Man sieht, dass in diesem Berichte über den Gang der Erfindung der objektive Thatbestand, besonders was die Anfänge betrifft ganz richtig erzählt wird, und dass er nur quoad personas verfälscht ist; indem Fusten das zugeschrieben wird, was Gutenbergen angehört. Es erbellt ferner daraus, dass er weder aus Trithems Werken noch aus dem Lobgedichte des Bergellanus geschöpft ist; da er umständcher als beide in’s Einzelne der Verfahrungsweisen eingeht. Auch die Angabe, Fust und Schöffer hätten nach Erfindung der gegossenen Buchstaben ihre Arbeiter mit Eiden zur Geheimhaltung der Kunst verbunden, die ersten Holztafeln aufgehoben, die einzelnen hölzernen Buchstaben in Schnüre gefaszt und nur zu Zeiten guten Freunden gezeigt, deutet, als auf ihre Quelle, auf handschriftliche oder mündliche Ueberlieferungen, die sich in der Familie Fust erhalten haben müssen. So haben sich in dem an die Herren von Glauburg übergegangenen Familienarchive des mainzischen, nach Frankfurt ausgewanderten Patriziergeschlechtes zum Jungen viele die Familie Gutenberg betreffenden Urkunden, und darunter auch das bei dem Prozesse zwischen Gutenberg und Fust errichtete Notariatsinstrument erhalten. In dem Archive der Familie Faust, welche von Aschaffenberg nach Frankfurt gekommen, und dort durch Heirath unter die Patriziergeschlechter aufgenommen worden ist, hatten sich gewiss ähnliche Urkunden und Nachrichten über die Angelegenheiten der Familien Fust und Schöffer erhalten, wie auch in dem Berichte, bei 1 und 2, ausdrücklich gemeldet wird. Joh. Friedrich Faust, durch Familieneitelkeit verleitet, verfälschte sie nur in Betreff der Personen, indem er (so wie Johann Schöffer in seinen Schluszschriften die Erfindung allein seinem Grossvater Fust zuschreib) demselben Fust, den er mit Recht für seinen Ahnen hielt, alle Ehre zuwendete, und zu diesem Behufe sogar das Instrument des Notars Helmasperger verdrehte.—Wetter, pp. 271–277.
FOOTNOTES:
[145] As wooden types were the first with which the original printers made their earliest essays in the art of Typography in Europe, it is interesting to learn that in America such types are now being used to so great an extent, that it requires the aid of the most finished machinery to supply the demand that has arisen for them. The following account of their manufacture is condensed from a narrative in the Boston Weekly Spectator (Oct. 12, 1871).—About 1853 Mr. William H. Page, originally a printer, entered into the employ of Mr. J. G. Cooley, a wood type cutter at Greenville. Noticing the many defects of the process he busied his mind in devising and inventing methods for its improvement. Succeeding in his efforts, he started in business on his own account; and in 1869, having bought out Mr. Cooley, transferred the whole of the works to Norwich, Eastern Connecticut. Here, with extensive and perfect machinery, and from 35 to 40 workpeople, one-seventh of whom are females, he supplies the greater part of the wooden types used throughout the United States. The process of manufacture is as follows:—All ordinary wood type is made of rock-maple, which grows abundantly in Connecticut. The logs are first sawed across the grain into blocks an inch and an eighth thick, then steamed to force out the sap, and when dried, packed away in the seasoning house for two years. When wanted for type, they are taken to dressing machines, where horizontal revolving cutters rapidly smoothe and reduce their size with perfect uniformity; they are then skilfully planed by hand, next gum-shellaced, and dried for half a day, and sand papered, which process is again repeated. After this, they are taken to felt buffing wheels, covered with beeswax and tallow, which, revolving with exceeding swiftness, thoroughly polish the surfaces on which the letters are to be cut. The blocks are then sawed into the desired shapes, and transferred to the letter makers. These place the prepared blocks in a machine not much unlike in its appearance