Peter Schoeffer: Alone
In late October, 1466, Johann Fust died, apparently of the plague, during a book-selling tour in Paris. Schoeffer took over their printing enterprise in Mainz, and by 1469 he had married Fust’s daughter, Christina. He began printing books under his name alone, and in 1469–70 he printed a broadside advertisement for 21 editions that were available from his shop. Included on that list were vellum copies of the 1462 Bible and two other recent books represented in this exhibition: Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologica (1467), and a reissue of the Mainz Catholicon (c. 1469). Throughout the 1470s, Schoeffer continued to print major theological works in editions of the highest quality.