Books Before and After Johannes Gutenberg

1

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Mainz, Germany, in 1440. With the printing press, multiple copies of books could be produced efficiently and with consistent quality. Before Gutenberg’s invention, there were perhaps 30,000 books in all of Europe. Fifty years later, there were as many as 10 to 12 million.

Books Before the Printing Press

2

To understand how Gutenberg’s invention revolutionized European culture, it is “illuminating” to understand how books were made before the printing press. Intellectual and cultural life in Medieval Europe was limited, for the most part, to religious communities called monasteries. Large monasteries had rooms called scriptoria where monks copied manuscripts—all by hand. A scribe prepared each page by outlining the margins and drawing a straight line for each line of text. Then the scribe wrote with a goose quill dipped in ink. After the scribe was finished, a person called a rubicator checked for errors and added the titles and large initial letters. Finally, a person called an illuminator added the illustrations and other artwork. This time-consuming process was used for each page of every book before the printing press was invented.

The Invention That Changed Books

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The invention of the printing press is really the invention of three things: movable type, ink, and the press itself. Movable type consists of small pieces of metal with raised letters, which can be arranged and re-arranged to form words. Once the movable type is arranged, the page can be printed over and over again. Printing also requires ink. The scribe’s ink was water based and did not stick to the type. Gutenberg had to invent ink that was thicker and stuck to the type. Finally, the actual printing press was an adaptation of a wine press. Gutenberg was likely familiar with the wine press because he grew up in a winemaking region of Germany.

Books After the Printing Press

4

In 1452 and 1453, Gutenberg published the Gutenberg Bible, his first major project. It looked like a handwritten bible, but it differed in that each page had 42 regularly spaced lines of text, and there were no variations from copy to copy. This made reading the book much easier. One hundred and eighty copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed. Only 21 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible exist today.



5

For the 350 years that followed the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the printing process remained much the same. But significant changes took place in the intellectual and cultural life of society.

6

Gutenberg’s invention is, in fact, often described as the beginning of the information age. As the number of books increased, the types of books increased as well. In Medieval times, books were about religious topics only; the printing press enabled the printing of the so-called lost works of classical Greece and Rome. This renewed interest in the ancient world contributed to the rise of the Renaissance.

7

More than 240 printing shops had been established throughout Europe by the beginning of the sixteenth century. The spread of the printing press made it possible for more and more people to read books. Books began to be written in local languages, not just in Latin. This decline in the use of Latin for written communication both strengthened local languages and improved the educational opportunities for a wider range of society.

The Books of Today

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Although virtual books are replacing more and more printed books, the influence of Gutenberg’s invention is still felt today. When we read a book, whether printed or electronic, we expect the consistency first established with the Gutenberg Bible. We expect that books are widely available, and not the domain of a privileged few. Gutenberg’s invention is so important that the first major effort to put all books online bears his name: “Project Gutenberg.”





(From "Books Before and After Johannes Gutenberg, Illuminate)

Question: What can we learn from the text about how medieval books were related to the process in which they were made?

Responses

Monks in monasteries made the books, so they were usually about religion.
Monks in monasteries made the books, so they were usually about religion.

The books had hand-drawn pictures, so they were mostly about things that could be shown in pictures.
The books had hand-drawn pictures, so they were mostly about things that could be shown in pictures.

Because the books were in Latin, they talked about things that interested Romans.
Because the books were in Latin, they talked about things that interested Romans.

Scribes copied each book by hand, so they were about things that could be explained shortly.