| CITY AND COUNTRY | YEAR THE ART WAS INTRODUCED | BY WHOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mainz | Germany | 1450 | Johann Gutenberg |
| Strassburg | Germany | 1460 | John Mentel |
| Bamberg | Germany | 1461 | Albrecht Pfister |
| Cologne | Germany | 1464 | Ulrich Zell |
| Rome [Subiaco] | Italy | 1465 | Conrad Schweinheim Arnold Pannartz |
| Basel | Switzerland | 1468 | Bertold Ruppel |
| Augsburg | Germany | 1468 | Gunther Zainer |
| Venice | Italy | 1469 | John de Spira |
| Nuremberg | Germany | 1470 | Heinrich Keffer John Sensenschmidt |
| Paris | France | 1470 | Ulrich Gering Martin Crantz Michel Friburger |
| Florence | Italy | 1471 | Bernardo Cennini |
| Utrecht | Netherlands | 1473 | Nicholas Ketelaer Gerard de Leempt |
| Bruges | Netherlands | 1474 | Colard Mansion |
| London [Westminster] | England | 1477 | William Caxton |
| Barcelona | Spain | 1478 | Nicholas Spindeler |
| Oxford | England | 1478 | Theodoric Rood |
| Leipzig | Germany | 1481 | Marcus Brand |
| Vienna | Austria | 1482 | John Winterberger |
| Stockholm | Sweden | 1483 | John Snell |
| Haarlem | Holland | 1483 | Johannes Andriesson |
| Heidelberg | Germany | 1485 | Frederic Misch |
| Copenhagen | Denmark | 1493 | Gothofridus de Ghemen |
| Munich | Germany | 1500 | John Schobzer |
| Edinburgh | Scotland | 1507 | Androw Myllar |
| Mexico City | Mexico | 1540 | John Cromberger |
| Dublin | Ireland | 1551 | Humphrey Powell |
| Cambridge, Mass. | [U.S.] | 1639 | Stephen Daye |
| THE SPREAD OF TYPOGRAPHY FROM MAINZ | |||
PAGE PRINTED BY KOBURGER
Combination of woodcuts and typography in a book of 1493
In Italy the first printing done with separate types was in the year 1465 in the monastery at Subiaco, a village on the outskirts of Rome. The cardinal in charge of the monastery, impressed with the importance of the new art and anxious to have it introduced into Italy, persuaded Conrad Schweinheim and Arnold Pannartz to come from Germany for the purpose. In 1467 these two printers removed to the city proper and there printed more extensively. Many classical works were produced, but five years later they complained that a large portion of the product had not been sold and that they were in distress.
Ulrich Hahn was the first printer in the city of Rome proper, having opened an office there soon after Schweinheim and Pannartz began work at Subiaco.
John de Spira (born in Spire, Germany) was the first typographer at Venice, the Italian city famous for the excellence of its printed books. Setting up a press in 1469, his work was of such quality as to obtain for him exclusive right to print by the new process at Venice. De Spira died in 1470 and the privilege was forfeited.
Nicholas Jenson, who came to Venice in 1470, is known as the originator of the Roman type-face. Schweinheim, Pannartz, Hahn and De Spira, all had used type-faces based upon the letters of Italian scribes, but the types had Gothic characteristics. Nearly all Roman type-faces of the present day trace lineage, as it were, to the types of Jenson.
With the exception of Gutenberg, Fust and Schœffer, and perhaps Aldus, who succeeded him, Jenson is the most conspicuous figure among the early printers. The story of his introduction to the art is interesting: Charles VII., King of France, in the year 1458 decided to send an emissary to Mainz to learn the new art, which was supposed to be a secret, and Jenson, then an engraver and master of the royal mint at Tours, was selected for the mission. Three years later he returned to Paris with a full knowledge of typography, but found the king had died and that his successor was not interested in the matter. This condition of affairs seems to have discouraged Jenson, for he did not begin to print until 1470, and then at Venice, Italy. (A typographical error in a printed date of one of his books makes it read 1461 instead of 1471, and encourages some writers to claim that Jenson was the first Venetian printer.) The death of John de Spira opened the field for other printers in Venice, and Jenson was one of the first to take advantage of it.
Jenson cut but one set of punches for his Roman type-face, the cutting being done so accurately that no changes were afterward necessary. The Roman types, being less decorative and more legible than the Gothic letters of the Germans, allowed the use of capitals for headings. A colophon, the forerunner of the modern title-page, was set by Jenson entirely in capitals with the lines opened up by liberal space. This colophon, which was probably the first page of displayed type composition, is reproduced below.
