Main (Thompson) Library location: North wing -- Fifth window. Originally from Strasbourg, Michael Wenssler (c.14-- – c.1499) moved to Basel at an early age and quickly became a prominent typographer and printer. His earliest work, De modo perveniendi ad veram Dei et proximi dilectionem by Henricus Arnoldi, is dated to 1472 and was one of the first books printed in Basel. Wenssler stayed in Basel until 1491, when he moved to Cluny, France in an attempt to escape the debts of his declining practice. After printing a breviary and a missal for the Abbey at Cluny, he moved on to Mâcon and printed a notable Diurnale. In 1495, Wenssler is documented printing in Lyon, where he remained until he was able to settle his financial trouble in Basel in 1499. This printer's mark demonstrates influence from the device of German printers Fust and Schoeffer. Two shields are suspended from a central horizontal branch. The significance of neither escutcheon is clear. On the left is a vertical symbol with an extension to the right side; on the right is curving river bend, with a star on either side.