JOHANN GUTENBERG THE MAN AND HIS STORY

Johann Gutenberg the man responsible for introducing printing press in Europe.

The man

Johann Gutenberg a German craftsman and inventor was born in Mainz in around 1398 A.D. in the aristocratic Gensfleisch family; the part owner of the Mainz mint that produced official coins, medals and jewellery for the city.  As a young man Johann trained as a gold smith, metal worker and gem cutter. There was a custom to take the name of one’s house as one’s surname, he lived in a house named Hof zum Gutenberg, so the young Johann began using Gutenberg as his surname. Even though Gutenberg is wrongly credited as the father of printing press, as he did not invent the printing press or the printing ink or even the movable type, but he did built on the work of others, starting with the existing tools and devices, which he modified, refined and perfected.   

The idea

Before Gutenberg’s printing press, the scribes used quill pen to copy a text word for word on a piece of stiff parchment, which led books to be rare and expensive. Gutenberg while working at the mint stuck an idea, producing books mechanically that would allow multiple copies of a book to be printed at the same time instead of being hand copied one by one.

The Strasburg years

Due to problems between the patrician and the guild Gutenberg was forced out of Mainz. In 1430’s he resurfaced in Strasburg, France. In that period, devotional object’s market was flourishing, so he set up a workshop and worked on three projects. Two out of them were public knowledge, one was a new method of polishing precious stone, the second, a way to manufacture holy mirror, for the pilgrims of Aachen, as well as wood cuts and gems depicting saints. The third project, a printing press, was not known to public. Money ran out so he took on three partners – Andreas Dritzehn, Hans Riff and Andreas Heliman who invested on his projects. In 1939, after the death of Andreas Dritzehn he faced lawsuits from Dritzehn’s brothers claiming a share of the partnership of printing press. As during the case, rumours of Gutenberg’s secretly working on a printing press were prevalent, a local carpenter confessed to have assisted on the building of a wooden press, and a gold smith announced that Gutenberg had bought large amount of printing material. Nevertheless, he managed to avoid giving testimony. 

The breakthrough in Mainz

In 1446 A.D. he returned to Mainz and found financial backing from Johann Fust who loaned eight hundred guilders, which allowed him to go ahead with his project. Along with his assistant Peter Schoffer Gutenberg worked on the types, as he wanted the letter type to be perfectly flat and all type to be absolutely regular. Breakthrough came with a brilliant idea; he broke up the text in constituent parts, letters, punctuation marks, and frequent combinations known as ligatures. These were then combined to form the block for printing words, lines and pages. The characters were cast in new combination time and again. In 1952-53 Gutenberg along with Peter Schoffer began printing, workers operated two or three presses at one time, while compositors prepared the type and labourers hung the printed sheet to dry. He first printed works were official documents, papal decrees, a Latin grammar school book Ars Minor, by Aelieus Donatus.

The process

On the end of the metal rod a mirror image of the letter is engraved. This is then pushed into a soften cooper producing a pit in the shape of the letter. This matrix acts as a mould for the actual type which is cast from lead, in order to manufacture the many letters needed quickly and in required quantity. Gutenberg also made the hand casting instrument. This instrument consists of a rectangular channel, in which the matrix is inserted at one end and molten lead poured onto another. When the instrument is opened the letter cast in lead is ready to be used. As the matrix is reusable an unlimited number of identical letters could be cast. The type setters combine the letters into lines, in the form of the page layout as desired. The form is then inked in printers ink; Gutenberg used a mixture of lamp black varnish and egg white. He used special press for printing, but derived the principal from the traditional wine press. Finally, the illuminators add coloured initials and drawings. For his mammoth work, sometimes also attributed to Fust and Schoffer, the 42 line Latin Bible, he cast more than hundred thousand pieces of type for first edition of 180 copies. The text was printed in black letter or gothic type based on the handwriting of that time.      

The final years

Although Fust had loaned him additional eight hundred guilder, disaster struck as Fust took him to court on the non payment of money. The court decided in Fust favour and allowed Gutenberg to keep only a single set of metal type. Gutenberg was effectively bankrupt, but found some solace in his final years when the Archbishop granted him the title of Hofmann which produced a salary and some privileges for service rendered. He kept working there till his death on February 3, 1468 A.D., and was buried in the church of the Franciscan convent.