Everything can be traced to this source. The universal acclaim is, in fact, not so universal—and Gutenberg himself is a , but not the , source of printing. Rather, key innovations in what would become revolutionary printing technology began in east Asia, with work done by Chinese nobles, Korean Buddhists, and the descendants of Genghis Khan—and, in a truth Davis acknowledges briefly, their work began several centuries before Johannes Gutenberg was even born.
In a traditional printing press, small metal pieces with raised backwards letters, known as movable type, are arranged in a frame, coated with ink, and applied to a piece of paper. Do this many times, and swiftly printed, mass-produced books appear. The printing press is often said to have been created by Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, around AD, and it began taking root in Europe in the s with the printing of the aforementioned Bible.
Books themselves had been present in Europe long before then, of course, but only in hand-copied volumes that were accessible mainly to members of the clergy. Access to mass-produced books revolutionized Europe in the late s, with advancing literacy altering religion, politics, and lifestyles worldwide. At least, this is how the story is rendered in most books, including, for the most part, The Lost Gutenberg. The first overtures towards printing that began around roughly AD, in China, where early printing techniques involving chiseling an entire page of text into a wood block backwards, applying ink, and printing pages by pressing them against the block.
Around AD, printers in Zhejiang, China, produced a print of a vast Buddhist canon called the Tripitaka with these carved woodblocks, using , blocks one for each page. Later efforts would create early movable type—including the successful but inefficient use of ideograms chiseled in wood and a brief, abortive effort to create ceramic characters.
Meanwhile, imperial imports from China brought these innovations to Korean rulers called the Goryeo the people for whom Korea is now named , who were crucial to the next steps in printing history. Their part of the story is heavy with innovation in the face of invasion.
First, in AD, a group of nomads called the Khitans attempted to invade the Korean peninsula. This prompted the Goryeo government to create its own Tripitaka with woodblock printing, perhaps with the aim of preserving Korean Buddhist identity against invaders.
The attempt would be prescient; it preserved the concept and technique for later years, when more invaders eventually arrived. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan had created the largest empire in human history, which stretched from the Pacific coast of Asia west to Persia.
As part of their conquering, they burned the Korean copy of the Tripitaka to ash. The Goryeo dynasty immediately recreated the book. This was important; attacks by Mongols would continue for the next 28 years.
The Tripitaka reboot was scheduled to take Korean monks until AD to complete, and, meanwhile, the rulers began expanding into printing other books. It was commissioned by a man named Wang Jie to honor his parents, according to an inscription on the scroll, though little else is known about who Wang was or who created the scroll. Today, it is in the collection of the British Museum in London.
By CE, Chinese printers regularly were using carved wooden blocks to print scrolls. But these wooden blocks wore out quickly, and a new block had to be carved for each character, word, or image that was used.
The next revolution in printing occurred in when Chinese printers began using movable type, individual characters made of clay that could be chained together to form words and sentences. According to some historians, Gutenberg continued to work with Fust, while other scholars say Fust drove Gutenberg out of business. After , he seems to have abandoned printing entirely, perhaps as a result of blindness.
In January , Adolf von Nassau-Wiesbaden, the archbishop of Mainz, recognized Gutenberg's achievements by granting him the title of Hofmann—a gentleman of the court. The honor provided Gutenberg an ongoing monetary stipend and fine clothing, as well as 2, liters gallons of grain and 2, liters gallons of wine tax-free. Gutenberg died on February 3, , in Mainz. With little notice or acknowledgment of his contributions, he was buried in the cemetery of the Franciscan church at Mainz.
Many statues of Gutenberg can be found in Germany, including the famed statue by Dutch sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen at Gutenbergplatz in Mainz. In addition, Mainz is home to Johannes Gutenberg University and the Gutenberg Museum on the history of early printing. The largely unrestricted spread of information sharply increased literacy throughout Europe, breaking the virtual monopoly the learned elite and religious clergy had held over education and learning for centuries.
Bolstered by a new level of cultural self-awareness brought on by its increasing literacy, people of the emerging European middle class began using their own more easily understood vernacular languages rather than Latin as their commonly spoken and written language.
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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Table of Contents Expand. Early Life. He tested his moveable type machine by printing a Latin book on speech-making in When this endeavor was successful, he embarked on his most famous project, the printing of "The Gutenberg Bibles. The bibles, printed in Latin, gained fame as the first books ever printed in Europe and the first bibles printed in history.
Two hundred copies were made, each complete with beautiful illustrations and vibrant colors. Characters and illustrations were later hand-illuminated. Today, only 22 of the original Gutenberg bibles are known to be in existence. This was the result of a deal made between the two men, necessitated by debts that Gutenberg owed to Fust.
Gutenberg died in approximately in Mainz. It should be noted that others in history claim to have come up with the idea of movable type earlier than Gutenberg did, including a Dutchman and a Chinese inventor. A system similar to his is said to have also been used in the 12th century in Korea.
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