Fust & Schöffer Print the 1459 Mainz Psalter

On August 29, 1459 Fust and Schöffer completed a revised edition of their 1457 Psalter, with twenty-three lines per page as compared to twenty lines in the 1457 edition, using the same types and initials as the 1457 edition. 

For this Psalter Fust and Schöffer once again employed the process of compound printing, first used in the first Mainz Psalter of 1457, to print the initial letters in two colors.

The first edition of 1457 was intended for use in non-monastic churches. In the second edition the material was arranged for use in monastic services. The British Museum Catalogue states that the psalter was printed "in accordance with the reformed Monastic Breviary of the Union of Bursfield, known also as the Observantia per Germaniam. 

"The colophon states that the book was printed 'to the glory of God and in honour of Saint James' which suggests that the psalter was commissioned by, or associated in some way with, the Benedictine monastery of Saint James in Mainz" (Berry & Poole, Annals of Printing [1966] 14).

Thirteen copies are known, all printed on vellum.

ISTC No.: ip01062000. In November 2013 a digital facsimile was available from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.