Summary

Johannes Gutenberg, by his own name Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, d. February 3, 1468 there) - German craftsman, goldsmith and printer, creator of the world's first industrial printing method. There is no consensus among researchers as to whether the first prints were already produced during his stay in Strasbourg (1434-1444) or only in the printing house he established in 1448 in Mainz. Different years are conventionally accepted as the year in which Gutenberg first used movable type - most often 1440 or 1450. His finest publication was a 42-line Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible, printed between 1452 and 1455.

Gutenberg developed his own version of fonts, made of metal, but their technique remains unclear. He constructed an apparatus for casting them, where the novelty was the use of interchangeable dies. He also designed his own version of a printing press, based on the well-known bookbinding presses. His pioneering achievement was the creation of the first major publishing house. Equally important achievements are the successful typefaces used for printing and the development of the basic principles of typesetting.

Despite Gutenberg's tremendous influence on the development of printing, little certain information about his life and publishing activities has survived. Authors differ in dating his publications, as well as in describing the printing technique he used. Gutenberg's work contributed to the rapid development of printing in Europe, and his associates and disciples popularized it in the centers they founded, using his solutions.

Family

Johannes Gutenberg was most likely born in Mainz, a German city on the Rhine, which was the capital of an archbishopric. Archbishops held the title of arch-chancellor of the Reich, crowned rulers and convened their conventions. The once-wealthy city was called "the golden head" or "the diadem of the Reich" by chroniclers, but it began to slowly decline. There were clear differences in the positions held by the privileged members of the patriciate (including the archbishop's officials) and the guild-affiliated artisans. Conflicts between them grew under the influence of the city's problems with mounting debt and because of the decline in population, initiated in the mid-14th century and caused by epidemics (the Black Death claimed especially many victims).

Johannes' parents differed greatly in social status: his father, Friele (Friedrich) Gensfleisch zur Laden, was a wealthy patrician, while his mother, Else Wirich, was the daughter of a stallholder. They married in 1386. A son, Friele, and a daughter, Else, were also born of this union. Johannes was their youngest child. His father (d. 1419) was probably involved in the cloth trade, and also invested the money he earned in other cities. He belonged to a corporation of miners, and in 1411 became the city's accountant. The family lived in Mainz in a two-story house called "Hof zum Gutenberg" (from which the later adopted surname, attested earliest in a 1427 document), of which Friele was probably a co-owner.

Childhood and youth (until 1434)

Very little reliable information has survived about the life of Johannes Gutenberg. Almost nothing is known about his childhood, youth or the education he received. The year of his birth is unknown - it is assumed that he was born between 1394 and 1404, most likely in 1400 or shortly thereafter.

Friele Gensfleisch left Mainz in 1411, during one of the conflicts between the patriciate and the guilds. It is likely that between 1411 and 1413 Johannes lived with his family in Eltville am Rhein, where his mother had inherited a house. Some scholars (such as Albert Kapr) have put forward the supposition that he completed his studies in Erfurt, identifying him with a student entered as Johannes de Alta Villa, who earned his degree in the winter semester of 1419

The earliest known document indisputably mentioning Johannes dates back to 1420 - it concerns a dispute over the inheritance of his deceased father. Albert Kapr believed that in the 1420s Gutenberg lived in Mainz, where he gained knowledge in metalworking. In 1428, Mainz's troubles in settling its debts intensified, causing a political crisis that resulted in many patricians leaving the city. Johannes most likely did so as well, but it is not known where he went. In 1430 Henchin zu Gudenberg was listed in a document by Archbishop Conrad III among the patricians outside Mainz. In 1433 his mother died, and the estate was divided among his three children. Johannes received an annuity from the city's funds. However, whether because of debt problems or a desire to punish the emigrant, the Mainz authorities did not flinch, and the debt to him grew, reaching 310 guilders in 1434.

Stay in Strasbourg (1434-1444)

Gutenberg's stay in Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, a city much larger than Mainz, is well documented. Documents related to him date back to 1434-1444. The first concerned the enforcement of debts owed to Mainz - Gutenberg convinced the Strasbourg authorities to arrest a Mainz scribe residing in the city. Thanks to this move, he received a promise of repayment from the authorities of his hometown, and later, in installments, the outstanding amount of money.

