Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/129

Rh among the German people, Luther was forced to bring the many beginnings for a popular and unified language to their full development. And he was the right man" (1. c. p. 137x191).

In order to understand somewhat the tremendous influence which Luther exerted upon the German language, the whole flood of German writings poured by Luther on the German people must be considered. But in the forefront there stand his translation of the Bible, and, as Risch has again justly pointed out, his Small Catechism. Pietsch's bibliography appended to the "German Bible" in the Weimar edition of Luther's Works, enables the student to gain a reliable conception of the distribution of the Luther Bible up to Luther's death. In the beginning only parts of the Bible, principally the New Testament, were brought to the masses through the printeries. In 1522 three original prints were issued and 22 reprints. In 1524 eight editions in Wittenberg were followed by 39 reprints. That was the culmination point. In the years following the ratio of original editions to reprints is the following: 1525, 3 to 22; 1526, 7 to 25; 1527, 3 to 21; 1528, 4 to 15; 1529, 1 to 13. During the years 1530 to 1540, 34 Wittenberg editions were followed by 72 reprints; 1541 to 1546 Pietsch enumerates 18 Wittenberg editions and 26 reprints outside of Wittenberg. During the period of 1534 to 1584 Lotter's press alone is said to have sent out no less than 100,000 complete Bibles among the people. All told Pietsch treats of 84 original editions and 253 reprints, among which many double editions are counted as one. And if an edition is put at not less than 1,000 copies and not more than 5,000, and if the number of reprints is multiplied accordingly, it affords a glimpse of the stupendous distribution of the German Bible at