Johannes Mentelin

Bookseller and printer
Johannes Mentelin was the first printer and bookseller at Strasburg. He was born in Schlettstadt, today Sélestat, France, and began his career in Strasburg as a books scribe and calligrapher. He probably became acquainted with Gutenberg during his stay in Strasburg, and it is also possible that he accompanied him to Mainz to train as a printer. Mentelin founded his print shop in Strasburg around 1458, and by 1460 he published his first book, the so-called Mentelin Bible. During his 20 years long career as a printer he published about forty books including Latin works of theology and philosophy (by such authors as Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas), classical works (by Virgil, Terence, and Aristotle), and German courtly literature (such as Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival). In 1466 he printed the first German translation of Bible, which (until Luther’s translation in 1534) became the model for about thirteen later editions by various printers in south Germany. He was also active as a bookseller and was among the first to publish catalogues of his prints.