Gutenberg led an active social life, entertaining many guests, as indicated by the surviving bills for wine and vodka supplied to him. In 1437, the patrician Ennelin zur Yserin Thüre brought a complaint against him before the bishop's court for failing to keep his promise of marriage. It is not known what the court's verdict was, most likely the marriage was not concluded.

Gutenberg trained apprentices for a fee, including teaching them the art of gemstone grinding. He also undertook a business with partners, which was the manufacture and sale of mirrors for pilgrims heading to Aachen. He was also preparing another venture, Aventur und Kunst, about which little is known, unrealized due to the death of one of the partners. Opinions are divided on what these plans consisted of. Perhaps they were the first attempts at printing (hence some sources cite 1440 as the date of Gutenberg's invention) or some other form of mass production, such as stamps (punc).

Return to Mainz and establish a printing house (1448-1455)

It is not known where Gutenberg stayed after his probable departure from Strasbourg in 1444. His name appears in Mainz on a document dated October 1448, when he took out a loan of 150 guilders there. He is believed to have returned to his family home ("Hof zum Gutenberg") with partners from Strasbourg, with whom he set up his first printing house - the first major publishing house in history.

Probably as early as 1449, Gutenberg was in business with Johann Fust, an enterprising goldsmith and bookseller. He borrowed 800 guilders from him to equip a more modern printing house, which was done the following year. There is no consensus among authors as to whether it was still located in the family home or whether it was moved to another workshop. After receiving another 800 guilders from Fust in 1452 as a contribution to the joint venture (a 1455 document called it Werk der Bücher, or "work of books"), he already had two printing houses. In the older one he published small editions, and in the newer one a 42-line Bible (known as the Gutenberg Bible) was printed between 1452 and 1455, which is the most highly regarded of all his editions. There may have been plans to publish missals at the second printing house as well, but this idea was withdrawn, probably due to difficulties in making various printing typescripts or to the necessary, and difficult to obtain, approval from church authorities.

In 1454, serious disagreements arose between Gutenberg and Fust over financial settlements and their nature. The dispute between them was settled in 1455 by the court of the Archbishop of Mainz, but its final verdict is unknown. Gutenberg, however, gave Fust a considerable sum of money and probably also most of the print run of the 42-line Bible. His workshop was taken over by Fust, who hired Gutenberg's disciple Peter Schöffer. Printings formerly attributed to Gutenberg came out of this printing house, including the Mainz Psalter (1457), the first text with printed illuminations (red and blue initials, engraved in metal, not wood), although it is not impossible that the first work (including the printing of the first contributions) was done as early as 1455, and Gutenberg took part in it. Not all authors agree that Gutenberg was painfully affected by the dispute. Leonhard Hoffmann stated that in 1455 the printing of the Bible had already been completed for at least a year, and Gutenberg was not forced to give the workshop to Fust.

Last years of life (1455-1468)

After the dispute with Fust, Gutenberg continued to engage in publishing, but on a much smaller scale. He had financial problems, as evidenced by the fact that in 1458 he stopped repaying a loan he had taken out back in 1442 from the Church of St. Thomas in Strasbourg. In 1458 King Charles VII Valesius sent the engraver Nicolas Jenson, later a well-known Venetian printer, to study with him.

In 1462 there was a power struggle in Mainz. A year earlier, Pope Pius II had stripped the former Archbishop Theodoric of his post and appointed Adolphus II in his place. The recalled archbishop, who had the support of the city council, refused to relinquish power; Adolf II took the city by force. Gutenberg, like many of the citizens (including his disciples, later developing new printing centers), probably left the city, going perhaps to Eltville am Rhein, where prints were published in his fonts. The Archbishop of Mainz, Adolf II, had his residence in Eltville, and he kindly received the distinguished printer and made him his courtier in 1465. He allowed him to leave the court, so it can be assumed that Gutenberg took up residence again in Mainz at the end of his life.

According to information provided by theologian Jakob Wimpfeling, Gutenberg lost his eyesight in old age. It is also known that he had joined the Mainz brotherhood at St. Victor's Church, which prepared for a good death and funeral. An acquaintance of the printer, Leonhard Mengoss, noted his date of death - February 3, 1468. In the same month, the fonts and printing equipment of the deceased were taken over, with the permission of the archbishop, by the lawyer Konrad Humery.

