Johannes Gutenberg Great +++ Grandfather of Publishing

Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type printing press made him the great +++ grandfather of publishing and our modern Western societies possible.

Before 1440, fewer than 30% of adults were literate. The written word was produced by the few for the few. The ruling elite – the church and the nobility – tightly controlled ideas, information and knowledge were. Books were rare, as they had to be handwritten by scribes (frequently monks). As of 1424, one of the largest European libraries at Cambridge University had only 122 books. Although the first paper mills were established in Europe in the 12^th century, books were still written on parchment. The parchment was made from animal skins after a long, laborious, and expensive process. Books no longer relevant were recycled. The old text was scraped off and replaced with new writing, producing what are called palimpsests.

A Quantum Leap for Sharing Ideas

This all changed when Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was born to a patrician family in Mainz, Germany c. 1400. Little is known about his early years except that he was trained in metalwork. He left Mainz due to a dispute between the patricians and the guilds and ended up in Strasbourg. He stayed there from 1434 to 1444, engaging in gem cutting, and teaching crafts to a number of pupils.

By this time, the inventor-craftsman was well along in the development of a printing press with several unique elements. These including a metal alloy that melted and cooled quickly to form durable reusable type and an oil-based ink thick enough to cling to metal type and transfer well to vellum or paper. He devised a new press, adapting those used in producing wine, oil, or paper, to apply firm, even pressure to printing surfaces. None of these features existed in Chinese or Korean printing, in the European technique used to date for stamping letters on various surfaces, or in woodblock printing.

Gutenberg was a perfectionist, and it wasn’t until 1455 that he released the first major publication from his press, the Forty-Two Line Bible. The three-volume work was printed in 42-line columns of Latin text. It is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible because the first copy described by bibliographers was located in the Paris library of Cardinal Mazarin. In its later stages of production, the Bible worked on by six compositors simultaneously.

Launching a Cultural Revolution

What at first seemed to be an easy way to reproduce Bibles, other religious tomes, and the odd book of verse, soon revolutionized the world. Ideas, information, and knowledge could no longer be tightly centralized by the ruling and clerical classes. Now anyone of even modest means could approach a printer and have their ideas reproduced. 

Fun Fact: While the first use of the printing press was to produce the Holy Bible, almost immediately after it was used to produce pamphlets about the dangers of witches (aka conspiracy theories).

By the end of the 15^th century, there were printing presses in 270 cities across Europe. New voices were being heard and they couldn’t be easily silenced by the authorities. In 1517, Martin Luther published his “95 Theses” lambasting the Catholic Church and spearheading the Reformation. The Catholic Church could no longer stop the flow of Luther’s ideas by silencing Luther. He produced and distributed hundreds of copies of his treaty. This rocked the foundations of the Church and led to over a century of bloodshed across the continent. Kings separated from the Church and dissenters sought religious freedom in the New World.

Fun Fact: In 1440 the first etiquette book was published – The Boke of Curtasye.

The Printing Press and the Age of Enlightenment.

The printing press wasn’t finished. In the 17^th century new ideas were being disseminated. The scientific method, reason over faith, logic over belief. The ease of publishing and distribution throughout an increasingly literate population allowed the Enlightenment to flourish. Ideas about the inalienable rights of man, the rule of law, equality, and democracy would take hold. The first newspapers were distributed throughout the merchant classes emerged around the same time. This group of publishers allied with the new Enlightenment ideas. They helped coordinate social movements in the 17th and 18th centuries that led to democratic revolutions in France and America. The ease with which business and trade information could be distributed underpinned the great colonial empires. The spread of ideas, information and knowledge continues to grow, linked now in the intricate web of the Internet.

Gutenberg died c. February 3, 1468 but his legacy lives on today in the power of the written word and the voice he has given to us all.