Johannes Grüninger

Johannes (Hans) Grüninger (1455–1533) was a German printer whose career spanned from 1482 to 1533 and produced up to 500 publications. Grüninger was one of the single most prolific printers of Strasbourg, printing up to 80 books a year. While a great deal of his publications were Catholic, he managed to print a great variety of works ranging from humanist to scientific texts. His work was fairly equally representative of both Latin and the vernacular; about 39% of his works were printed in Latin and the remaining 61% in German. Between 1508 and 1528 about 70 printers had established themselves in Strasbourg. Some of his notable publications include a German-language Bible, and illustrated editions of Horace's Opera, and Virgil's Aeneid. Grüninger died in 1532 and was succeeded by his sons Wolfgang and Bartholomew (primarily Bartholomew, who was also a printer albeit on a smaller scale than his father ). As was common, his sons promptly sold the business to Peter Schöffer the younger in 1533 after being unable to maintain past production rates. He also printed many missals that were transported across Europe. His largest contribution to the printed religious text is his German family Bible which was the tenth Bible printed in the German language and the first "handy-sized" Bible. In 1522 Grüninger found himself in trouble with the Strasbourg authorities after publishing an anti-Lutheran book by Thomas Murner titled Von dem Grössen Lutherischen Narren." This is the only printing of Horace before 1500 to contain commentary. It has been argued that this printing of Horace was intended for pedagogical purposes rather than merely entertainment. which could explain this text's unique use of marginal commentaries which are in keeping with medieval pedagogical tradition (except that they seem to provide more background information on the poetry than directions on how to morally read the text). In between the lines of the text itself can be seen explanatory words that clarify abbreviations and names thus helping the reader follow along while at the same time learning some Latin conventions. Given that there seem to be a decent number of surviving copies, this (and Grüninger's prints of Comidiae by Terence and Vergil's Aeneid (1502)) book seems to have been a success when released. The main geographic works that came out of Grüninger's press were an edition of Ptolemy's Geography prepared by Lorenz Fries (1521), another edition of the Geography in 1525, and a reduced version of Martin Waldseemüller's Carta Marina, also prepared by Fries in 1525.