Gutenberg was buried in Mainz's Franciscan church, which was demolished in the 18th century, so his tomb has not survived. In 1499, a relative of the deceased, Adam Gelthus, founded an inscription celebrating him as the inventor of printing. It is not known whether the inscription appeared only in paper form or was placed in the form of a plaque on the grave. In 1504, Professor Ivo Wittig founded a plaque dedicated to the publisher, placed on the wall of the "Hof zum Gutenberg"; it was lost during the Napoleonic Wars.

Johannes Gutenberg is sometimes erroneously considered the inventor of movable type, even though its history dates back to the mid-11th century, and its creator was Bi Sheng. Thus, movable type was in use in China long before Europeans applied it. Over the years there has been a dispute over who was the first to use it in Europe. According to some authors, it was done as early as 1430 by Laurens Janszoon Coster, a Dutchman living in Haarlem, but there is no convincing evidence for this.

Gutenberg designed a printing press, along the lines of the already well-known bookbinding presses, with which decorations and even letters were embossed on book bindings - stamps with intaglio images of letters were used to produce book bindings by the Dominican Konrad Forster. He also benefited from the experience of his predecessors, who created paper manuscript books, as well as from his knowledge of the technique of printing with single stamps or corresponding plates made of wood or metal. He was also able to look at the activities of other craftsmen, working with metals and placing letters on their products: armorers, goldsmiths and coin minters, as well as those placing marks on other material (such as leather or clay) and engraving in wood.

The method of font construction and typesetting was developed by Gutenberg and was subsequently refined by him, which is why he is credited with the invention of modern printing. Many considerations by researchers concern the question of the printer's inspiration. It is not known whether he was exposed to Far Eastern printing technology, his early printing process is unknown, or even what his first publications using movable type were and when they were produced. It is possible that he was already experimenting with the printing technique during his stay in Strasbourg (1434-1444), publishing small texts, not preserved until modern times. The fonts used by Gutenberg have not survived, so their composition cannot be determined. It is also difficult to accurately reconstruct the process of creating fonts with a casting apparatus using stamps (patrices), needed for the production of matrices.

Stamp and die production and the printing process are known from later times. In the standard font-making process, a steel stamp (stamped by punching) was hammered by hitting a soft copper block with a hammer, forming a die, which was then ground. It was then placed on the bottom of the casting apparatus, and the font was cast, filling the mold from the top with molten metal. The matrix could be used to create hundreds or thousands of identical fonts, so the same character appearing anywhere in the text of a book appeared to be the same. Fonts of identical dimensions were used, along with other elements, by the typesetter in arbitrary settings (hence the name "movable type") to assemble the printing forms from which the pages were prepared for printing.

Gutenberg Bibles were printed using large numbers of individual fonts - according to some estimates, as many as 100,000. It took a long time to set each page, as work had to be done loading the press, inking the type, pulling back the press, hanging the sheets, distributing the type, etc. Gutenberg and Fust's workshop could employ as many as 25 craftsmen.

The method of making fonts with a casting apparatus, using stamps needed to create matrices, commonly attributed to Gutenberg, is sometimes questioned. All printed letters should be nearly identical, with some variations due to improper printing and inking. However, Pierre Simon Fournier suggested that Gutenberg may not have used a cast type of reusable matrix, but wooden fonts that were engraved individually. A similar suggestion was made by Paul Nash in 2004. The question arose whether Gutenberg used movable type at all. In 2004, Italian professor Bruno Fabbiani stated that an examination of a 42-line Bible showed overlapping letters, suggesting that Gutenberg did not in fact use movable type, but rather used whole plates, with successive letters being pressed sequentially into the plate and then printed.

"Donats"

The order of prints published by Johannes Gutenberg is not known. Probably the earliest were the popular Ars minor Latin textbooks by Elius Donatus, the so-called Donatas. They were small booklets printed on parchment or velin, numbering at most 14 sheets (28 pages), and distributed in large circulation, estimated at 4800-9600 copies per year. According to Albert Kapr, they were published as early as 1440-1444 in Strasbourg (hence some take the conventional year of Gutenberg's invention as 1440), while other authors date them to the Mainz period and the early 1550s. The manuals were embossed in the printing script of "Donats and Calendars" (DK). None of them have survived in their entirety. Based on minor printing differences in the surviving fragments, at least 24 variations stand out, which means that this most popular textbook of the 15th century was frequently reprinted by Gutenberg.

