Small Receipts.--Printing the “Donatus.”--“Ars Memorandi.”--“Ars
Moriendi.”--An Interesting Fact.--Extract from “Ars Moriendi.”
As time passed, the firm occasionally sold a copy of the “History,”
but receipts were smaller than had been anticipated. Few of the common
people could read,--its circulation was therefore mostly confined to
the priests and nobility. The former rarely needed to purchase it,
as each one could, if he desired, secure one of the kind by copying;
and trouble, expense, and time were involved in gaining access to the
higher classes.
Gutenberg consoled himself by reasoning that his books would be called
for gradually, and that he must as soon as possible issue another work
suitable for a more accessible class. These were the youth in the
Cathedral, studying for the priesthood, who were under the necessity
of copying their “Donatuses,” or manuals of grammar. Why should he not
prepare an edition for their use? He would be sure of some customers,
and there would be no risk in trying his hand at a “Donatus.” The
firm at once went to work upon the manual, which was one of the first
school-books adapted to beginners. The children and youth of four
hundred years ago had few aids in study, and few were educated. The
voice of the living teacher, usually a priest, served to make passable
the otherwise inaccessible paths of learning.
As the busy company wrought on the “Donatus,” the curiosity of
certain neighbors was excited respecting the nature of their evening
employment, and it was deemed advisable more fully to remove the hidden
art to Dritzhn’s shop, from which printing-office the new manuals
of grammar in due time were issued. They sold more readily than the
“History,” and the edition of fifty copies was soon exhausted. Many
of the scholars in the Cathedral school bought them; and for a time
Gutenberg and his firm were busy in issuing and Peter Schoeffer in
circulating the work. The lapidary and mirror arts were still pursued
by turns, although very naturally the firm felt more interest in the
fascinating occupation of imprinting. After a few weeks the demand for
the “Donatus” almost ceased, the pupils in Strasbourg and vicinity
having been supplied, and the means of communication with other places
being infrequent. There were no newspapers, and none of the methods
of advertising now in vogue with publishers. Still the company was not
discouraged; the sale of one book was a greater event then than is now
the sale of many thousands.
The call for the “Donatus” declining, the inventor turned his attention
to a work of quite a different description, which was a great favorite
with the more devout monks. This was the “Ars Memorandi,” or “Art of
Remembering.” We have no means of ascertaining the size of this book;
but it could not have been large, as almost in immediate connection
with it were engraved the blocks of a religious and devotional work
called “Ars Moriendi,” or the “Art of knowing how to Die.” The numerous
engravings illustrating these books, Gutenberg seems to have omitted.
These were comparatively new works, the first book having only been
written in 1420, followed by other copies in 1430. Gutenberg’s block
edition was a great improvement on these, and soon became popular,
being suited to the religious wants of the people.
It is an interesting fact that the second book, “Ars Moriendi,”
continued to engage attention for many years. It is also probable that
it was the identical work on which Caxton, the first English printer,
was engaged the last day of his life, the 15th of June, 1490, when he
was about eighty years of age. The work at that time bore the title
“The Art and Craft to know well to Die.”
If so, we have the inventor of printing himself, when comparatively
a young man, issuing this important work, and the first English
printer crowning his life-labors in bringing it before the world. The
thoughtful and religious tone of this book may be gathered from the
following passage from the preface:--
“When it is so that what a man maketh or doeth, it is made to come to
some end, and if the thing be good or well made, it must needs come to
good end; then by better and greater reason every man ought to intend
in such wise to live in this world, in keeping the commandments of
God, that he may come to a good end. Then out of this world, full of
wretchedness and tribulations, he may go to heaven unto God and his
saints, unto joy ever durable.”
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