Gutenberg's Break Up With Fust


 

| Gutenberg Notes | Early Years | The Strasbourg Years | Partnership with Fust |

| Jobbing | Guttenberg Bible | Break Up With Fust | The Later Years | Print Shop |

 


However, Fust became impatient at recovering the money he had invested and in November of 1455, he took Gutenberg to court over the unpaid loans. Having no money to repay the loan due to investing it all into the printing process he had developed, Gutenberg lost the case and Fust took over his business and his presses. Not only that, but his workers went to work for Fust and left Gutenberg, now in his mid-fifties, a broken man. I was sorry to leave Gutenberg having risen to the rank of foreman in his shop. But I had to have work and Fust offered me a fare wage. Fust, being a businessman, needed skilled workers to run the shop after the court awarded him all of Gutenberg's equipment. A man has to eat and at least with Fust I knew the finances of the shop were in good hands. Gutenberg was more inventor than businessman and was always borrowing money that he never repaid. It is both ironic and sad that the forty-two-line Bible sold well, as the profits from its sale went to Fust and not Gutenberg. The money provided the backing for the printing of Fust and mine's first book, a book of Psalms which came out in 1457.


References:

Bunson, Matthew (1995). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Facts On File, Inc. New York, New York.
 
Pollard, Michael (1992). Johann Gutenberg. Exley Publications Ltd. Watford, Herts WDI 4BN, United Kingdom.
 

Created for the Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office, Friends of Fermilab, United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, and North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL).
 
Authors: Bonnie Panagakis, Chris Marszalek, Linda Mazanek
School: Twin Groves Junior High School, Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089
Created: November 25, 1997 - Updated: