The city of Mainz is in the western part of Germany, on the banks of the river Rhine, and even at the present time is heavily fortified. In the year 1462, seven years after Gutenberg’s first Bible was completed, it was the scene of a terrible conflict between two archbishops, Diether and Adolph II., who contended for the office of elector. The elector had a vote in the selection of the king or emperor, and Mainz was one of seven principalities entitled to such an officer.
Diether was the choice of a majority of the citizens of Mainz, but Adolph had the support of the pope in his claims and made war to establish himself in the office. One night in October, 1462, there was an uprising of the followers of Adolph within the city and hundreds of the inhabitants were murdered. The soldiers of Adolph then entered Mainz and set it afire. Most of the citizens fled, and industry and business were paralyzed.
Gutenberg was not affected by these events, as his new shop was outside of the city proper, in the village of Eltville, a short distance away.
The printing office of Fust and Schœffer, however, was burned, and the workmen, fleeing for safety from the distressed city, took up residence in various parts of Europe. Thus was the new art of typography spread and its secrets made common property.
As an introduction to the consideration of the spread of typography, the accompanying table may be of value. The information is as accurate as can be given after carefully consulting numerous authoritative books on the subject. Most writers disagree as to the years in which typography was introduced into many of the cities of Europe, and for that reason in cases where such doubt exists one of the later dates has been chosen for the purpose of this table.
In Germany, before the capture of Mainz, John Mentel at Strassburg and Albrecht Pfister at Bamberg, were printing books by the new process. With this fact as a basis, both Mentel and Pfister were once proclaimed inventors of typography by over-enthusiastic students of printing history.
Of the printers driven from Mainz by the sacking of the city, Ulrich Zell is probably the best known, because of his connection with the Coster-Gutenberg controversy. Zell became rich as a printer and publisher at Cologne, conducting an office there for more than forty years. During all that time he never printed a book in the German language. He had as business competitors twenty-one other master printers, one of whom, Arnold Ter Hoorne, was the first to make use of Arabic numerals.
Gunther Zainer began to practice typography at Augsburg in 1468 and was the first printer in Germany to print a book in Roman characters. He was also one of the first printers to encounter restrictions by labor unions. Zainer illustrated his books with woodcuts, and this the block-printers’ guild objected to. They induced the magistrates to pass a law against typographers using woodcuts, but this law was afterward modified to allow the use of woodcuts when made by regular engravers.
Heinrich Keffer printed at Nuremberg about 1470 under the direction of John Sensenschmidt, who in 1481, at Bamberg, published his famous Missal, printed with large Gothic types of about sixty-point body. Keffer had been a witness for Gutenberg in his law suit of 1455.
Anthony Koburger opened a printing office at Nuremberg in 1473, and later also conducted offices at Basel in Switzerland, and at Lyons in France. Koburger was one of the most successful of the early printers; he had twenty-four presses in operation at Nuremberg alone and is said to have printed twelve editions of the Bible in Latin and one in German.