Johannes Mentelin
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Johannes Mentelin | |
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Johannes Mentelin, sometimes also spelled Mentlin, (born around 1410 in Schlettstadt, today
Life
In 1447, Johannes Mentelin gained the rights of a Strasbourg citizen. He was first a Goldschreiber (
The first printing which carries Mentelin's name is Augustine's Tractatus de arte praedicandi from the year 1465. However, it is assumed that Mentelin had already begun to print significantly earlier, probably even already in 1458. His oldest known printed work is a Latin Bible printed with 49 lines per page ("B49"), whose first volume is dated 1460. As Gutenberg's Bible was printed with 42 lines per page, Mentelin's had fewer pages and proved handier.
Mentelin quickly achieved business success, which made him a prosperous man. In 1466, he was even awarded a coat of arms by Emperor Frederick III. After about 20 years as a book printer, Mentelin died on December 12, 1478, in Strasbourg. He was buried in the cemetery of the (no longer existing) St.-Michael's-Chapel. His grave was later removed and is now inside Strasbourg Cathedral.[citation needed] One of daughters married the book printer Martin Schott,[1] and another married Adolf Rusch. The latter, also called the printer with the bizarre R, took over the Offizin.[citation needed]
Work
About 40 printed works are ascribed to Mentelin's Strasbourg Offizin. His printing and publishing list contained predominantly theological and philosophical works in Latin, whose purity of text was ensured by scholarly proofreaders. Among others, works of Augustine,
His first printing of a Bible in vernacular language stands out, the so-called Mentelin Bible of 1466, the first attested edition of the full Bible in the German language, translated from the Vulgate, and one of the earliest printed works in German. The Mentelin Bible was the basis for a further thirteen pre-Reformation editions of the Bible (including those by Zainer and Sorg) which appeared in southern Germany before editions of the Luther Bible, based on Hebrew and Greek, from 1522.
Literature
- Geldner, F (1968), Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker. Ein Handbuch der deutschen Buchdrucker des XV. Jahrhunderts nach Druckorten (in German), vol. 1. Das deutsche Sprachgebiet, Stuttgart: Hiersemann, ISBN 3-7772-6825-9.
- Harthausen, H (1989), "Johannes Mentelin", in Corsten, Severin (ed.), Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens (LGB) (in German), vol. V (2nd new, completely revised and expanded ed.), Stuttgart: Hiersemann, p. 145, ISBN 3-7772-9904-9.
- Schorbach, Karl (1932), Der Straßburger Frühdrucker Johann Mentelin (1458-1478): Studien zu seinem Leben und Werke (in German), Mainz
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). - Voulliéme, E (1922), Die deutschen Drucker des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts (in German) (2nd ed.), Berlin: Reichdruckerei.
References
- ^ Steiff (1891). "Schott, Martin". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 32. pp. 405–406. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
External links
- Media related to Johann Mentelin at Wikimedia Commons
- Johannes Mentelin in the Humanist Library of Sélestat
- Biblia Latina (in Lithuanian). Vol. 1. Johannes Mentelin. 1460. p. 432. Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2018-10-13 – via archive.org. (Universitätsbibliothek of Freiburg im Breisgau)
- Johannes Mentelin[permanent dead link] In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Vol. 21, p. 370. In German
- Mentelin in the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Inkunabelkatalog Deutscher Bibliotheken (Incunabulum Catalog of German Libraries, INKA): List of the printed works of Mentelin accessible. In German.
- Saint Augustine, of Hippo. De arte praedicandi. Strassburg: Johann Mentelin, not after 1466, at The Library of Congress.