Johann Fust (c. 1400 October 30, 1466), was an early
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
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....
.
Fust belonged to a rich and respectable
burgherHistorically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those...
family of
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...
, traceable back to 1423; members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was always written Fust, but in 1506
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...
, in dedicating the German translation of
LivyTitus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
to
Maximilian I, Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian I of Habsburg was King of the Romans from 1493 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his father's reign, from circa 1483...
, called his grandfather Faust, and thenceforward the family assumed this name, and the
FaustFaust or Faustus is the protagonist of a classic German legend who makes a pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge...
s of
AschaffenburgAschaffenburg is a large town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat....
, an old and quite distinct family, placed Johann Fust in their pedigree.
Johann Fust (c. 1400 October 30, 1466), was an early
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
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....
.
Family background
Fust belonged to a rich and respectable
burgherHistorically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those...
family of
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...
, traceable back to 1423; members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was always written Fust, but in 1506
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...
, in dedicating the German translation of
LivyTitus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
to
Maximilian I, Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian I of Habsburg was King of the Romans from 1493 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his father's reign, from circa 1483...
, called his grandfather Faust, and thenceforward the family assumed this name, and the
FaustFaust or Faustus is the protagonist of a classic German legend who makes a pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge...
s of
AschaffenburgAschaffenburg is a large town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat....
, an old and quite distinct family, placed Johann Fust in their pedigree. Johann's brother Jacob, a goldsmith, was one of the
burgomasterBurgomaster is the English form, rendering various terms in or derived from the German language word for the chief magistrate and/or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration All contemporary titles...
s in 1462, when
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...
was stormed and sacked by the troops of Count
Adolf II of NassauAdolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein , was Archbishop of Mainz from 1461 until 1475.Adolph was a son of Count Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein....
, in the course of which he seems to have been killed (suggested by a document dated May 8, 1463).
Printing
There is no evidence for the theory that Johann Fust was a goldsmith, but he appears to have been a money-lender or banker. On account of his connection with Johann Gutenberg, he has been called the inventor of printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg. Some see him as a patron and benefactor, who saw the value of Gutenberg's discovery and supplied him with means to carry it out, whereas others portray him as a speculator who took advantage of Gutenberg's necessity and robbed him of the profits of his invention. Whatever the truth, the
Helmasperger document of November 6, 1455, shows that Fust advanced money to Gutenberg (apparently 800
guilderGuilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...
s in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) to carry on his work, and that Fust, in 1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had lent, claiming 2026 guilders for principal and interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a year which he had undertaken to furnish for expenses, wages, etc., 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 refectory of the Barefooted Friars of Mainz, when Fust swore 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 mortgage to his own house, and carried on printing there with the aid of
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...
of Gernsheim (who is known to have been a scriptor at
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1449), who in about 1455 married Fust's only daughter Christina. Their first publication was the
Psalter, August 14, 1457, a folio of 350 pages, the first printed book with a complete date, and remarkable for the beauty of the large initials printed each in two colours, red and blue, from types made in two pieces. The
Psalter was reprinted with the same types, 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.
Fust and Schöffer's other works are:
- Guillaume Durand
Guillaume Durand also known as Durandus, Duranti or Durantis, from the Italian form of Durandi filius, as he sometimes signed himself, was a French canonist and liturgical writer, and Bishop of Mende....
, Rationale divinorum officiorum (1459), folio, 160 leaves
- the Clementine Constitutions, with the gloss of Johannes Andreae (1460), 51 leaves
- Biblia Sacra Latina (1462), folio 2 vols., 242 and 239 leaves, 48 lines to a full page
- the Sixth Book of Decretals, with Andreae's gloss, December 17 1465, folio 1211 leaves
- Cicero
Marcus 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...
. De officus, 88 leaves.
Death
In 1464
Adolf II of NassauAdolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein , was Archbishop of Mainz from 1461 until 1475.Adolph was a son of Count Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein....
appointed for the parish of St Quintin three Baumeisters (master-builders) who were to choose twelve chief parishioners as assistants for life. One of the first of these "Vervaren," who were named on May 1, 1464, was Johannes Fust, and in 1467 Adam von Hochheim was chosen instead of the late (
selig) Johannes Fust. Fust is said to have gone to Paris in 1466 and to have died of the
plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis . Plague is a zoonotic, primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Plague is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought...
, which raged there in August and September. He certainly was in Paris on the 4th of July, when he gave Louis de Lavernade of the province of Forez, then chancellor of the duke of
BourbonThe House of Bourbon is an important European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples & Sicily, and Parma...
and first president of the parliament of
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
, a copy of his second edition of
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...
, as appears from a note in Lavernade's own hand at the end of the book, which is now in the library of
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
.
Nothing further is known, other than that on October 30, probably in 1471, an annual mass was instituted for him by Peter Schöffer, Conrad Henlif (or Henekes, or Henckis, (supposedly Schöffer's partner) who married Fust's widow about 1468) and Johann Fust (the son), in the abbey-church of St Victor of Paris, where he was buried; and that Peter Schöffer founded a similar memorial service for Fust in 1473 in the church of the
Dominican OrderThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
at Mainz (Bockenheimer,
Gesch. der Stadt Mainz, iv. 15).
According to some sources, the speed and precise duplication abilities of the press caused French officials to claim that Fust was a magician, leading some historians to connect Fust with the legendary character of
FaustFaust or Faustus is the protagonist of a classic German legend who makes a pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge...
.
Friedrich Maximilian KlingerFriedrich Maximilian von Klinger was a German dramatist and novelist.-Biography:Klinger was born of humble parentage in Frankfurt, on 17 February 1752. His father died when he was a child, and his early years were a hard struggle...
's Faust, a printer, may borrow more from Fust than other versions of the Faust legend.