The Gutenberg printing press

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Before the printing press most books were hand copied. This process was tedious and could take more than a year for a manuscript. Scribes painstakingly created copies of famous plays, religious edicts and works of philosophy with a quill and ink.

The setting is Germany, the year 1455. The world was in transition between the dark ages and the renaissance. Europe was in the power of a virtual theocracy. The Church held sway over European thinking. The literary object of the era was the Holy Bible as sanctioned by the Holy Mother Church.

A blacksmith and printer in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg developed the first machine capable of printing text rapidly using a press lined with metal letters symbols and special typeset. Chinese scholars had used typesetting for some 600 years but Gutenberg saw the potential commerce in the western world and Europe for the first time.

Gutenberg s's process included arranging the metal letters into words and sentences. He then screwed them into the machine in the correct order. The letters were then coated with an oil based ink and then pressed into reams of paper. Assembling the letters for a page could take a complete day but it was the first reach to mass-producing books and contributed significantly to the renaissance.

As might be expected in that era, gurenbergs first customer was the Catholic Church, for which he printed a bible in Latin in 1455. There are 29 remaining copies of the Gutenberg Bible in existence now considered some of the most valuable books in the world.

Along came Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation and the press was used for an information explosion unprecedented in the history of the world. As it spread beyond Germany to he rest of Europe and beyond. Regional languages replaced Latin and a content explosion rocked civilization.

He died penniless as financing arrangements left a lot to be desired in those days. Today he is looked at as one of the most celebrated inventors of all time Word Press the content management system of choice in WA has named its most recent iteration after Gutenberg and WA itself would not be the same without him!

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Recent Comments

20

Thank you for the interesting bit of history, appreciate it.

Thanks for the history lesson Mike.

Derek

Interesting bit of history -- wonder of how history would look at today's inventions.... thanks kindly for posting ... :)

Very Interesting information Mike thanks for sharing

A revolution not unlike the current explosion in communication, thanks to mobile technology and the internet.

Thanks, Mike.
Mojalefa.

Hi Mike
Thank you Mike I love this Type of Information ; as I go and Look up more on Google .Starting with Wikipedia then to other references So much Appreciated..
Regards
David

Interesting

Gutenberg is one of my hero's.
Without him I would not have been able to read books, and that's what I love since a very early age.
Well explored and explained Mike

You are a great history buff Mike- Thanks for sharing this and I love the pictures. Still trying to enjoy Gutenberg and looking forward to when the glitches are fixed
Vicki

I have been afraid to press the Gutenberg installation button.

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