Peter Schöffer the Younger

Title page of the tablature book by the organist Arnolt Schlick, printed by Schöffer in 1512

Peter Schöffer the Younger (* between 1475 and 1480 in Mainz , † 1547 in Basel ) was a well-known printer during the Reformation .

Live and act

Schöffer was born between 1475 and 1480 as the second son of the Mainz book printer and typographer Peter Schöffer the Elder . Like his father, Schöffer turned to book printing and after his father's death was able to establish his first workshop in the family home in Mainz (Haus zum Korb or Schöfferhof). Schöffer specialized primarily in the printing of sheet music and thus became one of the first and most important music printers in Germany. The 88-page tablature book Tabulaturen Several Praise and Lidlein by the organist Arnolt Schlick, published in 1512, came from his workshop . Peter Schöffer's song book from 1513 was also known. The song book consisted of 60 secular and two sacred songs in German, which can be assigned to Renaissance poetry.

But already in August 1512 he had to sell the house in Mainz he had inherited from his father for financial reasons and from then on he increasingly oriented himself towards Worms , to which he finally moved entirely in 1518. In Worms, Schöffer soon came into contact with Reformation circles and printed among other things the first complete New Testament in English by William Tyndale (in 1526), ​​the Worms prophets by Hans Denck and Ludwig Hätzer (in 1527), the Schleitheimer articles ( in the years 1527 to 1529) and the Worms Bible (in 1529), which appeared as the first German-speaking Protestant full Bible before the Zurich Bible and the Luther Bible. A second print of the evangelical choral hymn book by Johann Walter , published under the title Geystliche Gesangbuechlin, also came from Schöffer's workshop. Around 60 prints are said to have been made in Schöffer's workshop in Worms. After expelling the Reformation Anabaptists from Worms and the death of his first wife, he married the Strasbourg widow Anna Wechter in December 1529, which granted him Strasbourg citizenship. In Strasbourg he initially formed a joint venture with his former typesetter from Worms. His son from his first marriage Ivo Schöffer took under its 1531 Offizin family in Mainz. In 1539 Peter Schöffer teamed up with the Basel printer and publisher Matthias Apiarius , with whom he exclusively printed music manuscripts . Together they published, among other things, the treatise Rerum musicarum opusculum rarum ac insigne by the theologian and composer Johannes Froschius (in 1535) and the song book Fünff und sixty German songs with songs by composers from the Strasbourg area (in 1536). For a short time Schöffer also worked in Basel (1539) and Venice (1541/42). After his return from Venice he married Elisabeth Karrer in Basel, the third marriage. In the last years of his life he was still working as a type cutter . Schöffer finally died in Basel in 1547.

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Roth: The Mainz book printer family Schoeffer during the 16th century and their products to Mainz, Worms, Strasbourg and Venice: containing d. Prints d. Johann Schoeffer 1503-1531, d. Peter Schoeffer the Elder Juengeren 1508 - 1542 and Jvo Schoeffer 1531 - 1555 . - Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1892 ( digitized )
• Alejandro Zorzin: Peter Schöffer the Elder J. and the Anabaptists . In: Ulman Weiß (ed.): Book being in the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Festschrift for Helmut Claus on his 75th birthday . Ependorf / Neckar 2008.
• Sabine Todt: And that's the warheyt blosz - discourses of knowledge in the early Reformation: the printer Peter Schöffer and the Anabaptists in Worms . In: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter 62 (2005), pages 21-50.
• Albrecht Classen: German song books of the 15th and 16th centuries . Munster 2001.

Web links

• Alejandro Zorzin: Peter Schöffer the Younger. In: Mennonite Lexicon . Volume 5 (MennLex 5).