Gutenberg's Apprentice

by Alix Christie

An enthralling literary debut that evokes one of the most momentous events in history, the birth of printing in medieval Germany—a story of invention, intrigue, and betrayal, rich in atmosphere and historical detail, told through the lives of the three men who made it possible.

Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corrupt, feud-plagued Mainz to meet “a most amazing man.”

Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionary—and to some, blasphemous—method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg’s workshop and he orders Peter, his adopted son, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the “darkest art.”

As his skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: copies of the Holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties and the crushing power of the Catholic Church threaten their work. As outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself torn between two father figures: the generous Fust, who saved him from poverty after his mother died; and the brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.

Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against overwhelming obstacles—a battle that will change history . . . and irrevocably transform them.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Books About Books, Historical, Germany, Book Club, Audiobook

406 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

I'm an American-Canadian author and journalist. Born in California and raised Montana and British Columbia, I started writing at the age of 10 with a family newspaper and a (very bad) novel about horses. I studied philosophy at Vassar College, journalism at UC Berkeley and got my masters in fine arts from St Mary's College of California. In my first career as a journalist I reported for newspapers in California and from Europe as a foreign correspondent, including the Washington Post, The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle and Salon.com. I currently write about culture for The Economist.

I published my debut novel, "Gutenberg's Apprentice" in 2014 and have since written and published award-winning short stories. My new novel, "The Shining Mountains" is the story of my distant great-uncle and his Native American wife and family in the 19th century Rocky Mountain West. Learning about and sharing this important history has been incredibly enriching. Learn more about it at www.alixchristie.com.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

In principio erat verbum

In the beginning was the word, (well according to John 1:1 anyway) but in the absence of someone writing it down, then printing millions of copies, you might never have known. So maybe in the beginning was the word but right behind it was the printer. Before Stephen King, Dan Brown, JK Rowling or AC Doyle, there was once a major global best-seller, the first one. It had an initial printing of one hundred eighty, and it changed the world.


The finished product - from the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center Library

Alix Christie has given us a look at how the Gutenberg bible came to be, and in so doing has illuminated the image we might have of this seminal work with portraits of the man himself, the era in which he lived, the politics of the time, details of the technical advances that went into development of the movable type press, and a look at the people involved.

When you combine the words Gutenberg with Bible, you might conjure an image of some monkish guy in a garage basement, or barn, banging away at his personal project until Voila! You might also think printing the bible was his first gig. Turns out, not so much. While it may not have taken a village to make the famous big book, it came close. Johannes Gensfleisch, the man we know as Gutenberg, (the name of the town where his mother had been born) had some help. There is no question that he was a genius, and that his notions of using movable metal type ushered in a new age. But he was also a very results oriented entrepreneur. Bit of a slave-driver too, as well as being someone of questionable ethical standards, and maybe not the guy you would want having your back in a critical moment. One of the joys of Alix Christie’s tale is learning at least some of the many challenges of all sorts that had to be met along the way from revolutionary printing notion to reality. She came on her less-than-glowing notions about Gutenberg as the sole source of the genius behind the press as a result of relatively recent research by several European scholars. She goes into details on the book’s site.


The author - from her Facebook page

Our window into this world is his assistant. Peter Schoeffer, the apprentice of the title, was a scribe in Paris when Johann Fust, who had adopted him, summoned him back to Mainz (pronounced mīn(t)s) to work as Genfleisch’s apprentice. Fust had seen what Gutenberg might do with his marvelous new machine and committed a significant financial stake to the project. Part of the deal was for Peter to be an apprentice in Gutenberg’s shop. Fust’s intentions were not wholly beneficent. He wanted a spy on the inside. The story of how the bible was ultimately made is given by Peter, relating his history to a monk many years later. We step back and forth between the then (1450-1454) and the now (1485), of the story. This offers the author a way to present some views on Gutenberg from a more objective distance. Well, from a distance, anyway. JG is presented in a rather dim light as seen through Peter’s eyes.


Johannes Fust and Peter Schoeffer

In the world of the late 15th century the Catholic Church was a particularly corrupt and oppressive force, impacting the world of earthly politics to an unholy degree. It was within the power of an archbishop, for example, to essentially quarantine an entire city if, say, the ruling council of that city went against his wishes. The Church was also busy selling indulgences, pieces of paper on which the church had incorporated its imprimatur, and which, once you filled in your name, would guarantee forgiveness in heaven for sins committed on earth. The 15th century variety was a way for the church to raise funds, for things like Crusades and large papal celebrations. As the mass production of these monstrosities could be stunningly lucrative to the church, those in charge had a considerable interest in the possibility of new printing technology. And Gutenberg had to be on his guard to keep the church from learning of his project too soon, lest they seize his entire workshop for their own purposes. Secrecy was paramount, and many tongues needed to be stilled for the project to proceed. This creates considerable tension in the story, even though we know that the book is eventually made. Christie also looks at the local politics of the city, the importance of guilds, and the political push-pull of the elders (think the one percent) vs the workers (in this case, guilds).


The G-Man

The focus on the people involved in the time and place make this a tale of Mainz and men (sorry), and not just a tracking of technological innovation. There is a bit of romance in here as well, as Peter and a local lass become entangled. This offers Christie an opportunity to look at the status of women in the late 15th century and note the life-threatening aspect of childbirth that was much more a hazard then than it is today. Of course the tech stuff is fascinating, as it took considerable trial and error to work out the kinks. Christie is a master of these details. As she should be. She apprenticed as a printer and owns a working press. However, she is equally adept at portraying the many interpersonal tensions and complications in the relationships of the major players.

For centuries the ruling class had run the city like their private bank. They’d lent the council sums they then repaid themselves at crushing rates of interest. These bonds they then bequeathed to their own spawn, in perpetuity. Thus was the city fated to insolvency, like half of the free cities of the Reich. Each time the treasury was bare, Archbishop Dietrich would step in, prop up that rotting edifice, enact some other tax that only workingmen and merchants had to bear.

Contemporary issues resonate here. Just as the internet, a marvelous bit of technology, can be put to low or dark purposes, so could the original printing press. In fact an early money-maker for Gutenberg was the equivalent of a penny-dreadful. The selling of indulgences by the Church is echoed today whenever the Department of Justice investigates corporations for malfeasance. What remains clear is that tools, even miraculous ones, are only as good as the people who control them. The stresses between old and new, between powerful and less powerful, between religious and secular power comes through. BTW, one of the reasons Gutenberg opted to produce a bible is that a project that was in the works with church leaders to print a standardized missal fell through. I suppose one might call this an early missal crisis. I wouldn’t, but I suppose some might.


The press

I expect Christie was hewing as closely as possible to the history she is writing about. Peter was a real person, as were all the major and maybe even minor characters in this impressive book. As the fictional Peter here tells his story to a monk many years after the events described, so the real Peter did the same. This is definitely an instance in which the historical aspect of this historical novel is a very powerful element. She even includes in an afterword a bit of what happened to each of the characters after the bible was completed. No, nothing on Dean Wormer.

