The failure of many early printers to make their business profitable was largely caused by their injudicious selection for publication of bulky theological writings which cost a great deal of money to print, and were salable only to a small class. It was unwisely supposed that printing would receive its great support from the ecclesiastics. With this object in view, the first printers printed almost exclusively in Latin, and generally in the expensive shape of folio, the books which could be read only by the learned, and bought only by the wealthy.[1] The printers' hopes of profit were rarely ever realized. Only a few like Zell, Mentel and Schœffer became successful merchants of books on dogmatic theology. It was soon discovered that printing could not be supported by ecclesiastics. The printers who had been induced to set up presses in monasteries did not long remain there, nor did the printing and publishing offices which they left prosper for many years. Books of devotion were never in greater request, but books published by the church did not fully meet the popular want.
Nearly all the books printed by Gutenberg and Schœffer were in the Latin language. Whether they overlooked the fact that there was an actual need for books in German, or whether they were restrained in an attempt to print in German, cannot be decided. Other publishers saw the need, and disregarded the restraint, if there was any, to the great inquietude of ecclesiastics, who seem to have had forewarning of the mischief that would be made by types. On the fourth
- ↑ The Bishop of Angers in 1470 paid 40 crowns of gold for a copy of the Bible of 1462. The Catholicon of Gutenberg sold for 41 crowns of gold in 1465. A copy of Mansion's edition of the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, brought 40 crowns in 1481. A missal was sold in 1481 for 18 gold florins. Bernard notes a sale in which a printed copy brought a higher price than a manuscript. A copy on vellum of the Summary of St. Thomas by Schœffer, was sold at Paris for 15 crowns of gold. A manuscript of similar size was sold for 10 crowns. It is difficult to form just conclusions from these prices, for the bindings of the books have not been described. Hallam says that the florin was worth about four francs of present money, equivalent, perhaps, to twenty-four in commodities, and that the crown was worth rather more. Another estimate allows to the money of the fifteenth century eight times its present purchasing power.
