Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: for the name of Gutenberg himself is not found in any of his own productions. It is not only highly improbable that Coster was the first printer, but also doubtful whether he printed anything at all. But those who think otherwise consider that the idea of printing occurred to him about 1428 or 1430, and that he executed, among other books, the Biblia Pauperum, the Speculum, the Ars Moriendi, and Donatus. The people of Holland still retain their faith in Coster. Statues have been erected, medals struck, tablets put up, and holidays observed in his honour. CHAPTER VIII GUTENBERG AND THE MENTZ PRESS Johann or Hans Gutenberg was born at Mentz in or about the year 1400. His father’s name was Gensfleisch, but he is always known by his mother’s maiden name of Gutenberg or Gutem- berg. It was customary in Germany at that time for a son to assume his mother’s name if it happened that she had no other kinsman to carry it on. Of Gutenberg’s early life, of his education or profession, we know nothing. But we know that his family, with many of their fellow-citizens, left Mentz when Gutenberg was about twenty years of age, on account of the disturbed state of the city. They probably went to Strasburg, but this is uncertain. In 1430 Gutenberg’s name appears among others in anamnesty, granted to such of the Mentz citizens as had left the city, by the Elector Conrad III., but apparently he continued to live in Strasburg. Two years later he visited Mentz, probably about a pension granted by the magistrates to his widowed mother. This is practically all that is known of the earlier part of Gutenberg’s life. It is curious that nearly all the recorded information concerning Gutenberg is in connection either with lawsuits or with the raising of money. From the contracts for borrowing or …