The Book of Sybil

The poetic work The Book of Sibyl, concerning prophecies related to King Solomon (who is said to have been foretold of the coming of Christ and the rise of the Church), written around 1360 in one of the monasteries of Thuringia, was also published by Gutenberg. Only a small fragment of the text, published in prose in German, concerning the Last Judgment has survived. Printed on both sides, the scrap of paper measures 9 by 12.5 cm and has a total of 22 lines. The edition probably had 14 sheets (28 pages). The printing is not very neat (some letters are reflected more strongly than others, making them not all equally legible and their outlines equally sharp), indicating a not very advanced casting apparatus. The right edge of the text column has not been aligned, and the lines are not in a straight line (some letters stick up or down). According to many researchers, this means that it is the first or one of the first prints of the craftsman. Albert Kapr dated it to 1440 and linked it to Frederick III's assumption of the imperial throne. Many other authors, such as Frieder Schanze, disagreed that the print was created during the printer's stay in Strasbourg and dated it to the later Mainz period, giving various suggestions for the probable year of its creation, e.g. 1450, 1452-1453 or 1454. The work was published in the "Donats and Calendars" typeface, which, however, was designed for Latin texts, not German, so some capital letters (e.g. K, W, Z) could not be printed.

42-line Bible (Gutenberg Bible)

A special place among Gutenberg's printings is the 42-line Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible, published in Mainz between 1452 and 1455, considered a masterpiece of typography. It has no title page, publisher information or page numbering. It is characterized by unsurpassed text composition. A Gothic texture was used, the font smaller than the "Donats and Calendars" script, but with a more elegant appearance. The Bible was usually bound in two volumes: the first covered 224 pages, and the second 319 pages (two of which were unprinted). The text was folded in two staves, contrary to the name, not always containing 42 lines (some pages had 40 or 41).

Gutenberg sometimes used the expensive technique of two-color printing when printing the first pages of the Bible, those with fewer than 42 lines (headings and chapter numbers were printed in red, and the rest of the text in black). However, it was much more profitable for the publisher to publish Bibles consisting entirely of pages with 42 lines, the test of which was printed entirely in black. High-quality paper imported from Piedmont was used. The printed copies were then rubricated, illuminated and bound. It is estimated that 30-35 copies were produced on parchment and 140-145 on paper. Forty-eight copies survived (12 on parchment, 36 on paper).

Publications related to the Turkish threat

After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Western Europe became increasingly fearful of the growing power of the Ottoman Empire. So there was a demand for prints informing people about this threat and encouraging them to fight. In 1454, the so-called Turkish Calendar, calculated for the year 1455, was published in German, and it has, as the first known print in history, the title - Eyn manung der cristenheit widder die durken ("Warning for Christianity against the Turks"). It was a rhymed proclamation to fight the Ottoman invaders, including prayers, as well as the first printed New Year's wishes (Eyn gut selig nuwe Jar, "good and happy New Year").

Beginning in 1454 (the oldest surviving one has a date of October 22), Gutenberg printed the Cypriot letter of indulgence by Paulinus Chappe (Zappe), concerning the indulgence promised by Pope Nicholas V to those donating funds for the defense of Cyprus against the Turks. The headings and first words of a given paragraph of the letter were printed in the handwriting of "Donats and Calendars," while the 31 lines of the letter were printed in a new smaller font (the letters were more legible). By April of the following year, seven editions of the letter, printed single-sided on velin, had appeared. Ferdinand Geldner estimated the letter's circulation at about 10,000 copies.

In 1456, in improved print ("Catholicon"), the so-called Turkish Bull was issued - a bull by Pope Calixtus III, issued on June 29, 1455 and calling for a crusade against the Turks, which was to begin on May 1, 1456. One copy of the bull printed in German and one in Latin has survived.

Minor publications from 1456-1458

At the end of 1456, a medical calendar intended for the following year was published. Also printed at this time was the so-called German Cisioianus, which contained 12 lines allowing one to remember the order of important feasts in the calendar of the Catholic Church, as well as the Provinciale Romanum, a list of the archbishoprics and bishoprics of that Church. All of these printings issued by Gutenberg were embossed with the handwriting of "Donats and Calendars."

