View source for Procopius Waldvogel

'''Procopius Waldvogel''' (alternative spellings: '''Prokop Waldvogel''' or '''Procopius Waldfogel''') was a medieval printer based in [[Avignon]]. It is believed by some that he might have invented printing before [[Johannes Gutenberg]], although Waldvogel maybe learned printing via Gutenberg.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Freivogel |first=Thomas |date=7 August 2013 |title=Procopius Waldvogel |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/018797/2013-08-07/ |website=Historical Dictionary of Switzerland |language=fr}}</ref> Waldvogel lived in the 15th century.

== Life ==
Waldvogel was a German living in [[Avignon]], and was a silversmith by trade.<ref name="about">{{cite web|url=http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/famouspeople/a/Procopius-Waldvogel.htm|title=The mystery of Procopius Waldvogel.|work=About.com Education |publisher=europeanhistory.about.com|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref> He fled from [[Prague]] during the [[Hussite Wars|Hussite troubles]] and stayed in [[Lucerne]], Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=gfr-001%3A1929%3A84#209 |title=Der Geschichtsfreund: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins Zentralschweiz, Vol. 84 Buchdruckerlexikon,Teil I |publisher=Fritz Blaser |year=1929 |location=Luzern |pages=167}}</ref> He moved to Avignon in 1444.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Gutenberg Revolution|author=Man, J.|date=2010|publisher=Transworld|isbn=9781409045526|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0yAmpZFaoE0C|page=118|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref> In Avignon he had two students: Manaud Vitalis and Arnaud de Coselhac.<ref name="wikisource">{{cite web|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Popular_Science_Monthly_Volume_38.djvu/880|title=Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/880 - Wikisource, the free online library|publisher=en.wikisource.org|access-date=2015-11-16}}</ref><ref name="forgottenbooks">{{cite web|url=http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/American_Journal_of_Archaeology_1898_v7_1000004784/211|title=p.182-3. The American Journal of Archæology: And of the History of the Fine Arts; 1891|publisher=forgottenbooks.com|access-date=2015-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117030413/http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/American_Journal_of_Archaeology_1898_v7_1000004784/211|archive-date=2015-11-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> Waldvogel's name appears in several contracts of that time, most notably the one in which he agrees to provide Davin de Caderousse with equipment for reproducing Hebrew texts.<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450-1800|author1=Febvre, L.|author2=Martin, H.J.|date=1976|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781859841082|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9opxcMjv4TUC|page=52|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref> Waldvogel disappeared from the historical records after 1446.<ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press|author=Childress, D.|date=2008|publisher=Ebsco Publishing|isbn=9780761340249|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kT9qLDl8q38C|page=147|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref>

== Career ==
It has been claimed by some that he owned molds for printing in 1444, before [[Johannes Gutenberg]]. However, unlike Gutenberg, he did not print any books, and Gutenberg had his [[printing press]] probably already finished by 1440.<ref name="encyclopedia">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3409200389/printing-and-publishing.html|title=Printing and Publishing - Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students &#124; Encyclopedia.com|publisher=encyclopedia.com|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref>

Waldvogel offered to teach the art of artificial writing to a schoolteacher.<ref name="google4">{{cite book|title=American Media History|author=Fellow, A.|date=2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9781111781552|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TsEAAAAQBAJ|page=3|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref>{{Vague|date={{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}

In 1890, the French historian Requin claimed that Waldvogel had invented the art of moveable type printing before Johannes Gutenberg. However, Requin never showed any evidence that Waldvogel printed anything, and his allegations are long forgotten.<ref name="ucr">{{cite web|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18900927.2.17|title=Sacramento Daily Union 27 September 1890 &mdash; California Digital Newspaper Collection|publisher=cdnc.ucr.edu|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref><ref>(In French) [https://books.google.com/books?id=x7YtAAAAYAAJ ספרו של האב The Origins of Printing in France] - P. Requin, Origines de l'imprimerie en France, 1891. (Google Books). Requin's discovery was known to researchers through Cecil Roth's  book 1957 [https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH002166064/NLI Jews in the Renaissance] pages 167-8 (Online book at the Jerusalem National Library of Israel)</ref>

