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Details
MENTELIUS, Jacob. De vera Typographiae origine paraenesis... Paris: Robert Ballard, 1650. 4o (204 x 154 mm.) Half-title present, title in red and black (clean cut along top quarter of first 4 leaves repaired without text loss). Contemporary vellum. PRESENTATION COPY signed on the half title and dated in the year of publication.
A rare work by a descendant of the early printer John Mentel of Strasbourg, who seeks to establish his forebear's claim to the invention of typography by advancing the idea that he engraved letters in wood and metal in the 1440s. The author believes that Mentel employed none other than Gutenberg to make the punches and matrices, and thus the unfair, though generally accepted attribution for the first movable type. Supporting information for Mentel's claim came from Gebwiler, Spregel and Specklin, though their texts and statements were altered and falsified in order to satisfy Jacob Mentel's aims.
There is no evidence that John Mentel, after learning his trade from Fust and Schoeffer, printed anything before the 1460s.
A rare work by a descendant of the early printer John Mentel of Strasbourg, who seeks to establish his forebear's claim to the invention of typography by advancing the idea that he engraved letters in wood and metal in the 1440s. The author believes that Mentel employed none other than Gutenberg to make the punches and matrices, and thus the unfair, though generally accepted attribution for the first movable type. Supporting information for Mentel's claim came from Gebwiler, Spregel and Specklin, though their texts and statements were altered and falsified in order to satisfy Jacob Mentel's aims.
There is no evidence that John Mentel, after learning his trade from Fust and Schoeffer, printed anything before the 1460s.