Laurens Janszoon Coster
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Laurens Janszoon Coster (c. 1370, Haarlem – c. 1440), or Laurens Jansz Koster, is the purported inventor of a printing press from Haarlem. He allegedly invented printing simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg and was regarded by some in the Netherlands well into the 20th century as having invented printing first.[1]
Biography
Sint-Bavokerk. He is mentioned in contemporary documents between 1417 and 1434 as a member of the great council, an assessor (scabinus), and as the city treasurer. He probably perished in the plague that visited Haarlem in 1439 and 1440; his widow is mentioned in the latter year.[2]
There are no known works printed by Laurens.
Junius story
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, who started a printing business in Haarlem in 1560. Later Samuel Ampzing (with the help of Petrus Scriverius) repeated the story in Lavre-Kranz Voor Lavrens Koster Van Haerlem, Eerste Vinder vande Boek-Druckerye (1628) with illustrations of the invention. According to Junius, sometime in the 1420s, Coster was in the Haarlemmerhout carving letters from bark for the amusement of his grandchildren, and observed that the letters left impressions on the sand. He proceeded to invent a new type of ink that did not run, and he began a printing company based on his invention with a primitive typesetting arrangement using moveable type. Since the Haarlemmerhout was burned during a siege by the Kennemers in 1426 during the Hook and Cod wars, this must have been early in the 1420s. Using wooden letters at first, he later used lead and tin movable type. His company prospered and grew. He is said to have printed several books including Speculum Humanae Salvationis with several assistants including the letter cutter Johann Fust, and it was this letter cutter Fust (often spelled Faust) who, when Laurens was nearing death, broke his promise of secrecy and stole his presses and type and took them to Mainz
where he started his own printing company.
Story by Ulrich Zell
There is support for the claim that Coster might be the inventor. In the anonymous Kölner Chronik of 1499,
Johann Gutenberg about a decade after Coster's death. However, the first securely dated book by Dutch printers is from 1471, long after Gutenberg.[5]
Either way, Coster is somewhat of a Haarlem local "hero", and apart from a statue on the Grote Markt his name can be found in many places in the city.
Earliest known Haarlem printer
Between 1483 and 1486,
Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
and was printed in Utrecht, not Haarlem.
300th anniversary
In 1740
Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
and its offshoot, the "Oeconomische Tak", and he hired Holtzhey's son Johann Georg to commission prize medals for both societies.
400th anniversary
St. Bavochurch) in 1884, painting by the American artist Charles Frederic Ulrich
. At this time the story was already considered antiquated.
In 1823 Haarlem celebrated the 400th anniversary of Coster's invention with a monument in the
De Naald (Heemstede)
at his own home in nearby Heemstede.
Joh. Enschedé
Behind the
Teyler's Museum
.
Footnotes
- ^ "Coster (Koster), Laurens Janszoon". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Koster, Laurens". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 918.
- ^ Het Gulden Cabinet, Aenmerckinghe, p 23
- ^ Costeriana
- ^ Juchhoff 1950, pp. 131f.
- ^ Beschrijving van nederlandsche historie-penningen, Volumes 1-5, index of medals in continuation of the work by Gerard van Loon, 1821
- Haarlem Public Library
- ^ website of the Museum Enschedé
References
- The Legend of Koster
- Deugd boven geweld, Een geschiedenis van Haarlem, 1245–1995, edited by Gineke van der Ree-Scholtens, 1995, ISBN 90-6550-504-0
- Juchhoff, Rudolf (1950), "Was bleibt von den holländischen Ansprüchen auf die Erfindung der Typographie?", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 128–133
External links
Media related to Laurens Jansz. Coster at Wikimedia Commons
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