LNAB of Gutenberg needs to be changed

+7 votes
155 views
Johannes Gutenberg's Last Name At Birth was Gensfleisch, not Gutenberg. He was born around 1400 and the name Gutenberg starts to be used by his family only in the 1420's. Several sources are listed on his profile.
WikiTree profile: Johannes Gutenberg
in Policy and Style by Helmut Jungschaffer G2G6 Pilot (603k points)
This still hasn't been corrected. I'm willing to take care of it if you agree, Helmut.
Go ahead!
Done. I kept Gutenberg as CLN, though not quite accurate that will make him easier to find/identify.

1 Answer

+3 votes
Thanks Helmut, before anyone makes any changes is this correct as suggested last names?

Last Name at Birth - Gensfleisch

Current Last Name - Gutenberg

Other last names - Gensfleisch zur Laden
by John Atkinson G2G6 Pilot (619k points)
Patrician families in Mainz acted a little bit like nobility. With respect to names they took them from the houses they lived in, with the predicate zu/zum/zur which they increasingly dropped by the end of the 14th century. Gutenberg's family went by the name "zum Gensfleisch" until his father became known as "Gensfleisch" alone. Zur Laden was his grandmother's last name, since it was subsequently used by the Gensfleischs it can be assumed that she brought the house into the family. Gutenberg's mother is called Wirich in the newer literature but zu Gudenberg in older books. (https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Gutenberg,_Johannes) The use of the name Gudenberg/Gutenberg did not start until the 1420's. Based on this it makes sense to me to use Gensfleisch as LNAB.

For CLN I'm not so sure: I have not come across any document where he himself uses the name Gutenberg alone, always Gensfleisch genannt Gutenberg or just Gensfleisch. He is called Gudenberg or Gutenberg or Guttenberg in other documents where he is not signing personally. The final document, that about his death date, refers to him as Henne Gensfleisch alone. Since the last contemporary document about his death calls him Gensfleisch an argument could be made to keep that as his CLN. On the other hand, nobody today knows him under that name and he is universally known as Gutenberg and he has been called that name in contemporary documents, so for clarity's sake Gutenberg might be preferable.

As for OLN I'd go with the names he used: Gensfleisch genannt Gutenberg, Gensfleisch zur Laden genannt Gutenberg.

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