Heinrich Eggestein (born around 1415/20 in
RosheimRosheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It lies southwest of Strasbourg, on the eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains...
,
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
; died 1488 or later; also spelled
Eckstein or
Eggesteyn) is considered, along with
Johannes MentelinJohannes Mentelin, sometimes also spelled Mentlin, was a pioneering German book printer and bookseller of the incunabulum time...
, to be the earliest book
printerA printer is a company that provides commercial printing services, often also offering typesetting and book-binding services. The term can also refer to people who operate printing presses, or who run printing companies....
in
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
and therefore one of the earliest anywhere in Europe outside
MainzMainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the...
.
Before he came to Strasbourg in the beginning of the 1440s, Heinrich Eggestein had already acquired the academic degree of a
Magister artium liberaliumA Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic master degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English, Fine Arts, History, Nursing, Humanities, Geography, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a...
at a university which is still unknown.
Heinrich Eggestein (born around 1415/20 in
RosheimRosheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It lies southwest of Strasbourg, on the eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains...
,
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
; died 1488 or later; also spelled
Eckstein or
Eggesteyn) is considered, along with
Johannes MentelinJohannes Mentelin, sometimes also spelled Mentlin, was a pioneering German book printer and bookseller of the incunabulum time...
, to be the earliest book
printerA printer is a company that provides commercial printing services, often also offering typesetting and book-binding services. The term can also refer to people who operate printing presses, or who run printing companies....
in
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
and therefore one of the earliest anywhere in Europe outside
MainzMainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the...
.
Life
Before he came to Strasbourg in the beginning of the 1440s, Heinrich Eggestein had already acquired the academic degree of a
Magister artium liberaliumA Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic master degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English, Fine Arts, History, Nursing, Humanities, Geography, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a...
at a university which is still unknown. Already shortly after his arrival, he entered the service of
BishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
Ruprecht von Pfalz-Simmern and held the office of
Siegelbewahrer (keeper of the seal, also called
Insiegler or
Siegelträger) at the Strasbourg
provostA provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...
court, which he lost again in 1455. In 1461, this office was again given to him and three years later, he finally lost it.
He got the rights of a Strasbourg citizen in 1442. It is assumed that Eggestein became personally acquainted with
Johannes GutenbergJohannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer who is credited with being the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the mechanical printing press...
, the later inventor of printing books with movable type, during his stay in Strasbourg in the 1440s and that he was able to form a lasting bond with him.
It is highly likely that Eggestein even travelled to
MainzMainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the...
himself in the 1450s to learn the art of book printing from Gutenberg. When this was and how long the stay lasted cannot be definitely resolved, due to sketchy source materials. Ferdinand Geldner holds the view that Eggestein was already in Mainz in 1454 and that might be why he lost the office of
Siegelbewahrer in Strasbourg in 1455. If this were the case, then he could have watched the printing of the 42-line-per-page
Gutenberg BibleThe Gutenberg Bible was one of the first books printed in Europe. It is an edition of the Vulgate, printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s...
firsthand. Geldner further suspects that Heinrich Eggestein actively participated in the typesetting and printing of the
Türkenkalender, which was completed in the middle of December in 1454. He did not give up his Strasbourg citizen's rights until August of 1457, however. If he had left Alsace so late, he would have admittedly arrived in Mainz after the break between Gutenberg and
Johann FustJohann Fust , was an early German printer.- Family background :Fust belonged to a rich and respectable burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to 1423; members of the family held many civil and religious offices....
.
Heinrich Eggestein's return to Strasbourg is certainly verified, as he again got the rights of citizenship on August 9, 1459. However, it is not known whether and in what way Eggestein might have participated in the printing shop operated by Johannes Metelin in Strasbourg. It is indisputable, however, that the two men knew each other and had a close relationship. It is even thought to be possible that Mentelin and Eggestein swore to keep their knowledge of the art of book printing a secret, through an agreement which has unfortunately not been preserved.
The decision to found his own printery may have been made in the time around 1464, when Eggestein lost his office of
Siegelbewahrer for the second time, possibly in connection with the setting up of the
Offizin (an old German term for a book printery ). On March 31, 1466, the printer received a
Schutzbrief of the
ElectorElector may refer to:* Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors...
