THE PRINTER AND HIS TRADE

a. Printing in Basel

The printing industry with its modern technology required new and complex forms of social and economic organisation. The master printer needed to draw upon the skills of various trades to produce a book - those of artists, writers, proofreaders, paper-makers and bookbinders - and a network of booksellers was also needed that tapped into regional markets and beyond. The larger print-shops needed to employ waged labour and as early as 1471 the industry in Basel had experienced another new phenomenon, a strike.'*^

The complex wider social, economic, cultural, and political implications o f the statistics o f book production and printing are utterly dramatic. In the years leading up to 1517a book-buying and book-reading market was developing and for that to happen a series of fundamental changes had to have already taken place - most obviously the spread o f literacy to perhaps 30% o f the population in Franconia. In its turn literacy could only spread on a significant scale if levels o f education were growing, and with it a widening o f intellectual horizons. Distribution and marketing the new literature was made possible with the growth o f urban populations,^* and improvements in reliable and safe transport. Financing had become easier with the expansion o f trading facilities like banking and trade fairs, especially the one at Frankfurt. Despite their increased availability books were

Schulz, pp. 126-27. Strikes were hardly frequent events, however, the next recorded one being in 1539.

The level o f literacy has the been the subject o f some discussion. This figure is from Künast, p. 13. Engelsing, pp.32fT, puts the figure lower at between 10-30% in the cities and around 5% overall. Clanchy thinks that it may have been as high as 50% in England: M.Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell,

1992), p. 13.

Pfister estimated that 16% o f Germany’s population lived in towns of over 5,000 inhabitants at the start o f the sixteenth century: Christian Pfister, ‘The Population of Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany’, in Germany: A New Social and Economic

History, Vol. I: 1450-1630, ed. by Bob Scribner and Sheila Ogilvie (London: Arnold, 1996), i, pp.33-62, p.46.

still very ex p en siv e,b u t the growth of sales also demonstrated that the cash nexus was spreading, and that disposable wealth and available leisure time were growing.

Hackenberg’s study of property inventories o f deceased artisans, for example, found that pre-1521 only 2 out of 32 (6.5%) mentioned books, whereas 92 o f 517 inventories (18%) mentioned books 1611-1620.^^

The scale of the changes in the conditions in society at the start o f the sixteenth century was so great that many historians argue that it marked the end o f the Feudal period and instituted a new phase in European history, the Early-modern period. Printing and the spread of the printed word was not only a consequence o f change, but also became one of its causes. In Germany one of the effects o f these changes was the fracturing o f the power of the Catholic Church and the intense intellectual, social and political turmoil of the Reformation, in which printing played a powerful role.

If one had to pick one year as the symbolic watershed between the two historical periods, then 1517 would be an obvious choice. Not only was it the year that Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the palace church at Wittenberg, but it was also the year that saw the beginning o f the great publishing wave o f pamphlets and tracts that is one of

There is not much information available about the price o f books but various figures can be found in: Martin Brecht, ‘Kaufpreis und Kaufdaten einiger Reformations-

schriflen’, in Gutenberg Jahrhuch, 47 (1972), 169-73; Ernst Zinner, Geschichte und Bibliographie astronomischer Literatur in Deutschland zur Zeit der Renaissance (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1964), pp.64-68; and Künast, pp. 185-93.

Michael Hackenbefg, ‘Books in Artisan Homes o f Sixteenth-Century Germany’, in Joimial o f Library Histbry, 21 (1986), 72-91, p.74. Famous artisans mentioned include

Sebastian Franck, who died in Basel in 1542 and left a library o f 112 titles, and Hans Sachs who left 74 (p.77).

