Gutenberg's apprentice

This is a great book about how an even greater book was first printed in Mainz, Germany during the Middle Ages. It is the story of the first book printed in moveable type, which would come to be known as the Gutenberg Bible. The story is told from the view point of Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg’s

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apprentice. Peter, an orphan, was raised by Johann Fust, a wealthy merchant. Johann Gutenberg, a man of higher birth, but lower means, fast talks Fust into financing Gutenberg’s latest invention. Sworn to secrecy, Fust is told it is a new machine that will print books more cheaply and in greater volume than those done by scribes. Gutenberg says he has found a way to make printed books, each as fine and exact as the other. This would make hand lettering by scribes a thing of the past and result in a fortune of riches for both men. Peter has been professionally trained as a scribe through years of apprenticeship and takes great pride in his skill and accomplishments. When he is told that Fust has apprenticed him to Gutenberg to help create this new form of book, Peter is aghast. He believes, as he is sure many others will also, that it is a blasphemy of the Lord’s work. He feels no machine can give to a book the care, devotion, and respect for the Divine that the skilled hand of man can impart. This book follows the tug of war between the traditional and the new ways; the battle between the Church and the secular way of life; the corruption in both the Church and the local government that create almost insurmountable obstacles to the completion of the book. Gutenberg’s Bible, so big it had to be divided into two volumes, took years to complete. Only one hundred eighty copies were printed of the first book made on the printing press. The secret process was extremely difficult to keep concealed for so long. The costs drove Gutenberg and Fust, his financier, nearly to bankruptcy and eventually apart. This a great tale full of intrigue, suspense, and personal conflicts that will keep you enthralled to the end. Book provided for review by Amazon Vine.

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Author Alix Christie is both writer and letterpress printer, so she seems perfect for the task of writing about the invention of the moveable type press. All most of us know about that subject is that Johann Gutenberg invented it; what most of us don’t know is that the press didn’t spring fully

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formed from Gutenberg’s mind but was the work of several people.

The apprentice of the title is Peter Schoeffer, the adopted son of Johann Fust, who was Gutenberg’s money supplying partner. At the start of the novel, Fust has recalled Schoeffer from Paris, where he has been working as a professional scribe and enjoying the fleshly delights of the city. Fust tells Schoeffer that he is work for Gutenberg, which does not go over well with either Schoeffer or Gutenberg. Schoeffer feels the press is barbaric compared to hand writing, while Gutenberg thinks Schoeffer will be useless. Soon they realize that they are both wrong; Schoeffer begins to see the beauty and utility of type while also proving himself useful as a font designer and a carver of the metal masters from which the type is cast. He also turns out to be a natural foreman, organizing the men who melt the alloys, work the press, handle the paper and vellum sheets so they don’t smudge, and set the type. But it’s not a peaceful job; Fust and Gutenberg clash frequently over money. Gutenberg is a flamboyant narcissist who trusts no one and makes covert deals behind Fust’s back; he’s a total drama queen. The book covers the two years that it takes to get the first run of Bibles printed.

The book was interesting; I won’t say it was can’t-put-it-down but it held my interest. But it lacked a certain depth; it’s about the event and the technology and less about the people. While the characters aren’t flat, they don’t really make you feel for them, either. We get the story from Schoeffer’s point of view, but even he I didn’t care deeply about. In a book of 400 pages one should feel they know the protagonist down to their toes; this just doesn’t happen here. The love interest takes few pages and seems like an after thought, something thrown in to add tension to the story. I liked the book but didn’t love it.

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The printing of the Gutenberg Bible, the first book to be printed with moveable type, is intertwined with the fictional story of Peter Schoeffer and his apprenticeship to Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. Historical fact weaves throughout the story to illuminate the obstacles to be

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overcome by these pioneering printers whose ultimate success was destined to change the world.

It’s a well-crafted look at the struggles Gutenberg faced, a reminder of the joy of “Books everywhere . . . . Imagine how the world would look if anyone could buy one!”

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The greatest thing since sliced bread? There's no contest; it's obviously the printing press. Without the genius of Johann Gutenberg, the world as we know it would be so fundamentally different I can't even begin to imagine what it would look like. And for me personally, well, I would have had to

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disguise myself as a boy so I could be a monk because I don't think I could survive without books. But Gutenberg didn't change the world from scribes to printing presses singlehandedly as Alix Christie's debut novel, Gutenberg's Apprentice, suggests. Gutenberg's Bible was not the work of one man but a miracle of many. He had a financial backer, a devoted apprentice, and a whole workshop of people dedicated to his vision.

