Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Sixteenth Century Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
328
329
writes: "If he (Alveld) had not put his apelike book into Germanto poison poor laymen, he would have been too insignificant for me to bother
with."5 If a bad book could be poison, presumably a good one would be
a useful weapon or, as Luther once stated, a book could be a "new vexation for the Antichrist and his soldiers.'"6After twelve more years of
much printing and writing, Luther could look back from the apex of his
successful career as a reformer and be a bit more reflective about the
value of a printed work. He said in one session reported in Table Talk
that he would like it if it were possible to have all of his books destroyed so that only the sacred writing of the Bible would be read. He
was afraid that even his followers would forsake the Bible and only
read commentaries upon commentaries. But since it was entirely unlikely that hundreds of thousands of copies of his works could or would
be destroyed, he conceded that: "I would like my books to be preserved
for the sake of history in order that men may observe the course of
events and the conflict with the Pope ...."7 Later in the fall of 1538
Luther echoed the same sentiments when commenting on the writings
of his co-reformerJohann Brenz. Luther said Brenz wrote such a big
commentary on twelve chapters of Luke that it "disgusts the reader to
look into it."8 Apparently, Luther had become so accustomed to the
103.
230-231.
274.
311.
330
Gustav Freytag) located in the City and University Library in Frankfurt am Main. In the coding of the material I included the coding of
printer's name and location of publication as well as other data. Since
the names of printers had never been indexed for the collection, the
print-out gave me something especially useful to help me understand
better the printing dimension of the Reformation. In the overall sample of over three thousand pamphlets, there were three hundred and
ninety names of obscure printers who in the course of the sixteenth
century had rolled their presses in over one hundred different geographical locations (see figure 1). In the portion relating specifically to
works by or about Luther there were over four hundredand fifty-seven
editions of pamphlets printed by fifty German printers in twelve different locations. About twenty percent of the Luther editions were
without a printer's mark or colophon. From the list of names on the
print-out, I have been able to gather data on most of Luther's printers,
but neither is my present study nor the Freytag collection the total
picture (see figure 2).
What kind of people were the Germanprinters? The printers of the
Reformation may rival the humanists as being one of the first identifiable secular groups bringing their support to the cause of the Reformation. Some years ago Bernd Moeller argued that aside from the humanists, copper miners were the first group to identify with the early Reformation.9What about the printers? Certainly, they are a smaller percentage of the population yet probably a more significant group than
the miners. There is some evidence that the printers, who were likely to
be above average in skill and education, often opted for Reformation
theology. Not only did the printer turn the talents of his trade to printing of Reformation books, but he, in some cases, chose a career in the
parish. Ernest Schwiebert in his "Reformation Lectures" gathered a
number of interesting statistics from the old Wittenberger Ordiniertenbuch of 1539 (first published in 1844).10 Nine occupations were
listed from which people had come before they opted to become emergency lay preachers. The occupations included merchants, burghers,
stonemasons, sextons, schoolmasters, clothiers, and printers. Of the
total of thirty-five people listed in various categories, over one-thirdof
them listed their occupation as printer. The high rate of printers be"Quotedin Steven E. Ozment, TheReformationin the Cities (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), p. 124. Two recent books with much useful information are Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cam-
331
TOWNS
Altenburg
Augsburg
Bamberg
Basel
Erfurt
Leipzig
Munchen
Nurnberg
Strassburg
Tubi ngen
Ulm
Wittenberg
Zurich
Zwickau
Unknown
,
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
"
473
200
Number of polemical editions by Luther and his friends. Some of the total are editions of
the same work.
332
PRINTERS
Jorg Gastel
S. Grimmand M.Wirsung
JohannGrunenberg
Jobst Gutknecht
GabrielKantz
MelchiorLotter
Hans Lufft
SilvanOtmar
MelchiorRamminger
Georg Rhau
ChristianRodinger
Nicolaus Schirlentz
WolfgangStockel
665
Unknown
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Figure 2. Works by Martin Luther and other reformers. Data is from the Freytag
Collection.
333
coming preachers is much greater than one might expect to be the normal rate. Even though Schwiebert's sample is a small one, the results
add some weight to the assertion that typographic people had a special
affinity for the Reformation.