I have two gripes with the book, neither of them major. I appreciate Christie hewing to history in her re-telling of how the great book came to be, but I did not find the steps forward to Peter’s telling the tale to a monk altogether necessary. Second, one thing you should know about Gutenberg’s Apprentice is that, as informative and satisfying as it is, it is a slow read. At least it was for me. You are unlikely to be taking this one to the beach to while away a few hours. But if you settle in for a longer spell, you will be richly rewarded.

Gutenberg’s Apprentice may not be the first book you have ever read, but it will definitely leave a lasting impression.

Trade Paperback - 9/8/15



This review is cross-posted on my blog, CootsReviews, and on Fantasy Book Critic

=============================EXTRA STUFF

An informative Wiki piece on Fust and Schoeffer

A nice video on the press. Ignore the word kids on the site. This is accessible and interesting, even if the documentary video cadged music from John Adams and is a bit amateurish.

A nifty wiki article on movable type

==================================AUTHOR

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Google+ and FB pages

In addition, there is a lot of excellent material on Christie’s book site

[Justo Martiañez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/ 5 Estrellas. Redondeo a 3 estrellas por la impresión final que me ha dejado el libro.

El planteamiento tiene potencial, la historia de la invención de la imprenta de tipos móviles metálicos, uno de los mayores avances en la historia de la humanidad.

Detrás de esta invención solemos tener en nuestra mente un nombre: Johannes Gutenberg, sin embargo la realidad fue bien distinta. Detrás de la idea estaba Gutenberg, el pergeñó el proceso original, idea a la que dio forma un pequeño grupo de artesanos e inversores, que en el periodo comprendido entre 1450 y 1455, fueron capaces de producir en serie un total de 180 Biblias, de las cuales hoy en día se conservan unas 48 (muy pocas completas), consideradas verdaderos tesoros por las instituciones a las que pertenecen. Durante este periodo hubo que resolver infinidad de problemas técnicos, relacionados con las matrices utilizadas para fundir los tipos, el diseño de las letras, la aleación metálica utilizada para los tipos, lo suficientemente resistente para aguantar una gran cantidad de impresiones, las tintas y la forma de aplicarlas, la composición de la páginas, y muchísimos problemas más.

Todo esto fue resuelto por Gutenberg y sus artesanos, en la ciudad de Maguncia (Mainz) en el Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, en secreto, ya que en el complejo mosaico del Sacro Imperio de esa época, la ciudad de Maguncia era una ciudad libre, gobernada por las cofradías de artesanos, enfrentados al poder de la archidiócesis, que todavía en esa época ostentaba el poder civil en esa región de Renania, como príncipes electores. Durante el periodo de producción de la Biblia de Gutenberg, todos eran conscientes del potencial de esta nueva técnica como una herramienta fundamental para la diseminación de las ideas: la ciudad de Maguncia, quería evitar que la iglesia les robara su idea para utilizarla en su propio beneficio....y lo consiguieron, ya que cuando presentaron la biblias impresas con la nueva técnica en la Feria de Francfort de 1454, la conmoción fue absoluta y ya nadie pudo arrebatarles la idea. Porque fue la ciudad de Maguncia quien financió a Gutenberg, concretamente un comerciante llamado Johannes Fust y su hijo adoptivo Peter Schöeffer, el primero poniendo todo su dinero y prácticamente arruinándose y el segundo colaborando con Gutenberg en el desarrollo del taller y siendo el padre de muchos de los avances decisivos que permitieron conseguir un objetivo que, al principio, parecía imposible.
Es Peter Schöeffer el narrador de la historia, como discípulo de Gutenberg y verdadero padre de la nueva industria de la imprenta. Porque la realidad de lo que ocurrió no es muy romántica, ya que tras la consecución del enorme logro de las 180 biblias, las enormes deudas contraídas por Fust, le llevaron a demandar a Gutenberg, quedándose con la sociedad a cuya cabeza quedó Schöeffer, aunque para la posteridad quedó el maestro Gutenberg, como padre e inventor de la idea.

El libro nos presenta todo esto, de manera no demasiado convincente, los diálogos son bastante confusos por momentos, me ha costado un mundo entender el proceso de impresión de la imprenta de Gutenberg (he tenido que recurrir a varios contenidos de internet, para entenderlo en todos sus detalles), no plantea de forma clara ni la situación política, ni social, ni religiosa de la época, ya de por si muy compleja y con la reforma luterana gestándose en su seno. Todo se nos presenta a retazos y sin demasiada coherencia.
Nos presenta a un Gutenberg, sanguíneo, iracundo, intratable, al que casi deseas que se hunda en la miseria y que lo pierda todo. Un personaje odioso en definitiva, no sé si esto tiene base real, pero es un poco deprimente.
En definitiva, creo que se podría haber conseguido un producto mas atractivo. Aún así es un libro interesante.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but I gave up about halfway through. I love historical fiction and am a publishing person fascinated by type and printing, so the book should have been right up my alley. The writer didn't execute well. The characters were ok, but frankly, there was just no plot. It was a linear movement towards an outcome that we all expect (the printing of the first Gutenberg Bible) and the developments along the way aren't compelling. The description of the politics of the time was confusing and distant--it was hard to understand or care about which side was winning. Good idea, but not a great novel.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel creates a historic time and place, 1452-1455 Mainz (in modern day Germany), in which a technique of printing with movable-type was developed which eventually spread throughout the Western world. I was attracted to this book because I hoped it would provide an interesting story while also enabling me to learn about the challenges faced by Johannes Gutenberg and his staff of employees.

I knew there were some complications related to the famous Gutenberg Bible because I had previously read that Gutenberg was unable to profit much from the sales of the first edition because of a lawsuit. I hoped this novel would explain why.

This novel makes a realistic guess at the nature of Gutenberg's personality by creating a complex character who was a driven genius inventor with a secretive untrusting disposition. He had a vision for the potential of his invention, but he wasn't good with money. In the end when he was challenged to account for his expenses by a lawsuit from his financial backer, he was unable to do so.

The book does a good job of describing the likely frustrations he and his workers encountered trying to do something for the first time. First they needed to determine the best alloy to use for the type face. They were working with metal ores, smelting them down to metals, and then combining them to get a combination that would hold its shape and be easy to work with.

Next they developed an ink mixture that was thicker and darker than that used by scribes. The fonts were designed and carefully carved by former goldsmiths. At first the type fonts were forged in sand and clay molds before they discovered that they could stamp the required shapes into semi-molten metal. The story is told from the viewpoint of Peter Schöffer, Gutenberg's apprentice, who had been a manuscript copyist in Paris and is portrayed in this book as being responsible for font designs. There was considerable staff involved in making the Bible, and costs overruns mounted which in the end led to the lawsuit.

This is a novel so it has many details that are conjectured by the author, but I think the story as presented by this book is a realistic configuration of the way it might have been. The book provides an Afterword in which the historical fate of all the characters in the book are described. Below I've included an excerpt from the end of the Afterword.

The craft of printing spread like wildfire: within a decade ... the secret knowledge spreading from Germany to Italy and Switzerland and France. Printers set up shop in more than 250 cities between 1450 and 1500, a period known as the time of incunabula—the cradle years of printed books.

