1454 in Langendorf near Hammelburg. In 1507 he received Basel citizenship rights. Petri was one of the first printers in Basel who worked with illustrators.
His books were illustrated by the likes of Urs Graf, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Conrad Schnitt among others
He also employed a number of prominent collaborators as writers, editors and proofreaders including Konrad Pellikan, the young Sebastian Münster, Beatus Rhenanus, Ulrich Hugwald and his relative Johannes Petreius. Adam Petri chiefly printed devotional literature and works of practical theology.
Of the more than 300 publications from the Offizin Adae Petri, there are more than 88 editions of Martin Luther. He also published works of other German reformers like Johannes Bugenhagen, Hartmuth by Cronberg, Philipp Melanchthon, Andreas Karlstadt and a few titles by the Swiss Reformers Huldrych Zwingli, Joachim Vadian and Johannes Oecolampadius.
His edition of January Hus, which appeared under the title Liber egregius de unitate ecclesiae, cuius autor periit in concilio Constantiensi in 1520, attracted a great deal of attention.
Petri was also able to produce a reprint of Luther’s translation of the Bible with amazing speed. Only a quarter of a year after the edition of the “September Testament”, Petri"s edition appeared in December of 1522 under the title Das new Testament yetzund recht grüntlich teutscht. Between 1523 and 1524 Petri printed Luther’s translation of the Old Testament under the title Der ursprunglichen Hebreischen warheit nach auffs trewlichst verdeutscht.
Adam Petri died on November 15, 1527.
His widow Anna remarried the cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar Sebastian Münster in 1530.