"A distant relative of his [Gutenberg], Adam Gelthus, published this
inscription -- resembling a funerary tablet -- in a book printed 31 years
afterwards [after G's death in 1468] in Mainz:
In foelicem artis impressorie inventorem
D[eo] O[ptimo][ M[aximo] S[acrum]
Joanni Genssfleisch artis impressorie repertori de omni
natione et lingua optime merito in nominis sui memoriam immor-
talem Adam Gelthus posuit. Ossa eius in ecclesia divi Francisci
Maguntina foeliciter cubant. (Ruppel, 1967: 72)"
So Albert Kapr, Johann Gutenberg, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996, p. 265,
referring to Ruppel's German biography, 3rd edn, Nieuwkoop, 1967. The
original publication was in Peter von Friedberg's 1499 Mainz edition, Ad
illustrissimum Bavarie ducem Philippum epistola, fol. 22r (Goff M-282, BMC
I 49), which contains praise of and a speech by Marsilius de Inghen,
founder of Heidelberg University; a picture of it in Helmut Presser,
Gutenberg, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1967, p. 84. Not strictly speaking an epitaph,
then.
Martin Davies
----------
> From: Andrea Capaccioni <apacx@tin.it>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <exlibris@library.berkeley.edu>
> Subject: Gutenberg's epitaph
> Date: 27 January 2000 09:18
>
> Does anyone know where i could find the text of Gutenberg's epitaph (i
> find an excerpt in S.H. Steinberg, Five hundred years of prunting, 1996,
> p. 250)?
>
> Thank
>
>
> Andrea Capaccioni
>
> Centro per l'orientamento bibliografico e per la documentazione
> Università per stranieri, Perugia
> apacx@tin.it
> acapacci@unistrapg.it
>