Forty-eight copies of the Gutenberg Bible still exist, complete or in part, out of the estimated 180 copies made. Some library collections generously cite the makers as "Gutenberg-Schoeffer-Fust?" Most do not. The last time one was auctioned, in 1987, a buyer paid $5.4 million for the Old Testament alone.

[Mieneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The invention of the printing press with movable type was arguably one of the biggest impulses that brought about the advent of the Renaissance and one of the biggest change agents in civilisation.The ability to print texts in large quantities quickly and at a markedly reduced cost changed medieval society in much the same way as the advent of the internet did ours. As an English Lit major specialising in book history, Gutenberg is naturally a person of interest to me, so when I saw Alix Christie’s Gutenberg’s Apprentice on the Headline site I knew I had to read it. Within its covers I found a riveting tale of a man driven by vision and ambition and the apprentice who was pressed into his service against his desire.

Gutenberg’s Apprentice works on several levels. The most obvious one is Peter’s story, his involuntary apprenticing to Gutenberg, his slow growing appreciation of the printing arts, and his finding a place for himself in this changing world. The second level is the story of the transmutative nature of the age. The middle of the fifteenth century was a tempestuous era in which politics and religion were all in a state of flux and the world seemed on the constant precipice of war. Through Gutenberg and Peter’s story we witness how unsettling these times were for the people living through them. Lastly, the narrative functions as a mirror on our recent history. The book is very much a reflection of our society’s reaction to the advent of the internet. There is fear, horror, and disgust, but also great enthusiasm for this new art, utter devotion to the idea and an acknowledgement of its limitless possibilities.

The characters of Peter Schoeffer and Johannes Gutenberg are at the heart of the story, which is told from Peter’s point of view. Christie manages to convey his anger, frustration, and confusion with his new status and master very well and makes it easy to let the reader identify with him. Peter was trained to be a scribe and his love for his craft and his pride in the manuscripts he produces shines through. As a scribe he’s also in a unique situation to understand the meaning of Gutenberg’s invention, though even Peter doesn’t foresee its eventual consequences to society. Peter is a sympathetic character: a dutiful son to his adoptive father, a hard worker, but also ambitious and not always as good a friend and suitor as he should be. I loved the stormy relationship between Peter and Gutenberg, which goes from reluctant to true respect and even a strange kind of affection to ultimately anger and resentment.

Gutenberg is a bit of a Steve Jobs avant le lèttre – a visionary, ambitious, ruthless, and driven to complete his vision to perfection. His is clearly a brilliant mind, but a troubled one and one that doesn’t play well with others. The way he set up his workshop, essentially closeting his workers away for the duration, so as to not let the secret of his invention spill out was somewhat maniacal and disturbing. Yet at the same time, despite his mercurial moods and foul temper, the workshop where Peter labours with about a dozen others is a harmonious and fascinating place and the scenes where we just witness the men at work on creating their bibles were some of my favourite in the book.

Like today, business espionage was rife and in the days before the invention of patents, anyone could steal your design, which explains Gutenberg’s obsession with secrecy. Yet, his secrecy was also due to political machinations. Gutenberg was an odd duck, a patrician working as a tradesman, yet not part of any Guild, something that creates no end of tension between him and the Guilds in the novel, both due to the Guilds’ innate trust of those from the social strata above them and the fact that they couldn’t control – and profit – from his trade. Additionally, there are the politics of the Church and the Holy Roman Empire, which were largely clerical, but manifested in secular affairs as well. Gutenberg has his spoon in all of these boiling pots, stirring them this way and that to gain as much advantage as he can and not always with a positive result. It creates added tension in the story and lends urgency to the narrative as Gutenberg, Peter, and the crew strife to finish their work before it is discovered.

Gutenberg’s Apprentice is sneakily compelling. Christie’s prose is evocative and atmospheric, drawing the reader into Gutenberg’s workshop and the streets of Mainz. While this review has focused mostly on Peter and Gutenberg, there are several more wonderful characters, such as Peter’s adoptive father, Johann Fust, and Peter’s sweetheart, Anna to name but two. Gutenberg’s Apprentice shows a world on the cusp of a major technological revolution and if the book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the book, is it just as much a compelling read for those who are interested in societal change and the forms it takes. I loved Gutenberg’s Apprentice and I highly recommend it. Alix Christie is certainly an author whose work I’ll be keeping an eye on in the future.

This book was provided for review by the publisher.

[Cherisa B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful to read a novel of the development of the Gutenberg movable printing press from the perspective of the apprentice or lieutenant that ended up helping change the world. This invention was a true milestone in our society and culture, and the forces that threatened its fruition were enormous.

The author’s details and the way she presented them seemed true and necessary but sometimes were a little slow. And yet, some explanations I would have liked even more details on such as the innovation Peter made that sped up the work; I just didn’t understand what it was. Plates or illustrations to accompany the text would have been a nice addition - truly a case of pictures supporting comprehension.

Astonishing to think how the apprentice, trained as a scribe for the Church, changed course at his stepfather’s behest and changed world history.

[Book Concierge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5***

In her debut novel, Christie explores one of the most momentous events in history: the invention of the printing press. The author used the real people involved, researching historical documents to support way she imagined the scenario unfolding.

I generally like novels such as this one, but for some reason I had a very hard time getting engaged in this work. It took me nearly two weeks to read it, about double the amount of time I usually need for a 400-page book. I did find the information about the conflicts between the guilds, the ruling class, and the Church interesting, but it went on for so long that I grew tired of the political and personal intrigue, and by the time the climax came I didn’t much care what would happen to the relationships between the three central figures: Gutenberg, Fust, and Peter.

I have always read the notation at the end of print books, telling me what type face was used for that edition. That information holds new meaning for me now, as I imagine the original artist carefully carving the alphabet in a new design. In this age of digital print, it is all the more wonderful to imagine the creativity, skill and hard work that went into this marvelous invention.

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well-researched and absorbing fictional history of fifteenth-century Mainz and the religious and political struggles involved in printing Gutenberg’s 1454 Bible.

Christie writes well but the novel moves in fits and starts and is inspirational and tiring in equal measure. Fine paragraphs stand out but so do passages of purple prose and despite a good sense of place, there’s an odd sense of modernity in such a historical setting. Mantel does this too, but gets away with it - perhaps because of her greater experience and sense of vision.

Nevertheless, Christie is a writer to watch and ‘Gutenberg’s Apprentice’ is a fine recent addition to the historical fiction canon.

[Bruce Holsinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Review originally published in The Washington Post, 12/12/14]

“Before there was Zuckerberg there was Gutenberg!” screams the clever promotional material for Alix Christie’s finely atmospheric debut. As the world of hard copy crumbles beneath our feet, it can be easy to forget that print culture has been with us for only a few centuries. If Gutenberg’s Apprentice isn’t quite to the printing press what The Social Network is to Facebook, perhaps that’s a good thing. Only a historical novel is capable of reconstructing this earlier transformation in social media with the full complexity it deserves.

Johannes Gutenberg is often imagined as a lone Renaissance genius who singlehandedly invented the technology of moveable type. Gutenberg’s Apprentice tells a messier, more satisfying story. Here the printing press emerges from within a grinding milieu of smoke, metals, and labor that shaped a medieval revolution of the word with great relevance to our own moment.

