Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-05-19
THE BLACK ART.
Dark Was Earth Ere Printing Rose.
fram Harbet's magazine

ltrem Harbets Magazine
Before the middle of the fifteenth century
Europe had a cheap material, paper; an
oily ink, developed Tor block book print
ing, In place of the fluid ink, which could
be used only with the brush, probably tho
press ITSELF skilled artisans, trained in the
DO k-IooN WORK K; mSst important Of ell tbs
demand CAUSED by education. 1t lacked
movable types that could be fitted evenly
and eddy together. for neither The bprce-
lalA Letters of Pi- CHING nor the individual
stamps of the early copyists had devel-
oped TO this point. TIE invention of
printing, in its modem sense, consisted
IN the simple production of these types.
or, as De Winnie puts it, of the type mold
which shodld produce stich typs: Fifteen
cites Claim to be the birthplace of print
M, but the honor rests between Harlem,
Strdsburr, and ATan2. The Dutch legend
Is tAat some ME about or previous - lti0,
one Laurent Jansloon Roster, cuStos or
s'A'on OF church in HARLEM, cut letters
on beach tree, which suggested TO him
wooden types, from which he afterward
develop 4 metal types, and that man in
his employ, escaping With The secret. TO
Na'nz, originate the art there. Haarlem
contains many portrait monuments OF
/ Kos er. aud belief in him is an article of
the Dutch faith, but latst Investigators
claim that he Is altogether q myth, made
| up. with much imagination and some ras-
callty, of two HARLEM citizens, neither of
Who.n was printer and OF the "un known
! printer" of much later days.
The German story centers in John Gut
enherg, of the family called Gensheisch-
t KING his mothers name in accordance
with German custom. BECAUSE her family
was dying out-as to whom there IS
definite historical chain of evidence; in
Guiding the records of two lawsuits. Moth
ing is certainly known Of his first thirty
years. He is supposed to have been born
about 1lt9 at Mainz, whence his family
were eXiledl going to Strasburg. In 1889 he
appears rs defendant Id lawsuit hrou bit
IN Strasburg by an heir of one Andrew
Drltzehen, to compel Gutenberg to admit
him. to tie secret and benefit of an art
mo which the deceased had bought by
payment to Gutenberg This art seems to
, haze been printinr, and the evidence i'll
the sut shows that Gutenberg sent his
servant to Drtzehen's house Immediately
on his death, to have form" of -four
pr crs, living in or about press" sepa
rated by turning two buttons" $50 that
no one might know what it is" We do not
know, for Gutenberg won the suit aud
kept this Secret. Different modern scholars
I
of type, matrices, Or a four-part type
mold, such as IS known to have been used
! by carly printers. 1t is not definitely
known whether Gutenberg printed any
! books IN Strasburg some fragments of a
type Donatus being most plausibly con-
nected with him there), which caused n
German critic to declare that if Strasburg
is the cradle of printing, at is cradle
witt ont a baby BY li4S Gutenb re- had
removed TO Mainz, for there is record of
his hiring money, aud in 1850 he made Il
contract with John Fust, a money lender,
to provide money for paper, vellum, ink.
wages and the other materials required"
on half-protits, which contract was the
| basis of the second suit. In this suit,
| brought in l455, Fust, who has been sadly
! confused with that later DR.. Faust of Wit
tenberg, from whose wicked learning grew
/ tue Faust legend. foreclosed his mortgage,
! got possession of part of Gutenbergs i'm
! plements and stock, and by help of Guten
/ be gs apprentice, Peter Schoetler, who
| afterward married Fust's daughter CHRIS
tina, took up the business of printing
! There is legend that this Schoeifer, and
not Gutenberg, invented the type-m mold,
but recent Investigators show that this in
vention was pecul arly Gutenbergs.
Gutenberg, who started new printing
/ office after the separation, by help of
money from Conrad Humery. physician
and town clerk. printed two editions of the
/ Bible. He printed also an edition of the
'Donatus, several Letters of Indulgence"
the earliest Job work. broadsde Cal
| endar" OF 1l17, a "Catholicon" of 1850,
ard many ether things. He was alive in
1863, when Archbishop AGolph made him
one of the gentlemen of his court, and wa
dead in ll6S. for in that year Conrad Hum
cry had succeeded to his effects.