Who was Gutenberg?
His Biography In spite of Gutenberg’s importance, much of his life remains a mystery; documents about him are scarce and his name does not appear on any of the works attributed to him. Although celebrated as occurring in 1400, even the year of Gutenberg’s birth is unknown. Our sources do not reveal more than that his birth must have occurred between the years 1394 and 1404. As the youngest son of the family, he is mentioned in his earliest documents as Henne or Henchen (i.e., Johannes) zur Laden or as Henne Gensfleisch. At this time, surnames were not passed on from father to son and grandson. The patricians of Mainz were usually called after their houses and if they had several, they could carry several names. Contrary to this custom, it seems that Gensfleisch was one of his patrician father’s surnames, while Gutenberg was probably his mother’s maiden name, or the name of her birthplace, or of land that belonged to her. The first document to mention Johannes Gutenberg as “Henchin zu G
