have been others, whose names are lost, but the printers are few; they cannot be compared, either in number or in influence, with those of many smaller cities during the same period. Long before Schœffer died,[1] Mentz had ceased to be a great school and centre of printing.
Strasburg. The statement of Lignamine, that Mentel printed at Strasburg after 1458, has been corroborated by the recent discovery in the Freiburg library of a Latin Bible in two volumes folio, which is known to have been printed by Mentel, and which contains the subscriptions of the illuminator and the written dates, in one volume of 1460, in the other of 1461.[2] As this book should have been in press at least two years, it may be regarded as evidence that printing was practised here as early as in Bamberg. Strasburg gave greater encouragement to printers than Mentz, for sixteen master printers were working there before 1500.
Cologne. The first printer at Cologne was Ulric Zell. He was an industrious printer for more than forty years, but he never printed a book in German, nor did he adopt any of the improvements of the printers of Italy. He adhered rigidly to the severe style of his master, Schœffer, printing all his books from three sizes of a rude face of Round Gothic types. He was not a skillful nor even a correct printer, but he was a shrewd publisher, and accumulated a large property. Madden supposes that he went to Cologne in 1462, and
- ↑ The high reputation of Schœffer's office was fairly sustained by his son John, who died in 1531. Peter Schœffer, junior, another son, was equally able, for he printed books in Hebrew, Latin, German and English. He found no proper encouragement at Mentz, and had to establish his office successively at Worms, Strasburg and Venice. His last known work, with date 1542, was printed at Venice, where it is supposed he died. Ives Schœffer, son of Peter, junior, who succeeded John Schœffer in the management of the office at Mentz, was an industrious publisher from 1531 to 1552, the supposed year of his death. Victor, the son of Ives, gave up the business, and the name of Schœffer disappeared from the roll of printers at Mentz. Helbig, Notes et dissertations, etc., p. 47–50.
- ↑ A description of this Bible, with other particulars of importance, was given by Dr. Dziatzko, the librarian at Freiburg, in a letter to Hessels, and by him printed in the introduction to the Haarlem Legend, p. XXII
