Konrad Sweynheym

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Konrad Sweynheym (German: Konrad Schweinheim ; † before July 24, 1476 in Rome ) was an incunabulum printer . Together with Arnold Pannartz he brought the technology of book printing with movable type to Italy. Numerous first editions of ancient texts, printed in a pre- or early form of the Antiqua , were created in her workshops in Subiaco and Rome.

In Subiaco

It is not clear from the sources who called the two printers to the Benedictine monastery of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco and it is controversial in research. Nikolaus von Kues and the commander abbot of the monastery, Juan de Torquemada , were traded as possible candidates . The convent itself could also have played a role; many of its monks did not come from Italy but from across the Alps.

No copy of the first print in Subiaco, a Donat for children, has survived. The three titles obtained from Subiaco, Cicero's De Oratore , the then-known works of Lactantius and Augustine ' City of God already showing characteristics that also later works from the Offizin reveal little changed from Sweynheym and Pannartz: a high proportion of first editions of classic and Patristic texts in a relatively large format and in a type based on humanist manuscripts, a pre- or early form of the Antiqua. Collected works as complete as possible , such as that of Lactantius, were also published by other authors during the two printers' Roman creative period. The edition of Lactantius, created in Subiaco, is also the first print to contain longer quotations printed with a more or less complete Greek alphabet.

In Rome

Probably in the summer or autumn of 1467, Sweynheym and Pannartz began printing on the Roman Campo de 'Fiori in a building owned by Francesco and Pietro Massimo . Giovanni Andrea Bussi was now working as a proofreader in her office. He got the printing templates, wrote introductions and dedication letters and played a key role in determining the publishing program. When the prelude to the influence of the two printers on the choice of text, it was usually about economic considerations. So when they ran out of particularly large-format paper in 1471, they asked Bussi for a text that was suitable for printing in a smaller format so that the presses would not go unused.

In December 1469 the layman Konrad Sweynheym requested and received “ Magunt for the parish church of St. Michael in Sweinheym. dioc. “A multi-year indulgence, which indicates special achievements or closeness to the curia in his social position .

In March 1472, Sweynheym and Pannartz published the fifth volume of the Bible Commentary by Nicholas of Lyra . In the letter dedicated to this volume, Bussi pointed out to Pope Sixtus IV the financial hardship the printers were in and asked for support. Large sums of money had to be spent on paper and printing; only parts of the printed edition of this and the previous works could be sold immediately. At the beginning of the 1470s there was a general overproduction and sales crisis in the printing industry in Italy, especially Venice and Rome. Sweynheym and Pannartz were also likely to face bankruptcy. The wishes addressed to Sixtus IV in a supplic were more concrete than the dedication letter; under the earliest possible date in his pontificate, January 1, 1472, Sweynheym and Pannartz, both now clergy, were granted entitlements to beneficiaries of any collator that became available, as were several other Roman printers on the same date. According to the preface mentioned in March 1472, Bussi's direct influence on the business of the two printers is no longer verifiable; he was now active as papal librarian.

At the end of May 1472 Sweynheym asked for a vicarie in the Speyer Cathedral , but a few days later he waived this claim in favor of a Speyer cleric, whom he soon helped with the resignation of another benefice. In October of the same year he asked for a parish charter in Jeserig , Diocese of Brandenburg . For Sweynheym, this was probably not linked to the intention of becoming a pastor, but rather the wish for financial security in the risky business of book-making.

Map from the 1478 edition of
Claudius Ptolemy's Cosmographia

The books printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz after 1472 reveal a more cautious approach compared to previous years. The books were now mainly printed in a somewhat smaller format and less extensive titles, sometimes recognizable with a view to being easier to sell, were selected. The partnership between the two was terminated sometime after May 7, 1473, the date of the last joint pressure, probably for financial reasons.

After separating from Pannartz, Sweynheym worked on the printing of the Cosmographia of Claudius Ptolemy , which was particularly elaborate due to the copper-engraved maps . The publisher was Domizio Calderini . The work was completed by Arnold Bucking in October 1478 .

Sweynheym's tomb is in the Roman church of San Pietro in Vincoli . On July 24, 1476, a cleric asked for the benefice at the St. Viktor Abbey in Mainz , which had been vacated by Sweynheym's death and which he had held since 1474. Johannes Gutenberg , the inventor of the art of printing, belonged to the brotherhood of this pen until his death in 1468 .

literature

  • Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. German Technology and Italian Humanism in Renaissance Rome. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, ISBN 0-9628568-0-0 .
  • Uwe Israel: proximity to Rome and monastery reform. Or: Why the first printing press in Italy was located in the Benedictine Abbey of Subiaco. In: Archives for cultural history. Volume 88, 2006, pp. 279-296 ( DigiZeitschriften ).
  • Massimo Miglio and Orietta Rossini (eds.): Gutenberg e Roma. Le origini della stampa nella città dei papi (1467 - 1477). Naples 1997, ISBN 88-435-5641-X .

