Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

The Monument to the Invention of Book Printing as it was called in the 19th century is nowadays more known after the central figure, Gutenberg Monument. The Gothic-style sandstone structure includes five different programs of sculpture illustrating various facets of printing. Starting at the top of the monument these are:

1. Gutenberg and his companions
2. Important printers
3. Early centers of book printing
4. The intellectual interests which most profited from book printing
5. The distribution of book printing over the four continents

A. Gutenberg and his companions

1. Johannes Gutenberg (Mainz c. 1398 - 1468), German goldsmith, credited with being the inventor of the mechanical printing press (Wikipedia).
2. Hans Fust (Mainz c. 1400 - Paris 1466), early German printer a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender. On account of his connection with Gutenberg, he has been called the inventor of printing, and the instructor as well as the partner of Gutenberg, others see him as Gutenberg's patron and benefactor (Wikipedia).
3. Peter Schöffer (Gernsheim c. 1425 - Mainz 1503), German printer, studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender (Wikipedia).

   1

   2

   3

B. Important printers

At the top of the monument is a frieze featuring 14 busts of famous printers, publishers and booksellers (and, at special request of the monument committee, the sculptor).

1. Johannes Mentelin (Sélestat c. 1410 - Strasbourg 1478), pioneering German book printer and bookseller; in 1466, he published the first printed Bible in the German language, the Mentelin Bible. (Wikipedia).
2. Laurens Jansz. Coster (Haarlem c. 1370 - c. 1440), purported inventor of a printing press; he discovered printing simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg and is regarded in the Netherlands as having invented printing first (Wikipedia).
3. William Caxton (c. 1415 - 1492), English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. He is thought to be the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England, which he did in 1476 (Wikipedia).
4. Aldus Pius Manutius (Aldo Manuzio; Bassiano 1449 - Venice 1515), Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice (Wikipedia).
5. Paulus Manutius (Paolo Manuzio; Venice 1512 - Rome 1574), Venetian printer with a humanist education, the third son of the famous printer Aldus Manutius (Wikipedia).
6. Christian Egenolff (Hadamar 1502 - Frankfurt am Main 1555), the first important printer and publisher operating from Frankfurt am Main (Wikipedia).
7. Sigmund Feyerabend (1528 - 1590), bookseller at Frankfurt am Main (Wikipedia).
8. Johann Andreae der Jüngere (Frankfurt am Main 1626 - id. 1683), printer in Frankfurt am Main (Deutsche Biographie).
9. Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf (Clausthal 1695 - Leipzig 1777), German printer and publisher, and founder of the publisher that became Breitkopf & Härtel. (Wikipedia).
10. Firmin Didot (Paris 1764 - Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée, Eure 1836), French printer, engraver, and type founder. He invented the word "stereotype", which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages (as opposed to printing pages directly with movable type), and used the process extensively, revolutionizing the book trade by his cheap editions (Wikipedia).
11. Giambattista Bodoni (Saluzzo, Piemont 1740 - Parma 1813), Italian typographer, type-designer, compositor, printer and publisher in Parma (Wikipedia).
12. Friedrich Koenig (Eisleben 1774 - Oberzell 1833), German inventor best known for his high-speed printing press, which he built together with watchmaker Andreas Friedrich Bauer (Wikipedia).
13. Andreas Friedrich Bauer (Stuttgart 1783 - Würzburg 1860) German engineer who developed the first functional steam-powered printing press with his colleague Friedrich Koenig, who had invented the technology and sold it to The Times in London in 1814 (Wikipedia).
14. Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz (Grobin/Kurland 1797 - Frankfurt am Main 1869), sculptor of the monument (Wikipedia).

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14

C. Early centers of book printing

On the four faces of the plinth are allegorical figures with coats-of-arms of the early centers of book printing, Mainz, Strasbourg, Frankfurt and Venice.

Mainz

Frankfurt

Venice

Strasbourg

Below these are sandstone reliefs of coats-of-arms of Gutenberg, Fust and Schöffer and a text on the back side.

Gutenberg

Fust

Schöffer

D. The intellectual interests which most profited from book printing

The statues stand on a with on the corners sitting allegorical figures of theology, poetry, natural sciences and industry - the main causes for the invention of the time-honoured art of book-printing.

1. Poesie / Poetry, with a lyra.
2. Naturforschung / Natural sciences, with a globe
3. Industrie / Industry, with a cog wheel and a writing tablet.
4. Theologie / Theology, with a book and a scroll.

1

2

3

4

E. The distribution of book printing over the four continents

Below the allegories are fountain basis in which water is spouting from four animal heads representing the four continents, symbolizing the knowledge of book printing spread out to all four continents.

Europa - Stier Europe - Bull

Amerika - Lama America - Lama

Asien - Elephant Asia - Elefant

Afrika - Löwe Africa - Lion

Signature

Information Sign

Annotation

Sculptor

• Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz (Grobin/Kurland 1797 - Frankfurt am Main 1869), German sculptor (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

• Frankfurt, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Innenstadt.
• Wikipedia, Gutenberg-Denkmal (Frankfurt am Main).
• Wikipedia, Liste von Brunnen in Frankfurt am Main.
• 'Denkmal der Erfindung des Buchdrucks in Frankfurt a.M. - Ed. von der Launitz' in Ernst Förster, Denkmale deutscher Baukunst, Bildnerei und Malerei, Vol. 12 (Leipzig 1869), II, pp. 7-10.
• Frankfurt und seine Bauten (Frankfurt: Frankfurter Architekten- und Ingenieurverein, 1886), p. 361-362 (Internet Archive).
• Gedenk-Buch zur vierten Jubelfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst begangen zu Frankfurt am Main am 24ten und 25ten Junius 1840.
• Karl Berger, Vierte Säkularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst (Karlsruhe 1840).

Tags

Locatie (N 50°6'44" - E 8°40'35") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Your banner here? Click for information.