Johannes Gutenberg and the Invention of the Printing Press
Between the 13th and 16th centuries we can see the rise of a print-dominated society; a society which moved away from the Church's monopoly of information that existed until that time. There were many social, economic and political changes. It was not because of the printing press that those changes were brought about, but perhaps they could have not happened so fast without the print.
Johann Gutenberg managed to bring together technologies known for centuries before him, adding the idea for movable metal type. This led to the mass production of books, being them more available to the general public. The invention of the printing press helped ideas spread quickly making things easier for the reform of the Church and the development of modern sciences.
INDEX
Introduction ...................................................................... 5
The life of Johannes Gutenberg .............................................. 7
The development of print technology .................................... 8
The invention .................................................................... 9
The printing press and the Church .................................................... 11
Gutenberg's Bible ............................................................. 12
The print and the developing of culture.................................. 13
Final comment ................................................................. 16
Bibliography .................................................................... 17
Introduction
"Renaissance" means "rebirth" in French and stands for the cultural, intellectual and economic changes that occu...
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(Frank Granger, Gutenberg--The Most Important Man of the Millennium <a href="http://teched.edtl.vt.edu/gcc/HTML/PrintingsPast/GutenbergBible.html">http://teched.edtl.vt.edu/gcc/HTML/PrintingsPast/GutenbergBible.html</a>), downloaded in September 2014.
<a href="http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/,">http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/,</a> downloaded in September 2014.
http:/www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story039, downloaded in September 2014.
http:/www.inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blJohannesGutenberg, downloaded in September 2014.
http:/www.historyguide.org/intellect/press, downloaded in September 2014.
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568362730/ref%3Ded%5Foe%5Fh/102-5739894-2995348,">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568362730/ref%3Ded%5Foe%5Fh/102-5739894-2995348,</a> downloaded in October 2014.
Books today are everywhere. We find them in many households, libraries and schools all around the globe. We find many different types of books; from stories to educational textbooks, we regard them today as sources of knowledge and amusement. But it wasn’t the case before 1455. That year, one of the greatest inventions in human history was revealed to the world; Gutenberg’s printing press. This press allowed printing in massive quantity, spreading books all around Europe and the rest of the world at a fast rate. The printing press had many positive consequences on society. At first, it standardized grammar and spelling, and then introduced the mass production of books. It finally inspired future printing technologies around the world.
(Hook) Throughout the history of man, there has been numerous achievements in human communication that have changed lives greatly. (Bridge) One of the milestones in communication was the printing press. (Background Info) In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany. By 1600, more than 200 million books had come off the presses. Therefore, an average person living in Europe at the time could own a book, such as a copy of the Bible. As the number of books being produced increased, the literacy rate increased as well. As a result, people started to read and explore topics such as science, religion, and geography. The printing press led to a major price drop in books, more knowledge learned, and many significant events in history, such as the Age of Exploration and the Reformation. (Thesis) I believe that the most crucial consequence of the printing press was the Age of Exploration.
The first printing press was created to make books (Mostly bibles in the day) cheaper and more accessible. At this time only nobles and scribes new how to read and write. In result of this press, written pieces became commonplace making the common people needing to know how to read and write. This literacy spread and spread as the printing press became more common and caused the majority of the world’s people to be as literate as it is today which helped to revolutionize the work
What does the word “renaissance” mean? It means “rebirth” or “revival” and the Renaissance was a period of change that began around 1350 to 1700. Before the Renaissance, there was the Middle Ages which people had little education and were more religious. Then, in the 1300s there was a movement called humanism which made people more educated and drew them into arts, literature, science, and medicine in the Renaissance. In the mid-1400s the printing press was made and gave humanism have even more momentum because more people could buy books. how did the Renaissance change man’s view of the world? The Renaissance changed a man’s view of the world in three ways: emphasis on individualism, emphasis on embracing this life(yolo), and emphasis on
The Reformation was full of war and inventions that many had never seen before, affecting the religious and social political systems in positive and negative ways. The first event in the Reformation was the Printing Press. The Printing Press enabled the circulation of the bible, starting the spread of Christianity and the Catholics. The Printing Press was created by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. Before the Printing Press the bible had to be printed by hand, which meant that the copies had to be written word for word. Because they had to be written word for word only the important people had them such as Popes and other religious leaders. Therefore everyone would gather together somewhere and listen to the one man with the bible preach the word. This limited some from learning the word because of the language barrier. At the time all the bibles printed where in the Latin language. So they had a translator and copies of the bible in many other languages. Technological advantages of the 15th century enabled the spread of the word all over Europe, serving as a catalyst for reform leaders of the 16th century.
