AMERBACH, JOHANN

(ca. 1443-1513)

   Founder of the most influential publishing firm of Renaissance Basel. He was born in Franconia and studied in Paris with Johann Heynlin von Stein, one of the men who introduced the first printing press to the French capital; but he probably learned the printing trade at Venice. He attracted many educated men to his enterprise, including Heynlin and the humanists Beatus Rhenanus, Johann Reuchlin, Conrad Pellikan, and Sebastian Brant, all of whom worked as editors for him. In association with Johann Froben and Johann Petri, he began by publishing traditional scholastic textbooks; but the distinctive feature of his activity was his publication of humanistic and patristic texts. His younger partner Froben continued and expanded this publishing program. His youngest son, Bonifacius (1495-1562), studied law at Freiburg-im-Breisgau under Ulrich Zasius and at Avignon under Andrea Alciati. Bonifacius became professor of civil law at Basel and was highly influential in the field of jurisprudence because he achieved a synthesis of Alciati's mos gallicus with the traditional mos italicus, which emphasized study of medieval Italian jurisprudence. An intimate friend of Erasmus, Bonifacius corresponded with many of the leaders of European intellectual life.