The first book published by Faust and Schœffer, after their separation from Gutenberg, was a beautiful folio edition of the Psalter, finished on the 14th August, 1457. This is the celebrated work, so often alluded to, the first to which the name of the printer was affixed, as well as that of the place where, and the date when, it was printed. It is from this circumstance that the origin of the Art of Typography has been by certain early writers attributed to Faust rather than to Gutenberg. The fine large Gothic type with which the book is printed, (22 lines to a foot,) is exactly double the size of that cut for the ‘Mazarin’ Bible. The initial capital letters, of which there are in all 288, are from four to six lines in depth, printed in red and blue, with ornamental flower-work and figures cut in the body of the letter, and bordered with scroll-work running into the margins. In the case of the commencing initial, the letter B, this scroll-work extends from the top to the bottom of the page. The capitals commencing each sentence in the body of the work, are also in red ink, as well as whole lines interspersed here and there. The music is on a staff of four lines instead of five, the notes square-headed and diamond-shaped, the words beneath being in roman characters. These portions of the work are engraved on solid blocks. At the end of the Psalter is inserted the Faust and Schœffer badge, which thenceforth appeared in all their works.[132] This consisted of two shields (on which were their coats of arms) suspended from the branch of a tree. Beneath this was the following imprint or colophon:—
“Presens spalmorum codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibus que sufficienter distinctus, Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi et caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaratione sic effigiatus. Et ad eusebiam Dei industrie est consummatus[133] Per Johannem Fust Civem moguntinum Et Petrum Schöffer de Gernszheim. Anno domini Millesimo CCCCLVII. In vigilia Assumpcionis.”
The declaration contained in this colophon seems incompatible with the truth, as well as with the admissions of Schœffer himself, on other occasions, unless it be understood as applying to the exquisite initial letters, these being printed wholly in colours, instead of being sketched in by the hand of the rubricator or coloured by illuminators. These very letters however, it is believed by some, including Mr. Humphreys, (see p. 86 of his work,) were the work of Gutenberg; and M. Fischer in his interesting essay[134] has shewn, that in several small works[135] which issued from Gutenberg’s press before the forfeiture of his plant to Faust, the identical letters (the smaller initials) used in the Psalter, as well as some of those printed in two colours, and of which he has given fac-similes, appear. But if, as there is abundant reason to believe was the case, Schœffer was engaged as an assistant at the Zum Jungen at, or soon after the year 1450, when Gutenberg first obtained advances from Faust, these capitals, the beauty of which is undisputed, may have been, and most probably were, designed by him for the projected works for which the money was advanced; and, as his ‘inventions,’ and not the work of Gutenberg, they would be included in the property which was transferred to Faust on the termination of the law-suit. Looked at from this point of view, they may be thought to justify the assertion in the colophon of the Psalter of 1457, although there can be no doubt but that that work was partly completed while the whole property was still in the possession of Gutenberg, and that therefore to him must be attributed the honour of planning, and cutting the fount of types with which it was executed.
“The most perfect copy known of this work, (says Mr. Timperley,) is that in the Imperial Library of Vienna. It was discovered in the year 1665, near Innspruck in the castle of Ambras, where the Archduke Francis Sigismund had collected a prodigious quantity of manuscripts and printed books; taken for the most part from the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, from whence it was transported to Vienna. The book is printed in folio on vellum, and of such extreme variety, that though not more than six or seven copies are known to be in existence, all of them differ from each other in some respect. The Psalter occupies one hundred and thirty-five, and the recto the hundred and thirty-sixth, and the remaining forty-one leaves are appropriated to the litany, prayers, responses, vigils, &c. The Psalms are executed in larger characters than the hymns; the capital letters are cut in wood, with a degree of delicacy and boldness which are truly surprising: the largest of them—the initial letters of the Psalms—which are black, red, and blue, must have passed three times through the press.”
From 1457 to 1466 the following works were printed by Faust and Schœffer.
(1) The Psalter, 2d edition.—1459.
(2) Rationale divinorum Officiorum Guillelmi Durandi.—1459.
A folio work consisting of 160 leaves, with the text in two columns of 63 lines each. For this work two new founts of type were cast, of smaller sizes than those used for the Psalter of 1457, and Bible of 1455. The first was of the depth of 53 lines to a foot; the smaller 66, equivalent to the English of type-founders of the present day. The latter was used for the body of the work.
(3) Constitutiones Clementis V. Papæ cum Apparatu Joannis Andreæ.—1460.
This consisted of 51 leaves of folio, two columns to a page. The text was in the larger of the above two types, surrounded by a glossary or commentary, ten times its bulk, in the smaller type. Of this work two subsequent editions were published in 1467 and 1471.