Identifier: greatfamous05hornuoft (find matches)
Title: Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 5
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: Biography
Publisher: New York : Selmar Hess
Contributing Library: Kelly - University of Toronto

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astery ofArbogast. This was the first printing-press. As soon as he was in possession of his press, Gutenberg began printing. Lit-tle is known of the first works which he sent out ; but the strongly religious dis-position of the inventor leaves no doubt concerning the nature of the labors towhich he devoted the first-fruits of his art. They were, to a certainty, religiousbooks. The art invented for the sake of God, and by his inspiration, began withhis worship. His later publications at Mainz are a proof of it; the divine songsof the Psalmist, and the celebrated Latin Bible, were the first works issued atMainz from the machine invented by Gutenberg, and applied to the use of themost sacred powers of man, lyrical praise of his Maker, and lamentation for thewoes of earth. Under the hands of this pious and unfortunate man, praise andprayer were the first voices of the press. The press ought ever to be proud of it. But great tribulation awaited him after his triumph. We have seen that the
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zO ba. m z 3 HANS GUTENBERG 127 necessity ot procuring funds obliged him to take partners. The necessity thatsubsequently arose of getting assistance for the multifarious labor of a greatprinting establishment obliged him to confide his occupation, and even the secretof his process, to his partners and to a number of workmen. His partners, tiredof supplying funds to an enterprise which, for want of perfection, was not thenremunerative, refused to persevere in the ungrateful occupation. Gutenbergbegged them not to abandon him at the very moment that fortune and glorywere within his grasp. They consented to make fresh advances, but only oncondition of sharing completely his secret, his profits, his property, and his fame. He sold his fame to procure success to his work. The name of Gutenbergdisappeared. The firm absorbed the inventor, who soon became a mere work-man in his own workshop. It was a parallel to the case of Christopher Colum-bus brought back in irons on board his own vessel,

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