XXI
Gutenberg and his Earlier Work at Mentz.
Gutenberg appears in Mentz as a Borrower of Money … Was then Ready to Begin as a Printer. Donatus of 1451 … Letters of Indulgence of 1454 and 1455 … Made from Founded Types … Circumstances attending their sale … Fac-simile of Holbein's Satire … Fac-simile of the Letter dated 1454, with a Translation … Almanac of 1455 … Gutenberg's two Bibles … Dates of Publication Uncertain … Bible of 36 lines, with Fac-simile … Evidences of its probable Priority … Apparently an Unsuccessful Book … John Fust, with Portrait … Fust's Contract with Gutenberg in 1450. Probable Beginning of the Bible of 42 lines … Description of Book, with Fac-simile … Colophon of the Illuminator … Must have been Printed before 1456 … Fust brings Suit against Gutenberg. Official Record of the Trial … Gutenberg's Inability to pay his debt … Suit was a Surprise … Portrait of Gutenberg … Fust deposes Gutenberg and installs Schœffer at the head of the Office.
Gutenberg's last act upon record in Strasburg was the selling out of the last remnant of his inheritance. The first evidence we have of his return to Mentz is an entry, on the sixth day of October, 1448, in a record of legal contracts, in which he appears as a borrower of money. It seems that Gutenberg had persuaded his kinsman, Arnold Gelthus, to borrow from Rynhard Brömser and John Rodenstein, the sum of 150 guilders, for the use of which Gutenberg promised to pay the yearly interest of 8½ guilders. Gutenberg had no securities to offer; Gelthus had to pledge the rents of some houses for this purpose. How this money was to be used is not stated, but it may be presumed that Gutenberg needed it for the development of his grand invention. His plans,
