Sweynheim, Konrad

Konrad Sweynheim (died 1477) was a German printer and engraver. Nothing is known of his early years. It is believed that he worked with Johannes Gutenberg between 1461 and 1464 and was instrumental in the early development of printing in Europe. He, along with Arnold Pannartz, is credited with having introduced Gutenberg's invention, the mechanical movable-type printing press, to Italy. The two printers first worked in Subiaco, printing a Donatus which has not survived. The earliest surviving book printed in Italy by them was Cicero's De oratore, printed in 1465. During the course of their early works, they abandoned the German typefaces they had worked with, becoming the first to print in Roman lettering. Sweynheim and Pannartz settled in Rome in 1467, working prolifically - but unsuccessfully: nobody wanted to buy their books, until they began receiving Church assistance in the early 1470s. At this point the two parted ways, after which Sweynheym took up copperplate engraving. He engraved the maps for the superb Rome Ptolemy but did not live to see the work through to its publication. This was completed by his fellow German printer Arnold Buckinck. The Rome Ptolemy was the second to be published containing maps engraved in copper, preceded only by the Bologne Ptolemy of 1477 (though it is probable that the copperplates were completed prior to those of the 1477.) An interesting idiosyncrasy of Sweynheim's work was that the text on the maps was not engraved by hand but stamped into the printing plate with specially made letters, the oldest known use of this technique for this purpose.