Anna Rügerin (died after 1484), is considered to be the first female
typographer
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
to inscribe her name in the colophon of a book, in the 15th century.
In 1484, Rügerin printed two books in the in-folio format, in a press she owned in the city of
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...
(Germany). Her work appeared less than twenty years after the
arrival of the movable-type printing press in that city.
The first of Rügerin's known books is an edition of
Eike of Repgow
Eike of Repgow (german: Eike von Repgow, also ''von Repkow'', ''von Repko'', ''von Repchow'' or ''von Repchau''; – ) was a medieval German administrator who compiled the ''Sachsenspiegel'' code of law in the 13th century.
Life
Little is known a ...
's compendium of customary law, the ''
Sachsenspiegel
The (; gml, Sassen Speyghel; modern nds, Sassenspegel; all literally "Saxon Mirror") is one of the most important law books and custumals compiled during the Holy Roman Empire. Originating between 1220 and 1235 as a record of existing loc ...
'', dated 22 June 1484. The ''Sachsenspiegel'', written in the 13th century, was the first major work of German prose. The catalogue ''Beschreibung derjenigen bücher welch von erfindung der buchdruckerkunst bis M.d.xx ... gedruckt worden sind'' by Georg Wolfgang Panzer details some of its characteristics. The colophon of the book says the following:
Hye endet sich der sachsenspiegel mitt ordnung des rechten den der erwirdig in got vater und herr Theodoricus von bockßdorf bischof zu neünburg säliger gecorrigieret hat. Gedruckt und volendt von Anna Rügerin in der keyserlichen stat Augspurg am aftermontag nächst vor Johannis. do man zalt nach Cristi gepurt/M.CCCC.lxxxiiij.jar./
The second book was an edition of the ''Formulare und deutsch rhetorica'', a manual of instructions for the editing of official documents and of letters, printed on 29 July 1484.
These books were composed in the
Gothic font 1:120G' of Johann Schönsperger. The researcher Sheila Edmunds identifies Schönsperger as the brother of Anna Rügerin, as his mother, Barbara Traut Schönsperger, married the printer Johann Bämler as her second husband (probably in 1467 or 1468). This marriage, according to Edmunds, would have produced an extensive familial network devoted to the book trade in Augsburg. Anna Rügerin's husband, Thomas Rüger, jointly published books with Schönsperger in 1481 and 1482. Johann Schönsperger could have helped Anna Rügerin (who had inherited Rüger's press) to make her first printing.
See also
*
Estellina Conat, a contemporary female typographer in Italy.
*
Anna Fabri, a contemporary female typographer in Sweden.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rugerin, Anna
German printers
German typographers and type designers
Women in publishing
15th-century German women
Women printers
15th-century printers
Medieval businesswomen
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
15th-century German businesspeople