A littlie history of The Official Emblem of the IAPHC
The Official Emblem of The International Association of
Printing House Craftsmen, Inc., depicts the combined coats-of-arms
of Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer. It was the first imprint used in
a book printed from movable type, appearing as early as 1457 in Fust
and Schoeffer's Psalter. Different versions of this design appeared
at later dates, but the design of 1457, illustrated above, is our
official emblem. It was the first book to have a printed date and
the first book with a printer's mark. The inscription is in Latin
and reads as follows:
"The present book of the Psalms, decorated with beautiful capital letters and profusely marked out with rubrics, has been thus fashioned by the added ingenious invention of printing and shaping of letters without any exertion of the pen, and to the glory of God has been diligently brought to completion by Johann Fust, a citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schoeffer of Gernszheim, in the year of the Lord 1457, on the eve of the Feast of the Assumption" (i.e.,August 14).
The entire colophon occupies the upper half of the last page of this magnificent book, the page measuring about 11 x 16 inches. The copy from which this reproduction was made is printed on parchment and is in a beautiful state of preservation in the State Library of Vienna, Austria. The body type is black, about 36 point size, the initial is blue, the ornament and the printer's mark are red. The actual size of the emblem is 1½ x 1 inch. Johann Gutenberg obtained financial assistance from Johann Fust, a citizen of Mainz, Germany, for which he mortgaged his printing plant in 1450. As the work on the famous 42-line Bible neared completion, this mortgage was foreclosed, giving Fust possession of most of the equipment and all of the printed work.
Among Gutenberg's workmen in 1455 was a capable young man named Peter Schoeffer, who had previously copied books at the University of Paris. When Fust took over the equipment forfeited by Gutenberg, Schoeffer assumed charge; later he married Fust's daughter and became a partner in the business. Hence the combining of their individual coats-of-arms.
The device on the right-handed shield is that of Schoeffer and that on the left, of Fust. History does not inform us of the significance of the two characters, which are believed to be Greek letters, X, which is called chi, and the inverted V, lambda.
There has been considerable speculation as to the meaning of the stars on the right-hand shield. Some think they denote seniority; others believe they represent Schoeffer's three sons, because upon the death of the first son the bottom star was changed to a flower (1521). The two shields hung on a branch may denote the alliance of the Fust and Schoeffer families by marriage.