For an example o f discussions about the transformation of feudalism see: The Brenner Debate, ed. by T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

For examples of longer discussions o f these issues see: Elizabeth Eisenstein, Ihe Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, chapter 6, ‘Western Christendom

Disrupted’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 148-86; and Febvre and Martin, pp.287-319 (chapter 8, section 3, entitled ‘The Book and the Reformation’).

the outstanding features o f the Reformation. Estimates o f the exact volume vary as there is insufficient information about the length o f print-runs.^^

As much as 90% o f material published in German-speaking territories before 1517- especially that which had any intellectual weight - had been written in Latin, which is a reflection o f the almost total control exercised by the Catholic Church over the written word and upon education in schools and Universities. In just the space o f a few years this changed radically with more and more vernacular texts appearing aimed at a new popular market. Scribner estimates that perhaps only 40 texts a year in German were printed in 1500, but by 1519 there were 111 and in 1523 there were 498 - one third o f which were of Luther’s writing.

Religious material dominated the output o f Germany’s printers, although there were also quantities produced on astrology and on purely secular topics. Luther’s work alone was to sell over 300,000 copies 1517-1520.^* Edwards thinks that as many as 3.1 million copies o f Luther’s various works were printed 1516-1546 and in the crucial period 1518-1529 around eighty per cent of these were in German. During the same period, Edwards believes, other authors on religious topics generated another 3.1 million copies, with Protestant literature outstripping Catholic by a vast margin; 2.5 million copies by

Protestant writers and perhaps 600,000 by Catholics. Probably less than half the Catholic publications in the period 1518-1529 were in German.

Discussions can be found particularly in: Engelsing, pp. 15-31 ; and Hans-Joachim Kohler, ‘The Flugschriften and their Importance in Religious Debate’, in Astrologi

halluciriati, ed. by Paola Zambelli (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986), pp. 153-175. Kohler’s work forms the basis o f most modem estimates on the quantity and nature o f printing at the beginning o f the Reformation.

Scribner, For ihe Sake, p.2.

A.G.Dickens, Reformation and Society in Sixteenth Century Europe (London: Thames & Hudson, 1966), p. 51. For details o f the high level o f Luther printing see also Engelsing, pp.26-30.

Edwards, pp.39-40.

Basel by 1517 was already a major centre for printing and was producing a similar volume to Strassburg.^^ According to Prietzel’s figures, the pattern o f output in Basel is comparable to the pattern found by Scribner for all German-speaking lands. The total number o f books and pamphlets printed in Basel rose from an average of just over 20 per year between 1500 and 1512, up to 42 a year 1513 to 1517, and then up to a mighty 118 per year 1518 to i 525. The year 1518 stands out, when the total number o f publications printed in Basel jumped dramatically from 54 in 1517 to 105. The average percentage o f editions printed in German as compared to Latin was 13% from 1500 to 1512, rising to an average o f 19% in the years 1513 t o i 517, and up to over 30% during the period 1518 to 1525.^’ Because o f the popularity o f Erasmus the number of items printed in Basel started to grow as early as 1514 (the year he came to Basel), three years ahead o f the growth pattern for the rest of Germany.

The highest number of publications printed in any single year in Basel was 1523 when 142 editions were printed, of which 56 were in German. In that year Basel accounted for more than 11% o f all the books printed in the vernacular in the German language areas of Europe. The year 1523 was a record for Strassburg as well, though the figures show a rather higher percentage o f books than Basel that were printed in the vernacular in that year, and in fact throughout the period 1518 to 1525.^^

A. F. Johnson says this about Basel as a printing centre during Gengenbach’s lifetime: ‘The [...] period (1510-1526) is the most important in the whole history o f the press at Basle [...] Basle printers took the lead in all E u r o p e . I n particular, Johnson reports that Basel was the leading printing centre for Greek and Latin classics, as more recently does

^ Chrisman, Lay Culture, pp.76-77.

All figures for Basel based on Prietzel, AGB, p.432. Prietzel, AGB, p.301.

Chrisman, Lay Culture, pp.76-77. Johnson, p.6.

