COP Publication - Selected Content

Johannes Gutenberg + Print History
Background + Intro
I took a lot of content from 'The Machine That Made Us' with Stephen Fry's commentary. I found his commentary interesting and useful. I re wrote pretty much everything and did further research to check what he was saying was right.
www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/medieval/gutenberg.shtml



Maguncia - Banks of the Rhine, West Germany. This is where Gutenberg was born and spent his childhood.

Little evidence about Gutenberg’s early life exists and no one really knows what Gutenberg actually looked like.

before printed publications existed it was the job of scribes to produce writing. Scribes would work in scriptoriums where work was hard and hand copied Bibles were expensive. Mistakes were made by the best scribes. “Written work was king” not printed work.

The earliest example of a printing press we have is the Danse Macabre – 1499, about 50 years after the Gutenberg press. The difference between the Danse Macabre and the Gutenberg press was the amount of pages printed at a single time:

The Danse Macabre was a 2 pull press (2 pages)

The Gutenberg was a 1 pull press (1 Page)

Although some Church leaders feared anything that could break the monopoly on learning, some recognised that a universal printed Bible would be vital in the preservation of Christian unity.

Gutenberg could see that many people needed book, the Church and University’s that were springing up for example. With this vision in mind he ma have been influenced by the traditional Wine press which was in use.

Gutenberg moved to Strasberg were he began experimenting in print. Strasbourg at the time had better trading links and a sound economy; centre of bureaucracy with the cathedral system running the creation of legal papers through the use of scribes , “Ru Des Ecrivains – Street of the Writers”. Investment was easier to find them in Maguncia. Gutenberg needed the venture capitalists that resided in Strasberg. In the 1430's Gutenberg found backing partners.

Why his press was unique?

Although block printing had been achieved in China in the Tang dynasty (618-906) possibly between the 4th and 7th century AD, Gutenberg's press was more successful because of his method of mass producing type effectively and efficiently with the resources at hand. He found a man called Hans Dunne and together created a type foundry.

Reproducing a typeface or making a variation of the character:

First making a punch, a master copy of the original letter he wanted to reproduce. After transferring the outline of the letter onto a piece of steel. After the steel has to be hand crafted chiseling the metal using a sharp file.

A whole typeface could take up to a year – 270 old glyphs, 2 a day.

The next step was moulding and casting. Most experts cant agree on how the exact process was achieved by Gutenberg but this is one example most commonly agreed on:

Striking a matrix – Punching an impression of the letter/ punch into a piece of copper. The next step is where the uniqueness of Gutenberg's invention lies -the hand type mould. This piece of equipment allows the user to reproduce an exact replica of the original punch fast:

Two halves which form to make a cavity with the matrix and its impression held in between. molten metal is then poured into the cast and a identical punch is made.

This technique is what made the Gutenberg press revolutionary. Nothing else existed like this Type Mould before.

Most high end books were printed on Vellum – Calf skin, derived from from the Latin word 'vitulinum' meaning "made from calf" It takes 140 calfs for one Bible, 180 Bibles would need 25,000 calfs! This would be too expensive for Gutenberg so instead he had to use paper. Although paper was invented almost 1200 years previous to Gutenberg is was a relatively new invention in Europe.

Gutenberg's first edition of the Bible ran to 180 copies containing more than 1,200 pages. After they were hand decorated by an Illuminator. Gutenberg had a 2 year Bible print run. The first copies of the Gutenberg Bible were displayed in Frankfurt in 1454, causing a sensation at the time.

0 printed books to 20 million in 50 years.

Facts:

The British library holds 1 of every book published. 14 miles of shelves, 8 miles added every year. 3 million new books

Johannes Gutenberg's printing machine was invented more than 500 years ago.

Effects on the world

Within a few years there were millions of books in circulation, carrying with them new ideas and developed science, art and religion. Theories and new ideology spread all around Europe.

The unprecedented impact of Gutenberg-style printing on the long-term development of modern European and then world history is difficult to capture in its entirety. Attempts at analysing its manifold effects include the notion of a proper Printing Revolution and the creation of the Gutenberg Galaxy. The ready availability and affordability of the printed word to the general public boosted the democratization of knowledge and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society: The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and ideas transcended borders, captured the masses and threatened the power of political and religious authorities; the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism, accelerated by the flowering of the European vernacular languages to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.