On the other hand, it was not until around 1457-1458 that the Chart of the Planets for Astrologers (by Gottfried Zedler and some other authors erroneously called the Astronomical Calendar for 1448, supposedly published a year earlier) was published. The entire text was printed on 6 sheets of parchment, which formed one large sheet when glued together, measuring about 65 by 75 cm. Authors differ in their assessment of the quality of this publication: Zedler considered it to be the first printing from Mainz, while others favored dating it 10 years later (determined by Carl Wehmer based on the prints stored in the Jagiellonian Library), emphasizing the high level of composition and rebinding.

36-line Bible

An improved script of "Donats and Calendars" was rebound around 1459-1460, the 36-line Bible, a reprint of the 42-line Bible. It differed in minor details, including headings of a different type. It is believed to have been produced in Bamberg, and to have been published by Gutenberg or his disciples (in the latter case, Gutenberg would only have lent the fonts). Perhaps at the request of Georg von Schaumberg, Bishop of Bamberg, the printing was handled by his associates Johann Numeister, Albrecht Pfister or Heinrich Keffer.

This Bible has as many as 1,768 pages of print in folio, and was often bound in three volumes. Probably 20 copies were printed on parchment and 60 on paper. 13 36-line Bibles have survived, not counting small fragments. It was inferior in level of workmanship to the 42-line Bible - it has a less neat typeface, and the edges of the print columns were not aligned.

Uncertain attribution

It is possible that other prints printed in the "Catholicon" font also came out of Gutenberg's workshop, about which there is a lot of doubt, regarding where they were created, their chronology and the details of their printing methods:

Priority dispute

The philosopher Francis Bacon considered the invention of printing in 1620 as one of the three landmark discoveries in the history of the world (along with gunpowder and the compass). Nevertheless, Gutenberg's role was downplayed for a long time. Although as early as 1470 Guillaume Fichet, a professor at the University of Paris, acknowledged Johannes Gutenberg's preeminence in the use of movable type, many other scholars believed he was merely an imitator.

On May 23, 1468, a textbook on Roman law, Institutiones Iustiniani, published in Mainz by Peter Schöffer, included a poem with a mention of the deceased printer, but without mentioning his name. Three years later, in a print of Gasparin Barzizzi's Ortograhia published in Paris, Fichet wrote:

Gutenberg as the inventor of printing was also mentioned in 15th-century works by the following authors: Riccobaldus Ferrariensis in Chronica summorum pontificum imperatorumque (1474), Jacobus Philippus Foresti in Supplementum chronicarum (1483), Matteo Palmieri, Bossius Donatus, Baptista Fulgosus, Adam Werner von Themar, Johannes Herbst, Jacob Wimpfeling and Adam Gelthus. Johannes Trithemius, on the other hand, stated in his work Chronicon Sponheimense (1495-1509) that although Gutenberg was the inventor of printing, Johann Fust had a major role in perfecting it, and Peter Schöffer in popularizing it. Later, however, the Schöffer family circle began to marginalize Gutenberg's role, attributing the invention of printing to Fust and Schöffer, this version being spread especially by the former's grandson and the latter's son, Johannes Schöffer, also a printer.

Thus, in the following centuries, there was conflicting information on who to attribute the authorship of the invention of printing in Europe. In addition to Gutenberg, Fust and Schöffer, other names of contenders for this title appeared, such as Johann Mentelin of Strasbourg (d. 1478), Panfilo Castaldi of Feltre (d. 1487), Jean Brito of Bruges (d. ca. 1484), Prokop Waldvogel of Prague or Laurens Janszoon Coster of Haarlem (d. 1484). However, according to the current state of knowledge, their precedence could not be confirmed.

Research on Gutenberg

De ortu et progressu artis typographicae - the first work to highlight Gutenberg's role as a pioneer of printing in Europe - was published in 1640, and was written by Bernhard von Mallinckrodt (1591-1664), the cathedral dean of Münster. In subsequent centuries, the life and achievements of the printer were dealt with by, among others :

Development and importance of printing

The invention of printing quickly spread to other cities in Germany, as well as other European countries. The first major centers of printing in the German language, after Mainz and Strasbourg (where numerous printing houses were established), were Bamberg (where a 36-line Bible may have been published around 1459), Cologne (where many important publishing houses were located), Basel, Nuremberg and Lübeck. The pace of the spread of printing was also impressive in other countries - as late as the 15th century, printing houses were established in dozens of Italian cities (Venice was the most important).

