Johann Fust or Faust ( 1400 – October 30, 1466) was an early German printer.
Family background
Fust was born to a burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to the early thirteenth century. Members of the family held many civil and religious offices.
The name was written "Fust" until 1506, when Peter Schöffer, in dedicating the German translation of Livy to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, called his father-in-law "Faust." Thenceforward, the family assumed this name. The Fausts of Aschaffenburg, an old and quite distinct family, placed Johann Fust in their pedigree. Johann's brother Jacob, a goldsmith, was one of the burgomasters in 1462, when Mainz was stormed and sacked by the troops of Count Adolf II of Nassau, in the course of which he seems to have been killed (suggested by a document dated May 8, 1678).
Printing
Fust, along with his brother, was a member of the goldsmiths' guild of Strasbourg. Like many medieval goldsmiths, he also functioned as a financier.
Because of his connection with Johannes Gutenberg (died 1468), Fust has been called the inventor of printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg. Some see him as a patron and benefactor who saw the value of Gutenberg's discovery and supplied him with the means to implement it, whereas others portray him as a speculator who took advantage of Gutenberg's necessity and robbed him of the profits of his invention.
Whatever the truth, the document of November 6, 1455, shows that Fust advanced money to Gutenberg (apparently 800 guilders in 1450, and another 800 in 1452) to carry on his work, and that Fust, in 1455, brought a suit against Gutenberg to recover the money he had lent, claiming 2026 guilders for principal and interest. It appears that he had not paid in the 300 guilders a year which he had undertaken to furnish for expenses, wages, etc., and, according to Gutenberg, had said that he had no intention of claiming interest.
November 6, 1455, in the refectory of the Barefooted Friars of Mainz, when Fust swore that he himself had borrowed 1550 guilders and given them to Gutenberg. There is no evidence that Fust, as is usually supposed, removed the portion of the printing materials covered by his mortgage to his own house, and carried on printing there with the aid of Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim (known to have been a scriptor at Paris in 1449), who in about 1455 married Fust's only daughter Christina. The first publication by Fust and Schöffer, the Psalter of August 14, 1457 (a folio of 350 pages, the first printed book with a complete date) was remarkable for the beauty of the large initials printed each in two colours, red and blue, from types made in two pieces. New editions of the Psalter with the same type appeared in 1459 (August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.
As a businessman
Johann Fust was not much of a printer but more of a businessman and a salesman. Fust loaned 800 guilders (with an interest of 6%) to Johannes Gutenberg with which to start his original project. Later, another large sum of money was handed over from Fust to Gutenberg. At this point, Fust felt as if he needed to be included as a partner on the project since he had now invested so much into it.
There were all but three Bibles left to be completed when Fust decided to foreclose on his loans. On November 6, 1455, Fust demanded 2,026 guilders from Gutenberg. He also revealed in court that he had to borrow the money he gave to finance Gutenberg at 6% in order to even give the loan. All in all, Gutenberg ended up having to pay 1,200 guilders to Fust along with all of the completed Bibles, unfinished books, and his workshop.
From that point on Gutenberg was hardly ever heard from again and Fust went into partnership with Peter Schöffer. Schöffer had learned all the fine skills of printing from Gutenberg. This meant that Schöffer would be able to use the same techniques he had learned and practiced, while the savvy businessman Fust could find ways to do what he was best at, which was to sell the books that they were making. They made copies of the famed "42-line Bible" in both paper and vellum. The paper ones were sold for 40 guilders each, while the ones on vellum were sold for 75 guilders apiece. He was eventually released, since it was proved he was running a business in which printing enabled the rapid production of multiple copies of the same text. Elizabeth Eisenstein cites a similar story, and comments:
It does seem plausible to historians of print that Fust may have alarmed certain vested interests in the Paris book trade, and may have had bibles confiscated in Paris in 1465. In general, the church and the Sorbonne welcomed the new technology. Until early sources are verified for this story about witchcraft accusations, it may be that Schafer and Goldschmidt were extrapolating under the influence of the Johann Fust / Johann Georg Faust confusion.
Death
In 1464, Adolf II of Nassau appointed for the parish of St Quintin three Baumeisters (master-builders) who were to choose twelve chief parishioners as assistants for life. One of the first of these "Vervaren", who were named on May 1, 1464, was Johannes Fust, and in 1467 Adam von Hochheim was chosen instead of the late (selig) Johannes Fust. Fust is said to have gone to Paris in 1466 and to have died of the plague, which raged there in August and September. He certainly was in Paris on July 4, when he gave Louis de Lavernade of the province of Forez, then chancellor of the duke of Bourbon and first president of the parliament of Toulouse, a copy of his second edition of Cicero, as appears from a note in Lavernade's own hand at the end of the book, which is now in the library of Geneva. Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's Faust, a printer, may borrow more from Fust than other versions of the Faust legend.
Successors and influence
After Peter Schöffer married Fust's daughter, Christina, the printing business of Fust and Schöffer carried on through offspring. Fust and Schöffer had done much to keep their printing methods secret, even going as far as to make their employees swear by oath that they would not reveal anything.