Christie, a journalist and critic currently living in London, is a devotee of letterpress printing, and she supplements her hands-on experience with a thorough grounding in the most recent scholarship on the early history of the medium. Yet Gutenberg’s Apprentice wears its erudition lightly and elegantly, as in a description of “regal dyes—the purple of the popes and kings, crushed out of Adriatic snails” (227), or of the making of carmine ink: “oil of linseed boiled to varnish, mixed with powdered copper, cinnabar, some carbonate of lead” (179).

Such details are the grist of historical fiction, of course, and in Christie’s hands they feed a paper mill that extends even to the design of the book’s pages, which feature lined borders and elaborately drawn initials, as if to model the flourishes in an early printed book. (You won’t get this on your Kindle, folks!)

The novel’s story begins at the end, following the deaths of “both Johanns” (2): Gutenberg himself as well as Johann Fust, Gutenberg’s partner and financier as well as the foster father of Peter Schoeffer, our protagonist. A local boy made good, Peter is a highly-trained scrivener, an anti-Bartleby of sorts, eager to continue his careerist climb through the scribal ranks of Paris, where the rector of the university has recently tapped him for advancement.

Instead, as the story begins, Peter is summoned home to his native Mainz, now a dreary, repressive city emptied of its wealthy class in the wake of an uprising years before. Unwillingly apprenticed to Gutenberg, Peter is torn between the loving labor of script and the mechanical allure of print. At first he regards the printed page as “a crude and ugly copy of the best that man can do” (50). The story of his transformation is closely tied to the success of Gutenberg’s enterprise, as well as his own adeptness at negotiating the politics of city, guild and church to surpass his master and emerge as the most successful printer of his generation.

Gutenberg himself remains something of an enigma here, despite Christie’s noble efforts to put flesh on this elusive historical figure. A tyrant in his workshop, the master exhorts, cajoles, and threatens his laborers until he gets the precise result he wants, even while leaving room for their own ingenuities and skills to develop within the closely-guarded confines of the Mainz workshop, a very male world indeed. “We all slopped out of Eve,” Gutenberg wryly observes. “You know the good that brought” (139). Christie’s tensely claustrophobic narrative relates the tragedy of a fruitful and promising collaboration threatened by the self-interest and vanity of its partners.

The real hero of Gutenberg’s Apprentice is the press itself, this horrifying, beautiful machine capable of throwing out “a boundless net of shining letters” (173). Near the middle of Christie’s novel, Gutenberg and Fust hit on the momentous idea to print the Latin Bible in its entirety. As Peter prepares the initial type, he summons those “words that brought a new world into being,” the opening verse of Genesis: “Peter set them flush against a nothingness; hard against a nonexistent margin he arranged them, floating like the world itself in a great void” (125).

It’s a beautiful image, rendering the printing press as a medium of ethereal transcendence that depends nevertheless on those gnarly chunks of metal poured and etched in the workshop over months and years of sweaty toil. One thinks of Donna Tartt’s obsessive accounts of furniture restoration at the heart of Theo Decker’s story in The Goldfinch, or even Philip Roth’s lovingly twisted empathy with glovemaker Swede Levov in American Pastoral. Such novels of craft and specialization take a writerly delight in the most intricate details of a particular trade while spinning rich prose out of its mysterious threads.

Christie’s novel is a worthy tribute to the technological revolution it reimagines, as well as a haunting elegy of sorts to the culture of print.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up "Gutenberg's Apprentice" because as a booklover, and having watched countless times in amazement as a modern press pumps out daily newspapers, I am fascinated with the printing process and how books and other printed materials are created. Although bits and pieces of this story - which chronicles the first press and the many trials and challenges faced - are indeed interesting - occasionally fantastic (and somewhat mind-boggling), overall, the story lacks depth in its relationships and personalities of the characters.

It's not that I didn't like the characters (the master, Gutenberg: the inventor of the press and whose ideas gave spark to future undertakings; his apprentice, Peter, whose adopted father, Fust, is financing the press; and the growing team of people who poured themselves into the press's first major work: those who drew, carved and made the letters, mixed the ink, managed the press, hung the paper to dry, etc.) Not liking the characters is not it at all. I just felt disconnected too much of the time, and wanted to see a bit more depth to their personalities. Sometimes the writing is so formal (technical? history-bookish?) that it moves the characters off to a distance, and chills the fiery personalities we get glimpses of, but not much more. There is the occasional look into a character's life, usually Peter's, which offered that rare glimpse of emotion and personality. But apart from a lot of bickering, there are only a few tender moments or positive connections.

The book tries to detail too many historical occurrences at the time of the press's first major work. The politics, religion (and superstitions), financial hardships - and the occasional 35-year jump-ahead where Peter related the story to an abbot who is writing down his story - all feel relevant and integral to the story, but none of these influencing factors felt relayed in a satisfying way. Some were focused on too intently (and in quite a dry manner); others were not delved into deeply enough. None made the characters more personal or life-like.

[Denice Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book? Have you ever thought about how that was possible? Who made it possible?

I think we all know who Gutenberg is. Like we all know who Christopher Columbus is. We can do it in one sentence. “He invented moveable type and printed the Bible.” Done deal. But like we don’t really know off the top of our heads what Columbus himself was like, or what his coming to this hemisphere truly meant. One sentence about Johann Gensfleisch, Gutenberg, isn’t going to do it either. If I told you all about this book I’d be blathering and really, I couldn’t tell you enough. Let it be said, it was the most informative novel I’d read in years and couldn’t put it down till late at night nor could I wait to get back to it.

At the time, what Gutenberg did had to be done in absolute secrecy if he was going to trump the Church and the world. This secret that had to be kept for over five years because that’s how long it took to find a metal alloy that would hold up to repeated pressings without losing shape and find a way to cast those letters fast and efficiently.Build the page and print. No one had ever done this casting of small letters before. Ever. Each letter had to be set minutely at the same depth or the pressing would be uneven. The ink would run loose in the summer and hard in the winter.

It took a lot of sheep (velum) and ink and lead and varnish and money and dedication while the way was being invented as these workers who dedicated themselves to the project went along. Mistakes were made, new processes had to be worked out. Gutenberg is given the credit for the Bible but he had a crew of four men who actually did the work. Gutenberg walked off the project half way through. There goes our romantic image of a single man lowering a press and imprinting a page. He was volatile, rude, pompous and self-centered and if it weren’t for the four men he chose this Bible would never have been printed. At least not by him. To do what Gutenberg envisioned was considered blasphemous, the work of the devil because the work of a scribe is God given. No one on earth had seen anything like this.

First among his crew was Peter Schoeffer, a scribe whose skill with the pen was known to many. He was taken from the monastery where he worked at copying scripts to work for Gutenberg. While Peter was at first bitter to be forced to give up his work eventually he was essential to the work on the Bible.

Feuds between Gutenberg and their investor, the guilds trying to find out what was going on in that workplace, plague, Crusades, the pompousness of the Church, the struggle to find a text to print. None of the process was easy. None of it ever done before.

