PROTOTYPOGRAPHY. 579 



cast never yet surpassed in beauty and accuracy of form, althougli, as 

 we shall see, his, to some extent, was another case of the sic vos non 

 vohis of old. It is recorded that the name of Lawrence Janssoen's 

 unfaithful employe was John. No other designation is given him 

 in the story, which is not so extraordinary, as surnames, in our sense 

 of the term, were at the time not common. It was once conjectured 

 that Gensfleisch was this man. But now the authorities show by a 

 comparison of dates that this is improbable. They show at the same 

 time that there were two persons of the same name, John Gensfleisch. 

 senior, and John Gensfleisch, junior, uncle and nephew ; and the 

 runaway workman, they say, may have been John Gensfleisch, 

 senior. The theft of material they think an angry Haarlem fabri- 

 cation ; it was simply the secret of the mode of manufacture and 

 application that was carried oflf from Janssoen. On reaching May- 

 ence, John Gensfleisch, senior, began in an obscure way the practice 

 of the new art. Later lie was joined in the same occupation by his 

 nephew, John Gensfleisch, junior, who had now dropped the sur- 

 name Gensfleisch (Gooseflesh), and assumed that of Gutenberg, 

 from a property in or near Mayence once possessed by his family, 

 which was noble by descent. We first hear of Gutenberg, or John 

 Gensfleisch, junior, at Strasburg, further up the Rhine. Of an 

 ingenious turn of mind, we fiud him employed there in working a 

 new apparatus, an invention of his own, for polishing gems. With 

 him in this undertaking are associated as partners, Hans Rifle, 

 Andrew Drytzehen, and Andrew Heilmann, who have each supplied 

 him with money. When the particulars of the recent discovery at 

 Haarlem reached him, probably through his uncle at Mayence, he at 

 once set about making the experiment himself. He resolved to 

 attempt the cutting and casting of a set of types for the reproduction 

 of the Speculum Huviance Salvationis, a book in considerable demand. 

 His partners in the gem-polishing scheme again opened their purses 

 to him, but strict secrecy in regard to the new undertaking was 

 enjoined. Certain prying questions put by wives and others as 

 to what was now engaging the attention of the partners so closely, 

 were met by the reply that they were busy making looking-glasses for 

 the approaching fair at Aix-la-Chapelle — an allusion to the meaning 

 of Sioeculum, i.e, mirror or looking-glass. The letters were still fitted 

 for xise by individual manipulation. The slowness and general un- 

 satisfactoriness of this process led Gutenberg to turn his attention 



