[GUTENBERG.] Schiffer, by inventing the punch, is supposed to have given completion to the discovery. Fust, liko all the goldsmiths of bis time, was no doubt an engraver also ; and might iu that capacity have been of use in forwarding the invention. It is not certain how ever that Fust did more than supply money to Gutenberg, who had been making experiments with types at Strasbourg, before he removed to Mainz in 1444-45. Iu 1450 the partnership commenced between Fust and Gutenberg; it lasted only till 1455, when Fust sued Gutenberg for money lent. The sum really advanced appears to have been 1600 florins, swollen by charges for interest and expenses to 2020 florins. The judges decided that a certain sum was due from Gutenberg [GUTENBERGJ, and in consequence the whole of Gutenberg's printing apparatus- fell into Fust's hands, who ultimately, with the assistance of Peter Schiffer, made the invention useful to the world. The earliest production of the press of Gutenberg and Fust is sup posed to be an indulgence of Pope Nicolas V. to Paulin Zappe, the ambassador of John, king of Cyprus, issued August 12, 1451, of which four copies are known, printed on vellum, and dated 1454, though in all the copies but one the date has been altered with a pen; a second was Rya meeting der Cristcnheit wid'ler die durken ' ('An Appeal to Christendom against the Turks '), of which the date is plausibly supposed to be 1454. The 'Latin Bible,' in folio, commonly called the '31szarine Bible,' was published in 1456, and as the disso lution of partnership did not take place till November 1455, a teat part of it must have been printed before that event.
Tho books with dates which bear the joint names of Fust and Schiffer are The Latin Psalter' of 1457, in large folio ; the type of the size used in the great service books of the Romish Church. At the end is this subscription "Ad inuentione srtilicloss imprimendi ac caracterizandi absqne calami ulla exaratione sic effigiates. Et ad euse blam del Industrie est consummates per Johannem Fnst Cinem Magnntinum. Et Petrum Schoffer de Ciemszheim. Ammo del 311licsimo CCCC.LV11. 2n Vigilia As sumptionle." 2,`The Psalter' of 1459; with some variations from the preceding, but in the same size and letter. 3, The Rationale divinorum Officiorum ' of Durand, 1459, fol. msj.; the first specimen of the smaller typo of Fust and Schiffer. 4, The Clementine Constitu Mons,' 1460, fol. maj. 5, The Latin Vulgate Bible,' 2 vols., 1462,
fol. maj. Copies of this Bible are oftener found printed upon vellum than on paper, but both are rare. 6, The German Bible,' fol. maj. [Known to have been printed in 1462, or thereabout.] Reprinted in 1465. 7, Bulla Papa:, Pii IL,' Germ., 1463, fol. maj. 8, 'Libel' sextus Decretalium Bonifacii VIII.,' Pont. Max., 1465,•fol. maj. : a second, or at least a varying impression of this work appeared in the same year. 9, ' Cicero's Offices and Paradoxa,' 1465, sin. fol. : the first edition of Cicero with a date. 10, ' Cicero's Offices and Paradoxa,' 1466, sm. fol. Copies of this edition are more common upon vellum than on paper : that of 1465 is very rare upon vellum. 11, Gram matica rhythmica,' 1466, fol. min. It consists of eleven leaves in the smallest fount of type of these printers, and is of extreme rarity ; two or three copies only are known.
The following works without date, from the close resemblance of their typography, are assigned without scruple by our best biblio graphers to the press of Fust and Schiffer 'Bulls Cruciata sanctissimi Domini nostri Papas contra Turcos,' fol., in six printed leaves. It has no place or• name. The typo is like the Durand. 2, 'Lau Virginia,' folio, nine leaves. Tho device of the shields in red, at the end, seen in so many of these printers' works, decidedly justifies its being placed as the production of Fust and Schoffer's press. 3, S. Aurelii Augustini de Arto praadicandi Traetatus,' folio : supposed to have been printed about 1466. It consists of twenty-two leaves. 4, tElius Donatus de Octo partibus Or itionis,' 4to ; tho type of the smaller size, resembling the Latin Bible of 1462 and the Cicero. of 1465. The conclusions however drawn from a similarity of type must be very doubtful, as, when punches were invented and types cast, the appearance might be the same, whatever the date and whoever the printer.
With an exception or two, the whole of Fust and Schiffer's productions are in the collection at the British Museum.
Fust, whose name appears with Schiffer's for the last time in 1466, is supposed to have died in that, or at latest in the next year, of the plague, at Paris. Schiffer continued to print in his own name for a long time.
(Panzer, Annal. Typogr., vol. ii., p. 111-17 ; Biblioth. Spenceriana, passim. ; Biogr. Universelle, tom. xvi., p. 205; Peignot, Yarietes, Notices, et Raretes Blbliographiques, 8vo, Par., 1822, p. 78.)