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CHAPTER 20

The Rest Of The Story

      BECAUSE THIS is a true story, it doesn't end with Peter's promise, and anyway, you want to know that happened next:

      Christina Fust did convince her father to re-open the printing shop, and by the summer of the next year the Great Bible was finished. We know it was a good job, and well done, because some 50 copies of it still exist — they are more than 550 years old!

      That Bible was the first major book ever printed with movable type, and it made history in more ways than one. Not only is it one of the most famous books ever produced, but in quite another sense, it made the study of history possible. Just as Christina predicted, the printing press produced so many more books that ordinary people (like you and me) could learn to read and were able to own books. Those people found out about their world and its past, and the knowledge they gained helped them to lay hands on the future and create the world we live in now.

      If you like romances, you'll be glad to know that Peter and Christina really did fall in love, just as they did in this story. They were married in 1467, soon after Johann Fust died. Christina's mother, Marguerite, married old Conrad Henkis the same year.

      What's more, Peter Schoeffer did, indeed, give his life to his great work that changed the world. He became a superb printer in his own right, and after working for years as the foreman of Fust's printing shop, he finally became its owner. Not only did he bring the Great Bible to completion, but in the years that followed, he created hundreds of other beautiful books as well.

      John Mentelin and Ulrich Zell were also real people. After Mentelin left Mainz, he moved to Strassbourg, just as he had planned. He became highly successful and produced the first books printed in the German language. Zell found success as the first printer in Cologne.

      As for Johann Gutenberg, he lived quietly in Mainz for more than twelve more years. Before his death, Archbishop Adolph of Mainz — the successor of Archbishop Dieter von Erbach — rewarded him for his lifetime of work by raising him to the rank of nobleman. After that, the old man had a good income that allowed him to live in comfort for the remainder of his days.

      And the Great Bible he planned and dreamed of — the Gutenberg Bible — is still called by his name.

      Learn more about Johann Gutenberg and his Great Bible by accessing the British Museum site at http://prodigi.bl.uk/gutenbg/default.asp

      — THE END —

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