580 PROTOTYPOGRAPHY. 



to the construction of better moulds; a study which resulted in the 

 invention of the matrix by means of which type, cast perfect in face 

 at once, and mathematically accurate in dimensions, has continued 

 to be manufactured to the present time. On the death of one of the 

 partners, Andrew Drytzehen, and a consequent lawsuit, the company 

 which Gutenberg had formed was broken up. He now removed to 

 Mayence, and took up his abode with his uncle there. Inspirited 

 by his typographical exjDeriments at Strasburg, he conceived the bold 

 idea of casting type, by his new process, for an edition of the whole 

 Bible in folio, to be in every respect a fac-simile of the handsome 

 manuscripts of the sacred volume to be seen, and, on occasion? 

 purchased, at the monasteries. Much money was required for such 

 an undertaking. The number of letters wanted for the 1282 folio 

 pages of the proposed Bible was about 12,000 exclusive of orna- 

 mental capitals, double letters and abbreviations. John Fust, . a 

 rich banker of Mayence, was struck with Gutenbei'g's project, and 

 advanced considerable sums in order that the work might be duly 

 prosecuted. Not, however, without the proper legal security against 

 loss on his part ; as appeared after a time ; for, just as everything 

 was almost ready for the final issue of the great volume, we find 

 Fust suddenly foreclosing on the typefounder and printer for non- 

 fulfilment of the conditions of his bond. The courts of Mayence 

 sustained the claim ; the whole of the plant and contents of Guten- 

 berg's office was taken legal possession of by Fust in 1455, 



We now form the acquaintance of Peter Schoefier, of Gernsheim. 

 This is a young man who had been in the employment of Gutenberg, 

 and was found to possess pre-eminent skill in cutting the punches 

 for the types, plain and ornamental, required for the forthcoming 

 Bible. Peter Schoefier, in fact, had an educated taste as well as 

 high skill. Like so many others who became fascinated with the 

 new art at the outset, he was a scholar ; only a few years previously 

 he had been a student in the University of Paris. Fust perceived 

 that he was a most eligible person to be put in chai-ge of the printing 

 establishment which had come into his possession. Such confidence 

 had the shrewd banker now acquired in the prospective profits of 

 printing and publishing, and in the superior competency of Schoefier, 

 that he proposed to him at once a copartnership on a suitable basis, 

 and more ; Schoefier was to receive in marriage his daughter and sole 

 heiress, Christina. Subsequent incidents need not be narrated. It 



