Spoke 15: The Biblewheel and The 15th Century - Peter Schöffer Testifies Against Gutenberg

Spoke 15: The Biblewheel and The 15th Century
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Peter Schöffer Testifies Against Gutenberg

Both Deuteronomy 15 and Psalms 15 talk about usury. Peter Schöffer helped Johann Fust testify against Johannes Gutenberg which caused the latter to go bankrupt.

Peter Schöffer

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Peter Schöffer

Peter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer (c. 1425, Gernsheim – c. 1503, Mainz) was an early German printer, who studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender.^[1]

Among his best-known works are the 1457 Mainz Psalter, the 1462 Bible or Biblia pulcra, and the 1484 Herbarius latinus.

Life and works

Working for Fust, Schöffer was the principal workman of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of modern typography, whose 42-Line Bible was completed in 1455. In 1455 he testified for Johann Fust against Gutenberg. By 1457 he and Fust had formed the firm Fust and Schöffer, after the foreclosure of the mortgage on Gutenberg's printing workshop.^[2]

Famous works include the Psalter of 1457, the 1462 Bible (the fourth printed Bible, also known as the Biblia pulcra [beautiful Bible])^[3] Cicero's De officiis (1465), and Herbarius - Rogatu plurimorum... (1484), usually referred to as the "Herbarius latinus". The Herbarius was compiled from older sources and was popular enough to go through ten reprints before 1499. It illustrates and describes 150 plants and 96 medicines commonly found in apothecaries. There is reason to believe that Schöffer himself commissioned the compilation, although the name of the compiler is not recorded. Schöffer is considered the author of many innovations such as dating books, introducing the printer's device and Greek characters in print, developing the basics of punchcutting and type-founding, and using colored inks in print. After going into business on his own, Schöffer confined his publishing to works on theology, and civil and ecclesiastical law.

Schöffer married Fust's only daughter, Christina, and his sons also entered the printer's trade. His son John carried on as printer between 1503 and 1531, was competent, but did not rank with the top printers of that time. Another son, Peter the younger, was an able die-cutter and printer, and conducted business in Mainz (1509–23), Worms (1512–29), Strasbourg (1530–39) and Venice (1541–42). In 1526, Peter Schöffer the younger published the first English New Testament in Worms, translated by William Tyndale.^[4] Peter the younger's son Ivo, continued the printing business at Mainz (1531–55).^[5]

Legacy

Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen

Schöfferhofer is a brand of German wheat beer named for the former house of Peter Schöffer (the house was called the Mainzer Schöfferhof) in which a brewery was founded. This brand of beer sports a portrait of Peter Schöffer as its trademark. The Schöfferhofer brand originates from this brewery in Mainz, which is also known as the Brauerei Dreikönigshof.

According to the New York Times, in her 2014 novel Gutenberg's Apprentice, Alix Christie addresses the issues of "intellectual property theft" relating to Schöffer and Gutenberg in the invention of printing.^[6]

See also

• Mammotrectus super Bibliam

References

1. Jump up^ Johann Fust - FREE Johann Fust Biography | Encyclopedia.com: Facts, Pictures, Information!
2. Jump up^ Peter Schoeffer Printer of Mainz - web exhibition at Bridwell Library Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine.
3. Jump up^ The First Explicitly Dated Bible, with the First Printer's Mark (August 1462) Jeremy Norman's History of Information.com
4. Jump up^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 148. ISBN 978-2-503-51411-6
5. Jump up^  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Peter Schöffer". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
6. Jump up^ Peed, Mike (September 24, 2014). "Historical Fiction". New York Times.

Further reading

• Peter Schöffer: Herbarius Latinus. Mainz, 1484 (1 CD-ROM für Mac/PC; PDF-Format, nach dem Exemplar aus der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sammlung Trew). Harald Fischer Verlag, Erlangen 2005, ISBN 3-89131-430-2
• Michael Giesecke: Der Buchdruck in der frühen Neuzeit: eine historische Fallstudie über die Durchsetzung neuer Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien. (= stw; 1357). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-28957-8
• „Gutenberg, aventur und kunst“. Vom Geheimunternehmen bis zur ersten Medienrevolution. Hrsg. von der Stadtverwaltung Mainz. Schmidt, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-87439-507-3
• Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt: Peter Schöffer aus Gernsheim und Mainz. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89500-210-0 (Übersetzung der Ausgabe Rochester, N.Y. 1950, Digital version of original ed.)
• Aloys Ruppel: Peter Schöffer aus Gernsheim. Festvortrag zur Hundertjahrfeier der Errichtung des Schöfferdenkmals, gehalten im Rathause zu Gernsheim am 27. Sept. 1936. Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, Mainz 1937
• Carola Schneider: Peter Schöffer, Bücher für Europa. Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-9805506-7-2
• Rudolf Schmidt: Deutsche Buchhändler. Deutsche Buchdrucker. Beiträge zu einer Firmengeschichte des deutschen Buchgewerbes. Buchdruckerei Franz Weber, Berlin, 1902–1908, 1. bis 6. Bd.(Online bei Zeno org.)

External links

• Botanicus
• Herbarius at the MBG Rare Books Room

From the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress:

• Decretales Gregorii, Volume One
• Decretales Gregorii, Volume Two
• Decretales Gregorii, Volume Three
• Liber sextus decretalium. Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 5 Apr. (Non. Apr.) 1473.
• Rationale divinorum officiorum. [Mainz] Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 6 Oct. 1459.
• De officiis. [Mainz] Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, 1465.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sch%C3%B6ffer

Comparing Deuteronomy 15 with the 15th Century

Deuteronomy 15 - Listen 1 At the end of [every] seven years thou shalt make a release. 2 And this [is] the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth [ought] unto his neighbour shall release [it]; he shall not exact [it] of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD'S release. 3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact [it again]: but [that] which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release; 4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance to possess it: 5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. 6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. 7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: 8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, [in that] which he wanteth. 9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. 10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. 11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. 12 [And] if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. 13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: 14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: [of that] wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. 15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day. 16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; 17 Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust [it] through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. 18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant [to thee], in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest. 19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep. 20 Thou shalt eat [it] before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household. 21 And if there be [any] blemish therein, [as if it be] lame, or blind, [or have] any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God. 22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean [person shall eat it] alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart. 23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.

Comparing Psalms 15 with the 15th Century

Psalm 15 - Listen 1 [[A Psalm of David.]] LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. 3 [He that] backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth not. 5 [He that] putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these [things] shall never be moved.