Print comes to Europe: Gutenberg and the print revolution

Detail

How print technology travelled to Europe

• 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. It made scribal manuscripts (books copied by hand) possible in large numbers.

• So Europe got the raw material for books about 400 years before it got the press.

• 1295 — Marco Polo returns. The Italian explorer came back from many years in China and brought knowledge of woodblock printing (cutting a whole page of text or a picture into a wooden block, inking it, and pressing it on paper).

• From Italy the technology spread to the rest of Europe.

Why hand copying could not meet demand

• Luxury editions stayed handwritten on vellum. Vellum is parchment made from animal skin — costly and long-lasting.
• Aristocrats and monastic libraries (libraries in monasteries) wanted these.

• They scoffed at printed books as "cheap vulgarities" — they thought a machine-made book was low-class.

• Merchants and students bought the cheaper printed copies. Universities were growing, so demand for books rose fast.

• Booksellers hired armies of scribes. A single bookseller who exported books across Europe often employed more than 50 scribes.
• Still not enough. Hand copying was:
• slow — one man, one book, many months;
• expensive — wages of 50 scribes for a handful of books;

• fragile — handwritten manuscripts were awkward to carry and easily damaged.

• By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were already common in Europe — used to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures. The idea of pressing ink on a surface was familiar; what was missing was a way to reuse letters.

Gutenberg: the man and the machine

• Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press at Strasbourg in the 1430s and perfected it by 1448.
• His background made the invention possible:
• He grew up on an agricultural estate, so from boyhood he had seen wine presses and olive presses at work.

• He was a trained master goldsmith, expert in making moulds for casting lead.

• Two old skills, one new machine:

• the olive press became the model for the printing press — it squeezes the paper on to the inked type just as it squeezed olives;

• the goldsmith's moulds cast the metal types — small metal blocks, each carrying one letter.

• He made types for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. Because the letters could be taken apart and rearranged for a new page, this is called the moveable type machine.

• Output: 250 sheets an hour, printed on one side.
• This remained the basic print technology for the next 300 years.
• Britannica lists his key technical solutions as: 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; and a press adapted from wine, oil or paper presses to give firm, even pressure. [3]
• Important caution: Gutenberg did not invent movable type itself — printing with movable type had already appeared in Korea in the fourteenth century. Gutenberg's achievement was the mechanised press system in Europe. [3]

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 are printed in double 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. Of the run, probably at least 120 copies on paper and up to 40 on vellum. [2]
• The Library of Congress copy is printed entirely on vellum and is one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist. [2]
• Gutenberg's dates are usually given as about 1400 to about 1468. [2]

Early printed books imitated handwritten ones

• New technology, old look. Printers copied the manuscript style so buyers would accept the books.
• Metal letters were cut to imitate ornamental handwritten letters.
• Borders were illuminated by hand — painted with foliage and other designs.

• In copies meant for rich buyers, the printer left blank space on the page; the buyer then paid a painter to decorate it as they liked.

• Result: no two copies were the same. The rich liked exactly this — uniqueness was a mark of status. Mechanical sameness was not yet admired.

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 everywhere.
• Book output exploded:
• second half of the fifteenth century — 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.

• Britannica notes the wider effect: for the first time Europe could make large numbers of books at low cost, so books reached a wide general audience and helped spread literacy and education. [3]

Key terms of the printing shop

• Platen — in the letterpress, the flat board pressed on the back of the sheet to push it against the inked type. In early presses it was made of wood; later it was made of steel.
• Compositor — the person who composes the text, that is, picks the metal types letter by letter and sets them in order for printing.
• Galley — the metal frame or tray in which the types are laid and the text is composed.

Prelims Hooks

• Chinese paper reached Europe in the eleventh century via the silk route.
• Marco Polo, in 1295, brought woodblock printing knowledge from China to Italy.
• Vellum = parchment made from animal skin; used for luxury handwritten editions.
• Booksellers exporting across Europe employed more than 50 scribes each.
• Johann Gutenberg built his press at Strasbourg in the 1430s, perfected by 1448.
• Olive press = model for the printing press; goldsmith's lead moulds = model for casting types.
• Types were made for the 26 Roman letters; the press printed 250 sheets an hour on one side.
• First printed book = the Bible; about 180 copies in three years, no more than 50 survive; also called the 42-line Bible, printed at Mainz in 1454/55 with partner Johannes Fust. [2]
• Moveable type remained the basic technology for the next 300 years.
• Output: 20 million books in the later fifteenth century; about 200 million in the sixteenth century.
• Printing with movable type first appeared in Korea in the fourteenth century, before Gutenberg. [3]

Mains Points

• Technology spreads by borrowing, not by sudden genius. Gutenberg's press was made of parts already in use — the olive press for pressure, goldsmith's moulds for casting, woodblock inking for transfer, Chinese paper for the surface. Useful for GS-I answers on how innovation builds on earlier trade contact (silk route, Marco Polo) rather than appearing from nothing.
• New technology first imitates the old form it replaces. Printed books copied manuscript ornament, hand-painted borders and blank decorative space. Elites valued the non-uniform copy; the market for the uniform, cheap copy came from merchants and students. A clean example of social class shaping how a technology is received.
• Scale change, not just speed change. 20 million books in fifty years, then 200 million in the next hundred — this is why 1450–1550 is called a revolution. Links forward to the Reformation, the reading public, and the eventual spread of print to India.
• Question of "who invented printing." Movable type existed in Korea in the fourteenth century and woodblock printing in China far earlier. [3] Gutenberg's contribution was the mechanised press and an alloy/ink system fit for mass production in Europe — a good point against Europe-centred accounts of technology.