Peter Schoeffer is a scribe in Paris, good at his work and starting to become known in his field, when his adoptive father, Johann Fust, calls him back to Mainz, Germany. Fust is a wealthy merchant who sees the promise in Gutenberg's latest invention and he wants his foster son to not only apprentice in the new art but also to serve as his eyes and ears in the workshop. Peter is bitter at first and worried that what they are doing is the devil's work but as he comes to understand the process and its implications for the city of Mainz, each church, and indeed, people all over, he grows as invested in the art of printing as he ever was in being a scribe. But the path to the Bible was not a straight one. The expenses for starting up this newfangled press were staggering and threatened to mushroom out of control before anything was ever printed. The Bible itself was not originally the work intended to be printed but the church's internal wrangling over reform and unchecked greed made it impossible for anything but God's Own Word. The time consuming nature of the work, although significantly faster than scribing, was also against them. The secrecy in which the workshop had to toil was precarious but vital. And the growing enmity and lack of trust between the partners, Fust and Gutenberg, pulled at Peter and caused him stress.

Christie has done a beautiful job laying out the political climate of the time and the struggle between religious and secular interests. She has captured the corruption and greed that defined the late medieval church and which would, in a few short years, result in the Reformation. She shows the guilds growing in power to challenge the established church and the price that the common man paid in this struggle. Gutenberg is shown as visionary but crafty, self-serving, and eager for fame and fortune. Fust starts off lenient and willing to invest greatly in the venture but grows increasingly impatient and mercenary when he tots up his probable losses. And Peter, who owes much to both men, is torn, his loyalty divided and tested. The frame device, whereby Peter tells the tale of the Bibles to a curious monk some twenty or thirty years after the events and after the deaths of both Fust and Gutenberg, allows him to reflect on the way that they each contributed to history and to finally see the good and ill of each decision from the vantage of a more impartial time, reflecting on the miracle that it lasted only the span of time that it required.

Mainz and the surrounding areas were well described and the details of how the press worked and the technique involved in making all aspects of the book perfect were fascinating. The tightrope they all walked in keeping the rapacious archbishop ignorant enough of their work to continue on without interference lends tension to a plot, the outcome of which all of history records. Peter is a wonderful narrator, having a foot in both camps, truly understanding the monumental achievement towards which they strove, and having to learn everything just as the reader does. Historical fiction readers will appreciate the bringing to life of the major players in the birth of the printing press, the intriguing and fraught tale of Gutenberg's famous Bible, and the beginning of the publishing industry and readily accessible books. Then they'll want to lay eyes on one of the remaining Gutenberg Bibles themselves. I know I do!

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I have been a reader since I could form words into a sentence so I cannot imagine a time where books would not be readily available but that time most certainly existed. Prior to the invention of the printing press books were the provenance of the very rich and of the church. In fact, most people

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could not even read. Gutenberg truly revolutionized the world - by making the printing press more readily available books and other printed matter were not as expensive. This opened up a new world of learning and development. He is of course, most remembered for the Bible he first produced but the press itself led to so many advancements.

I knew very little about how the press came to be which is what drew me to this title in the first place. I was immediately drawn in by the title and my curiosity was well satisfied as Ms. Christie introduces her characters; Gutenberg, his financier Johan Fust and the man who created the letters for the press, Peter Shoeffer. There are others in the workshop and they all play distinct roles but it is these three men that brought that Bible into being.

The development of the press took place in a messy political world as the church was in a major state of upheaval and the city of Mainz which was embroiled in a battle between factions that I must admit I never completely understood despite it being a backdrop throughout the story. This is not a period and place in history that I have done a lot of reading or research around.

This is not going to be a book for everyone but I was absolutely fascinated by the descriptions and details of how the press was developed from the many trials to get the metal mix right for the keys to the intricacies of the creation of what we today would call the font. I started reading it and was completely sucked in. Where the book lost me was when the politics of Mainz came into play - I completely understand the need to include it as it was important to the mindset of the men creating the press but I kept getting confused.

I really enjoyed this book. It has led me down several google alleyways. I've looked at photos of the Gutenberg Bible, I've learned that the printing press was actually invented almost 400 years earlier in China. It's a fascinating book about something that creates objects that obviously play a huge role in my life today for I AM a reader and where would I be without books?

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I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot going on while I was reading it so I didn't always get to pay it as much attention that it deserved, which is very unfortunate. However, that means that this book will be reread in the not so distant future.

I enjoyed Christies writing style - I love the

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way that she merged historical fact with fictional represenations. It was seamless and very easy to read.

I would definitly suggest this book to anyone who likes to read historical fiction.

I recieved this book as a Goodreads First Reads.

