Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1845-06-16

BOoKSELLlNG AFTER THE INVEN-
TiON OF PRINTING

lr'e uNtu III NaNcncc uCh goldsmith, !
whose name was John Fust or Faust, the Grst
man who Soda printed book Ills name has
always bern associated with that of gluten
berg and Schoeilcr, rs one of the mucHiorS ol
Printing but as is reasonably to be Inferred
enormously; for in all the evidence with
which the annals ol Typography supply us, he
appears a. the capitalist by whose pcctniaty
advances Gutenberg was able 10 bring his art
INTO practicable operation. Having vainly
cndcavorcd to produce good print in Strasburg,
alter cxpending fortune, Gutenberg return
ed ,o his native town. Mayence, and opened
his mind To Faust. The gold-smith--mani-
testify a shrcwd man ci busincss-saw, from
! the progress his fellow citizen had made i'm his
new method OF producing books, that the thing
WAS likely to turn out good speculation and
| warmly embarked i'll it. \ partnership was
speedily entered into, aud i'm HIS, Printing
! Press was set up in MayCnce, for taking inn
presSions from the wooden blocks with which
Gutenberg commenced his art. The gold
smith and his associate worked in secret, apd
for some time without success: till Schoei1cr
am illuminutor of manuscripts, aud coniiden-
! iial person i'll their employ, hit upon the ex-
| pcdent oi making movable metal types by
means oi punches and matrices. Faust was
| 80 delighted with SChocilcr for his ingenuity
! that lac not only took him into partnership,
but gave him his daughter in marriage. This
happened in ll52.-Aluch patience aud CAPT
/ tai were expended even after this advance i'm
| the art made by Peter Schoeiler. The first
| book they tried the new system on was the
Latin Bible, and before twelve sheets of il had
! been printed, Gutenberg and Faust had eX-
pended upwards of 1000 forms. Still they
pcrscVered, and after three years of laborous
eNertion, the Bible was completcd,~ A good
number of ths--the first of all first editions
having been struck oil ready for the market,
the next thing was TO devise means for dlspo.
sing of them, and il was determined that Faust
should travel with copies, calling them mdItu-
scripts. "lt il certain says Lambinet, ''that
Faust, Schocfler, and their partners, sold or ex-
changed in Germany, Italy, France. and the
most celebrated universities, the books which
they had printed" This was matter of very
great difficulty and dcliCacy. The process by
which the books were produced was a secret.
which every person whom Gutenberg or
Faust took into their employ was bound by
oath not to divuige In say that the Bibles were
produced otherwise than by the usual plan
would have partly divulged the secret. and il
was for that reason that the whole of their
work was executed in eNect imitation of wri-
ting. The Bible was printed on parchment,
the capital letters were illuminated with blue,
purple and gold, after the manner of ancient
manuscripts, and they were sold as such =,
manuscript prices-namely sixty crowns.
About the year ll62, Faust set out on
book scllisS expedition through Italy. Ger
many, and Paris, with stock i'm trade, con-
Slsting chiefly of Bibles and Psalters. i'm each
place there Is every reason To- believe lac not
only busted himself in selling his Bibles and
Psalters, but organized agencies for the sale of
his wares in his own absence. Having dis
posed of many of his folios as he could to
| the Parlsians at sixty crowns, he--unwsely
perhaps-reduced theirprice, first to forty and
then TO twenty crowns. This naturally excl
ted the Ire OF tile libraries and scribes of whom
Paris was at that period the head quarters
there b'ing no fewer than sixty thousand per
sons who subsisted by copying and illumina-
! ting manuscripts Ii was not in nature that
thls large and imporant body-who held their
! tanciy by and sec man selling for twenty
, crowns what they got from sixty TO hundred
: Tor. The rapidity with which Faust produced
, Ills pseudo manuscripts, so as 10 supply the
I constant demands which his low charges pro-
ouced on ms stock, gave rise to a suspicion
mat he dealt with the Evil One. This stlspic-
ION was strengthened when the transcribcrs-
who were principally monks-sct about com
Parlng the various copies of Faust's Bible.
ihey lound degree of resemblance i'm each of
the books-cven 10 the minutest dot--which
,hey concluded could only have been produced
by supernatural means. The enmity of The
seller, now threatened to become religious
persecution The fraud once discovered. how
ever, fal'st case was taken up by the civil
power, and he was obliged To ily from Paris
10 escape the officers of Justice. He returned
10 Mayencc, but found no rest there whcrcy-
or he sold his books, hc hal of course praciised
deception, and the agents of justice were
equally clainorous for him in his native town.
lie Withdrew to Strasburg.
In the meanwhile, Mayence was taken nv
storm by Adolphus, of Nassau. By This event
faust and Schocilcrs joUncymen were disper
seq, ana dccming themselves absoved from
lhclr oath OF secrecy, they carried the inycn
lon INTO various parts of Europe, many of
thcln setting up presses OF their OWL Then
hnd not until th9n, Faust made a merit nf no
ccssily, and wrote and circulated a work in
winch he described the whole process by which
MS DOCKS were executed. That there should be
no further doubt or ambiguity as to whether
the productions of himself and partners wore
manuscripts or print he placed at the end of
his little book, the following colophon or in
scnptlon:-"This present work with all en-
Deliishments, was done, not with the pcn and
INK, Out 10y new invented art OF CASTING LEI
Wrs, printing, &c, by me John Faust and INV
son-in-laws, Peter Schociier. in the famous
city Mcntz upon the Rhine" In this. as i'm
every other instance. honesty proved to bc the
UN9' Pohtyj lot now tiidt fuust had cleared no
the mystery, he was no longer pursued as an
impostef; and ultimately we find him i'm l465
IN Paris, making arrangements for establish
ing permanent agency for the sale of the pro-
auctions Of his own and his son in law s press
rms, as wc shall presently see, ne Effected
In the midst OF his labors, however. death
overlook him. In that year the plague ragged
in the French capital, and John Faust fell a
victim TO It, far away from his home and his
friends.
Such is bare outline Of the career of one of
The parents oi printing and the sole father of
moodcm book selling, John Faust (othcr,yisc
john iiand) was the very reverse of such ne
cromlnccr and personal friend of the Evil One
as tradition and error have succeeded i'm pro-
curing him. The truth is nc is often con
founded with Jean Frederic Faust. charlatau