The invention of printing was regarded as a special gift from God. The spread of printing led to a reduction in the price of books, which happened as early as 1470: even then, their prices were lower than the price previously paid for just binding them. This caused printed books and finer publications to become available to a much wider range of people. This spread new movements and currents of ideas, including Renaissance humanism and later the Reformation. The invention of printing (and before that, writing) became the basis for the development of new media, shaping minds (the so-called "scribal mindset") and influencing the functioning of societies, as Marshall McLuhan outlined in his work The Gutenberg Galaxy 1962.

Commemorating the printer

Mainz is home to the Gutenberg Museum (German: Gutenberg-Museum), founded in 1900 in the palace "Zum Römischen Kaiser", whose exhibition is dedicated to the achievements of the printer, as well as the history of printing. The University of Mainz (German: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is named after Gutenberg.

Streets named after Gutenberg, monuments and memorials dedicated to the printer can be found not only in the cities with which he was associated, but also in many other places around the world. In Poland, there are several monuments to Gutenberg, among them on the tenement under Gutenberg in Lodz, Nowa Ruda, on the corner part of the facade of the tenement at 1 - 3 Szabatowskiego Street in Chorzow, on one of the tenements in Częstochowa, in the so-called Gutenberg Grove at Jaskowa Dolina Street in Gdansk-Wrzeszcz and on the so-called Press House in Torun. Gutenberg is also the patron of an elementary and middle school in Warsaw. Henryka Dabrowski Street in Katowice was named Gutenbergstraße until 1945, as was Marcelli Motte Street in Poznan until 1918 and in 1939-1945. Today, streets bearing the name of Jan Gutenberg are located in Gliwice, among other places.

Both in 1900 and a century later, on the contractual anniversary of Gutenberg's birth, his jubilee was celebrated, and the printer's achievements were presented at exhibitions and commented on at conferences. Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was recognized in 1997 by the American magazine Time-Life as the most significant invention of the millennium. In 1999, the American A&E Network named Gutenberg the most important man of the millennium.

Sources

1. Johannes Gutenberg
2. Johannes Gutenberg
3. Nie ma pewności co do daty i miejsca urodzenia. Nie można wykluczyć tego, że urodził się w innym mieście.
4. Friedrich Gensfleisch miał również córkę Patze z pierwszego małżeństwa.
5. Być może nawet Gutenberg urodził się w tym mieście.
6. Gutenberg und seine Zeit in Daten. Abgerufen am 15. Juni 2022.
7. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Abgerufen am 27. November 2006 von der Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD – Eintrag 'printing'
8. ^ German pronunciation: [joˈhanəs ˈɡɛnsflaɪ̯ʃ t͜sʊʁ ˈlaːdn̩ t͜sʊm ˈɡuːtn̩bɛʁk]; English: /ˈɡuːtənbɜːrɡ/
9. ^ Due to minimal extant documentation, identifying Gutenberg's exact year of birth is impossible.[12] Most modern scholars give a range of slightly differing dates for Gutenberg's birth year, including 1394–1406,[13] 1394–1404,[10] 1394–1406,[12] and 1393–1403.[14]
10. ^ Local tradition holds that Gutenberg's baptism took place at St. Christoph's, albeit without documentary evidence.[17]
11. ^ The extent of Friele's actual involvement in the city's finances and trade of precious metal is unknown; the roles may have been largely ceremonial.[18]
12. ^ Gutenberg had a half sister, Patze, from his father's earlier marriage to an otherwise unknown woman.[18]
13. Агеенко Ф. Л., Зарва М. В. Словарь ударений для работников радио и телевидения / Под редакцией Д. Э. Розенталя. — Издание 6-е, стереотипное. — Москва: Русский язык, 1985. — С. 564.
14. Ф. Л. Агеенко. Словарь собственных имён русского языка. — Москва, 2010.
15. Гутенберг, Иоганн / Э. В. Зилин // Большая советская энциклопедия : [в 30 т.] / гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. — 3-е изд. — М. : Советская энциклопедия, 1969—1978.
16. Библия Гутенберга: начало нового времени  (неопр.). Российская государственная библиотека. Дата обращения: 20 апреля 2019. Архивировано 17 апреля 2019 года.
17. Варбанец Н. В. Йоханн Гутенберг и начало книгопечатания в Европе. Опыт нового прочтения материала. М.: Книга, 1980. с.14-25