Vier Historien: Joseph, Daniel, Judith, Esther
An essay by Lotte Hellinga
The oldest known printing type, of which we have seen a few lines in the 31-line indulgence of 1454/55, was the first to be used outside Mainz. In the late 1450s it became the property of a printer whose identity remains uncertain, but who must have learned the new technique by taking part in the printing of Gutenberg’s Latin Bible. He left Mainz to undertake the reprinting of Gutenberg’s Bible on an even larger scale. His work was probably supported by the bishop of Bamberg, and the surviving copies of this enormous book, known as the 36-line Bible, all show early connections with the area around Bamberg. Although there is no date or place name printed in the book itself, it is generally assumed that it was printed in Bamberg, about 1460. The copy in The John Rylands Library [JRL 15365, ISTC ib00527000] is not in its original condition, but was put together when it was bought in about 1800 by Lord Spencer. A section was formerly owned by the Schottenkloster in Würzburg, but most of the two volumes as they now survive were illuminated in Mainz, and their early ownership is unknown.
After the printing of the 36-line Bible, the type once again changed hands, for next we see it in no fewer than nine small books of entirely different character. They were editions of popular texts, all but one in German. They were therefore the earliest printing in a vernacular language, and destined for a new public of laymen: ‘So kunn wir all auch nit latein’ — ‘not all of us know Latin’, it said in lines of verse concluding the Vier Historien, four tales from the Old Testament.
The author of this line of verse was probably the printer, who in one of the books names himself as Albrecht Pfister. In the 1450s he had several functions in Bamberg, so we know that he cannot have been a member of Gutenberg’s team in Mainz, but must have been introduced to the printing business by the printer of the 36-line Bible. We do not know whether he worked actively as a printer or was more a publisher who organized and financed a small printing house, and was responsible for the texts.
Pfister dated several of his books. The earliest date is 1461 in a collection of fables, with the title Der Edelstein; this was probably preceded by the first of his two editions of Der Ackermann aus Böhmen. The Vier Historien [JRL 9375, ISTC ih00286500] ends with ten lines of verse including the printer’s name, the place name Bamberg and the date 1462. Thereafter Pfister published three editions of the Biblia pauperum (two in German and one in Latin). The Biblia pauperum had already enjoyed circulation as a blockbook, printed from woodblocks with text and illustrations carved together in complicated patterns that aimed to highlight the parallels between the Old and the New Testament. Blockbooks first appeared around the time of the invention of printing with movable type. Although they look rather primitive, and the quantity of text that can be reproduced in this way is limited, the method existed for a while in parallel with printing with movable type.
Pfister was able to achieve an effect that was similar to blockbooks, for he ‘invented’ the combination of woodcut illustrations with letterpress. Blockbooks were undoubtedly the model he wished to emulate, and he was entirely successful. Despite using old typographical materials, and a model that was soon to be outmoded, Pfister was a great innovator, the first to print in German and the first to use woodcut illustrations with his texts.
Four of the Pfister editions in The John Rylands Library formed originally one volume that late in the eighteenth century was found in the Carmelite convent in Würzburg. Apart from the Vier Historien it consisted of the first edition of the German Biblia pauperum [JRL 9402, ISTC ib00652700], Jacobus de Theramo, Lis Belial [JRL 11042, ISTC ij00073800], and an imperfect copy of the Ackermann aus Böhmen of which only two leaves are still in The John Rylands Library [JRL 15019.2, 23127, ISTC ia00039000]; the rest has become dispersed over at least five different collections. The Library also has a copy of Pfister’s Latin edition of the Biblia pauperum [JRL 15019.1, ISTC ib00652750].
