1425-1502

German Printer

Peter Schoeffer was the principal workman of Johannes Gutenberg (1398?-1468), the inventor of the movable type printing press. He helped to form the firm of Fust and Schoeffer after Johann Fust (1400?-1466) foreclosed his mortgage on Gutenberg's printing outfit in 1455. Besides being a founding member of the first publishing firm, Schoeffer was also responsible for many printing innovations such as: dating books, introducing Greek characters in print, developing the art of type-founding, and printing in colors. Furthermore, his success as an entrepreneur helped to solidify the importance of printing in late-medieval Europe.

Little is known of Peter Schoeffer's early history. He was educated at the University of Paris and lived in the city of Mainz in Germany. By the time he began to work for Johannes Gutenberg, Gutenberg had already worked through many of the preliminary stages in his development of the printing...