Frederick I of the PalatinateFrederick I , Count Palatine of the Rhine was an Elector Palatine from the House of Wittelsbach in 1451 - 1476.He was a son of Louis III, Elector Palatine and his second wife Matilda of Savoy...
, giving him special protection, somewhat like a patent. His first larger work is considered to be a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
, which must have been produced before May 24, 1466.
Although his printery was quickly able to establish itself in the market, Heinrich Eggestein got into financial difficulties towards the end of the 1470s. He was indebted to the
BaselBasel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area....
paper merchant, Anton Galliciani, and was successfully sued by him in 1480 for the immediate payment of all outstanding debts. On April 24, 1483, Eggestein finally gave up his rights as a citizen of Strasbourg. The last printed works which were made by him or with his type were
popular printPopular Prints is a term for printed images of generally low artistic quality which were sold cheaply in Europe and later the New World from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, often with text as well as images. They were the first mass-media...
s. He was no longer mentioned after 1488. The date and circumstances of his death are unknown.
Work
Heinrich Eggestein's activities as a book printer can be established from 1464 until 1488. During these 25 years, he published a wealth of printed works with varied content. After his first work, the Bible of 1466 which has already been mentioned, he printed two further Latin
folioFolio may refer to:* Foolscap folio, a paper size, usually 8½ × 13½ inches per sheet,* Folio a book size, for books printed at that size* Mainly for manuscripts, a leaf...
editions of the Holy Scriptures. In this connection, the Strasbourg printer also used modern marketing methods. Eggestein's book advertisement of 1468/70, which promoted his third edition of the Bible, is considered to be the oldest pamphlet of this kind, along with the advertisements of Mentelin and Schöffer.
At the beginning of the 1470s, he began to expand his printing and publishing range. Besides
theologicalThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
works, Eggestein now increasingly printed legal works of
canonCanon law is the body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
and
civil lawCivil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law, the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not determined, as in common law, by judges. The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which...
, such as the
Decretum Gratiani (1471), as well as the
Decretales of Gregory IX and the
Constitutiones of
Pope Clement VPope Clement V , born Raymond Bertrand de Got , was Pope from 1305 to his death...
. That put him in direct competition with
Peter SchöfferPeter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer was an early German printer, who studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender.Working for Fust, Schöffer was the principal workman of...
, who also issued legal titles in on a large scale. Furthermore, Heinrich Eggestein printed antique classics (e.g.,
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's
Bucolica,
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
's
De officiis or
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's
De bello gallico), but directed his special interest to Latin works of Medieval authors. Thus he published the
Legenda aurea of
Jacobus de VoragineBlessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine Blessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine Blessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine ( (c. 1230 – July 13 or July 16, 1298) was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author of the Golden Legend, a collection of the legendary lives of the...
,
De miseria conditionis humanae by
Pope Innocent IIIPope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. He was born with the name Lotario de Conti.-Early life and election to the Papacy:Lotario de' Conti was born Gavignano, near Anagni...
, as well as works by Bonaventura and Bernhard von Clairvaux, among others. German language titles were quite rare in his range. An important exception to that is the second German Bible, based on the Mentelin Bible, which Eggestein published in 1470. Further vernacular titles were Lucius Apuleius'
The Golden AssThe Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass , is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety....
(Translator: Niklas von Wyle) and an edition of
Belial.
Literature
In German
- P. Amelung: Heinrich Eggestein. In. Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens (LGB). Publ. by Severin Corsten. 2nd new, completely revised and expanded edition. Vol. II. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1989. p. 420-421. ISBN 3-7772-8911-6
- F. Geldner: Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker. Ein Handbuch der deutschen Buchdrucker des XV. Jahrhunderts nach Druckorten. Teil 1. Das deutsche Sprachgebiet. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1968. ISBN 3-7772-6825-9
- F. Geldner: Inkunabelkunde. Eine Einführung in die Welt des frühesten Buchdrucks. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1978. ISBN 3-920153-60-X
- E. Voulliéme: Die deutschen Drucker des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts. Verlag der Reichdruckerei, Berlin 1922