In 1896, Dutch historian {{ill|Antonius van der Linde|nl}} refuted Requin's claims, giving several arguments why Waldvogel cannot be regarded as the inventor of printing: (1) the monetary amounts mentioned in the documents were far too small for Waldvogel to be able to establish a proper printing press; (2) the steel double alphabet, along with the 48 types—one set made of [[tin]] and another of iron—and the 27 [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew letters]] mentioned, were too few to be considered proper [[Font|fonts]]. They also were not typographical molds, as neither the students nor the dyers could use them without the crucial tool: the [[casting mold]]; (3) the nature of the demanded secrecy, once for a radius of 12 miles, and another time for a radius of 30 miles, does not point to a technology as complicated as [[typography]]; (4) the kind of instruction and [[remuneration]] that were given do not suggest that a real printing press was ever created; (5) it is unlikely that the six typographers present in Avignon (from 1444 to 1446, including Waldvogel) could have disappeared without a trace.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van der Linde |first=Antonius |date=1896 |title=Waldvogel, Prokop |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz84358.html |journal=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie |volume=40 |pages=725–728}}</ref>

He was a contemporary of other alleged printers of the time, which included [[Laurens Janszoon Coster]], [[Jean Brito]] and [[Panfilo Castaldi]].<ref name="google5">{{cite book|title=The Evolution of the Book|author=School of Library and Information Sciences University of North Carolina Frederick G. Kilgour Distinguished Research Professor, C.H.|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=9780195353365|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib_cN9Y9Xz0C|page=85|access-date=2014-10-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcPkMxCWcZQC&dq=prokop+waldvogel&pg=PT15|title = In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible|isbn = 9781444745269|last1 = McGrath|first1 = Alister E.|date = 12 April 2012| publisher=John Murray Press }}</ref>

== Controversial printed quires possibly assigned to Procopius Waldvogel ==
[[File:אביניון גליונות הדפוס שנבדקו בבית הספרים הלאומי..jpg|thumb|right|240px|One of the two controversial quires]]
In 2015, two Hebrew-letter [[Units of paper quantity#Quire|quires]] with a total of 32 pages were found to be reused in the cover of a book from the 16th century. They were sent by their owner to the Institute of Hebrew Manuscript Research at the [[National Library of Israel]] in [[Jerusalem]]. The study of their watermarks, paper, ink, typeset typography, made upon request of their owner, concluded that it may be possible that they could have been printed in the area of Avignon around 1444, suggesting that they might be Waldvogel and Davin de Caderousse's work. This finding has received some media coverage, although in the absence of a counter-expertise by independent scholars, the putative link between these printed quires and Waldfogel's entreprise remains purely speculative.

Since 2019, the Institute for Computerized Bibliography of the Hebrew Book published three studies on the sheets, which were brought in 2015 before Yitzhak Yudlov, who was the Head of the Institute for Hebrew Bibliography in Jerusalem for many years, and Benjamin Richler, former Director of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library in Jerusalem. The publications of the Institute for Computerized Bibliography of the Hebrew Book dealt with three components of the sheets, namely paper, watermark and typography. Regarding the identification of those sheets, they wrote: "In our opinion, these are the sheets from the printing experiments of Prokop Waldvogel and Davin de Caderousse". 

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{cite book|chapter-url=http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Waldvogel,_Prokop|title=ADB:Waldvogel, Prokop – Wikisource|chapter=Waldvogel, Prokop|series=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie|year=1896|page=725|publisher=de.wikisource.org|access-date=2014-10-05}}
*{{cite web|url=http://thesaurus.cerl.org/record/cnp01197359|title=Prokop &lt;Waldvogel&gt;|publisher=thesaurus.cerl.org|access-date=2014-10-05}}

{{Pioneers of Printing Press}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:15th-century German businesspeople]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Avignon]]
[[Category:German printers]]