Heinrich Eggestein

Heinrich Eggestein was a pioneering German book printer who worked in Strasbourg. He came to Strasbourg in the early 1440s and entered the service of Bishop Ruprecht von Pfalz-Simmern and held the office of Siegelbewahrer (keeper of the seal) at the Strasbourg provost court. It is believed that he became personally acquainted with Johannes Gutenberg, the later inventor of printing books with movable type, during his stay in Strasbourg in the 1440s and that he was able to form a lasting bond with him. It is also presumed that Eggestein even travelled to Mainz himself in the 1450s to learn the art of book printing from Gutenberg.

Around 1464 he opened his own printing shop in Strasbourg. His first larger work is considered to be a Latin Bible which used Gutenberg Bible as its model, and was printed somewhere between 1466 and 1469. From the early 1470s Eggestein began to expand his printing and publishing range. Besides theological works, Eggestein now increasingly printed legal works of canon and civil law. He also printed classics such as Virgil's Bucolica, Cicero's De officiis or Julius Caesar's De bello gallico but his special interest was directed to Latin works of Medieval authors.