GUTENBERG, IIENNE, or JOHN, was born at Mainz, or near it, about 1400. The family name was Gensfleisch or Cliinsfleiseh, of honourable deteent and of considerable property. Sulgeloch was the name of an estate belonging to them near Mainz, where it has been stated that Gutenberg was born, and which he sometimes appended to his name as a title. The family also possessed two houses in Mains, sum Gansfieisch, and zum Gutenberg, in which latter house ho is reported to have carried on his printing business in partnership with Fust, and thence he derived the name by which be is best known.
It has been said that in his youth Gutenberg was implicated in an insurrection of the citizen, of Mainz against the nobility, and was forced to fly to Strasbourg. This story is not well authenticated, and is rendered the more doubtful by the fact that in 1430, in en accom modation between the nobility and burghers of Mainz, Gutenberg is named among the nobility " who are not at present in the country." It appears from a letter to his sister Bertha, written in 1424, that he was then residing in Strasbourg, and, there he appears to have remained many years, as from 1436 to 1444 his name appears among the civio nobility of that town. In 1437 an action was commenced against him for a breach of promise of marriage, but it is supposed that ho married the lady ; be certainly married a lady of the same Christian name, and there was no trial.
Gutenberg would appear to have had an inventive mechanical genius and to have exercised it in various directions. While at Strasbourg he was applied to by several persons to teach them some of his arts and contrivances. One of these was the art of polishing stones, which he taught to a certain Andrew Drytzehen, who made a considerable profit thereby. Some time afterwards Gutenberg, in company with John Riff, "began to exercise a certain art whose productions were in demand at the fair of Aix-beChapelle." Drytzehen and two Ileilmans applied to be made acquainted with it Gutenburg assented, with regard to Drytsehon and one of the Heilmans, upon the condition of their each paying down eighty flotins of gold, for which they were to receive a fourth of the profits between them; Riff was to have another fourth, and Gutenberg the remaining half. The fair was deferred for a year, when they petitioned to be made acquainted "with all his wonderful and rare inventions." Gutenberg assented, stipulating that each should pay 125 florMa more, of which 50 were to be paid immediately, and the remaining 75 at three instalments. The part nership was to be for five years, and if any one of the partners died within that time, the ,nrvivora were to pay to the representatives of the deceased the sum of 100 florins for his share of the stock and utensils. Drytzehen paid only a part of his contribution, and died in about two years, when his brothers claimed the hundred florins, or that one of them should be admitted as a partner. Gutenberg pleaded, that as 85 florins remained unpaid of Drytzehen's contribu tion, that sum should be deducted, and the balance, 15 florins, he was ready to pay. This view was adopted by the judges, whose decision was given on December 12, 1439.
The chief importance of this trial however lies in the evidence of the various parties, showing that the "wondrous ad," was in fact printing. Lead was one of the materials purchased. Some of the
operations were carried on iu Drytzehen'a house, and upon his death, Gutenberg sent a message by his servant lieildeck to Claus Drytzehen stating that " your late brother has four pieces (stficke) lying beneath a press, and John Gutenberg prays you to take them out and off the presto, and separate them, so that no one may ace what it is." ("Andreas Dritzeben ewer bruder aclige Lett ir. etlicke undenan Inn elner pressen ligen, da hatt uch Hans Gutenberg gebettet doe ir die daruaz nemet, and uff die press() legont von einander, so kan man nit gesehen was dm 1st") This witness, flans Schultheias, deposes also that A. Drytzehen had complained of the 'werck' having already cost him 800 guilders. Another witness, Conrad Sahspaeh, deposes that after Drytzehen's death, Gutenberg addressed him thus : "Go, and take the pieces out of the press and distribute (zerlege) them ; " when he went however the work had been removed. Ile likewise mentions Drytzehen'a complaint of the expense. Gutenberg's servant states that lie was sent " to open (or undo) the press, which was fastened with two screws, so that the pieces (which were in it) should fall asunder." Heilman, brother of one of the partners, proves that shortly before Drytzehen's death, Gutenberg had sent to "bring away all the forms (formcn), that they might be separated in his presence, as he found several things in them of which he disapproved." One Hans Dunne, a goldsmith, also proves that, three years before, he had done work that "belongs to printing " ("dm zu den trucken gehUret"), to the amount of 100 guilders. It does not appear that Gutenberg succeeded in producing any printed books at Strasbourg, but the above facts, we think, go far to prove that he possessed moveable types of metal ; tho use of technical terms still in use, being very remarkable. These details are taken from ' Vindiciai Typographicre,' of J. D. Schcepflin; published in 1700. In the Appendix to that work he given a summary of the testimony of the witnesses (of whom there were twenty-six produced on the part of Drytzehen, and fourteen for Gutenberg), aud the judgment of the court They are given in Latin and in old German, and we have used, with an exception here and there, the translations given in ' A Treatise ou Wood. Engraving; with upwards of 300 Illuetratiaus on Wood, by John Jackson.' Gutenberg's success in the law-suit does not seem to have rendered him the more prosperous. In 1441 and 1442, in order to raise money he sold some property in Mainz, which he bad inherited from an uncle, to the collegiate church of St. Thomas in Strasbourg, in which town he was still living. Somewhere about 1445 he appears to have returned to Mainz, and in ]449 ho entered into partnership with Fest. It is in the following year that John Trithemius, who published his work 'On the Illustrious Men of Germany' in 1515, places the invention of the art. His account however is avowedly derived from Schoffer, and even he only claims the discovery of the more easy method of casting the types.