Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/803

GUT from his wife, and in 1811 was legally divorced from her. At the close of 1809 he went into Germany under the name of the count of Gottorp. He removed from place to place, now living in Germany, now in Switzerland. In 1810 he went to St. Petersburg, the next year to London, and in 1814 set out for Jerusalem, but proceeded no further than the Morea. Under the name of Colonel Gustafson he became in 1818 a citizen of Basle, living as a private gentlemen, as he did afterwards in Leipsic. He lived in Holland, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and finally at St. Gall, where he died, 7th February, 1837, greatly respected. He was very moderate in his expenditure, would receive no assistance from his family, but maintained himself by his profits as an author and his colonel's pay. He wrote "Memorial du Colonel Gustafson," 1829; and "La Journée du 13 Mars, 1809." He also left behind him in manuscript contributions to his history. His wife, by whom he had three daughters and one son, died at Lausanne, 1826.—M. H.  GUTENBERG,, who of all the numerous claimants has by far the best established right to the high distinction of being the inventor of the art of printing, was born at Mainz in the year 1397, or at least between 1393 and 1400. His father's name was Frielo Gensfleisch, his mother's Else Gutenberg, and he preferred in after-life to be called by the family name of his mother. On both sides he was connected with families of standing in his native city; and on occasion of a party contention in 1420 between the patricians and the democracy of Mainz, his family, who sided with the former, was obliged with many others to leave the city and settle elsewhere. A letter from him to his sister proves that he was settled in Strasburg as early at least as 1424; and another document remains to show that he was still there in 1434. But of more importance are the extant documents of a lawsuit commenced against him in Strasburg in 1439, which were brought to light in 1745, and which show that in 1438 he had entered into partnership with one Hans Riffe for the carrying on of a secret art, with the productions of which they intended to repair, in 1439, to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), where a multitude of pilgrims were expected to assemble; and that several years earlier, in 1436, he had purchased from a goldsmith of Strasburg articles connected with some method of printing which must have been new, as great precautions were used to prevent it from becoming known. These records are sufficient to give some colour to the claim which Strasburg has put forward in competition with Mainz to be the cradle of the typographic art; but they do not prove more than that Gutenberg was then engaged in those tentative experiments which finally conducted him to the invention. There is no evidence to show that he had then succeeded in producing any impression from movable metal types. He was still only a block-printer, although he had greatly improved and stimulated the art of block-printing by the invention of a press for the multiplying of impressions. It still remains certain that Mainz, and not Strasburg, was the place where he brought the new art to some degree of perfection, and succeeded in producing his first printed book. At the end of 1444, or early in 1445, he returned to Mainz with his faithful assistant, Lorenz Beildeck, and from that time to 1450, all that is known of him is, that having exhausted all his means without being able as yet to perfect his art, he was at one time on the point of abandoning it in despair. But in 1450 he succeeded in inducing John Faustus, one of the richest burghers of Mainz, to come to his assistance. Faustus lent him 800 gold gulden at six per cent. interest, upon the security of the whole of Gutenberg's printing apparatus. This apparatus was considerable, for Gutenberg was now not only an extensive block-printer, but was also practising the art of printing from movable wooden types, by which he was able to throw off large quantities of small prayerbooks, schoolbooks, &c., the execution of which, however, was unavoidably clumsy and imperfect. In 1452 Faustus advanced a second sum of the same amount, and it was in that year that Gutenburg succeeded in bringing the art of casting movable metal types to such a degree of maturity as to enable him to undertake the first great typographic work—the "Biblia Latina Vulgata"—which was finished near the close of 1455 in two folios, containing six hundred and fifty leaves of letterpress. To keep secret the art by which this epochal work was produced, it was printed without date and without name of place or printer, and the same high price was demanded for it which was usually paid for books executed by the hand. The