In the end, Schoeffer said, “Gutenberg’s genius lay in ordering the work, in breaking down and rearranging all the pieces.” Actually, they printed 180 copies. And the world would never be the same. Between 1450 and 1500, fifty short years, more than 250 printers set up shop.

If you are a reader, if you’ve ever held a book in your hands we have Gutenberg and his vision and the dedication of his workers to thank for it. What he did was move the world forward in one giant leap. I would like to quote a passage, “His type was artificial, yes, but even so the words it made were still the same. Vain, to stand against it: printing would roll out and inundate the world.” A printed book with letters made artificially was still a book.

And the irony was not lost on me that I read an advance copy of this book on my Kindle.

[Elçin Arabacı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurgu tarzında kaleme alınmış olsa da eser, biyografik çalışmalara dayanarak hazırlanmış. Avrupa lonca sisteminin nasıl işlediğini anlamakta ve Osmanlı loncaları ile mukayesede oldukça ilginç ve öğretici bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum tarih öğrencileri açısından. Aslında işleyişleri oldukça benzer olsa da matbaayı içinden çıkartabilen Alman loncaları Ortaçağ komünleri ile Antik Yunan-Roma geleneğinden gelen şehirli olma, yaşanılan şehirden ve onun parçası duyulan gurur, şehir ve şehirlinin Kilise ve merkezi imparatorluktan bağımsızlığına, şehirlinin "özgürlüğü"ne atfedilen değerleri harmonize eden bir değerler sistemine sahip. Onu mesela Osmanlı loncalarından farklı kılan bu. Ahilerin 14. yyda buna benzer bir yapıya dönme olasılığı varken, Osmanlı'nın Avrupa imparatorluklarına nazaran güçlü bir merkezi yapıya evrilmesi neticesinde Osmanlı loncaları Ahilerin sahip olduğu merkezi otoriteden bağımsız ve şehir kuran olma özelliklerini kaybettiler. Kadı mahkemeleri işbirliğiyle hukuki anlamda bağımsızlığı bir parça korumaya çalışsalar da Osmanlı şehirleri birey ve şehrin özgürlüğünü yücelten bir değerler sistemi çıkartmadı, merkezi otoritenin baskısına karşı kadı mahkemelerinde lonca özerkliğinin dayandığı temel etik kavram özgürlük değil gelenek ve adaletti daima.

Matbaanın Osmanlı'ya gelişinin, imparatorluğun Müslüman cemaati için 18. yy.a kadar gecikmesi hep müstensihlerin itirazı ve direnişine bağlanır. Bu görüşün de eleştirilecek yanları var, ancak roman 15. yy Orta Avrupa'sında matbaadan çıkmış bir İncil'in de onunla ilk karşılaşan sıradan insanların nazarında nasıl ve neden şeytanın işi gibi görünebildiğini çok güzel anlatmış. Kusursuz her eserde onu üretene atfedilen şirk ve kibir günahı, romanın bence en ilginç noktalarından biriydi.

Tarihçilere ve tarihi roman severlere kesinlikle önerebileceğim bir eser. Başkalarına romanın dil ve kurgusal yapısı kuru, tekdüze ve sıkıcı gelebilir.

[João Sá Nogueira Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depois de terminado este livro tenho pena que não seja possível classificar com "meias estrelas", porque gostava de dar quatro estrelas e meia, já que considero que este livro quase chega às cinco estrelas!
Uma história bem planeada e toda baseada em factos e personalidades que sabemos terem existido!Muito bem moldado este conto, realmente!
Um pensamento que me acompanhou ao longo de todo o livro: estar a ler sobre a primeira impressão feita e pensar que se não tivesse sido essa coragem e ao mesmo tempo esse espírito inventivo hoje em dia seria tão mais difícil ter a livros da forma como temos hoje! Seria um mundo bem mais triste e vazio se não tivesse sido criada essa invenção a que hoje quase não ligamos: a impressão em série!
Um bom livro!

[Natacha Cunha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Já todos os amantes de livros se questionaram, em algum momento, sobre a invenção que revolucionou o mundo da leitura, permitindo que o rumo da história nos conduzisse à produção de livros em massa. Se é certo que o nome que assalta à nossa mente assim que ouvimos falar da invenção da prensa é o de Gutenberg, fica também certo, depois da leitura do romance de estreia de Alix Christie, que aquele que intitulamos de génio não esteve sozinho.

“O Aprendiz de Gutenberg” (Saída de Emergência, 2016) embarca-nos numa viagem pela Idade Média, uma altura em que ser escriba era uma carreira prestigiante e a única forma de disseminar a palavra e o conhecimento. No tempo em que “os escribas manchados de tinta eram como um poderoso exército, fileiras de anjos em movimento”, pensar que uma máquina executasse esse trabalho divino era considerado uma blasfémia, uma “arte negra”.

(...)

De arte negra a dádiva, ao tornar um texto idêntico em todas as cópias, livre de erros, o leitor vai acompanhando todo o processo de invenção, “imprevisível e longo”, e para o qual cada um à sua maneira foi essencial. Desde a descoberta da liga metálica ideal, ao aperfeiçoamento de forma à prensa “beijar as letras em vez de as esmagar”, até à escolha da Bíblia Sagrada como primeiro livro a ser produzido, o caminho é marcado por sucessivos avanços e recuos que o dotam de grande autenticidade.

(...)

Com “O Aprendiz de Gutenberg”, Alex Christie homenageia não só uma das inovações mais importantes da história da humanidade – talvez a mais revolucionária desde a invenção da roda –, prestando também um tributo à livre circulação de ideias e de conhecimento.

Opinião completa no Deus me Livro: http://deusmelivro.com/mil-folhas/o-a...

[Nancy Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a reader of nonfiction almost exclusively. But when a novel comes along that is based on historical events, people or objects, I'm willing to give it a try. Because doesn't a book like Girl With a Pearl Earring stay in the mind longer than any biography of Vermeer would? And having seen a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, I was interested in learning more about its history.

By reading this novel, you will come away with more knowledge about the times (15th century Europe) and the people associated with the earliest efforts of printing -- not only by machine, but the earlier methods of wood-block printing and the artistic work of scribes who copied by hand.

But, honestly, I skimmed through the book. It is dense with description but I didn't find the plot compelling, what little plot there is. Most of what goes on happens inside the head of the main character, Peter Schoeffer, a scribe at the apex of a fulfilling career in Paris who is called back to Mainz, Germany, by his foster father, who is financially backing this revolutionary new printing method.

