Mainz Psalter

Mainz Psalter

The second book published after the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press with moveable type is arguably more significant for the history of book printing than the first due to the number of innovations that it introduced, which are standard today. Printed on vellum in 1457 at the behest of the Archbishop of Mainz, this historically significant Psalter is a marvelously designed work that also features innovations that were abandoned, at least for a time. The history of the printing house that created it also reveals the details of the financing of the world’s first printing house and how the partnership that created it ultimate broke up and resulted in a court case. Thus, the Mainz Psalter is considered to be a precious witness to the incunable period, the genesis of book printing.

The First Colophon

The Mainz Psalter is the first book to have a printed colophon with information that includes the date as well as identifying Schöffer, who actually carried out the printing, and Fust, who ran the business side of things as the publisher. Printed in red ink with a large blue “P” initial with red filigree décor at the end of the codex, the colophon also features the first printer’s mark in history, which consists of two shields suspended from a branch, also printed in red. Written in Latin, the colophon explains how this revolutionary codex came to be:
“This volume of the Psalms, adorned with a magnificence of capital letters and clearly divided by rubrics, has been fashioned by a mechanical process of printing and producing characters, without use of a pen, and it was laboriously completed, for God's Holiness, by Joachim Fust, citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim, on Assumption Eve [August 15] in the year of Our Lord, 1457.”

An Experiment in Multi-Colored Printing

This is the first book to be printed in multiple colors. In order to create multicolored prints consisting of black text with some small red initials and large blue-red initials, the elements that were to be printed in color were individually removed from the typesetting, colored separately, and reinserted before pressing. Although this was already possible with the rudimentary printing presses of the 15th century, it was an expensive and time-consuming process that was abandoned by contemporary printers and not readopted until technology advanced. In the meantime, the vast majority of printed books, including the Gutenberg Bible, left blank spaces for initials to be hand drawn by an illuminator along with any other adornment according to the tastes of the patron. As a result, the Mainz Psalter is one of the only examples of early attempts at multicolored printing.

Fust v. Gutenberg

In order for Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400–68) to get his printing enterprise off the ground, he needed financial backing, which he got in the form of a loan – 800 guilders in 1450 and a another 800 in 1452 – from the goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender Johann Fust (ca. 1400–66). Their business relationship was further cemented when Fust’s future son-in-law, a scribe who was trained in Paris named Peter Schöffer (ca. 1425 – ca. 1503), was taken on as a printing apprentice and helped design some of the first typefaces.
However, a dispute broke out between Fust and Gutenberg in 1455, the same year the famous Gutenberg Bible was first printed, and as a result Fust sued Gutenberg in court for the 1,600 guilders he was owed plus 6% interest for a total of 2,026 guilders. Schöffer testified on Fust’s behalf and the suit was decided in Fust’s favor on November 6, 1455, giving him control of the workshop and half of the unsold Bibles. He supposedly took the some of the presses and started his own printing house with Schöffer, although there is no concrete evidence for this. It is still debated whether Fust was a patron and benefactor who may have actually instructed Gutenberg and was merely trying to recover his investment, or a scrupulous speculator who robbed Gutenberg of the profits of his invention.