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The story of the birth of the printing industry in Western Europe told through the experience of Peter Schoeffer - Gutenberg's apprentice. Not the paciest novel I've read but its well written, well researched and paints a convincing picture of the time. As I'm an old printer and a lover of

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historical fiction this was always going to do it for me!

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One always hears about Gutenberg and how invented the moveable press leading to the first printing of books. However, this book shows that, like most inventions, it was not just the work of one person but a team of dedicated practitioners. In fact, although Gutenberg had the initial idea without

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the financial backing and his assistants he might never have brought it to fruition.

Peter Schoeffer was born in poverty and his mother died when he was young. But she had a wish that Peter become a scribe and so he was taught to read and write. Then he was fostered by a rich merchant in Mainz, Johann Fust, and his future seemed assured. He went to Paris and quickly gained renown for his fine hand but his foster father ordered him back to Mainz. Fust had met and agreed to back Johann Gutenberg and he wanted Peter to learn this new method of making books. He also wanted Peter's eyes on Gutenberg to make sure he didn't cheat. At first Peter was appalled at the idea of producing books by mechanical means but when he saw his first printed page he was won over. Peter developed many improvements for the printing press and worked tirelessly to complete the massive job of printing the Bible. Gutenberg appointed him as foreman of the shop while Gutenberg went on to other things. The printing press and the Bible needed to be kept secret because some clergy (and others) thought it was blasphemy to print the word of God. Yet Gutenberg endangered the secrecy by printing indulgences and other works. Peter Schoeffer kept the whole enterprise going but his name has been forgotten. Until now.

This is Alix Christie's debut novel and there are a few things that show this. Some things could have been left out but others should have been expanded. One thing that I'm glad she did put in is a love story subplot. It gave a human dimension to the whole enterprise.

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This book really allowed me to feel something of the wonder, skepticism, and even disbelief that must have been engendered by the first printed books in Europe. Loved it.

"The Word of God willed its completion, after all."
- from Alix Christie's "Gutenberg's Assistant"

Alix Christie has written a fabulously passionate ode to the written word. Clearly a student of the 'Ars impressoria' (art of engraving), Christie builds a sepia-toned portrait of the late Middle Ages,

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with a myriad of characters who burst through the narrative to color the realities of this uniquely world-changing period of history.

Great historical fiction is grounded in the 'touch and feel' of a place and time. Christie finely textures her world with a sturdy poetic sense that splendidly blends the historical sense of the moments with a clear ardor she has for the printed word.

Christie centers her story around Peter Shoeffer, the real-life apprentice (at first), and later 'shop' boss for Johann Gutenberg in his printing workshop. Peter's adopted father asks him to return to Mainz, Germany from Paris where he was enjoying the life of a monastic scribe. Peter was "…a man of letters, a cleric, a scribe. He bore the tools of his profession in a pouch slung like a quiver at his side: the sealed horn of ink, his quills and reeds, his bone and chalk and chamois."

"The textura lettering was squat and ugly, yet every string of letters was unnervingly even, all across the line. Each of those lines ended with an utter, chilling harmony, at precisely the same distance from the edge. What hand could write a line that straight, and end exactly underneath the one above? What human hand could possibly achieve a thing so strange? He felt his hear squeeze and his soul flood with an overwhelming dread."
- description of Peter Shoeffer's first look at a sample page run off of Gutenberg's press.

Religion is a pervasive force in the lives of the people in Mainz. From Peter's youth, he recalls his master's words: "Your hand is but His tool. The parchment that we write on is pure conscience, on which all good works are noted. The rule that we use to draw the lines for writing is God's will. The ink with which we write is pure humility, the desk on which we write the calming of our hearts."

This religious specter floats over the entire notion of the written word delivered by anything other than the human hand. Writing is akin to religion. The act of putting thought to paper, next to godliness. What then is the press? I couldn't help but connect the introduction of automated printing, to the more recent lettered debates centered on the arrival of the ebook (though on a much less religious scale, of course).

Gutenberg lives in a world of guilds, corrupt religious leaders, and where people don't have to think too far back to remember the horrors of the Black Death. Describing a scene at a local tavern, Peter describes "Elders all, patricians from the city or the minor nobles from the land: the clergy was made up of second sons from wealthy families, stashed and suckled by the Mother Church for life."
It's a world of reformation, fear, and paranoia. Christie captures this world through a religious weightiness to her prose; a serious communion between the words of her novel and the printed word's of Peter's and Gutenberg's within the story.

