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FUST, JOHANN ( ?-1466)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 374 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FUST, JOHANN ( ?-1466) , See also:early See also:German printer, belonged to a See also:rich and respectable burgher See also:family of See also:Mainz, which is known to have flourished from 1423, and to have held many See also:civil and religious offices. The name was always written Fust, but in 1506 Johann Schoffer, in dedicating the German See also:translation of See also:Livy to the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian, called his grandfather See also:Faust, and thenceforward the family assumed this name, and the Fausts of See also:Aschaffenburg, an old and quite distinct family, placed Johann Fust in their See also:pedigree. Johann's See also:brother See also:Jacob, a See also:goldsmith, was one of the burgomasters in 1462, when Mainz was stormed and sacked by the troops of See also:Count Adolf of See also:Nassau, on which occasion he seems to have perished (see a document, dated May 8,"1463, published by Wyss in Quartalbl. See also:des hist. Vereins Pr Hessen, 1879, p. 24). There is no See also:evidence that, as is commonly asserted, Johann Fust was a goldsmith, but he appears to have been a See also:money-lender or banker. On See also:account of his connexion with See also:Gutenberg (q.v.), he has been represented by some as the inventor of See also:printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg, by others as his See also:patron and benefactor, who saw the value of his See also:discovery and supplied him with means to carry it out, whereas others paint him as a greedy and crafty speculator, who took See also:advantage of Gutenberg's See also:necessity and robbed him of the fruits of his invention. However this may be, the Helmasperger document of See also:November 6, 1455, shows that Fust advanced money to Gutenberg (apparently 800 guilders in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) for carrying on his See also:work, and that Fust, in 1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had See also:lent, claiming 2020 (more correctly 2026) guilders for See also:principal and See also:interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a See also:year which he had undertaken to furnish for expenses, See also:wages, &c., and, according to Gutenberg, had said that he had no intention of claiming interest. The suit was apparently decided in Fust's favour, November 6, 1455, in the See also:refectory of the Barefooted Friars of Mainz, when Fust made See also:oath that he himself had borrowed 1550 guilders and given them to Gutenberg. There is no evidence that Fust, as is usually supposed, removed the portion of the printing materials covered by his See also:mortgage to his own See also:house, and carried on printing there with the aid of See also:Peter Schoffer, of Gernsheim (who is known to have been a scriptor at See also:Paris in 1449), to whom, probably about 1455,1 he gave his only daughter Dyna or See also:Christina in See also:marriage. Their first publication was the Psalter, See also:August 14, 1457, a See also:folio of 350 pages, the first printed See also:book with a See also:complete date, and remarkable for the beauty of the large See also:initials printed each in two See also:colours, red and See also:blue, from types made in two pieces.' The Psalter was reprinted with the same types, 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schoffer's last publication) and 1516.

Fust and Schoffer's other See also:

works are given below .3 In 1464 Adolf ' This date is uncertain; some See also:place the marriage in 1453 or soon after, others about 1464. It is probable that Fust alluded to this relationship when he spoke of Schafer as pueri mei in the colophons of See also:Cicero's De officiis of 1465 and 1466. 2 This method was patented in See also:England by See also:Solomon See also:Henry in 1783, and by See also:Sir See also:William See also:Congreve in 1819. 2 (3) Durandus, Rationale divinorum officiorum (1459), folio, 16o leaves; (4) the Clementine Constitutions, with the See also:gloss of Johannes Andreae (1460), 51 leaves; (5) Biblia Sacra See also:Latina (1462), folio, 2 vols., 242 and 239 leaves, 48 lines to a full See also:page; (6) the See also:Sixth Book of See also:Decretals, with Andreae's gloss, 17th See also:December 1465, folio, 141 leaves; (7) Cicero, De officiis (1465), 4t0, 88 leaves, the first of Nassau appointed for the See also:parish of St Quintin three Baumeisters (See also:master-builders) who were to choose twelve See also:chief parishioners as assistants for See also:life. One of the first of these " Vervaren," who were named on May-See also:day 1464, was Johannes Fust, and in 1467 See also:Adam von See also:Hochheim was chosen instead of " the See also:late " (selig) Johannes Fust. Fust is said to have gone to Paris in 1466 and to have died of the See also:plague, which raged there in August and See also:September. He certainly was in Paris on the 4th of See also:July, when he gave See also:Louis de Lavernade of the See also:province of Forez, then See also:chancellor of the See also:duke of See also:Bourbon and first See also:president of the See also:parliament of See also:Toulouse, a copy of his second edition of Cicero, as appears from a See also:note in Lavernade's own See also:hand at the end of the book, which is now in the library of See also:Geneva. But nothing further is known than that on the 3oth of See also:October, probably in 1471, an See also:annual See also:mass was instituted for him by Peter Schoffer, See also:Conrad Henlif (for Henekes, or Henckis, Schoffer's partner ? who married Fust's widow about 14681) and Johann Fust (the son), in the See also:abbey-See also:church of St See also:Victor of Paris, where he was buried; and that Peter Schoffer founded a similar memorial service for Fust in 1473 in the church of the See also:Dominicans at Mainz (Bockenheimer, Gesch. der Stadt Mainz, iv. 15). Fust was formerly often confused with the famous magician Dr Johann Faust, who, though an See also:historical figure, had nothing to do with him (see FAUST). See further the articles GUTENBERG and See also:TYPOGRAPHY. (J.

H.

End of Article: FUST, JOHANN ( ?-1466)

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