XXIII
The Work of Peter Schœffer and John Fust.
Schœffer a Copyist at Paris in 1449 … Fac-simile of his Writing … Enters the Service of Gutenberg. Psalter of 1457, with Fac-simile of Types and Initials in Colors … Accurate Register of Initial made by Painting the Cut … Evidences of Painting … Fac-simile of Colophon in Colors … Different Theories concerning the Method of Printing … Schœffer's First Claim as an Inventor. Psalter probably Planned by Gutenberg … Fac-similes of the Types of the Rationale Durandi and of the Bible of 1462 … Trade-Mark of Fust and Schœffer … Fac-simile of the Types of the Constitutions … Jenson's Mission to Mentz … Printing not a Secret … Death of Fust … Partnership of Schœffer and Conrad Fust … Fac-simile of Types of 1468 … Schœffer becomes a Judge … Schœffer's Claim to the Invention of Matrices … Statements of John Schœffer and of Trithemius … Their Improbability … Statement of Jo. Frid. Faustus … Its Untrustworthiness.
Peter Schœffer was born at Gernszheim, a little village situated on the Rhine, near Mentz, about the year 1430. Before he was twenty years of age, he was copying books at Paris, as is clearly enough shown in the colophon of an old manuscript book, which says that "this book was completed by me, Peter, of Gernszheym, or of Mentz, during the year 1449, in the most glorious University of Paris." This isolated fact is the only authority for the assertion that Schœffer was a calligrapher, engaged by Gutenberg to design the letters and ornaments of the Bible of 42 lines. He may have been qualified for this service, but the thin letters and angular ornaments of his colophon are not like the thick types and flowing lines of Gutenberg's Bible. Like all poor students
