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Event

The spread of Luther's writings

How the theses and Luther's later pamphlets were copied, translated and printed in Nuremberg, Basel, Leipzig and Wittenberg, 1517 to 1520.

7 links, 2 backed by primary records

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Dates
Nov 1517 – Nov 1520
Over time
  1. Span Nov 1517 – Nov 1520
  2. interventions Johann Froben (printed Luther's works at Basel and sent them abroad) 1518–1519

The Ninety-Five Theses were copied by hand and then printed with the Printing press at Nuremberg, Basel and Leipzig. Johann Froben and Melchior Lotter printed Luther’s later works.

Connections 7

interventions

  • Johann Froben 1518–1519 printed Luther's works at Basel and sent them abroad Primary record 12
  • Melchior Lotter 1518 printed Luther's Explanations of the theses at Leipzig Scholarship & press 3

involved

  • Nuremberg copies of the theses were reprinted here by the end of 1517 Scholarship & press 4
  • Nuremberg friends of Luther had the theses put into German Scholarship & press 4
  • Basel Froben printed Luther's first collected works here in October 1518 Scholarship & press 2
  • Leipzig Leipzig printers sold and printed his tracts Primary record 1
  • Wittenberg where Luther's own printer's edition of his Explanations was so full of errors that he moved the job Scholarship & press 3
Timeline 3 dates
  1. Nov 1517 – Nov 1520 The spread of Luther's writings
  2. 1518–1519 Johann Froben intervened in The spread of Luther's writings
  3. 1518 Melchior Lotter intervened in The spread of Luther's writings
Proof 4 sources
  1. Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, volume I, 1507-1521, translated by Preserved Smith and Charles M. Jacobs (the letters), Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia (scan on the Internet Archive), 1913. Primary record
    We have sold out all your books except ten copies, and never remember to have sold any more quickly.
    Blasius Salmonius, a printer of Leipsic, gave me some of your books, which he had bought at the last Frankfort Fair
  2. Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, volume I, 1507-1521 (the editors' notes), Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia (scan on the Internet Archive), 1913. Scholarship & press
    This is the Preface to the first edition of Luther’s Works, printed at Basle, October, 1518, by Froben.
  3. Printing the Reformation (Reformation Counterfeits), Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. Scholarship & press
    The edition published by Rhau-Grunemberg had been so full of errors, that Luther gave the printing of this edition to Melchior Lotter in Leipzig.
  4. Sources for and against the Posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, by Volker Leppin and Timothy J. Wengert, Lutheran Quarterly 29 (2015), pp. 373-398 (Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen repository), 2015. Scholarship & press
    By the end of the year copies were reprinted in Nuremberg and Basel.
    While Christoph Scheurl and his companions in Nuremberg saw to a translation into German
Page history 1 change
  1. Add the story Ninety-Five Theses, with its people, places, works and sources, and a relation for where a work was writtenAlibekf0e490a

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