Albrecht Pfister (c. 1420 – c. 1466) was one of the first European printers to use

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

, following its invention by

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

. Working in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

, Germany, he is believed to have been responsible for two innovations in the use of the new technology: printing books in the German language, and adding

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with Chisel#Gouge, gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts ...

to printed books. The

typefaces A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, bold), slope (e.g., italic), width ...

of Pfister, although similar to Gutenberg's, have their own peculiarities. Very little is known of his life. He is known to have been a cleric in Bamberg in 1448, and to have been connected with Georg I von Schaumberg at that time. By 1460, he was acting as secretary to von Schaumberg, who in 1459 had become

prince-bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to '' Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the ...

of Bamberg. Nine editions are generally ascribed to him. All are believed to date to the 1460s, and possibly all to the early 1460s. These are (not in chronological order): * two editions of the popular religious work ''

Der Ackermann aus Böhmen ''Der Ackermann aus Böhmen'' (German for "The Ploughman from Bohemia"), also known as ''Der Ackermann und der Tod'' ("The Ploughman and Death"), is a work of prose in Early New High German by Johannes von Tepl, written around 1401. Sixteen manus ...

'' in German * two editions of Ulrich Boner's ''Der Edelstein'' in German * two editions of a Biblia pauperum in German * a Biblia pauperum in Latin * a ''History of Joseph, Daniel, Judith and Esther'' in German * an edition of the ''Belial'' of Jacobus de Teramo in German The earlier edition of the ''Ackermann'' may have been his first work, and thus both the first illustrated book, and the first book in German, printed with movable type. Its woodcuts are rather crude, are hand-coloured, and are occasionally slightly misplaced on the page. The ''Belial'' is the only one of the nine books without woodcut illustrations. Only two of the editions have dates printed in them: the earlier of the two Edelsteins (1461) and the ''History'' (1462). Like other very early printers, he concentrated on titles which had already proved popular in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

form. He also printed

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 (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

s. In addition, he has been suggested as the printer of the 36-line Bible of 1458–60. This view has not been favoured by scholars for a century or so, principally because of the superior quality of the Bible's printing, especially compared with Pfister's earliest productions. However the Bible was probably printed in Bamberg, with the D–K

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

which Pfister later made use of, and which had originated with Gutenberg.

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External links

digital images of Latin Biblia Pauperum
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfister, Albrecht 1420s births 1460s deaths German printers Printers of incunabula Medieval German merchants 15th-century German businesspeople

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