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  • Document: The Edict of Worms 1521
    The Edict of Worms, 1521, title page
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1521

    With the Edict of Worms, Emperor Karl V imposed an imperial ban on Martin Luther.
  • Type specimen: Cancellaresca italica
    Alphabet table in Cancellaresca italica
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1522

    The Italian Ludovico Vincentino degli Arrighi describes the typeface Cancellaresca italica in his book La Operine.
  • Portrait: Albrecht Dürer
    Albrecht Dürer, marble bust by Wilhelm Riedisser, 1913, Stiftung der Verlagsbuchhandlung Braun & Schneider, Munich
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig, Fotografie: Michael Setzpfandt

    1525

    Albrecht Dürer publishes his Underweysung der messung mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen (1525), in which he deals extensively with the subject of script.
  • Type specimen: Garamond
    Poster advertising a concert of works by Johannes Sebastian Bach using Garamond
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1530

    The Frenchman Claude Garamond creates the typeface which is later named after him.

  • 1545

    Martin Luther completes his work on the Biblia Germanica, thus providing the impulse for more widespread literacy
  • Title page: list of banned books of the Catholic Church, 1559
    Title page of the first Index librorum prohibitorum from 1559
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1559

    The Catholic Church’s first Index librorum prohibitorum is published.
  • Object: ciphering wheel
    Ciphering wheel, image taken from Giambattista Della Porta’s fundamental work De furtivis literarum notis, 1563
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1563

    The ciphering wheel is used as an encryption technique for messages.
  • Object: Feyerabend Bible
    Feyerabend Bible from 1564
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1564

    The Frankfurt-based publisher Sigmund Feyerabend publishes one of the most beautiful books of that era, the Feyerabend Bible, which was the first edition of the Bible to feature illustrations by just one artist.
  • Copperplate engraving: Der Buchhändler
    Der Buchhändler, (The Book Trader), copperplate engraving by Christoph Weigel, 1698
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1564

    The first book fair takes place in Frankfurt am Main.
  • Double-page excerpt: Historia animalium
    Double-page extract from the fourth volume of Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium on fish, Zurich 1563
    Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

    1565

    Conrad Gessner’s Thierbuch – the German edition of Historia animalium – is published in Zurich.