Heinrich Steiner (printer)

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Heinrich Steiner , also Henricus Siliceus and other variants, (born before 1500 ; died in March or April 1548 in Augsburg ) was an Augsburg book printer and innkeeper.

Heinrich Steiner was the illegitimate child of unknown parents. Between 1522 and 1548 he was registered as a printer in the tax registers of the city of Augsburg and was therefore born before 1500. Being born out of wedlock he was denied access to a guild , which made his initial efforts to gain a foothold as a printer in the imperial city difficult. His first printed products were therefore pamphlets. From 1524 Reformation texts were added, the first of which was the Book of Psalms in Luther's translation. In addition there were writings like Siben Ermanung aines Christian prayer ... or - already printed in 1525 - Ain insurmountable Beschyrmbiechlin from main articles ...

In 1527 he succeeded in acquiring the printing blocks from the bankrupt estate of the book printers Marx Würsung and Sigmund Grimm , who until then were the most important publishers of Renaissance humanist literature in Augsburg. As a result, Steiner's office rose to the most important in Augsburg. The printing blocks, especially the woodcuts by the Petrarca master , enabled him to publish attractively illustrated books in German. Building on the initial success, he commissioned other Augsburg artists such as Jörg Breu and Hans Burgkmair as well as Hans Schäufelein to create printing templates. Even Heinrich Vogtherr worked for Steiner. With the illustration stock expanded in this way, he equipped further prints even with the deliberate loss of the context of the text. In 1529 the Flavii Vegetii Renati published four books of knighthood ... , a text in honor of the emperor Maximilian I, who died ten years earlier .

Through his marriage in 1531 he gained citizenship in Augsburg, which further improved his economic status. He expanded his repertoire to include practical literature, such as Adam Riese's arithmetic on the lines and springs ... which, in addition to calculating on lines, described numerical calculations with Arabic numerals. There were also works of popular literature, such as Die Schöne Magelone , which Steiner first published in 1535 in a German translation by Veit Warbeck . Contemporary literature was also taken into account, for example Johannes Paulis Schimpf and Ernst is the name of the book, it runs through the world's plot with serious and entertaining examples, parables and histories - one of the independent works of the Franciscan and Schwank author .

Heinrich Steiner has particularly distinguished himself as a publisher and printer of classical literature of both antiquity and humanism in the German language. He had his own translations done by teachers at the grammar school near St. Anna , which was only established in Augsburg in 1531 , but he also gave corresponding commissions to well-known humanists such as Marcus Tatius . Steiner's assortment included editions of Ciceros De officiis (1533), Plutarch's biographies under the title Von dem Leben und Ritterlichen geschichten, the most transparent Greeks and Romans (1534) and Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium (1542). Even first editions this included, such as those of Mariangelo Accursio got editio princeps of Variae Cassiodor dating from 1533. In addition, he moved historians such as Herodian , Pompey Trogus , Thucydides , Demosthenes and Xenophon , and the works of Homer and Petrarch . In 1530 Steiner printed the medicinal plants textbook Artzney Biechleinn der kreutter, compiled by Johannem Tallat von Vochenburg. At the very fair of the aertzney Doctor Sricken zuo Vienna by Johannes Tallat.

His printing press was extremely successful with this range, and with 923 proofs of printing, Heinrich Steiner was the largest book printer of his time in Augsburg. One of the most respected works was a four-volume parchment edition of the Bible in Luther's translation, which Steiner printed in 1534. In line with his entrepreneurial success, his investment rose from 450 guilders in the 1530s to 1000 guilders in the years 1540 to 1544. Soon afterwards, the company ran into economic difficulties. In part, disputes with the Augsburg Council over violations of censorship requirements were possibly responsible for this, but above all the worsening conflict between Catholics and Protestants. As early as 1545 he had to pledge large parts of his mobile and immobile property, in particular his printing equipment - with external papermakers he had to pay outstanding amounts of 900 guilders. Probably the Schmalkaldic War from 1546 to 1547 led to the final demise of his company, which could no longer be run economically with the few pamphlets that were still being produced. The income from the inns he ran in the 1540s did not change the situation either. In 1547 or 1548 he had to file for bankruptcy and cease operations. After his death in March or April 1548, his wife Elisabeth was expressly forbidden on May 5, 1548 to steal or sell inventory from the printing works without informing the main creditor, Hans Pittner. The Frankfurt book printer and publisher Christian Egenolff acquired part of the printing blocks from the bankruptcy estate.

literature

Remarks

  1. Hans-Jörg Künast: "Getruck zu Augspurg". Book printing and book trade in Augsburg between 1468 and 1555 (= Studia Augustana. Augsburg research on European cultural history. Volume 8). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, p. 242.
  2. Johannes Tallat: Artzney Biechleinn the Kreutter. Steiner, Augsburg 1530 ( digitized version ).
  3. Hans-Jörg Künast: "Getruck zu Augspurg". Book printing and book trade in Augsburg between 1468 and 1555 (= Studia Augustana. Augsburg research on European cultural history. Volume 8). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, p. 56.
  4. Hans-Jörg Künast: "Getruck zu Augspurg". Book printing and book trade in Augsburg between 1468 and 1555 (= Studia Augustana. Augsburg research on European cultural history. Volume 8). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, p. 115 f.
  5. Hans-Jörg Künast: "Getruck zu Augspurg". Book printing and book trade in Augsburg between 1468 and 1555 (= Studia Augustana. Augsburg research on European cultural history. Volume 8). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, p. 77. 129 f.
  6. Hans-Jörg Künast: "Getruck zu Augspurg". Book printing and book trade in Augsburg between 1468 and 1555 (= Studia Augustana. Augsburg research on European cultural history. Volume 8). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, p. 70 f.