Figure 18
Type prefiguring Schwabacher, used in Hortus Sanitatis: Peter Schoeffer, Mainz
From a copy in the library of Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears, Boston (facsimile), [O]fft vnd vil habe ich by mir selbst betracht die wu[n]dersam werck des schepfers der natuer wie er am anbeginde dem hymel hait beschaffen vnd gezterer mit schonen leüchtenden sternen den er zů inflüssen in alles das vnder dem hymel ist krafft vnd macht geben hait. (scan)
1485
In addition to pointed and round black-letter types, German printers had a vernacular type—intended primarily for printing books in German—later commonly known as “schwabacher.” We may see it employed in a form which is clearly different from the pointed faktur, in Peter Schoeffer’s Hortus Sanitatis, printed at Mainz in 1485.