The Renaissance can be considered an artistic period between the end of the Middle Age and the start of the Modern Age. The cultural movement touched every part of Europe but its origin and development are in Florence. This period is a synonym, a symbol of “change” in all the aspect of the humankind: it is the celebration of
The Renaissance (A Very Short Introduction) written by Jerry Brotton has been illustrated into six illustrations: A global Renaissance, The humanist script, Church and state, Brave new worlds, Science and philosophy and Rewriting the Renaissance. Since this book is a history book, it is quite tough to read. This book is all about the past history which is related to the Renaissance. Honestly, I do not even have clear understanding on what is called “Renaissance” until I read this book. On page 9, under the subtitle of “Where and when was the Renaissance?” I finally found the meaning of Renaissance: the revival of classical culture. This word is come from Italian word which is rinascita. Then, French historian, Jules Michelet had come out with the definition of Renaissance. He define Renaissance as decisive historical period in European culture that represented a crucial break with the Middle Ages, and which created a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world. He also promoted the Renaissance as representing a certain spirit or attitude, as much as referring to a specific historical period. But then, his Renaissance only took place on 16th century even though he had defined it from the previous century. There was also Jacob Burckhart, Swiss academic defined it as an Italian 15th-century phenomenon. By read it further, I found that these two persons read the vision of the Renaissance like a version of their own personal circumstances. Then again, there was also an Oxford-educated don, Walter Pater defined on this word. Similarly, in further reading, all these three thinkers had created 19th –century idea of the Renaissance as more of a spirit than a historical period.
The printing press allowed anything to be spread throughout the world with relative ease, and for cheap. Prior to the 1436 invention by Johannes Gutenberg, books were written BY HAND, by the priests and scholars of the time which meant knowledge was limited, and the spreading of news would take much longer. Without the printing press Martin Luther would never had been able to spread his ideals throughout the world. The printing press made it easier for males, and sometimes women to get educated, this still did
Ever wanted to find out what consequences the printing press had on exploration and reformation? Well, you can find out right here. To start off with, the printing press was invented in the 1450’s by Johannes Gutenberg. The idea was not new because in 600 CE the Chinese introduced woodblock printing. They even did a little experimenting with movable wooden blocks but with 50,000 characters it was impossible to carve. One of the reasons Gutenberg was so successful was that the alphabet at the time was much less than 50,000, which was much more realistic when carving. In about 1455 Gutenberg had about 180 bibles that were over 1800 pages long printed, by the year 1500 more than 20 million books had been printed, and by 1600 over 200 million books were in existence. The big question is though, which was the more important consequence of the printing press the reformation or exploration? Reformation was an important consequence of the printing press. However, an even more important consequence was exploration.
Gutenberg’s printing press was one of the most important inventions of the renaissance, as it has had a major impact on both the Renaissance and todays world of printing. The Gutenberg Press, impacted the renaissance by, making books and information easier and cheaper to reproduce and print, spreading more information easier and faster to vast audiences eager for new information, helping advance science and technology, and also by helping the economy grow stronger through creating new industries and the constant purchasing of books.
Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press enabled the mass production of newspapers and books throughout Europe. The “print media played a key role in the acquisition and development of skills that were valuable to merchants” (Dittmar, 1137). The printing press helped individuals obtain knowledge. Trade played a huge role in the spread of printing culture. “Transport costs in early modern Europe were sufficiently high that print media often spread through reprinting rather than intercity trade” (Dittmar, 1140). Through the printing press, it was cheaper to reprint which helped improve the
In 1476, William Caxton introduced England to the printing press. This significant introduction to one of the world’s greatest technological innovations, at the time, helped to increase the spread of literacy and knowledge amongst the British people as the mass production of books became cheaper and more commonly available. According to Mastin (2011), the first book ever printed, although Caxton’s own interpretation was ‘The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye’ in 1473. Furthermore, Mastin (2011) states that in the following 150 years after the introduction of printing, up to 20000 books were printed.
The printing press was invented in 1453. The movable printing technology was invented in China in 1040 but Johannes Gutenberg was able to perfect this technology by creating the Gutenberg printer in 1440. The printer was a movable type. A movable type was where individual blocks could be set up in order to print almost anything. Before this, wooden blocks, carved by hand were used to print things. These blocks would have consisted of what the individual wanted to print which would take an incredible amount of time. Gutenberg’s invention of a movable type printer established the ability for mass communication.
An example of technology is the printing press. The printing press was invented and perfected by Johannes Gutenberg (Printing Press Invention Led to Revolution in the Arts). “The Gutenberg printing press revolutionized book production and helped to foster the development of arts, sciences and religion” (Printing Press Invention Led to Revolution in the Arts). The printing press forever changed how books and papers were made. The Bible was the first thing to be mass produced in volume (Printing Press Invention Led to Revolution in the Arts). Since the Bible was produced in large quantities it was now available for the public. This created the time of the printing
During 1448 a German inventor named Johann Gutenberg changed the world. With many different strategies that he overcame and ways that he could spread his creation, he did it so that the whole nation could experience his brilliant invention. Although, there were many achievements throughout the world that deeply impacted many things that we still use today, the most important achievement throughout technology is the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. It helped spread the sprouting of religion, books and as well as influencing the public’s opinion throughout articles and newspapers.