Johann Gutenberg

Also called: Gutenberg · Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"

Meaning

Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400 – c. 1468) [2] was a German master goldsmith. He developed the first-known printing press in Europe at Strasbourg in the 1430s and perfected it by 1448. His machine used reusable metal letters, called moveable type, and the first book he printed was the Bible, at Mainz.

He matters because his press started the print revolution in Europe. Books became cheap and plentiful, and his basic method stayed in use for the next 300 years.

Explanation

Background: why Europe needed a faster way to make books

• Paper came first, printing later.
• 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 and smoother than animal skin, so more hand-copied books could be made.

• 1295: Marco Polo returned to Italy from China. He brought back knowledge of woodblock printing (a whole page carved into one wooden block, inked and pressed on paper). From Italy it spread across Europe.

• Demand for books grew faster than scribes could copy them.
• Universities were growing. Merchants and students wanted cheap books.
• One bookseller who exported books across Europe often employed more than 50 scribes (people who copied books by hand).

• Hand copying was slow, expensive and fragile. Manuscripts were hard to carry and easily damaged.

• By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were common. People used them to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures. The missing piece was a way to reuse single letters for many pages.

The man and the machine

• His background gave him two key skills.
• He grew up on an agricultural estate, so as a boy he saw wine presses and olive presses at work.

• He trained as a master goldsmith and was skilled at making moulds for casting lead.

• He joined two old skills to make one new machine.

• The olive press became the model for the printing press. It pressed paper hard onto the inked type.

• The goldsmith's moulds were used to cast metal types. Each type was a small metal block carrying one letter.

• He made types for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. The letters could be taken apart and set again for a new page. So it was called the moveable type machine.

• Output: 250 sheets an hour, printed on one side.
• Britannica lists his main technical solutions [3]:
• a metal alloy that melts easily and cools fast into hard, reusable type;
• an oil-based ink thick enough to stick to metal and print cleanly on paper or vellum;

• a press adapted from wine, oil or paper presses to give firm, even pressure.

• Words from the printing shop:

• Compositor: the worker who picks the metal types letter by letter and sets them in order.
• Galley: the metal frame or tray where the types are laid out to make up the text.
• Platen: the flat board pressed on the back of the sheet to push it onto the inked type. It was first made of wood and later of steel.

The first printed book: the Bible

• The first book Gutenberg printed was the Bible.
• About 180 copies were made in three years. No more than 50 survive today.
• It is also called the 42-line Bible, because most pages have two columns of 42 lines. It was made at Mainz, Germany, in 1454/1455, with his partner Johannes Fust. [2]
• It was the first large-format typographic book printed in Europe (a big book printed from type). Probably at least 120 copies were on paper and up to 40 on vellum. [2]
• Early printed books were made to look handwritten.
• Metal letters copied the shape of fancy handwritten letters.
• Borders were illuminated by hand, meaning painted with leaves and other designs.
• In copies for rich buyers, the printer left blank spaces for the buyer's own painter to decorate.
• So no two copies were exactly alike. The rich liked this, because a unique copy showed 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 out and started new presses.
• Book output grew very fast:
• second half of the fifteenth century: 20 million books;

• sixteenth century: about 200 million books, ten times more.

• This move 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 monastery libraries still wanted luxury handwritten copies on vellum (parchment made from animal skin). They scoffed at printed books as "cheap vulgarities".

Time, place and evidence

• Period: fifteenth century. Gutenberg lived from about 1400 to about 1468. [2]
• Places:
• Strasbourg: he developed the press here in the 1430s.

• Mainz, Germany: the 42-line Bible was printed here in 1454/1455. [2]

• Key people:

• Johann Gutenberg: inventor of the press.
• Johannes Fust: his partner for the Bible. [2]

• Marco Polo: brought knowledge of woodblock printing from China to Italy in 1295.

• How we know:

• Surviving Gutenberg Bibles (no more than 50) are direct evidence of his work.
• The Library of Congress copy is printed entirely on vellum. It is one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist. [2]
• The main source for exam use is NCERT Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World".

Don't confuse with

• Movable type in Korea: printing with movable type had already appeared in Korea in the fourteenth century. Gutenberg did not invent movable type itself. His achievement was the mechanised press system in Europe. [3]
• Woodblock printing (China; Marco Polo, 1295): a woodblock carves a whole page into one block. Gutenberg's metal types were single letters that could be rearranged and reused.
• Strasbourg vs Mainz: the press was developed at Strasbourg (1430s). The Bible was printed at Mainz (1454/55). [2]
• Vellum vs paper copies: vellum is animal-skin parchment, and elites preferred it for handwritten luxury books. The Gutenberg Bible was printed on both materials: probably at least 120 on paper and up to 40 on vellum. [2]

Prelims Hooks

• Gutenberg's press: developed at Strasbourg in the 1430s and perfected by 1448.
• Models for his press: the olive press for the printing press, and goldsmith's lead moulds for casting the types.
• Machine facts: types for 26 Roman letters; output of 250 sheets an hour on one side; the basic technology for the next 300 years.
• First printed book = the Bible (42-line Bible): printed at Mainz in 1454/55 with Johannes Fust. About 180 copies in three years; no more than 50 survive. [2]
• Chronological order: paper reaches Europe via the silk route (11th century) → Marco Polo brings woodblock printing (1295) → movable type in Korea (14th century) [3] → Gutenberg's press (1430s–1448) → Bible (1454/55) [2].
• Trap: "Gutenberg invented movable type." This is wrong. Movable type first appeared in Korea in the fourteenth century. [3]

Mains Points

• Invention by borrowing, not sudden genius. Gutenberg combined things already in use:
• the olive press for pressure;
• goldsmith's moulds for casting letters;
• woodblock inking for transferring ink;
• Chinese paper that came via the silk route.

Woodblock printing in China and movable type in Korea came earlier [3]. So his real contribution was a mechanised press with an alloy and ink system fit for mass production. This is a useful point against Europe-centred stories of who "invented printing".

• New technology first copies the old form. Early printed books copied manuscript lettering, hand-painted borders and blank decorative spaces.
• Elites valued the unique, non-uniform copy.
• Merchants and students created the market for the cheap, uniform copy.

• This shows how social class shapes how people accept a technology.

• A change in scale, not just speed. Output went from 20 million books in the later fifteenth century to about 200 million in the sixteenth. That is why 1450–1550 is called a revolution. Cheap books spread literacy and education [3]. This links forward to the Reformation, the rise of a reading public, and the later spread of print to India.

Related concepts

• Gutenberg press
• Print revolution

Read more

• Print comes to Europe: Gutenberg and the print revolution