31-line Indulgence on:
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The 31-line Indulgence is a
"Early Printed Bibles - In Latin 1454 onwards"
/ref> There were at least two rival printers also printing in Mainz at the time and one of the discrepancies that may lend evidence that Gutenberg did not print the document is the distinct difference of the typeface on the Indulgence from that of the
The 31-line Indulgence is a plenary indulgence
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of ...
granted by Pope Nicholas V
Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene made ...
and issued in Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits ...
on 22 October 1454. It is the earliest known document with a fixed date printed by movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
, which had recently been introduced in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs ...
. One of 46 surviving copies is preserved in the Scheide Library
The Scheide Library once a private library, is now a permanent part of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Princeton University Library. It is housed in the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library on the campus of Princeton U ...
at Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
.
Background
Indulgences were sold by theRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
as "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". To assist the defiance of Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...
against a Turkish invasion, Pope Nicholas V granted all income from the sale of the Indulgences to John II, King of Cyprus. The order was issued on 12 April 1451. On 6 January 1452, John II appointed as his commissary
A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop.
In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...
Paulinus Zappe or Chappe, a Cypriot nobleman and the Proctor-General of the king. The indulgence was valid between 1 May 1452 and 30 April 1455.
History
The Indulgence does not give any indication as to printer or place of printing but it is assumed Gutenberg printed the document given it was printed using the D-K type and the proximity of Erfurt to Mainz (D-K type was used by Gutenberg and Mainz, where he manufactured his printing press, is only 30 miles from Erfurt). TheGesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke
''Der Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' (English: The Union Catalogue of Incunabula) ( abbreviated as ''GW or GKW'') is an ongoing project of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and appears in conjunction with the print edition of the union catalogu ...
reports the 31-line Indulgence was "Printer of the 36-line Bible
The 36-line Bible, also known as the "Bamberg Bible",British Library/ref> (and sometimes called a "Gutenberg Bible") was the second moveable-type-printed edition of the Bible. It is believed to have been printed in Bamberg, Germany, circa 14 ...
", assumed to be Gutenberg.British Library"Early Printed Bibles - In Latin 1454 onwards"
/ref> There were at least two rival printers also printing in Mainz at the time and one of the discrepancies that may lend evidence that Gutenberg did not print the document is the distinct difference of the typeface on the Indulgence from that of the
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...
, printed by Gutenberg.
The year 1454 is printed on the document using movable type, with a blank space on lines 18 through 21 where the month, day and name of the person who purchased the indulgence is filled in by hand.
The copy in the Scheide Library was issued in Pfullendorf
Pfullendorf is a small town of about 13,000 inhabitants located north of Lake Constance in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire for nearly 600 years.
The town is in the district of Sigmaringen south of ...
on 29 April 1455 to Johannes Grosshans of Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimat ...
. It was preserved in the library of the Cistercians of Salem as pastedowns in a binding on four incunable
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pr ...
s. After the dissolution of the library, possession transferred to a convent. In the early 19th century was sold to Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
. The university removed and sold the indulgence as a duplicate around 1930 to Maggs Brothers, which sold it to John H. Scheide in November 1933. It was incorporated into the library that was founded in his name.
References
Sources
* * {{Cite EB1911, wstitle=Typography, volume=27, pages=509–548, first=John Henry, last=Hessels History of printing Sacraments of the Catholic Church Catholicism in the Middle Ages 1454 works 15th-century documents