In the end, I believe I would be more interested in a nonfiction work about the Gutenberg Bible, something on the order of what Simon Winchester would write -- his book The Meaning of Everything is a ripping good read about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. But if you do like fictionalized accounts of historic events, you might like Fever, a novel about Typhoid Mary, the woman responsible for spreading typhoid fever in the early 1900s.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful read. Lovely moments and images. Especially compelling are the connections drawn between text and creation, between the word and the divine, between the Word and humanity...the greater implications of the miracle of moveable type are explored by looking at the lives of those intimately involved. It's a lovely read, set in it's own purposeful way. I enjoyed it. Shakespeare lingers about the edges - his language foreshadowing one of the greatest uses of Gutenberg's vision. Not a bad book to finish on Shakey's probably-birthday :)

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not have finished this book if it wasn't the first book I started in 2022. I couldn't get into the plot, felt the writing style was lackluster and overall a non event.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my first jobs in the 1970's was as a typesetter for the Federal Government. While I can't remember how, I do remember making calculations to right justify our type lines! I remember the days before "white out" and "memory". Our modern Word Processors are the distant relatives of the very first printing press!! We forget that one day, someone actually had to invent that equipment! To read the accounts of those early, magical days was exciting, and that the first book they decided to print was the Holy Bible, the Book of Books, is glorious! Not only do I now have a greater appreciation for the printed word, but I also have a greater appreciation for the Bibles I own. Yes! Multiple copies! Once upon a time, the only existing copies were hand written by Scribes. Sadly, that art is practically extinct, but today everyone can own their own printed books, and that is marvelous!

[Bibliovoracious · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. Deeply researched, enriched with personable and gritty characters, this book truly builds a vision of what an extraordinary and unlikely achievement Gutenberg's Bible was.

By all the odds, it should have been impossible in the world at the time. Superstitions and paradigms, religious power-mongering, not to mention the burden of secrecy and the spectacular financial investment that it took - in the face of the existing challenges, the feat is truly amazing.

The audiobook is excellent.

[Amber Foxx · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first saw the title I wondered how the story could be made interesting, since we all know how it ends—a printed Bible—but the process was full of personal, social, religious and political controversy. Who was to be allowed to control books? The power of the medieval Catholic Church in money and politics was pervasive. The German city of Mainz, where Gutenberg started his printing press, was at odds with its archbishop overlord. One of the many things the church controlled at the time was access to books. The invention of moveable type posed a threat to those in power, and to those for whom writing by hand was a sacred, contemplative art. Peter Schoeffer was one of the latter, before he became Gutenberg’s apprentice.

Prior to reading this book, I’d never heard of Schoeffer. Author Alix Christie found, among other records, extensive interviews with him written by a monk, Trimethius. Schoeffer, it turns out, was as important as his master.

Christie makes every step of the process of printing that first Bible come alive with Schoeffer’s passions. His relationships with his foster father who was Gutenberg's business partner, with Gutenberg himself—an eccentric and difficult character—and with his fellow workers in the printing shop are based on meticulously researched historical fact, enlivened by the author's interpretation. Peter’s courtship of the young painter Anna Pinzler is told beautifully, with one of the most mystical and uplifting love scenes I’ve ever read. If you like to explore a book that immerses you in the mind, heart, life and work of a man of another time and place, this one will absorb you completely. It’s not a book to rush through, any more than Schoeffer could have rushed through his carving of a perfect letter.

Each chapter starts with a large, ornate capital that looks hand-lettered, imaginative and full of flourishes, the lines ever so subtly imperfect. Having studied calligraphy and hand engraving, I appreciated this touch, and the reminder that books as works of art, as physical objects, were changed by the invention of printing.

The only thing I didn’t like was the author’s choice to put the scenes that take place later in Peter’s life— his interviews with Trimethius that are sprinkled throughout the book—in the present tense. This is minor, and it will only bother those readers who share my mental allergy to present tense narrative.

(Note: I acquired an ARC—advance reader’s copy—of this book from Collected Works Bookstore at the Best of Santa Fe celebration in July 2014. Any book lover in Santa Fe who got to the store’s booth in time could get ARCs (and discount coupons for coffee) before they ran out. )

[Linda Guest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was thrilled when Goodreads sent me a copy of this book to review. I’m a big historical fiction fan and also read non-fiction about this time period. I already knew quite a lot about the first print presses and the relationship between Gutenberg and Fust and I was looking forward to seeing these characters come to life on the page. Sadly I was disappointed. I felt that the book tried too hard to include so many of the political and cultural details of the time period that the characters, at times, seemed to get a bit lost in the details. The style of narration which alternates between first person and third person confused me too. I would just start to identify with the character of Peter when the ‘voice’ would change to that of the Abbot but still telling Peter’s story. I do think that this book is well researched and a wealth of details about the trials and troubles of medieval life but I wish that the author had tried to include fewer historical events and humanised the main characters in a more well-rounded way as, as times, it was quite hard going. Recommended for anyone who would like to know more about the power and politics of the 15th century and the mechanics of early printing.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Довольно милый роман о, собственно, первопечатниках. В детстве я отчего-то очень любил книжку «Георгий Скорина» М. Садковича и Е. Львова (а вот про первопечатника Ивана Федорова, как ни странно, не читал ничего — да и какой из него первопечатник, эта блажь докатилась до Руси через сто лет), и вот меня эта тема догнала с Гутенбергом и его веселой бандой.
Роман не вполне, конечно, исторический, так — реконструкция забавы ради (или сейчас все так исторические романы пишут?). Самое трогательное в нем то, что Аликс Кристи, сама печатница, довольно большое внимание уделяет восприятию людьми первых печатных книг. Привыкли-то к рукописным, а тут эка невидаль: ровные строки! выключка по правому полю! одинаковые копии! чернила не расползаются! четкие буквы! описок нету! С ума б не сойти! Чудо! Святотатство! Да как такое рука человеческая способна создать! Тут нет души… и прочее. Все те же самые доводы.
Так и видишь нынешние «дискуссии» о том, убьет ли электрическая книжка бумажную.

[Učitaj se! | Martina Štivičić · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kratak sadržaj na koricama ove knjige - priča o razvitku Gutenbergovog tiskarskog stroja i zadatku koji si je dao, tiskanju Biblije, ispričana od strane Gutenbergovog učenika Petera - privukao me da ju uzmem u ruke i počnem čitati. Pretpostavila sam da će biti zanimljivo čitati o nastanku prvih tiskanih knjiga. Međutim, ta Peterova priča je toliko suhoparna i dosadna, nepovezana i nezanimljiva da sam odustala od čitanja. Do sada sam u čitavom životu odustala od samo 4 knjige prije ove, pa mislim da to dovoljno govori o tome koliki je bio moj užitak njenog čitanja. Osim ako ne uživate u superdosadnim pričama pisanima bez nekog reda i smisla, predlažem da preskočite.

[LeAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot-wise, nothing much happens in this book besides inventing movable type, printing a Bible and changing the world, but oh, how powerful! As a former librarian I have long been fascinated by the changes wrought by the printing press (1454). As a writer of historical fiction set in the sixteenth century, I am well aware of the significance of the fall of Constantinople to the cannons of the Ottoman Turks (1453). Between the two the Middle Ages came to an end. The thickest of city walls can’t withstand gun powder, and minds cannot be held in thrall to feudal lords when the people have access to information. The latter is a major theme in my own Glastonbury Grail series.

What drives this book is the personalities and relationships of those involved in this world-transforming project and their context of Christendom ripe for reform and highly pressured by infidel armies on its borders.

