Buchmesse [antikvár]

BUCHMESSE. A STORY IN PICTURESThe Frankfurt Book Fair: The history of a cultural markét placeHabent sua fata libelli: Books havetheirownfate and theirown destiny. Theyharbourmemories and knowledge. One of the most fas-cinating aspects of cultural and economic history is that the written word, manuscripts and the printed page, became such important products and so quickly. Even though authors and their readers have always been interested primarily in the content, it was the humán spirit and man's capacity for humour captured in manuscripts and books which ultimately made impact. The history of books, and their production, is largely a history of the benefits arising from a free markét economy.This becomes only too clear if we contemplate the history of the Frankfurt Book Fair as being one of the most important cultural events in the city of Frankfurt, renowned as an exhibition centre for centuries. When in 1240, Emperor Frederick II (from the House of Hohenstaufen) granted special imperial protection to traderstravellingtothe Autumn Exhibition in Frankfurt, hewaswell awareofthe beneficial effects such trade and travel would have on the material workings of his empire.Dealers in manuscripts profited in secret from this royal order issued from an army camp in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. The Frankfurt of those days, centrally situated as itwas, politically, economically and geographically, had become even then the embodiment of what a trading centre should be. It was not surprising then that in Mainz, not far from Frankfurt, that Gutenberg achieved the revolutionary technical break-through which was to change the world - he invented the lead letterprocessing method which made book-printing possible.In 1574, Henri Estienne wrote of the Frankfurt gathering of book-printers and dealers: "Because the muses call all their book-printers and book-dealers, at the same time, to the exhibition in Frankfurt, instructing them alsó to bringthe poets, the thinkers, the historians and the philosophers with them, not only in the form of their own works butalso those who come to the fore daily in every country this academy, in the form of an exhibition, offers benefits no library could ever pro-vide."And whilst today something like 8,500 exhibitors from 90 countries come to Frankfurt for five-and-a-half-days, to view and do business in all that the world currently has to offer in the field of books and literature, it may be that the gentle muses hang their heads in surrow under the influx of the commercial economics of modern-day publishing. Nothing, however, can detract from the unique and all-pervading atmosphere of this exhibition.