to an eccentric lathe, although it is not one. Set in one angle of a horizontal frame like a pentagraph, is a pencil or tracer, moved by the hand of the operator exactly in the lines of a stationary pattern or model letter. In an opposite angle, and directly over the block to be carved, is a corresponding pencil of fine steel, in reality a small bit, or gouge, which is belted to the driving power, and makes from 17,000 to 20,000 revolutions a minute, following minutely all the lines and flexions of the tracer on the pattern. A skilful operator can thus make a letter in half a minute. This part of the work is chiefly performed by girls. After leaving the cutter the letters are further dressed by a trimmer who gives them their finishing touches, when they are thoroughly oiled with linseed oil, and packed for transport to wherever ordered. The ordinary size of letters, used for Advertising placards, is 1 ft. 8 in., though occasionally some are ordered 14 ft. long, [made and printed in sections it is presumed]. These monster letters are made of a softer white wood, and gouged out on a great machine called a “router.” The smallest size manufactured is about one-third of an inch. [B. W. S.] This is just the size of the types used for the “Appeal to Christendom against the Turks,” printed at Mentz in 1454 or 1455. What steam-driven machinery is doing for wooden types it is also doing in another form for types of cast metal. The greatest number that an expert workman could cast by the hand-mould process was about 1800 in an hour. After many years of costly experimentalizing, and frequent but not wholly fruitless failures, a machine was at last perfected in 1862, by which as many as 7600 letters an hour are turned out. With type manufactured at this rate, with steam type-composers that put together 40,000 letters an hour, (the invention of Mr. A. Mackie of Warrington), and with steam printing machines capable of perfecting 12,000 sheets (equal to 24,000 impressions) in the same space of time, (the Times “Walter” machine, invented by Mr. J. C. Macdonald); the latter half of the nineteenth century is truly an era of marvels in all that concerns Letter-press Printing.
[146] Dr. Van Der Linde treats this writer with but scant ceremony. He says, (p. 76 of Hessels’ Translation) “The father of this arch-liar had written frankly and in accordance with truth—‘Joh. Faust (Fust) war Mitverleger der Buchdruckerei in der Stadt Mentze; etliche wollen wider seiner Dank ihn zu einem Inventorem haben und macken, so aber nur mit seinem Vermögen und guten Rath in der That geholfen.’—‘Joh. Faust was partner in the printing office at Mentz; some persons would make an inventor of him against his own wish; he really helped only with his money and good advice.’”
II.—Account of the Origin of Printing, by Hadrian Junius.
Dicam igitur quod accepi a senibus et autoritate gravibus et Reipublicæ administratione claris, quique a majoribus suis ita accepisse gravissimo testimonio confirmarunt, quorum auctoritas jure pondus habere debeat ad faciendam fidem. Habitavit ante annos centum duo de triginta Harlemi, in ædibus satis splendidis (ut documento esse potest fabrica, quæ in hunc diem perstat integra) foro imminentibus e regione Palatii Regalis, Laurentius Joannis cognomento Aedituus Custosve (quod tunc opimum et honorificum munus familia eo nomine clara hæreditario jure possidebat) is ipse, qui nunc laudem inventæ artis Typographicæ recidivam justis vindiciis et sacramentis repetit, ab aliis nefarie possessam et occupatam, summo jure omnium triumphorum laurea majore donandus. Is forte in suburbano nemore spatiatus (ut solent sumpto cibo aut festis diebus cives, qui otio abundant), cœpit faginos cortices principio in litterarum typos conformare, quibus, inversa ratione sigillatim chartæ impressis, versiculum unum atque alterum animi gratia ducebat, nepotibus, generi sui liberis exemplum futurum. Quod ubi feliciter successerat, cœpit