One of the outstanding printing families noted for their production
of Luther's pamphlets and Bibles and also for their early espousal of
Lutheran doctrine was Melchior Lotter and his sons, Melchior the
Younger and Michael, who was married to Luther's first cousin once
removed on the Lindemann (maternal)branch of his family tree." Melchior the Elder learned the printing trade and marriedDorothea Kachelofen, daughter of the Leipzig printer, ConradKachelofen. As so often
happened in the sixteenth century, printers who married daughters or
widows of printers usually got a printing press in the bargain. Lotter,
up to the time of the Reformation, printed short works on handicrafts,
mining, school instruction, popular medicine, religious and astrological tracts, folk literature and items on politics. He was, indeed, one of
the foremost printers in the diocese of Meissen and was the official
printer for the bishop. Melchior the Elder apparently spent some time
with Luther at Leipzig during the debates in 1519 and formed with
him a lasting friendship. Lotter's father-in-law(Kachelofen)turned his
press over to his son-in-law and spent most of his time running the
Kachelofen tavern, which served as the Luther headquarters during
the debates with Eck. The contact of Luther with Lotter led to the establishment of a branch printing office in Wittenberg, manned by his
two sons, Melchior and Michael.12 After 1519 Duke George of Saxony
discouraged Evangelical publications in Leipzig, a factor which also
encouraged the branch operation in Wittenberg. Melchior the Elder
continued to publish Lutheran works, albeit clandestinely. One of his
chief assistants in the print shop in Leipzig, Hermann Tulich, later
became a professor at Wittenberg.'3
Another reason behind the formation of a branch office in Wittenberg was that Philip Melanchthon, the young Greek professor at Wittenberg, felt the urgent need to have printed Greek texts for his students. Hand copying of Greek texts seemed obsolete and unnecessary
in the age of typography. When Michael and Melchior the Younger arrived in Wittenberg, they brought with them Latin and Greek type, as
well as bold-faced Gothic. Besides printing many books for the university, they published many of Luther's writings as well as works by
"Ian Siggins, Luther and his Mother (Philadelphia:Fortress Press, 1981), p. 30.
Also see W. G. Tillmans, "The Lotthers: Forgotten Printers of the Reformation,"Concordia Theological Monthly 22 (1951): 261.
12Alfred Gotze, Die hochdeutschen Drucher der Reformationzeit
(Berlin:de Gruy-
334
14LW,
48: 150.
p. 263.
des 16. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt a/M.: Klost-
1959), p. 162.
20Gotze,p. 54.
335
physician Andrew Aurifaber, and Luther himself attended the wedding.21By 1550 Lufft was aRatsherr (memberof the City Council),and
in 1563 he became mayor of Wittenberg. Indeed, Lufft's career is a remarkable combination of skill and business sense which projected him
to the forefront of Luther's printers.
About the same time as Lufft was beginning his printing career in
Wittenberg, a number of other printers were appearing on the scene.
Besides the Grunenbergs(Johann, Hans and George), the Lotters, and
Lufft, six more printers had appearedin Wittenberg by 1525. As early
as 1521 Andreas Carlstadt had invited Nickel Schirlentz to set up his
press in his house. Schirlentz published a large number of pamphlets
by and about Luther and continued to publish until 1547. Some of the
other printers were undoubtedly apprentices who had begun to print
with their own colophons. For example, Hans Weiss had worked with
the Lotters until 1525 and then published a number of Luther's pamphlets on his own press. In 1539 Weiss was called to Berlin and was offered a printing monopoly by Elector Joachim II; Weiss became the
first printer in Berlin.22
There almost seemed to be an epidemic of printing fever in Wittenberg. The famous portrait painter and woodcut artist Lucas Cranach
the Elder became a partner with Christian Doring, a goldsmith, livery
stable and restaurant owner, and set up a printing establishment. Between 1522 and 1525 several dozen Luther pamphlets came off their
press.23Joseph Klug did most of the printing for them until 1525 when
he too became an independent and with his son published song books.
Klug was the first to publish Luther's "A Mighty Fortress.' '24 Cranach's talent for utilizing woodcut illustrations made him a natural to
become involved in the printing business since the woodcut illustration became the hallmark of the Reformation polemical pamphlet.
Cranachwas a very close friend of Luther, and Luther addressed him
in letters with terms of endearment.25Strangely, Cranach's Reformation printing venture with Christian Doring has not received much attention. Colin Clair,in his recent workA History of European Printing
(1976), does not mention Cranachas a printer. Curiously, he does mention a press set up in 1911 in Weimar known as the CranachPress.26At
any rate, Cranach later became mayor of Wittenberg, in 1537 and
again in 1540. Cranach's wife was the daughter of the mayor of
Gotha.27
21LW, 54: 269.
22Gotze,p. 56.
23Ibid., p. 50.
24Ibid.,p. 53.
25LW, 48: 201, note 2; LW, 49: 103.
26Colin Clair,A History of European Printing (New York:Academic Press, 1976), p.
27Gotze, P. 2.
411.
336
29Gotze,p. 2.
30Ibid.,pp. 5-6. Lucien Febvre was impressed by how much political and religious
radicalismcould be found among typographic people. He writes: "A Augsbourg, par exemple, Hetzer, correcteurde Silvan Otmar, est Fun chefs du clan baptiste de le ville: luimeme 6crit quelques libelles."See Lucien Febvre and Henri Jean Martin, L'Apparition
du Livre (Paris: Albin Michel, 1958), p. 441.
31Ibid., p. 9.
337
33Gotze,p. 21. Gotze writes of one printer, Johann Singriener of Vienna, that he
"bleibt Katholik" as if it were a rarity among printers to remain Catholic (p. 51).
338
des Deutschen
Buchhandels
431-432.
38Louise Holborn, "Printing and the Growth of the Protestant Movement in Germany from 1517 to 1534," Journal of Church History 9 (1942): 135.
339