Michael Furter

Who is Michael Furter?

Michael Furter was a printer of incunabula in Basel.

Furter is recorded as buying a house in Ryngasse, Lesser Basel on 15 January 1483. In 1491 he rented a shop for three and a half pound per year. He bought Basel citizenship for one gulden on 1 March 1488. The first dated prints by Furter are from 1489. In December 1500, he and his wife Ursula bought another house, called Zer Monen. He died between 10 November 1516 and 2 May 1517; declared insolvent after his death, he left no inheritance to his children. Furter's workshop is notable for its illustrated prints and its large number of initial alphabets, including Etterlin's chronicle, Der Ritter vom Turm and the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius. Furter also produced numerous popular works on grammar, jurisprudence, theology and morals.