Johann Amerbach
Johann (es) (from) Amerbach (* 1440 in Amorbach (Odenwald ), † December 25, 1513 in Basel, also Amerbacensis, Amorbachius, de Amerbach, actually called John Welcker Amerbach ) was a printer and publisher of the incunabula in Basel.
Life
Amerbach was born as the son of the Mayor Peter Welcker. He studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was a pupil of Johannes de Lapide, who had recently introduced the printing press in the French capital. There he acquired in 1461 the academic degree of bachelor and a master of arts in 1462 the liberalium. He probably stayed afterwards for a short time in Venice, the center of humanistic printing on. This is concluded from the fact that Amerbach was called by contemporaries Johannes de Venetiis, Hans Hans Venice or Venice of Emrebach. Whether he already served an apprenticeship as a printer or bookseller here, can not be said with certainty. Guaranteed, however, is its presence in Basel since 1477. Amerbach There began a short time after his arrival, to work as a printer. His first print was according to current knowledge, a German almanac for the year 1478, which must be published by the beginning of this year. The first major work was probably written by the Johannes Reuchlin Latin lexicon Vocabularius breviloquus.
In August of the year 1481 Johann Amerbach became a member of the Basel Safran guild that summarized many other professions in addition to spice merchants. Anno 1482 he bought a house and in May 1484 the freedom of the city. From the tax lists of that time, it is evident that Johann Amerbach was extremely successful fast as a printer and businessman. The enterprising entrepreneur initially worked often together with Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim, later with Johannes Petri and Johann Froben. He stood with the Nuremberg printer and publisher Anton Koberger as well as a close business relationship like with Hans Green Ingersoll in Strasbourg.
Johann Amerbach married Barbara in 1483, the widowed daughter of the Basel alderman Leonhard Ortenberg. From this marriage the sons Bruno (1488-1535), Basil (1488-1535) and Boniface went forth. Only Basil has exercised the father's occupation for a short time.
Johann Amerbach died on December 25, 1513 in Basel and was buried in the Charterhouse St. Margarethental.
Work
Johann Amerbach had good personal contacts with such important humanist Johannes Reuchlin, Rhenanus and Sebastian Brant. These learned friends also worked as proofreaders his publications closely with the Basel printer. It is considered a lasting contribution Johann Amerbachs to have decisively contributed to the weave of the Basel intellectual life of the 15th and 16th centuries extraordinarily fruitful ties between humanism and book printing. The textual basis for many of his works was Amerbach the rich manuscript holdings of the Basel Charterhouse. In return, he undertook to give the first fruits of his prints of the monastery library.
His printing and publishing program was particularly influenced by the values and objectives of the humanistic spirit. He printed folio editions of Latin Bibles, scholastic journals, dictionaries and scientific editions of the works of the Church Fathers (eg Augustine and Ambrose ). Furthermore, came from excellent editions of the ancient classics of his Offizin. Special attention was devoted Amerbach the works of contemporary humanists. So he brought, inter alia writings of Petrarch, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Marsilio Ficino, Baptista Mantuanus and Franciscus Philelphus for output. The number of his German prints, however, was relatively low.
Johann Amerbach had a rich collection of different type alphabets. So he had only half a dozen roman typefaces, mainly for the printing of the Church Fathers and humanists. Through his printer activity Amerbach has done much to spread the Antiqua in Germany.