The name of the main character, Peter Shöffer, was familiar to me from library school as an early printer. I was amazed to learn in the afterword that several of the secondary characters were historical as well. They too became printers, spreading the secret art through Germany and Europe. The personalities and relationships are fictional other than that there was a falling out with Gutenberg. Shöffer is shown as devout and anxious for the Bible printed to be a thing of beauty to glorify God and give people access to his Word (albeit in Latin.) He sees Gutenberg as driven in the beginning by shared ideas, but later by filthy lucre. The older Shöffer telling the story decades later (also historical!) has become disillusioned with the commercial use to which this marvellous tool has been put. Ah, if he could see the junk mail that comes in my mailbox every day!

One of the things that surprised me most was those in the church already seeking reform. I don’t know why I had imagined everyone plodding along like sheep until Martin Luther hammered his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg chapel 60 years after this story. There is lots of talk of reform here and demonstration of official corruption along with hope that this printing press will at last free the guilds of tradesmen from domination by nobles and churchmen. (Okay, so they aren’t yet thinking of the common people, but it is a start.)

We aren’t the first to see our world shift dramatically in ways we never imagined. I highly recommend this book. Strong characters, excellent writing, powerful ideas and yes, there is a love story.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the beginning was the Word...

Peter Schoeffer has devoted his youth to learning the art of scribing but, just as he is on the point of success in his career, his adoptive father calls him back to Mainz to apprentice him all over again – this time to Johannes Gutenberg. Peter is horrified to discover that Gutenberg has created a way to print books, this seeming almost blasphemous to a young man trained to believe that every word he writes is for the glory of God. However, when it is decided that they will print a Bible, Peter comes to believe that the printing will make the word of God more accessible than it has ever been and that he has been chosen by God to perform this task. However, the printing will take years and must be done in secrecy, and Gutenberg is a difficult master to work for. As time passes, resentments grow and Peter feels the secret may be betrayed before the book can be completed...

This is a book that I really wish I could praise more. The writing is always good, often excellent. The story is an interesting one, and Christie has clearly done a ton of research, both on printing techniques and on the history of the period. She shows the power of the Roman Church and of the corruption that was commonplace in it. The story is set within the merchant class, and we see how the Trades Guilds operated, often clashing with a Church that made excessive demands on their income with the ever-present threat of excommunication for defaulters. The characterisation of Peter is strong – we see him grow and develop as he moves into manhood and takes on more of the burden of producing the Bible.

However, there are also many flaws in the book – some small, some rather more important. I am the first to complain when an author does an information dump of the research they've done, but this book has the opposite problem. Christie has clearly steeped herself so deeply in the time and place that she seems to forget that the reader may not be as familiar with the political and religious circumstances as she. Many times I felt that she under-explained things, leaving me without a clear grasp of the bigger picture. So while I got that they had to keep the printing hidden, I was never completely clear why. The suggestion seemed to be that the Church would find it blasphemous and shut the printing down, but at the same time the Church was willing to use Gutenberg's technique to print other religious work – I felt this contradiction was left unclarified. I got that the merchants and some of the churchmen were at loggerheads over what was or wasn't due to the Church, but remained vague about the personalities within the Church itself – some were classed as good guys and some bad, but I had no idea why, or indeed who, most of the time.

Rather than just tell the tale, Christie has used a device of us learning about it as Peter recounts the events many years later to an abbot who is writing the history of the Gutenberg Bible. This wouldn't be a problem except that sometimes in these little sections, we learn about things that haven't yet happened in the main section – most odd! In one case, we find out about the early death of a character and then we're taken straight back to the past where she's just about to marry. For me, this kind of thing destroyed any kind of emotional tension or investment.

I've said that the characterisation of Peter is strong, and it is. However he becomes increasingly unlikeable as the book progresses – sanctimonious and self-righteous to a degree that made me want him to fail. (Actually it made me want to hit him over the head with a brick, to be honest.) The other characters are largely underdeveloped, including Peter's family and the woman that he falls in love with. Gutenberg in particular is so patchily portrayed that I was entirely unclear as to what precisely he had done to make Peter resent him so badly. And the men in the workshop never came to life.

In the end, I'm not sure whether I feel the experience of reading this was worth it or not. I did find it well written in terms of the prose, and it held my attention for the most part, but I find I'm unconvinced of the authenticity or completeness of the picture that it gives of either the characters or the time. A pity, because the basic story has all the ingredients to make a fascinating one.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Headline.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

É sempre bom ler um Romance Histórico, e quando se lê um Romance Histórico de grande qualidade, então é perfeito. Desde já, o meu obrigada à Saída de Emergência por me ter proporcionado esta leitura, que tanto me agradou e ensinou.

Gutenberg, o inventor da prensa. Todos conhecem Gutenberg, ou grande parte das pessoas o conhecem. O que poucos conhecem é a verdadeira história por detrás da invenção da prensa e da impressão do primeiro livro, conhecido hoje em dia como "A Bíblia de Gutenberg". Portanto, este livro explora a relação de Gutenberg com os seus homens, especialmente com Peter Schoeffer (seu aprendiz), escriba e filho adotivo de um grande comerciante, Johann Fust, que lhe deu créditos para financiar a invenção e impressão de livros.

O leitor segue as pisadas de Peter, desde a sua chegada a Mainz a pedido de Fust, até à publicação da Bíblia, de uma forma bastante descontraída, inteligente e dinâmica. Peter é uma excelente personagem, integro, complexo e bastante humano. Apesar da narrativa não ser na primeira pessoa, o leitor vai desbravando a história pelo olhar de Peter, que vai narrando a sua história e a história de Gutenberg e da prensa, ao abade Trithemius, posteriormente, já em 1485, sendo que as aventuras durante o aprendizado e a edição da Bíblia datam de um período entre 1450 até 1455.

Ora, Peter, como já referi, é uma excelente personagem, mas as outras também têm a sua magia. Gutenberg é muito denso, sombrio, complexo. Por vezes entusiasmado, companheiro de equipa, amigo, outras vezes quase louco, inquieto, sem se saber se se pode confiar ou não. E é fantástico poder observar o desenrolar da personalidade e atitudes de Gutenberg ao longo da história, o que acaba por ser um dos pontos fortes desta. Gutenberg continua a ser para mim uma personalidade enigmática depois da leitura do livro e acredito que seja essa a intenção da autora quando o caracterizou da forma como o fez e como o trabalhou. Depois, Johann Fust, o seu irmão, a sua esposa, , o pessoal da equipa da prensa, as personagens relacionadas com a Igreja, Anne...entre tantas outras, formam um leque imenso e muito bem articulado, que faz com que o enredo se torne riquíssimo e repleto de intriga.

A forma como as personagens vão crescendo, como as suas mentalidades e atitudes se vão alterando está feita de tal maneira tão inteligente que o leitor vai crescendo com elas e acompanhando-as plenamente, podendo fazer o seu próprio juízo. Gostei imenso.

Também gostei muito de todo o contexto histórico. As descrições de Mainz e de todo o espaço circundante estão excelentes. Não conheço muito sobre a Alemanha medieval e é com gosto que leio sobre tal, uma vez que me ajuda a compreender melhor este país e a conhecer o seu passado. Também aprendi factos interessantes sobre a invenção da prensa e sobre a edição da Bíblia neste formato. Toda a intriga entre Gutenberg, Peter e Johann Fust, bem como todo o sigilo e mistério em seu redor e das guildas todas, era para mim algo desconhecido e que assim pude ficar a saber.