late Lord Grenville possessed a copy of it in vellum which is now in the library of the British museum; and in the library of Lord Spencer at Althorp there is a copy of it in paper. It is anything but honourable to the memory of Faustus that he should have seized upon the first opportunity of breaking with Gutenberg, and getting possession of the whole stock of this admirable work immediately after it was finished at press. His servant, Peter Schöffer, who was employed in the establishment as illuminator and rubricist, had discovered a new method of manufacturing matrices, which was attended with great advantages over Gutenberg's method, and had also fallen upon a plan of improving the quality of printing ink. Having communicated these discoveries to Faustus, the latter foresaw that Gutenberg would be unable to compete with these improved methods if they were employed against him; and having given his daughter in marriage to Schoffer upon a promise of secrecy, he took steps for immediately dissolving his partnership with Gutenberg, and securing the whole profits of Schöffer's invention to himself and family. His claim of 1600 gulden could not be met by his partner when so suddenly pressed. The affair was taken into the courts of law. The judges unjustly leaned to Faustus; and a decision in his favour left him in legal but dishonourable possession of the inventor's whole apparatus and stock. Gutenberg, thus reduced again to poverty after his long and glorious struggles, left Mainz for a time; but returning again with unbroken spirit, found a more generous and honourable supporter in Conrad Humery, a doctor of canon law, and one of the syndics of the city. Humery was sensible of Gutenberg's great merits, and was anxious to compensate for the injustice which he had suffered. His advances of money enabled the inventor to commence de novo in Mainz, and the first work of his new presses appeared in 1460—the Catholicon—a grammatical and lexical work then much in use, in folio, and printed in fine Gothic letter in double columns, and reaching to three hundred and seventy-four leaves. In 1465 he received some recognition of his merits by being taken into the court service of Adolph von Nassau; but this was a wretched testimonial to be offered to the inventor of an art which has given a new face to the world, and when Gutenberg died, three years after, sometime between 4th November, 1467, and 24th February, 1468, the event excited little or no attention; it left its own date uncertain; and it is only in our time, in 1837, that the German nation has raised any adequate monument to his memory. This monument—a colossal statue in bronze by Thorwaldsen—stands in the centre of Mainz, and bears the inscription—"Joannem Gensfleisch de Gutenberg Patricium Moguntinum, ære per totam Europam collato posuerunt cives, 1837."—P. L.  GUTHRIE,, F.R.S., President of the Royal College of Surgeons, was born in London in 1785. Having studied for some time under Dr. Harper, he became in 1801 a member of the College of Surgeons, and was soon after appointed an assistant-surgeon to the 29th regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Bing, afterwards Lord Strafford. Though the latter was only twenty-two years of age, and Mr. Guthrie sixteen, it was always admitted that there was no regiment better commanded or better doctored. From 1802 to 1807 Mr. Guthrie served in North America. In 1808 he landed with his regiment in Portugal; was present at the battles of Roleia, Vimiera, and Talavera; and at the taking of Oporto had the good fortune to capture a gun. After the Peninsular campaigns he returned to London, and commenced lecturing on surgery, which practice he continued for nearly thirty years, receiving large attendances of the medical officers of the army and navy. In 1827 he was elected surgeon to the Westminster hospital, and in 1833 was made president of the Royal College of Surgeons—an honour again conferred on him in 1842 and 1855. He wrote a variety of dissertations on gunshot wounds and other professional subjects. He died. May 1, 1856.—G. BL.  * GUTHRIE,, D.D., minister of St. John's Free Church, Edinburgh, was born at Brechin in 1803. He is the sixth son of David Guthrie, merchant and banker, who was for many years provost of Brechin, and at his death was succeeded both in the bank and the provostship by his son David. Guthrie's mother was an eminently devout woman, and a person of strong ecclesiastical convictions. Her influence on her children was not likely to pass away without leaving characteristic fruit. To this may be traced much of that breadth of view in christian action which in her son is combined with steadfast adherence to church principles. Circumstances occurred which led her to become a Seceder, while her husband continued connected with the Established Church. 