Web links

Commons : Konrad Sweynheym  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. Uwe Israel: Near Rome and Monastery Reform. Or: Why the first printing press in Italy was located in the Benedictine Abbey of Subiaco. In: Archives for cultural history. Volume 88, 2006, pp. 279-296 ( DigiZeitschriften ); Johannes Röll: A Crayfish In Subiaco: A Hint Of Nicholas Of Cusa's Involvement In Early Printing? In: The Library. s6-16 (1994), pp. 135-140 doi: 10.1093 / library / s6-16.2.135 .
  2. Complete catalog of incandescent prints (future GW) 8814 .
  3. GW 6742 .
  4. GW M16541 .
  5. ^ GW 2874 .
  6. ^ Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 17-21, 38-30, 54-55.
  7. ^ Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 24-29; Martin Davies: Juan de Carvajal and Early Printing: The 42-line Bible and the Sweynheym and Pannartz Aquinas. In: The Library. s6-XVIII (1996), pp. 193-215, here pp. 203-215 doi: 10.1093 / library / s6-XVIII.3.193 ; Anna Modigliani: Massimo, Pietro . In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 72, 2009, pp. 15-16.
  8. ^ GW 7883 , Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, p. 65.
  9. ^ Arnold Esch: German early printer in Rome in the registers of Pope Paul II. In: Gutenberg year book. Volume 68, 1993, pp. 44-52 ( DigiZeitschriften ), here pp. 48-49; Ders .: La prima generazione dei tipografi tedeschi a Roma (1465 - 1480): nuovi dati dai registri di Paolo II e Sisto IV. In: Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 109 (2007) 1, p. 401– 418, here p. 405.
  10. ^ Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 84-85, 96-97; for context, see Andrew Pettegree: The Book in the Renaissance. New Haven and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-17821-0 , pp. 43-60.
  11. ^ The supplic is edited in Victor Scholderer: The Petition of Sweynheym and Pannartz to Sixtus IV. In: The Library. s3-VI, No. 22 1915, pp. 186-190 doi: 10.1093 / library / s3-VI.22.186 ; see. Arnold Esch: German early printers in Rome in the registers of Pope Paul II. In: Gutenberg year book. Volume 68, 1993, pp. 44-52, here pp. 48-49; Ders .: La prima generazione dei tipografi tedeschi a Roma (1465 - 1480): nuovi dati dai registri di Paolo II e Sisto IV. In: Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 109 (2007) 1, p. 401– 418, here pp. 406-408; Ders .: Germans in Renaissance Rome. Indications of length of stay, fluctuation, contacts with old home . In: Brigitte Flug, Michael Matheus and Andreas Rehberg: Curia and Region. Festschrift for Brigide Schwarz on her 65th birthday. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08467-3 (Geschichtliche Landeskunde 59), pp. 263–276, here pp. 271–272.
  12. ^ Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 99-100.
  13. ^ Arnold Esch: German early printer in Rome in the registers of Pope Paul II. In: Gutenberg year book. Volume 68, 1993, pp. 44-52, here pp. 48-49; Ders .: La prima generazione dei tipografi tedeschi a Roma (1465 - 1480): nuovi dati dai registri di Paolo II e Sisto IV. In: Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 109 (2007) 1, p. 401– 418, here p. 407 and 409; Ders .: A special case of the German presence in Rome: The first generation of early German printers according to Vatican sources. In: Knut Schulz (Hrsg.): Handwerk in Europa. From the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56395-5 (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien 41), pp. 27–32 doi: 10.1524 / 9783486594423.27 , here pp. 30–32.
  14. ^ Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 101-102.
  15. GW M34308 , Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 22-23.
  16. GW M36368 , Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, pp. 22-23; on Calderini cf. Alessandro Perosa:  Calderini (Calderinus, Caldarinus, de Caldarinis), Domizio (Domitius, Domicius, Dominicus). In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 16:  Caccianiga-Caluso. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1973, pp. 597-605. and Johann Ramminger: Calderini, Domizio (1446-1478). In: Repertorium Pomponianum. November 17, 2005, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  17. Aenne father: A Schwanheimer who stands in the Brockhaus . In: Josef Henrich (ed.): Suenheim, Sweinheim, Schwanheim . Frankfurt am Main-Schwanheim 1971, DNB  720059178 , p. 34–35, here p. 35 .
  18. ^ Arnold Esch: German early printers in Rome in the registers of Pope Sixtus IV. In: Mario Ascheri, Gaetano Colli (ed.): Manoscritti, editoria e biblioteche dal medioeva all'età contemporanea. Studi offerti a Domenico Maffei per il suo ottantesimo compleanno. Volume I. Rome 2006, ISBN 88-85913-46-6 , pp. 281-302, here pp. 285-286; Ders .: La prima generazione dei tipografi tedeschi a Roma (1465 - 1480): nuovi dati dai registri di Paolo II e Sisto IV. In: Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 109 (2007) 1, p. 401– 418, here p. 410; Edwin Hall: Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of Printing in Italy. McMinnville, Oregon 1991, p. 98; Wilhelm Velke : On the earliest spread of the art of printing. In: Otto Hartwig (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the five hundred year birthday of Johann Gutenberg. Leipzig 1900 ( 23rd supplement to the Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen ) archive.org , p. 402–431 here p. 430–431 with reference to Mainz City Library , Man. hist. 36, p. 191: Conradus Schweynheym 1474 Jan. 29 admissus, 1477 obiit .