In the lawsuit, it was to Faust’s claim for interest that Gutenberg principally demurred, his plea being, that although the letter of the agreement between them might justify the claim, Faust had verbally promised not to press it. The magistrates however decided according to the terms of the agreement, and their judgment was not inequitable. They ordered an account to be rendered of all moneys spent and received in connection with the work which was undertaken for the joint advantage of the litigants; Gutenberg to be credited with what was fairly his due, and Faust to be repaid the principal and interest to which he was entitled.
Now it by no means follows that the whole of the types, presses, and plant of the printing establishment at the Zum Junghen was absorbed in the discharge of Faust’s claim. Doubtless it was no small share that went for that purpose, including as it did all that was printed of the folio Bible of 637 leaves,—sufficient of itself, supposing the edition did not exceed two hundred copies, to meet a large proportion of the debt. The rupture, although it broke up the establishment, left Gutenberg with men and materials still at command. Faust, as we have seen, removed the stock that had been made over to him to his premises in the Schuster Gasse; and Gutenberg went with the remainder to his dwelling at the Zum Gutenberg, where he opened a ‘printing house’ on his own account.[77]
Gutenberg’s position in Mentz was certainly one of influence, if not of wealth. It is highly probable that at this time Dr. Conrad Homery,[78] the syndic of the city, advanced him funds for the replenishment of his stock of materials, since they were claimed by, and made over to him, on Gutenberg’s death. With or without such aid he was speedily at work again, and palæotypographists have recognised the products of his press in the “Tractatus de celebratione Missarum;” the “Hermani de Saldis Speculum Sacerdoti;” a treatise in the German language on Councils; the “Dyalogus inter Hugonem Cathonem et Oliverium super Libertate Ecclesiastica,” and a Kalendar or Almanack for the year 1460, consisting of a few leaves in 4to. printed in characters resembling those used in the first of the above-named works. A sheet Almanack for 1457, the first printed with a date, has also been attributed to him. Independently of the special value of this document as a relic of early printing, it proves that in the neighbourhood of Mentz the year then commenced with the month of January, according to the Roman system, and not at Easter as was the case in France and other countries, or at Christmas as in some other places.
Strange to say Gutenberg attached his name to none of his works. It has been suggested that this was owing to his patrician pride. Whether so or not he was well known to his contemporaries both as a printer, and the inventor of Printing.
The Typographer Philip de Lignamines, in his “History of the Pontiffs” printed at Rome in 1474, writing of the events of the year 1458—three years after the lawsuit, says—“Jean Gutenberg of Strasburg, and another, named Fust, skilful in the art of printing with characters of metal, on parchment, each print three hundred sheets per day at Mentz.” And in a document preserved in the Library of the Arsenal at Paris, it is stated, that on “the 3rd October, 1458, the King (Charles V), having learnt that Messire Gutenberg, chevalier, residing at Mentz, in Germany, a man dexterous in the engraving of letters and punches, had brought to light the invention of printing by means of such characters; and being curious concerning such valuable knowledge, the King ordered the masters of his Mint to name to him persons well skilled in such kind of engraving, that he might despatch them to the aforesaid place, in order secretly to inform themselves of the said invention, and to understand, conceive, and learn the art, &c.” Whereupon, it was directed that Nicholas Jenson, an expert engraver, should be forthwith despatched to Mentz, to learn the art in question, for the purpose of introducing it to Paris.
It is believed by some writers, that Gutenberg continued to the end of his career as a Typographer to print with cut metal types. Oaths of secresy were imposed by Faust and Schœffer upon all whom they employed, by which means they hoped to secure the knowledge of the art of type-founding to themselves. But in the year 1462, when Mentz was sacked by the troops of the Elector-Archbishop, Count Adolphus of Nassau, their workmen were dispersed, and the arts of printing and type-founding were generally made known all over Europe. Gutenberg however must have seen at once, upon an examination of the works that were issued from Faust and Schœffer’s establishment, that they were producing types in some extraordinarily rapid manner; and acute as he was, it is not likely that he would remain long in ignorance of the method adopted. There were no doubt intimacies among the workmen of the rival establishments, who had at first worked all together; and among whom the secret would sooner or later ooze out. The science of Johann Nummeister, (whose name occurs in a document associated with that of Gutenberg), may also have been especially called in to assist in a competing method of type-founding. Certain it is, that two or three years before 1462, Albrecht Pfister, and the brothers Henry and Nicholas Bechtermuntze, with Wyngardum Spyes de Otherberg, printed works with types so evidently the same as those cut by Gutenberg, that they have not unfrequently been attributed to his press. Various suppositions have been made, to account for this, but no one appears to have thought of that which seems to be the most obvious; namely, that sets of matrices or types were sold by Gutenberg to these early printers, who with Keffer and Sensenschmidt and others, were taught the art at his establishment. Where suppositions must be resorted to in order to account for facts, those which are the most natural ought surely to be chosen in preference to others which are less or least so.
About the year 1800, some interesting documents relating to Gutenberg and his family were said to have been discovered by M. Bodman the archivist of Mentz. The following,—the seals to which were copied by Fischer in his “Essai sur le Monumens Typographiques de Jean Gutenberg,” is entitled:—
“Agreement between Gutenberg and his brothers, &c., and the Nuns of the Convent of St. Clair, at Mentz, A.D. 1459.