animo altiora (ut erat ingenio magno et subacto) agitare primumque omnium atramenti scriptorii genus glutinosius tenaciusque, quod vulgare lituras trahere experiretur, cum genere suo Thoma Petro qui quatuor liberos reliquit, omnes ferme consulare dignitate functos (quod eo dico, ut artem in familia honesta et ingenua, haud servili, natam intelligant omnes), excogitavit, inde etiam pinaces totas figuratas additis caracteribus expressit. Quo in genere vidi ab ipso excussa adversaria, operarum rudimentum, paginis solum adversis, haud opistographis. Is liber erat vernaculo sermone ab auctore conscriptus anonymo, titulum præferens: Speculum nostræ salutis, in quibus id observatum fuerat inter prima artis incunabula (ut nunquam ulla simul reperta et absoluta est) uti paginæ aversæ glutine cohærescerent, ne illæ ipsæ vacuæ deformitatem adferrent. Postea faginas formas plumbeis mutavit, has deinceps stanneas fecit, quo solidior minusque flexilis esset materia durabiliorque; e quorum typorum reliquiis, quæ superfuerant, conflata œnophora vetustiora adhuc hodie visuntur in Laurentianis illis, quas dixi ædibus, in forum prospectantibus, habitatis postea a suo pronepote Gerardo Thoma, quem honoris causa nomino, cive claro ante paucos hos annos vita defuncto sene. Faventibus, ut fit, invento novo studiis hominum, quum nova merx, nunquam antea visa, emptores undique exciret, cum uberrimo quæstu creuit simul artis amor, creuit ministerium, additi familiæ operarum ministri, prima mali labes, quos inter Joannes quidam, sive is (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero suo infidus et infaustus, sive alius eo nomine, non magnopere laboro, quod silentum umbras inquietare nolim contagione conscientiæ, quondam dum viverent, tactas. Is ad operas excusorias sacramento dictus, postquam artem jungendorum characterum, fusilium typorum peritiam, quæque alia eam ad rem spectant, percalluisse sibi visus est, captato opportuno tempore quo non potuit magis idoneum inveniri, ipsa nocte, quæ Christi natalitiis solennis est, qua cuncti promiscue lustralibus sacri operari solent, choragium omne typorum involat, instrumentorum herilium, ei artificio comparatorum, supellectilem convasat, deinde cum fure domo se proripit, Amstelodamum principio adit, inde Coloniam Agrippinam, donec Magontiacum perventum est, ceu ad asyliaram, ubi quasi extra telorum jactum (quod dicitur) positus tuto degeret, suorumque furtorum aperta officina fructum huberem meteret. Nimirum ex ea intra vertentis anni spacium, ad annum a nato Christo 1442, iis ipsis typis, quibus Harlemi Laurentius fuerat usus, prodisse in lucem certum est Alexandri Galli Doctrinale, quæ Grammatica celeberrimo tunc in usu erat, cum Petri Hispani tractatibus, prima fœtura. Ista sunt ferme, quæ a senibus annosis, fide dignis, et qui tradita de manu in manum, quasi ardentem tædam in decursu acceperant, olim intellexi, et alios eadem referentes attestantesque comperi. Memini narasse mihi Nicolaum Galium, pueritiæ meæ formatorem, hominem ferrea memoria et longa canitie venerabilem, quod puer non semel audierit, Cornelium quendam bibliopegum ac senio gravem, nec octogenario minorem (qui in eadem officina subministrum egerat) tanta animi contentione ac fervore commemorantem rei gestæ seriem, inventi (ut ab hero acceperat) rationem, rudis artis polituram et incrementum, aliaque id genus, ut invito quoque præ rei indignitate lachrymæ erumperent, quoties de plagio inciderat mentio: tum vero ob ereptam furto gloriam sic ira exardescere solere senem, ut etiam lictoris exemplum eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium appareret, si vita illi superfuisset: tum devovere consuevisse diris ultricibus sacrilegum caput, noctesque illas damnare atque execrari quas una cum scelere illo communi in cubili per aliquot menses exegisset. Quæ non dissonant a verbis Quirini Talesii Cos, eadem fere ex ore librarii ejusdem se olim accepisse mihi confessi, etc.—Batavia p. 253, et seq.