Of course this story is based on the real life events surrounding the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. It didn't just 'happen', there were years of exceedingly hard, and mundane, work, amidst a world stepping out of the Medieval darkness and into the light of the Renaissance. Christie deftly intertwines the more easily written drama between characters and classes, with the more difficult dramatization of the technical aspects of the printing itself.

"When you get to my age, Peter, you do begin to wonder. If it really is a gift from God---and not a curse sent up from hell."
- Gutenberg to Peter, in Alex Christies 'Gutenberg's Apprentice'

While Peter's personal story includes his adoptive family, a love interest that introduces a view into Middle Ages Germany's class distinctions, Christie's tale orbits around the explosive personality of Johann Gutenberg. He's really cast as mad scientist – moody, aggressive, undeniably driven. As Peter reflects on the years (yes years!) printing the now-famous bible he considers, "Much has been said in the decades since, but almost none of it is true. They've practically canonized the man who found this wondrous art. How Gutenberg would laugh if he could see them from above…or else below."

The most exquisite drama of the novel is the growing reformation of religious attitudes and worldwide outlook. Gutenberg's press was introduced during a time when class wars were playing over the halls of Mainz and were reflected in the church's ever lessening control over its population. Revolution was in the air. An overhaul of Church abuses was on the horizon. Gutenberg and Shoeffer race to publish the first editions of the book before the secrets of their methods for publishing quickly and inexpensively (at least relative to the hand-copying method of monastic scribes) float up to the corrupt church.

My only wish for this novel is that it would've come with a map or two, as there's a significant amount of traveling in and around Mainz, and perhaps a diagram or two of the actual press itself.

I received this book through the Amazon Vine program.

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Germany 1450: Printing Press-- Innovation or blasphemy?

Professional Scribe Peter Schoeffer is pulled from his vocation to assist his foster father in a new scheme, one that teeters on the edge of sacrilege and wickedness— mass producing the Holy Bible. He is reluctant to be brought on board; will

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he struggle with his conscience throughout the ordeal or give in and give it his all? Either way he must do it in secret or else risk everything near and dear to him—including Anna Pinzler, the daughter of a local altar painter.

I found the history surrounding the printing press intriguing and was instantly drawn in however about halfway through it started to drag on and on with little story momentum. As a history geek, I appreciated the meticulous research but as a reader of fiction, I was left wanting more character development. The ‘love story’ element could have carried the book a bit in the middle but for me it fell a bit flat and seemed almost as if it was an after thought plopped into the story-- a bit disconnected. I thought there was too much focus was on the struggles with the printing press--the speed at which progress was made and the financial strain it caused. Yes, I understand that is what the book was about but it is a novel after all. In the end, it was a good first novel and I am glad I read it as I learned a lot about the invention and the struggles they faced.

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In her debut novel, Christie explores one of the most momentous events in history: the invention of the printing press. The author used the real people involved, researching historical documents to support way she imagined the scenario unfolding.

I generally like novels such as this one, but for

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some reason I had a very hard time getting engaged in this work. It took me nearly two weeks to read it, about double the amount of time I usually need for a 400-page book. I did find the information about the conflicts between the guilds, the ruling class, and the Church interesting, but it went on for so long that I grew tired of the political and personal intrigue, and by the time the climax came I didn’t much care what would happen to the relationships between the three central figures: Gutenberg, Fust, and Peter.

I have always read the notation at the end of print books, telling me what type face was used for that edition. That information holds new meaning for me now, as I imagine the original artist carefully carving the alphabet in a new design. In this age of digital print, it is all the more wonderful to imagine the creativity, skill and hard work that went into this marvelous invention.

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I'd read this again; it paints a vivid picture of working in the printing shop in Manz in the 1400s, and there's a fair amount of intrigue.

Despite the importance of the invention of the printing press, this story focusing exclusively on the printing of the Gutenberg Bible is bit slow. There is a little political intrigue, a little personal growth, and some very interesting technological innovation, but overall the plot is thin. The

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pacing is also quite slow. However, despite the slow pacing and lack of action, I had a hard time putting the book down. The author managed to make me feel the characters’ belief that they were doing something valuable and that they were working under a shadow of impending doom. This lent a certain tension to the story that made me want to keep reading.

The historical setting was my absolute favorite part of this book. I loved that the author was able to convey how people in the 16th century might react to a printing press. In particular, I think the author did an amazing job showing what a critical role religion played in daily life and decision making during this time period. The layout of this book was also pretty fantastic. I thought the decorative letters at the beginning of each chapter and the section labels being books of the bible was a creative touch that added to my reading experience. As long as you’re looking for a richly detailed historical setting and not a fast-paced read, I’d highly recommend giving Gutenberg’s Apprentice a try.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

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