Abraham Gemperlin

Abraham Gemperlin's printer's stamp

Abraham Gemperlin , also Abrahamus Gempperlin (* around 1550 in Rottenburg am Neckar ; † before 1639) was a Swiss book printer who immigrated from Württemberg .

Life

Petrus Canisius recommended the establishment of a printing company in Freiburg

Gemperlin worked as a bookseller in Freiburg im Breisgau from 1583 . He entered into connections with the Basel printer Ambrosius Froben . Three prints appeared under his own name.

On August 6, 1584, Abraham Gemperlin asked the council of Freiburg in Üechtland , Switzerland , to set up a printer there. The contract was signed the next day. Gemperlin was granted citizenship, free accommodation and support for the technical installation of the city's first print shop. To do this, he had to undertake to only print what had been approved by the censorship authority.

The Freiburg government wrote in a letter to Pope Sixtus V on October 14th, 1585: “At the persuasion of the Reverend Father Petrus Canisius , who adorns this city of ours with his stay in it, we have bought a printing press and the services at a considerable cost rented a printer ».

Due to an unauthorized publication, Gemperlin was banned from Freiburg in 1588. After the intercession of the Catholic Church, he was pardoned and was allowed to return shortly afterwards. In 1597 he was arrested because he had transferred material pledged to cover debts to Freiburg.

Wilhelm Mäß , who had already been installed as a printer by the council in 1595, took over all shares in the company from Gemperlin in 1597. He then worked as a wool merchant and landlord. In 1610 bankruptcy proceedings were initiated and in 1611 the impoverished man was admitted to the citizens' hospital. The last mention of Abraham Gemperlin is found in the files in 1616. The year of death is unknown, it is assumed in the literature before 1639.

Question of the Christian Faith 1585

In the decade from 1585 to 1595, Gemperlin published 52 prints according to current knowledge. He was assisted by a typesetter and assistant. The company had two printing presses and a correction press. The fonts could be cast in-house. The writing material consisted of six sizes Antiqua , five sizes italic and Fraktur and one small Greek. Mainly religious titles were printed but also works of poetry and dramas in editions of 2000 copies.

The first book that Gemperlin printed in Freiburg in 1585 was the question of the Christian faith in the Neuwe sectic preachers . The polemical work led to a lively debate in Reformed Switzerland. The Freiburg Council itself put an end to the polemics in 1587 by not having another polemical publication printed with the justification "for the smelting of sea vnruwen and bitterness" - probably on the advice of Petrus Canisius.

Prints (selection)

• Question of the Christian faith, to the Neuwe sectic preachers ; described in French by the highly learned H. Johann Hayum from Schotten, the Societet Jesu Theologum; and then by Sebastian Werro pastors at Freyburg in the Eydgnoschektiven, brought into the Teutsch, also increased with the other Theyl, and everything improved on a Neuwes. Printed in Freyburg in the Eydgnoschektiven: bey Abraham Gemperlin, 1586. doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-48588
• Renward Cysat: A thorough report of the newfound Japponian islands and kingdoms, also of other previously unknown Indian lands ...: In addition to all of this, this edition contains a thorough announcement of the Japponian legation about to arrive in Rome ... 1586. Printed in Freyburg in the Eydgeno works: by Abraham Gemperlin. Link to digitized material
• At the shameful D. Lucas Osiander court preacher to Stüdgard, last nonsensical donkey shouting: in it honoring the venerable noble, highly learned Mr. Johannes Pistorium Nidanum ... and then Fratrem Georgium Eckern franciscani ordinis sacerdotem furthermore gladly without shameless foolish retarded but white Iniurien and want to salvage, & c. ; Last and permanent conclusion and proof that he is and will stay Lucas Osiander a lying, frivolous man / F. Georgius Ecker, Barfüsser Order, preacher in Freyburg in Breissgöw. Printed at Freyburg in Uchtlandt by Abraham Gemperlin, 1591. doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-10318
• Publications by Abraham Gemperlin in Swiss libraries

literature

• Ursula Birchler: Gemperlin, Abraham. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• The Freiburg Book 1585–1985, catalog for the exhibition 400 Years of Book Printing in Freiburg , Friborg Cantonal and University Library (Switzerland), 1985
• Lioba Schnürer: The beginnings of book printing in Freiburg in Switzerland, 1585–1605 , Freiburg in Uechtland: Verlag des Deutschen Geschichtsforschenden Verein, 1944
• Abraham Horodisch: The office of Abraham Gemperlin, the first printer from Freiburg, Switzerland , Freiburg: Verlag der Paulusdruckerei, 1943
• Ernst Kelchner :  Gämperlin, Abraham . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 358.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ursula Birchler: Gemperlin, Abraham. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ↑ The Freiburg Book 1585-1985, exhibition catalog 400 years printing in Friborg , Cantonal and University Library of Friborg (Switzerland) 1985: 49th
3. ↑ Christoph Reske: "The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area", Wiesbaden 2007, p. 283.
4. ↑ Mariano Delgado: Peter Canisius as a pastor in Freiburg - Or: Three modernization spurts at the end of the 16th century , in: Swiss Journal for Religious and Cultural History, 104 (2010), 289–306 ( PDF )