Gutenberg´s Teens

Gutenberg possibly attended one of the Mainz collegiate or monastery schools.

As the son of a patrician family, such an education cannot be excluded for Johannes Gutenberg and his good knowledge of Latin also suggests that he did so. Maybe he went to the monastery St. Viktor before Mainz for this purpose. In any case, Gutenberg later became a member of the lay brotherhood of St. Viktor.

Gutenberg's family had to leave Mainz several times, including in the years 1411 and 1413.

In Johannes Gutenberg's time there were serious conflicts in Mainz between the patriciate, the city upper class, and the guilds, as the associations of craftsmen were called. Thanks to a new council constitution, the guilds had been given more rights over the old patrician families and thus more say in the city government. Soon there was a first dispute between the two parties about the election of a new mayor. In 1411, Friele Gensfleisch left Mainz at short notice together with over a hundred other patricians. Only two years later, in 1413, Gutenberg's family left the city once again due to hunger riots.

During his absence from Mainz, Gutenberg probably lived with relatives in Eltville.

Eltville on the Rhine has an electoral castle, which was completed in 1347. Afterwards the town was the residence of the archbishops of Mainz until 1480. Due to his family connections to Eltville, Gutenberg was closely connected to the town near Mainz (his family owned a house there).

In 1418/19 a "Johannes de Alta villa" studied at the University of Erfurt. Was it perhaps Gutenberg?

We don't know whether Gutenberg attended a university, but he was good at Latin and therefore studying it is quite likely. In this context, researchers like to mention the matriculation (public register) of the University of Erfurt, which belongs to Mainz. It says that in the summer semester 1418 and in the winter semester 1418/19 a "Johannes de Alta villa" ("Johannes from Eltville") enrolled there. It is believed that Gutenberg could have been meant by this, because his family had moved to Eltville frequently, as mentioned in the last part. In the winter semester 1419/20 this Johannes completed his studies with the Baccalaureus, the lowest academic degree.

Gutenberg named itself not until the 1420s after the family-owned "Hof zum Gutenberg".

To call oneself after the family seat was common in Johannes Gutenberg's time. The "Hof zum Gutenberg" was located at the corner of Schusterstraße and Christophstraße in the old town of Mainz and does not exist today.

In 1420 Gutenberg and his brother Friele argued with their stepsister Patze Blashoff about their father's inheritance.

The document about this dispute is in fact the first sure proof about Johannes Gutenberg. His father had died in the autumn of 1419 and the following year the inheritance dispute followed. Besides Gutenberg, who appears here as "Henchen" (a Mainz form for Johannes), and his brother, his brother-in-law Clas Vitzthumb was also on their side against Patze Blashoff. Our inventor represented himself with his own power of attorney. Thus he was of age around 1420, which in his time meant that he was older than 14 years.

On 16 January 1430, Gutenberg's mother agreed with the city of Mainz on a life annuity of 13 gulden for her son.

Johannes Gutenberg himself was not present at that time. The life annuity was widespread in the early modern age, because with it one could avoid the church prohibition of interest. With the life annuity, wealthy people paid a certain amount of money to their city and received a regular payment for the rest of their lives. If the recipient of the life annuity died before the amount paid in was used up, the town could keep the rest. However, if the money had already been used up before, the city still had to continue paying the life annuity. Mainz had to pay a whole series of such life annuities, which brought their loss. This was also one of the reasons for its high debts, which even led to the city becoming insolvent in 1456.

Gutenberg was mentioned in a document of the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad III, dated 28 March 1430.

This document is an "rachtung". The word "rachtung" is an ancient german term for a contract concluded to settle a dispute or to bring about peace between two opponents. This treaty was about an agreement between the patricians and the guilds of the city of Mainz. Both had, as already mentioned, come into conflict with each other several times. Since 1429 the guilds had the upper hand and dominated the council. They decided to increase the taxes of the patricians. At the same time they wanted to prevent the families concerned from simply leaving the city in order not to have to pay the taxes. Therefore the patricians were now to be obliged to stay in Mainz for ten years, otherwise they would lose their civil rights. Gutenberg is mentioned by name in the document, but was not in Mainz at the time. He and other patricians who were also not in the city were offered the opportunity to return without conditions. He did not accept the offer.