johann fust wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DESCRIPTION
grandfatherTRANSCRIPT
7/22/13 Johann Fust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust 1/4
Johann Fust
Johann FustFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Fust (c. 1400 – October 30, 1466) was an early German printer.
Contents1 Family background2 Printing3 Death4 References
Family backgroundFust belonged to a rich and respectable burgher family of Mainz, traceable backto the early thirteenth-century; members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was always written Fust, but in 1506 Peter Schöffer, in dedicating the German translation of Livy toMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, called his grandfather Faust, and thenceforward the family assumed thisname, and the Fausts of Aschaffenburg, an old and quite distinct family, placed Johann Fust in their pedigree.Johann's brother Jacob, a goldsmith, was one of the burgomasters in 1462, when Mainz was stormed and sackedby the troops of Count Adolf II of Nassau, in the course of which he seems to have been killed (suggested by adocument dated May 8, 1678).
7/22/13 Johann Fust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust 2/4
PrintingThere is no evidence for the theory that Johann Fust was a goldsmith, but he appears to have been a money-lender or banker. On account of his connection with Johann Gutenberg, he has been called the inventor ofprinting, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg. Some see him as a patron and benefactor, whosaw the value of Gutenberg's discovery and supplied him with means to carry it out,[1] whereas others portrayhim as a speculator who took advantage of Gutenberg's necessity and robbed him of the profits of his invention.Whatever the truth, the Helmasperger document of November 6, 1455, shows that Fust advanced money toGutenberg (apparently 800 guilders in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) to carry on his work, and that Fust, in1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had lent, claiming 2026 guilders for principaland interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a year which he had undertaken to furnish forexpenses, wages, etc., and, according to Gutenberg, had said that he had no intention of claiming interest.
The suit was apparently decided in Fust's favour, November 6, 1455, in the refectory of the Barefooted Friars ofMainz, when Fust swore that he himself had borrowed 1550 guilders and given them to Gutenberg. There is noevidence that Fust, as is usually supposed, removed the portion of the printing materials covered by his mortgageto his own house, and carried on printing there with the aid of Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim (who is known tohave been a scriptor at Paris in 1449), who in about 1455 married Fust's only daughter Christina. Their firstpublication was the Psalter, August 14, 1457, a folio of 350 pages, the first printed book with a complete date,and remarkable for the beauty of the large initials printed each in two colours, red and blue, from types made intwo pieces. New editions of the Psalter were with the same type in 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's lastpublication) and 1516.
Fust and Schöffer's other works are:
Guillaume Durand, Rationale divinorum officiorum (1459), folio, 160 leavesthe Clementine Constitutions, with the gloss of Johannes Andreae (1460), 51 leavesBiblia Sacra Latina (1462), folio 2 vols., 242 and 239 leaves, 48 lines to a full pagethe Sixth Book of Decretals, with Andreae's gloss, December 17, 1465, folio 1211 leaves
7/22/13 Johann Fust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust 3/4
Cicero. De officiis, 88 leaves.
DeathIn 1464 Adolf II of Nassau appointed for the parish of St Quintin three Baumeisters (master-builders) who wereto choose twelve chief parishioners as assistants for life. One of the first of these "Vervaren," who were namedon May 1, 1464, was Johannes Fust, and in 1467 Adam von Hochheim was chosen instead of the late (selig)Johannes Fust. Fust is said to have gone to Paris in 1466 and to have died of the plague, which raged there inAugust and September. He certainly was in Paris on 4 July, when he gave Louis de Lavernade of the province ofForez, then chancellor of the duke of Bourbon and first president of the parliament of Toulouse, a copy of hissecond edition of Cicero, as appears from a note in Lavernade's own hand at the end of the book, which is now inthe library of Geneva.
Nothing further is known about Fust save that, on October 30 (c. 1471), Peter Schöffer, Johann Fust (son), andSchöffer's presumed partner Conrad Henlif (variantly, Henekes or Henckis) instituted an annual mass in theabbey-church of St. Victor of Paris, where Fust was buried. Peter Schöffer, who married Fust's widow (c. 1468),also founded a similar memorial service for Fust in 1473 in the church of the Dominican Order at Mainz(Bockenheimer, Gesch. der Stadt Mainz, iv. 15).
According to some sources, the speed and precise duplication abilities of the printing press caused Frenchofficials to claim that Fust was a magician, leading some historians to connect Fust with the legendary characterof Faust.[2] Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's Faust, a printer, may borrow more from Fust than other versions ofthe Faust legend.[3]
References1. ^ "John Fust" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06326b.htm). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company. 1913.
7/22/13 Johann Fust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust 4/4
2. ^ Meggs, Philip B.; Alston W. Purvis (2006). Meggs' History of Graphic Design, Fourth Edition. Hoboken, NJ: JohnWiley & Sons, Inc. p. 73. ISBN 0-471-69902-0.
3. ^ Jensen, Eric (Autumn, 1982). "Liszt, Nerval, and "Faust"". 19th-Century Music (University of California Press) 6 (2):153.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johann_Fust&oldid=552029525"Categories: 1400s births 1466 deaths German printers Printers of incunabula
This page was last modified on 24 April 2013 at 22:24.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.