Künast: ‘In diesen Literaturgattungen überragte Basel aile Konkurrenten.’^^ The presence of the University played a significant role in this according to Guggisberg.^^ Up until 1525 it was also one o f the seven most important centres for the printing o f Luther’s work as well as being the leading producer o f books by Erasmus.^^ Across Germany 1525 marked the climax o f the printing boom and it was followed by a sharp fall which affected Basel as much as the other major centres:

From about 1524 there was a certain decline in the book trade at Basle. New cuts cease almost entirely, there is a much larger proportion o f plain title-pages, and production for the next few years drops by about 40 per cent.^*

Impressive though the print volumes were the cost o f books and pamphlets would have meant that normally only a small minority o f people were able to buy any o f them.^^ Printed matter, however, influenced a much wider audience than just those who could buy and read it. Scribner argues:

For those with little or no reading ability in the narrow sense, listening or looking would have been the major means o f acquiring their knowledge of the

Reformation. Concentration on the printed word alone thus offers only limited access to the process by which the new movement was spread to the people. We must, rather, see print in relation to oral and visual forms of communication.^®

Künast, p. 19.

^ Hans Guggisberg, ‘Reformierter Stadtstaat und Zentrum der Spatrenaissance: Basel in der zweiten Halfte des 16. Jahrhunderts’, in Wolfenbiitteler Abhatidhmgen zur

Renaissanceforschung, 5 (1984), 197-216.

Prietzel has a detailed breakdown of printing o f Luther and Erasmus in Basel: Prietzel, AGB, pp.375-77. Edwards, pp.22-25, has produced detailed comparative tables of Lutber printing by different cities, broken down in four year periods between 1518 and

1546.

Johnson, p. 19. Prietzel reports that the immediate drop in the number o f editions was from 142 in 1523 to 85 in 1525 - rather more than 40% - while printing o f

vernacular texts dropped even more sharply from 56 in 1523 down to 20 in 1525: Prietzel, (thesis), p.403.

For a discussion on who owned books see: Chrisman, Lay Culture, pp.59-85 and pp. 103-22.

Scribner, For the Sake, p.3.

On the previous page Scribner proposes: '(that) it was likely as not that most people experienced the printed word only indirectly, by having it read aloud to them’. The way that much material was written in simple verse form and dramatic dialogues lent itself to being read aloud and Gengenbach used these forms a great deal. As the Reformation progressed and the market for theological literature grew Gengenbach in common with other printers used prose more, but frequently in the style o f a sermon that still lent itself to reading aloud.

In respect o f visual communication it was the woodcut that played the crucial role and many o f the more popular publications were illustrated. Artists such as Dürer and Cranach achieved lasting fame with their woodcuts and engravings. In Basel there was Hans

Holbein the Younger, his brother Ambrosius, the Meister DS, and Urs Graf who were important exponents o f the woodcut and heavily used by local p rinters.C hrism an’s analysis o f the books produced in Strassburg found that 17% of those produced between

1510 and 1519 were illustrated which fell in the following decade 1520 to 1529 to 8%.^^ Chrisman argues (on the same page) that the function o f the illustration changed at quite an early stage: Tn the period before 1515, they were designed very clearly to elucidate the text. Later they were often merely intended to embellish or ornament the book.’

She argues that the change occurred as literacy spread, whereas Scribner (in the passage quoted above) believed that illustrations continued to play a key role in spreading ideas during the Reformation itself. The difference may be because Chrisman was commenting on the situation prevailing in Strassburg - one o f the leading and most cultured cities of the Empire - while Scribner was generalising about conditions across Germany.

Gengenbach’s work had been almost universally illustrated until the 1520s when the percentage o f illustrations fell somewhat, especially in his longer theological

For a recent selection of the major artists across Germany see: Giulia Bartrum, German Renaissance Prints 1490-1550 (London: British Museum, 1995); and for Basel alone the truly comprehensive: Frank Hieronymus, Easier Bticherillu strati on 1500-1545 (Basel: Universitatsbibliothek, 1983).

Chrisman, Lay Culture, p. 106.

publications.73

b. Gengenbach's Output

Gengenbach printed 118 publications, which is modest when compared to the 370 o f the leading printer o f the city, Johann Froben.^"* Froben had been in the business at least 8 years before Gengenbach started in 1509, but in the years after 1515 Froben printed 350 of his 370 while Gengenbach printed 101 of his. The comparative number o f pages they set shows an even starker contrast - see Table 2 below.