Gunther Zainer was the first printer at Augsburg; and in March 1468 issued his first dated book, the Meditationes vite domini nostri Jesu Christi, by Bonaventure. Some of his undated books show signs from their workmanship of having been printed at a still earlier date. At first he used a small Gothic type, but in 1472 he published the Etymologiæ S. Isidori in a beautiful Roman letter, the first, with a date, used in Germany. His later books are printed in a large, thick, black letter, and have in many cases ornamental capitals and borders. He was connected in some way with the Monastery of the Chartreuse at Buxheim, and to their library he gave many of his books; and we learn from their archives that he died on the 13th April 1478. By 1472 we find two more printers settled in Augsburg, John Baemler and John Schussler. The first of these, before becoming a printer, had been a scribe and rubricator, and as such had sometimes signed his name to books. This has given rise to the idea that he printed them, and he is often quoted as the printer of a Bible in 1466. He worked from 1472 to 1495, printing a very large number of books. Schussler printed only for three years, from 1470 to 1473, issuing about eight books, printed in a curious small type, half-Gothic, half-Roman, and very like that used at Subiaco. About 1472-73, Melchior de Stanheim, head of the Monastery of SS. Ulric and Afra, purchased some presses and began to print with types, which seem to have been borrowed from other Augsburg printers, such as Zainer, Schussler, and Anthony Sorg. The latter started on his own account in 1475, and issued a very large number of books between that year and 1493.
The early Augsburg books are especially noted for their woodcuts, which, though not perhaps of much artistic merit, are very numerous and curious. Some very beautifully printed books were also produced about the end of the century by John Schœnsperger, who is celebrated as the printer of the Theurdanck of 1517.
In 1470, John Sensenschmidt and Henry Keppfer of Mainz, whom we have before spoken of as a servant of Gutenberg, began to print at Nuremberg. Their first book was the Codex egregius comestorii viciorum, and in the colophon the printer says: ‘Nuremburge anno, etc., LXXº patronarum formarumque concordia et proporcione impressus.’ These words are exactly copied from the colophon of the Catholicon, which is considered to have been printed by Gutenberg.
In 1472, Frederick Creusner and Anthony Koburger, the two most famous Nuremberg printers, both began to print. They seem to have been closely connected in business, and we sometimes find Creusner using Koburger’s type; for instance, the Poggius of 1475 by Creusner, and the Boethius of 1473 by Koburger, are in the same type. Most of the early Nuremberg types are readily distinguished by the capital N, in which the cross stroke slants the wrong way. Koburger was perhaps the most important printer and publisher of the fifteenth century. He is said to have employed twenty-four presses at Nuremberg, besides having books printed for him in other towns. About 1480 he issued a most interesting catalogue, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, containing the titles of twenty-two books, not all, however, printed by himself. In 1495 he printed also an advertisement of the Nuremberg Chronicles.[14]
[14] These early book catalogues supply a very great deal of curious information, and are very well worth careful study. An extremely good article by Wilhelm Meyer, containing reprints of twenty-two, was issued some years ago in the Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen; and since that time reprints of a few others have appeared in the same magazine.
Though Spire was not an important town in the history of printing, a book was printed there as early as 1471. This was the Postilla super Apocalypsin [Hain, 13,310]. It is a quarto, printed in a rude Roman type, but with a Gothic V. Two other works of Augustine and one of Huss (Gesta Christi) are known, printed in a larger type, but without date, place, or name of printer. It has usually been assumed, on what grounds is not stated, that these books were printed by Peter Drach; but as at present no book is known in this type with his name, it is perhaps wiser to assign them to an unknown printer. Peter Drach’s first dated book was issued in 1477, and the history of his press at this time is particularly interesting. The type in which his Vocabularius utriusque Juris of May 1477 is printed, is absolutely the same as that used in December of the same year for printing the Vocabularius ex quo, printed, according to its colophon, by Nicholas Bechtermuntze at Eltvil. On this subject it is best to quote Mr. Hessels’ own words, for to him this discovery is due:[15]—
[15] Gutenberg; Was he the Inventor of Printing? By J. H. Hessels. London, 1882. 8vo. P. 181.
‘I may here observe that Type 3 [that of Bechtermuntze in 1477] is exactly the same as that used by Peter Drach at Spire. When I received this Vocabulary [ex quo of 1477] from Munich, the only book I had seen of Drach was the Leonardi de Utino Sermones, published in 1479; and it occurred to me that Bechtermuncze had probably ceased to print about this time, and might have transferred his type to Drach. But this appears not to have been the case, as Drach published already, on the 18th May 1477, the Vocabularius Juris utriusque, printed with the very same type, and must therefore have been in possession of his type simultaneously with Bechtermuncze. The question therefore arises, Did Drach perhaps print the 1477 Vocabulary for Nicolaus Bechtermuncze?’
This question must, unfortunately, be left for the present where Mr. Hessels has left it, but it offers a most interesting point for further research.