; the use of technical terms still in use, being very remarkable. 

 These details are taken from 'Vindiciaj Typographic^,' of J. D. 

 Schcepflin,' published in 1700. In the Appendix to that work he gives 

 a summary of the testimony of the witnesses (of whom there were 

 twenty-six produced on the part of Drytzehen, and fourteen for 

 Gutenberg), aud the judgment of tbe court. They are given in 

 Latin and in old German, and we have ueed, with an exception 

 here and there, the translations given in 'A Treatise on \\Oo.l 

 Engraving; with upwards of 300 Illustrations on Wood, by John 

 Jackson.' 



Gutenberg's success in the law-suit does not seem to have rendered 

 him the more prosperous. In 1441 and 1442, in order to raise money 

 he sold some property in Mainz, which he had inherited from an uncle, 

 to the collegiate church of St. Thomas in Strasbourg, in which town he 

 was still living. Somewhere about 1445 he appears to have returned 

 to Mainz, and in 1449 he entered into partnership with Fust. It is in 

 the following year that John Tritheuiius, who published his work ' On 

 the Illustrious Men of Germany' in 1515, places the invention of the 

 art. His account however is avowedly derived from Schoffer, and 

 even he only claims the discovery of the more easy method of casting 

 the types. 



" At this time, in the city of Mainz on the Rhine in Germany, aud 

 not in Italy, as some have erroneously written, that won 

 and then unheard-of art of printing and characterising books was 

 invented and devised by John Gutenberg, a citizen of Mainz, who 

 having expended almost the whole of his property in the invention of 

 this ait, aud on account of the difficulties which he experienced on 

 all sides, was about to abandon it altogether, when, by the advi.v, 

 aud through the means, of John Fust, likewise a citizen of Mainz, h 

 succeeded in bringing it to perfection. At first they formed [euj/ 

 the characters or letters in written order on blocks of wood, and in 

 this manner they printed the vocabulary called a ' Catholicon.' Hut 

 with these forms [blocks] they could print nothing else, because the 

 characters could not be transposed in these tablets, but were engraved 

 thereon, as we have said. To this invention succeeded a more subtle 

 one, for they found out the means of cutting the forms of all the 

 letters of the alphabet, which they called matrices, from which again 

 they cost characters of copper or tin of sufficient hardness to resist 

 the necessary pressure, which they h-id before engraved by hand. 

 And truly, aa I learned thirty years since from Peter Opilio (Sc' 

 de Gernsheim, citizen of Mainz, who was the son-in-law of the first 

 inventor of this art, great difficulties were experienced after the first 

 invention of this art of printing, for in printing tho Bible, before they 

 had completed the third quaternion (or gathering of four sheets), 4000 

 florins were expended. This Peter Schoffer, whom we have above- 

 mentioned, first servant aud afterwards son-in-law to the first inventor, 

 John Fust, as we have said, an ingenious and sagacious man, discovered 

 the more eaay method of casting the types, and thus the art was 

 reduced to the complete state in which it now is. These three kept 

 this method of printing secret for some time, until it was divulged by 

 some of their workmen, without whose aid this art could not have 

 been exercised ; it was first developed at Strasburg, and soon became 

 known to other nations." The account of the wood-block printing 

 may refer to Gutenberg's earliest attempts. The ' Catholicon Joanuis 

 Januensis' did not appear till 1460, is certainly not from wooden 

 types or blocks, and is supposed to have been produced by Gutenberg 

 after quitting Mainz : of such a ' Catholicon ' as that spoken of there 

 is no trace. 



Tlio partnership was brought to an end in 1455 by a law-suit 

 commenced by Fust against Gutenberg for advances of money. Ti- 

 decision of the judges was pronounced on November 6, 1455. From 

 the claim of Fust there scarcely seems to have been a partnership. 

 He first advances 800 florins, at 6 per cent, interest, to purchase 

 utensils for printing, and which were assigned to him for security ; 

 there is a second advance of 800 florins; and the 2020 florins claimed 

 is made up of compound interest and charges for raining the money. 

 Gutenberg's defence was, that he was not liable for the interest, and 

 that the money was not advanced at the periods agreed upon. The 