A narrativa segue o seu caminho natural, indo beber às fontes históricas nos momentos necessários e crescendo espontaneamente. A autora fez um trabalho excelente, usando uma linguagem descontraída, informal, fluída. Deixa sempre o leitor na expectativa com o enredo e com o que as personagens escondem atrás das suas atitudes e ações, deixando sempre um ar de mistério no ar.

Recomendo vivamente, tanto àqueles que gostam imenso de Romance Histórico, como àqueles que querem ler um livro de qualidade, como àqueles que querem aprender mais...enfiam, a todos os que apreciam uma história real, escrita de forma fluída e com personagens interessantes e uma narrativa bem contextualizada e coerente. Uma excelente aposta da Saída de Emergência, que está de parabéns por mais um excelente livro, com um excelente design!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gutenberg's Apprentice by Alix Christie is an ambitious novel portraying the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press. While fiction, this well researched tale reveals Gutenberg as an egotistic opportunist, who rather than give credit to his benefactor, Joann Fust, and Fust’s adopted son, Peter Schoeffer, let the world believe he alone was the genius twho perfected the printmaking method which mass produced the infamous Gutenberg Bible.

The story centers on Peter Schoeffer, a well trained scribe, and the man most instrumental in making the print machine succesful. After his father finances a secret new invention of Gutenberg’s, whose real name is Johann Gensfleisch, he commands his son to return from his burgeoning career as a scribe in Paris to work in Gutenberg’s cloistered workshop, partly to keep an eye on Gensfleisch, whom Fust does not entirely trust, and partly to get in on the ground floor of this whole printing venture.

Christie deftly recreates the atmosphere inside the workshop and the relationship between Schoeffer and the other assistants: Hans and Keffer. Also, the reader gets a sense of life in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s: the precarious politics between the church and state, and the role of women in society at that time.

The story begins with Schoeffer unveiling Gutenberg’s truth to Johannes Trithemus, a young monk at Sponheim Abbey,( who later documents Schoeffer’s tale in his own works.) Schoeffer’s dialogues with Trithemus reveal his quandary about having been part of taking books out of the hands of a privileged few and sharing “The Book of Books” to the masses. In reference to Gutenberg, he tells Trithemus, “He was the first to turn the art into commerce. He cheapened it; he would print anything so along as someone paid him.”

This conflict is echoed throughout the tale. Progress demands altering the status quo. Just as scribes were appalled by the advent of printing, we now have a love hate relationship with the eBook.

The chapters weave between dialogues between Peter and Trithemus in 1485, and events happening in the 1450s. Overall Gutenberg’s Apprentice is an interesting read and fans of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With The Pearl Earring will enjoy this book. Occasionally the narrative sags,and the pace is sometimes ponderous, but the rich historical detail, along with the truth behind how we are able to hold a book in our hands, will keep the reader engaged. (Available Sept, 2014. $27.99, Harper Collins)

I received my copy from Goodreads.

[Ronald Roseborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about how an even greater book was first printed in Mainz, Germany during the Middle Ages. It is the story of the first book printed in moveable type, which would come to be known as the Gutenberg Bible. The story is told from the view point of Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg’s apprentice. Peter, an orphan, was raised by Johann Fust, a wealthy merchant. Johann Gutenberg, a man of higher birth, but lower means, fast talks Fust into financing Gutenberg’s latest invention. Sworn to secrecy, Fust is told it is a new machine that will print books more cheaply and in greater volume than those done by scribes. Gutenberg says he has found a way to make printed books, each as fine and exact as the other. This would make hand lettering by scribes a thing of the past and result in a fortune of riches for both men. Peter has been professionally trained as a scribe through years of apprenticeship and takes great pride in his skill and accomplishments. When he is told that Fust has apprenticed him to Gutenberg to help create this new form of book, Peter is aghast. He believes, as he is sure many others will also, that it is a blasphemy of the Lord’s work. He feels no machine can give to a book the care, devotion, and respect for the Divine that the skilled hand of man can impart. This book follows the tug of war between the traditional and the new ways; the battle between the Church and the secular way of life; the corruption in both the Church and the local government that create almost insurmountable obstacles to the completion of the book. Gutenberg’s Bible, so big it had to be divided into two volumes, took years to complete. Only one hundred eighty copies were printed of the first book made on the printing press. The secret process was extremely difficult to keep concealed for so long. The costs drove Gutenberg and Fust, his financier, nearly to bankruptcy and eventually apart. This a great tale full of intrigue, suspense, and personal conflicts that will keep you enthralled to the end. Book provided for review by Amazon Vine.

[C.P. Lesley]

From sixteenth-century Venice we move back a century and travel north to Mainz, Germany, where a “madman” named Johannes Gutenberg has invented a radical new method of making books. Like any technological genius, Gutenberg needs venture capitalists to finance his workshop and skilled craftsmen and designers to turn his ideas into reality. He finds a financier in Johann Fust, a wealthy merchant and seller of manuscript books. Indirectly, this relationship also brings in a new craftsman when Fust calls his adopted son, Peter Schöffer, back from Paris, where Peter is making his name as a scribe, and forces him to become Gutenberg’s apprentice.

Like many people in the early days of printing, Peter is initially repelled by the ugliness and the mechanical appearance of books produced using movable type, an invention that to him seems more satanic than divinely inspired. But Fust will not release Peter from his apprenticeship, and the young scribe is soon learning to man the press and cut type as Gutenberg embarks, in secret, on the creation of the massive Bible with which his name will henceforth be linked. As he works, Peter too comes to appreciate—and in time to enhance—the beauty of printed books. Publication, though, takes longer and proves more difficult than anyone has expected. As the process drags on, tempers fray and tension rises, quire by quire.

Alix Christie apprenticed twice as a letterpress printer, and her experience informs and enriches Gutenberg’s Apprentice (HarperCollins, 2014). In this interview, we also talk about the ongoing transition from print to electronic books, what will tip the balance, and how our understanding of the first great technological revolution in books may prepare us for the second.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most any knowledgeable person has heard the name Gutenberg and how he changed history with the invention of the printing press. Alix Christie has taken on the large task of writing the background story. It is told through Peter Schoeffer, who is learning to become a scribe and create beautiful books. Peter's foster father, Johann Fust, is a rich merchant and calls Peter home to work with an interesting man, Johann Gutenberg. Fust is financing Gutenberg's revolutionary invention, a printing press. Peter is angry to leave what he thinks is his calling, but becomes enthusiastic about the project, and soon aids in the success of it. This is medieval Germany, and Gutenberg's workshop must contend with the rivalry of different guilds and the Church and some officials who see producing mass copies of the Holy Bible as blasphemy. Of course, I had to do a little research, and found that Christie's book is based upon fact--Peter Schoeffer and Johann Fust were real people who were involved with Gutenberg's project. Again, I am in awe of how a writer can take a bit of history and bring the characters and the age in which they lived to life. A good read for a history buff.