“Anna, the wife of John Schultheiss, an engraver on wood, deposed,
that on one occasion Nicholas Beildeck came to her house to Nicholas
Dritzhn, her relation, and said to him, ‘My Nicholas Dritzhn, Andreas
Dritzhn, of happy memory, has placed four pages (_stucke_) in a press,
which Gutenberg has desired that you will take away and separate, that
no man may know what they are, for he is unwilling that any one should
see them.’
“Also John Schultheiss says that Laurence Beildeck [Gutenberg’s
servant] sometime came to his house to Nicholas Dritzhn, when Andreas
Dritzhn his brother was dead, and that the said Laurence Beildeck thus
spoke to said Nicholas Dritzhn: ‘Andreas Dritzhn, of happy memory, has
placed four pages on a press, which John Gutenberg desires you to take
therefrom, and break them from one another, so that no man may see what
they are.’
“Also Conrad Sachspach deposed that sometime Andrew Hielman came to him
upon the Street of Merchants, and said, ‘My Conrad, as Andreas Dritzhn
is dead, and you made that press and know all about the matter, go
hence and take the pieces from the press, and lay them separate from
one another, so that no one may know what it is.’
“Laurence Beildeck says that he was sent by John Gutenberg to Nicholas
Dritzhn, after the death of Andreas his brother, to say to him that he
should show to no one the press that he had, and that he should see
to it. He added that Gutenberg had moreover commanded him that he
should go suddenly to the presses, and open that press [frame] which
was furnished with two _screws_ or spindles (_cochleis_) that the pages
should fall into pieces, and place those pieces within or upon the
press, so that no one should see the matter, or understand what it was.
“The same witness also said that he knew well that Gutenberg, a little
before the Feast of the Nativity [Christmas], had sent his servant to
take away all forms, which were broken up in his sight, that none of
them might be found perfect. Moreover, after the death of Andreas, the
witness was not ignorant that many were desirous of seeing the presses,
and that Gutenberg had commanded that some one should be sent who might
hinder any one from seeing the presses, and that his servants were sent
to break them up.
“Also John Dunnius, goldsmith, said that three years or thereabouts
previous, he had received from Gutenberg about three hundred florins
for materials relating to printing.”
All this affected the Strasbourgers, both priests and people, very
differently from what it does ourselves. We prize it as a legal
document, showing the existence of separate types, and also two
presses, one of them made by Conrad Sachspach and the other by John
Dunnius, to whom the firm paid three hundred florins for press-work
done in December, 1436. These presses served very different purposes,
as Gutenberg commanded his servant to “open that press which was
furnished with two _screws_ or spindles.” Plainly one was the “chase”
for type, and the other the upright frame with a screw, which moved
down the platen to impress the paper placed upon the type. We learn
also that the art was a secret at the time when Laurentius Costar lay
at the point of death, and those mistake who give him the honor of
inventing printing.
We can picture to ourselves the excitement which prevailed, when a man
of Gutenberg’s firm character was led to make such utter destruction of
his property after the disclosures of the lawsuit. He may have feared
that a lawless mob would invade his shop, and scatter the proofs of his
invention, and that some person of ingenuity would get a clew to the
art, and rob him of his sacred rights. What hours, days and nights of
solicitude he suffered! Those only, who in a good cause have met the
scoffs and jeers of the rabble excited by unscrupulous leaders, can
well imagine the inventor’s emotions.
Happily, Anna was equal to the emergency, and became a very heroine.
She had no idea of being crushed, although for a little while she had
given way to despondency, and her strong-hearted courage inspired her
husband. His home was a little paradise of peace, the resort of flowers
and birds and all beautiful things which she instinctively gathered
around her. God’s gracious smile rested upon it, and in this sanctuary
Gutenberg’s wounded spirit was soothed; here he gained strength, and
girded on his armor anew for the battle of life. The fiercer the strife
without, the more blessed the peace within this retreat.
The lawsuit dragged its slow length on until December 12th of that
year, when the magistrates gave judgment relieving Gutenberg from “the
unjust demand of George and Nicholas Dritzhn, upon the payment of the
sum of fifteen florins, being the difference of the sum of one hundred
florins due to Gutenberg by Andrew on the original contract.”
This was just what Gutenberg had proposed at first; and his adversaries
had their trouble for their pains, without, perhaps, the consolation
of knowing how much they had annoyed him. The lawsuit was over, but
it had exposed the state of Gutenberg’s affairs, and people were
curious to learn more. Rumor was busy with her thousand tongues. “He
is not willing that any one should see!” “Something wrong!” and in the
spirit of the superstition of the times, many cried out, “Mystery!
Witchcraft!” The whole community was in a ferment. Time passed, and a
little before the Feast of the Nativity, so faithfully had Gutenberg’s
orders as to the destruction of the press and type been executed,
that nothing remained of the wonderful art, which since the death of
Dritzhn, had so much disturbed the good city of Strasbourg.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]