FUST, John, a goldsmith of Mayence, in the middle of the fifteenth century, and a man not more distinguished for his riches than for his knowledge of the arts, shares with Guttemberg and Schoeffer the glory of having invented printing. Guttemberg is generally considered as the first inventor of this art; and, according to some, Fust had only the merit, by no means a slight one, of supplying him with money; whilst others are of opinion that the goldsmith contributed both his funds and his industry towards the completion of the invention. But, however this may be, a partnership was formed between them in 1450, and it appears that these associates practised successively three sorts of impressions; first, the tabellary, that is, in carved tablets or plates, like our engravings on wood; secondly, the xylographie, or in moveable characters of wood; and, lastly, the impression in characters cast in moulds or matrices, analogous to, if not identical with, the stereotype founding of the present day. There is reason to believe, however, that Fust, notwithstanding his acquirements, contributed but little of his own invention to the operations of the partnership contracted with Guttemberg; since the latter appears to have been the first who thought of applying to regular compositions the same mode which had been long practised at the foot of engravings for their explanation; and since Schoeffer, iin inventing the punch, completed the discovery, if indeed this ought not to be considered as the discovery itself. Fust, zealous in favour of all that regarded his art, was so much delighted with the invention of Schoeffer, that he gave the latter his daughter in marriage. The Biblia Sacra Latina, without date, in folio, and consisting of 637 leaves, is probably the first production of printing, and seems to have been executed between 1450 and 1455, during the partnership of Fust and Guttemberg; but some think that the impression was struck from the characters invented by Schoeffer. In 1455, difficulties arose between Fust and Guttemberg, who, in consequence, separated on the 6th of November. But, in reimbursements of the sums he had advanced, Fust remained proprietor of the establishment, which he now carried on with Schoeffer; and to this new partnership we are indebted for the Psalter, Psalmorum Codex, of 1457, the most ancient work printed with a date (reprinted in 1459, from the same characters, which also served for the re-impressions of 1490, 1502, and 1516); the Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 1459; the Constitutiones Clementis Quinti, 1460; the celebrated[7:10:279] Biblia Latina, of 1462, the first Bible with a date; and the treatise Be Officiis of Cicero. Fust and Schoeffer exercised printing until 1466, when Fust went to Paris, and is thought to have died of the plague which then ravaged that city.

Fust, the goldsmith of Mayence, and the promoter of printing, has, however, been sometimes confounded with Faust the magician, whose name is associated with so many imaginary horrors. The latter, born about the commencement of the sixteenth century, was the son of a peasant of Weimar, or, as some say, of Rundling. He was educated by one of his uncles, who caused him to study theology, and, notwithstanding a strong propensity to debauchery, he completed his course, and obtained the degree of doctor. But having become disgusted with this pursuit, he cultivated medicine and astrology, and in particular applied himself to the study of magic. From this time his historians are only insipid romancers, who relate a thousand absurdities respecting him. They make him conjure up the devil himself; employ an infernal spirit named Mephistopheles, with whom he made a paction for twenty-four years; descend into hell, and travel through the celestial spheres, as well as through all the countries of this sublunary world, everywhere surrounding himself with illusions, playing mischievous pranks, having commerce with Helen the wife of Menelaus, causing Alexander the Great to appear to Charles V., and, lastly, to terminate the whole in a suitable manner, having his neck twisted by the devil at the expiration of his compact with that personage. Much more infallible than even the illustrious Mathew Laensberg, Faust yearly circulated in Germany almanacks, which, being dictated by Beelzebub, could scarcely fail to have great success. Such are the marvellous feats related by George Rodolph Widman, who published at Franckfort, in 1587, 8vo, the history of John Faust, and Christopher Wagner his valet. This history, or rather this romance, reprinted at Berlin in 1590, and at Franckfort in 1591, re-appeared at Hamburg, 1598-1600, in three volumes 4to, with historical, physical, and moral commentaries, filled with ignorance and folly; and it was also translated into English, Dutch, and French. Adelung has honoured Faust with an article at the end of his History of Human Follies, where will also be found the Conjurationes Fausti, but without the mysterious figures which ought to have accompanied them, and by means of which the reader might easily perform the same prodigies as the magician of Weimar. The Germans, who are fond of the marvellous, have often brought upon the scene the descent of Dr Faust to the infernal regions. Of this number are the celebrated Goethe, Klinger, and J. F. Schink; whilst Trithemus, the most ancient of all, J. Manlius, Schaller, Wier, Del Rio, and even Camerarius and Gesner, have discoursed of Faust and his enchantments, of which Peter-Frederick Arpe has favoured the world with a catalogue. But notwithstanding the testimony of these writers, many others, perhaps with reason, regard this personage as entirely imaginary, and consider his history as a romance intended merely for amusement. Some, indeed, including Conrad Durius, are disposed to think that the legend of Faust is a satire fabricated by the monks against John Fust, one of the inventors of printing, who had incurred the resentment of these cenobites by being concerned in a discovery which superseded their useful functions as copyists of manuscripts; but others have shown that this opinion is not well founded. Upon the subject of Faust, the curious reader may consult Zeltner’s Schediasma de Fausto ρrastigiatore ex Joanne Fausto a ĳuibusdam ficto ; Struvius in his Introductio in not. Rei Litterar. and in his Bibl. Antiq. ; and Neumann’s Dissertatio Historica de Fausto prastigiatore, Wittemberg, 1683, 1693, 1711, in 4to. (a.) Fust, in Architecture, the shaft of a column, or the part comprehended between the base and the capital, and also called the naked.