My process
Since I couldn’t find much by looking through the catalogue of my public library, I decided that a visit was in order. As I perused the shelves and found a few more books on the printing revolution, I also realized that much of the information was in books about the Renaissance and the Reformation. Both of these movements were spurred along by the invention of printing.
I have now figured out how to imbed a photo in my blog text, and also how to put in youtube videos.
Image - Gutenberg press in action
I had an interesting revelation that there are moments in history where knowledge and thus civilization takes a giant leap forward. The first moment was the creation of language, the next was the devising of symbols to communicate across space and time, with the ability to archive information. The next quantum leap was the invention by the Phoenicians and the completion by the Greeks (by adding vowels) of the alphabet, when words could be written as they sounded, not as a symbol, which had kept writing somewhat secret and elite. The next leap forward came with the invention of the printing press. The invention of the computer, and more importantly the personal computer propelled us into a 'brave new world' of technology for all. Just think that in 1990, we had fax machines and photocopiers and that’s about it. To think that 23 years later none of us can conceive of living without a computer is an astounding leap in the technological advancement of communication.
The story continues…
Gutenberg didn’t even manage to pay the interest on his loans from Johann Fust, and Fust took Gutenberg to court virtually on the eve of Gutenberg turning a profit on his Bibles. They were already in print and the printing presses were rolling daily to produce more. Fust was awarded the workshop and contents of the building that housed the Gutenberg Bible presses etc. It was Fust who ended up distributing the Bibles, while Gutenberg retained his first printing business. Fust’s adopted son, Peter Schofer, confused history for a while claiming his father had invented the movable type printing press.
The Catholic church and townspeople of Mainz had a small war in 1462, one of the first rebellions against the authority of the church to impose their law on the Germanic people, and Gutenberg along with many others of the town were thrown out, losing their properties to those who had backed the Pope and local archbishop. Gutenberg moved to Eltville and kept printing. The ousting of the citizens of Mainz had the effect of scattering those printers to other towns who started printing presses where they landed, spreading the craft far and wide.
Statistics tell the incredible story. In 1450 all of Europe had approximately 100,000 books. By 1500 it had 9 million. By 1480, only 30 years after Gutenberg still was sweating over his new invention, it was Venice which was the leading printing town of Europe, with as many printing presses as Germany. Anecdotally, Italian printers were now training Germans in the art!
Also around this time, in 1453, the Turks invaded and took over the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, leading to a migration en masse of Greek scholars, who brought the Greek classics to Venice (the city state).
An enterprising printer Aldus Manitius seized on the entrepreneurial goldmine of making Greek letters and printing the Greek classics. His work was of a high standard. Aristotle in five volumes was the first to be printed in 1495-98. The translation of the Greek Bible did not exactly match the western European text. This thirst for knowledge and understanding, now that the set knowledge of the middle ages had been turned upside down, created the expansion of the Renaissance which historians consider began with the fall of Constantinople.
In 1471, Jensen, who was a French ‘spy’ sent to Germany to find out about the new invention, stayed on to perfect his knowledge of printing, and later moved to Italy. He created the typeface of the Roman lettering in the first printing of the Bible in Italian. The clarity of this form of the alphabet made reading much easier than the German Gothic style which followed the lines of the written script of the times in Germany.
This period up to 1500 was known as the Incunabula, the ‘incubation period’ of the development of printing. The details of this story gives an idea of the sophistication of the society of the time, and their high level of knowledge and metal skills, and their intelligence and curiosity about their world.
Printing presses multiplied across Europe, bringing knowledge to anyone who could read. William Caxton printed books in English in the 1470’s, standardizing the language as never before, and brought ancient classics and English literature to the people of England, the tip of the vernacular iceberg sweeping across the continent, irrevocably altering society.
To be continued…….
Resources
Gibb, C 1986, Spotlight on The Reformation, Spotlight on history series, Wayland, Hove, England.
Johnson, E D 1970, History of libraries in the Western world, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey.
Mullins, L 2007, Inventing the printing press, Breakthrough inventions series, Crabtree, Melbourne.
