Gutenberg press

Also called: Movable type printing press, Gutenberg printing press, Movable type printing · Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"; Class 11, Ch 3 "Changing Traditions"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"

Meaning

The Gutenberg press was the first-known printing press in Europe. Johann Gutenberg built it at Strasbourg in the 1430s and perfected it by 1448. It worked by pressing paper on to movable metal type: small metal blocks, each with one letter of the 26-letter Roman alphabet. The press itself was modelled on the olive press.

• It mattered because it moved Europe from hand copying to mechanical printing.
• Books became cheap and plentiful, and this change is called the print revolution.
• It remained the basic print technology for the next 300 years.

Explanation

Background: why Europe needed a press

• Paper arrived first. Chinese paper reached Europe in the eleventh century through the silk route (the old trade road linking China to West Asia and Europe).
• Paper was cheaper than animal skin.

• It allowed many more scribal manuscripts (books copied by hand).

• Woodblock printing came next. In 1295, Marco Polo returned to Italy from China. He brought knowledge of woodblock printing, where a whole page is cut into a wooden block, inked and pressed on paper.

• From Italy the technology spread across Europe.

• By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were common in Europe for printing textiles, playing cards and religious pictures.

• Hand copying could not keep up. Universities were growing, and merchants and students wanted cheap books.

• Booksellers who exported books across Europe often employed more than 50 scribes each.
• Copying by hand was slow: one scribe took many months for one book.
• It was expensive, because the scribes had to be paid.

• Manuscripts were fragile: awkward to carry and easily damaged.

• What was missing: Europe already knew how to press ink on a surface. It had no way to reuse letters for each new page.

The man and the machine

• Gutenberg's background explains his invention.
• He grew up on an agricultural estate, so as a boy he saw wine presses and olive presses at work.

• He was a trained master goldsmith and an expert at making moulds for casting lead.

• Two old skills went into one new machine.

• The olive press became the model for the printing press. It squeezed paper on to inked type, the way it squeezed olives.

• The goldsmith's moulds were used to cast the metal types.

• Moveable type machine. Types were made for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. They could be taken apart and rearranged for each new page, which is why it was called a moveable type machine.

• Output: 250 sheets an hour, printed on one side.
• Technical solutions listed by Britannica:
• a metal alloy that melts easily and cools fast into hard, reusable type;
• an oil-based ink thick enough to stick to metal type and transfer cleanly to paper or vellum;

• a press adapted from wine, oil or paper presses that gives firm, even pressure. [3]

• Words used in the printing shop:

• Compositor is the person who picks metal types letter by letter and sets them in order.
• Galley is the metal frame or tray in which the types are laid and the text is composed.
• Platen is the flat board pressed on the back of the sheet to push it against the inked type. It was wooden in early presses and made of steel later.

The first printed book and its look

• The first book Gutenberg printed was the Bible.
• About 180 copies were made in three years, according to NCERT. No more than 50 survive.
• It is also called the 42-line Bible, because most pages have double columns of 42 lines. It was printed at Mainz, Germany, in 1454/1455 with his partner Johannes Fust. [2]

• It was the first large-format typographic book printed in Europe. The run probably had at least 120 copies on paper and up to 40 on vellum. [2]

• Printed books copied the look of handwritten ones, so that buyers would accept them.

• Metal letters were cut to look like ornamental handwriting.
• Borders were illuminated (painted) by hand with foliage and other designs.
• In copies for rich buyers, printers left blank space on the page for the buyer's own painter to decorate.
• As a result, no two copies were the same. The rich liked this, because a unique book showed their status.

Results: the print revolution, 1450–1550

• Between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany travelled abroad and started new presses.
• Book output grew very fast:
• second half of the fifteenth century: about 20 million printed books;

• sixteenth century: about 200 million books, a tenfold rise.

• This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing is called the print revolution.

• For the first time Europe could make large numbers of books at low cost. Books reached a wide general audience and helped spread literacy and education. [3]
• Not everyone welcomed it. Aristocrats and monastic libraries still wanted luxury handwritten editions on vellum (costly parchment made from animal skin). They scoffed at printed books as "cheap vulgarities".

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the press was developed in the 1430s, perfected by 1448, and spread across Europe from 1450 to 1550.
• Places:
• Strasbourg, where the press was developed;

• Mainz, Germany, where the 42-line Bible was printed (1454/1455). [2]

• Key people:

• Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400 – c. 1468; the dates are approximate) [2];
• his partner Johannes Fust [2];

• Marco Polo, who brought woodblock knowledge from China in 1295.

• How we know:

• Surviving Gutenberg Bibles. No more than 50 survive today.
• The Library of Congress copy is printed entirely on vellum. It is one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist. [2]
• NCERT Class 10, Ch 5 is the main textbook account.

• Britannica's account of the press, alloy and ink. [3]

• Note on numbers: sources give different figures for the Bible run. NCERT says about 180 copies. The Library of Congress gives "probably" at least 120 on paper and up to 40 on vellum. [2]

Don't confuse with

• Korean movable type: printing with movable type had already appeared in Korea in the fourteenth century. Gutenberg did not invent movable type. His achievement was the mechanised press system in Europe. [3]
• Woodblock printing: here a whole page is carved into one wooden block. It came from China and reached Italy through Marco Polo (1295). Gutenberg's press used separate metal letters that could be reused.
• Strasbourg vs Mainz: Strasbourg is where the press was developed (1430s). Mainz is where the 42-line Bible was printed (1454/55). [2]
• Vellum manuscripts: these were handwritten luxury books on animal-skin parchment, preferred by aristocrats. Gutenberg did print some Bible copies on vellum, so vellum does not always mean handwritten. [2]

Prelims Hooks

• The press was modelled on the olive press. The types were cast using goldsmith's lead moulds.
• It printed 250 sheets an hour on one side, using types for the 26 Roman letters.
• First book printed = the Bible. About 180 copies in three years, and no more than 50 survive. It is also called the 42-line Bible (Mainz, 1454/55, with Johannes Fust). [2]
• Chronology: Chinese paper reaches Europe (11th century) → Marco Polo brings woodblock printing (1295) → Korean movable type (14th century) → Gutenberg's press at Strasbourg (1430s, perfected by 1448). [3]
• Output: about 20 million books in the second half of the fifteenth century, and about 200 million in the sixteenth century.
• Trap: "Gutenberg invented movable type" is wrong. Movable type already existed in Korea in the fourteenth century. [3]

Mains Points

• New technology is often built by borrowing. Gutenberg combined parts that already existed: the olive press for pressure, goldsmith's moulds for casting, woodblock inking for transfer, and Chinese paper for the surface. Trade contact through the silk route and Marco Polo made this possible. Woodblock printing in China and movable type in Korea came earlier. [3] This is a strong point against Europe-centred accounts of who "invented printing".
• New technology at first copies the old form it replaces. Early printed books copied manuscript ornament and hand-painted borders.
• Elites valued the unique copy and called print "cheap vulgarities".
• The real market for uniform, cheap books came from merchants and students.

• So social class shaped how the technology was received.

• It changed the scale of book-making, not just the speed. Output rose from 20 million books to about 200 million in roughly a century, which is why 1450–1550 is called a revolution.

• Low-cost books spread literacy and education. [3]
• This laid the ground for a new reading public, the Reformation debates, and the later spread of print to India.

Related concepts

• Johann Gutenberg
• Print revolution

Read more

• Print comes to Europe: Gutenberg and the print revolution