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Johann Fust
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Johann Fust
Johann Fust or Faust (c. 1400 – October 30, 1466) was an early German printer.
Fust was born to a burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to the early thirteenth century. Members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was written "Fust" until 1506, when Peter Schöffer, in dedicating the German translation of Livy to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, called his father-in-law "Faust." Thenceforward, the family assumed this name. 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 sacked by the troops of Count Adolf II of Nassau, in the course of which he seems to have been killed (suggested by a document dated May 8, 1678).
Fust, along with his brother, was a member of the goldsmiths' guild of Strasbourg. Like many medieval goldsmiths, he also functioned as a financier.[need quotation to verify] Because of his connection with Johannes Gutenberg (died 1468), Fust has been called the inventor of printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg. Some see him as a patron and benefactor who saw the value of Gutenberg's discovery and supplied him with the means to implement it, whereas others portray him 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 to Gutenberg (apparently 800 guilders in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) to carry on his work, and that Fust, in 1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had lent, claiming 2026 guilders for principal and interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a year which he had undertaken to furnish for expenses, 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 of Mainz, when Fust swore that he himself had borrowed 1550 guilders and given them to Gutenberg. There is no evidence that Fust, as is usually supposed, removed the portion of the printing materials covered by his mortgage to his own house, and carried on printing there with the aid of Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim (known to have been a scriptor at Paris in 1449), who in about 1455 married Fust's only daughter Christina. The first publication by Fust and Schöffer, the Psalter of August 14, 1457 (a folio of 350 pages, the first printed book with a complete date) was remarkable for the beauty of the large initials printed each in two colours, red and blue, from types made in two pieces. New editions of the Psalter with the same type appeared in 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.
Fust and Schöffer's other works include:
Hub AI
Johann Fust AI simulator
(@Johann Fust_simulator)
Johann Fust
Johann Fust or Faust (c. 1400 – October 30, 1466) was an early German printer.
Fust was born to a burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to the early thirteenth century. Members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was written "Fust" until 1506, when Peter Schöffer, in dedicating the German translation of Livy to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, called his father-in-law "Faust." Thenceforward, the family assumed this name. 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 sacked by the troops of Count Adolf II of Nassau, in the course of which he seems to have been killed (suggested by a document dated May 8, 1678).
Fust, along with his brother, was a member of the goldsmiths' guild of Strasbourg. Like many medieval goldsmiths, he also functioned as a financier.[need quotation to verify] Because of his connection with Johannes Gutenberg (died 1468), Fust has been called the inventor of printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg. Some see him as a patron and benefactor who saw the value of Gutenberg's discovery and supplied him with the means to implement it, whereas others portray him 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 to Gutenberg (apparently 800 guilders in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) to carry on his work, and that Fust, in 1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had lent, claiming 2026 guilders for principal and interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a year which he had undertaken to furnish for expenses, 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 of Mainz, when Fust swore that he himself had borrowed 1550 guilders and given them to Gutenberg. There is no evidence that Fust, as is usually supposed, removed the portion of the printing materials covered by his mortgage to his own house, and carried on printing there with the aid of Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim (known to have been a scriptor at Paris in 1449), who in about 1455 married Fust's only daughter Christina. The first publication by Fust and Schöffer, the Psalter of August 14, 1457 (a folio of 350 pages, the first printed book with a complete date) was remarkable for the beauty of the large initials printed each in two colours, red and blue, from types made in two pieces. New editions of the Psalter with the same type appeared in 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.
Fust and Schöffer's other works include:
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