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- When was the printing press invented?
- bi sheng
- wang chen
- johannes gutenberg
- gutenberg press
- gutenberg bible
- gutenberg’s last years
- peter schoffer
- printing spreads across europe
- printing changes the world
- sources
The printing press is a device that allows the mass production of uniform printed material, mainly text in the form of books, brochures and newspapers. Created in China, the printing press revolutionized society there before being further developed in Europe in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the Gutenberg printing press.
when was the printing press invented?
No one knows when the first printing press was invented or who invented it, but the oldest known printed text originated in China during the first millennium AD
You are reading: When were books first printed
The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist book from Dunhuang, China, circa 868 AD. During the Tang dynasty, it is said to be the oldest known printed book.
The Diamond Sutra was created using a method known as block printing, which used hand-carved wooden block panels turned upside down.
Some other Dunhuang texts have also survived, including a printed calendar from around AD 877, mathematical tables, a vocabulary guide, etiquette instructions, funeral and wedding guides, children’s educational material, dictionaries and almanacs.
It was during this period of early printing that the rolled scrolls began to be replaced by texts in book format. Woodblock printing was also used in Japan and Korea at the time, and metalblock printing was also developed sometime during that period, usually for Buddhist and Taoist texts.
read more: 7 ways printing changed the world
bi sheng
bi sheng, of yingshan, hubei, china, who lived from about a.d. 970 to 1051, developed movable type, which replaced the panels of printing blocks with individual movable letters that could be reused.
The first movable type was carved from clay and fired into hard blocks which were then set in an iron frame that was pressed against an iron plate.
The first mention of the Bi Sheng printing press is found in the book Dream Pool Essays, written in 1086 by the scientist Shen Kuo, who noted that his nephews came into possession of the Bi Sheng typefaces after his death.
shen kuo explained that bi sheng did not use wood because the texture is inconsistent and absorbs moisture too easily, and also has the problem of ink sticking. the fired clay was better cleaned for reuse.
at the time of the Southern Song dynasty, which ruled from 1127 to 1279 AD. By c., books had become predominant in society and helped create a class of learned citizens who had the ability to become civil servants. massive collections of printed books also became a status symbol for the wealthy class.
wang chen
woodblock type reappeared in 1297 when Ching-te magistrate Wang Chen printed a treatise on agriculture and agricultural practices called nung shu.
wang chen devised a process to make wood more durable and precise. then he created a turntable for typographers to organize themselves more efficiently, which led to faster printing speeds.
nung shu is considered the world’s first mass-produced book. It was exported to Europe and coincidentally documented many Chinese inventions that have traditionally been attributed to Europeans.
printers in china continued to use wang chen’s method of woodblock types.
johannes gutenberg
in europe, the printing press did not appear until 150 years after wang chen’s innovation. Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later, and by 1450, he had a printing machine perfected and ready for commercial use: the gutenberg press.
gutenberg press
An integral part of Gutenberg’s design was to replace wood with metal and printing blocks with each letter, creating the European version of movable type.
In order to make type available in large quantities and at different stages of printing, Gutenberg applied the concept of replica casting, which saw letters created backwards in brass and then replicas made from these molds by pouring molten lead.
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Researchers have speculated that Gutenberg actually used a sand casting system that uses carved sand to create the metal molds. the letters were designed to fit together evenly to create level lines of letters and consistent columns in flat media.
Gutenberg’s process would not have worked as well as it did if he hadn’t made his own ink, designed to adhere to metal rather than wood. Gutenberg was also able to perfect a method of flattening printing paper for his use by using a wine press, traditionally used to press grapes for wine and olives for oil, adapted to his printing press design. p>
gutenberg bible
Gutenberg borrowed money from Johannes Fust to finance his project, and in 1452, Fust joined Gutenberg as a partner in creating books. they dedicated themselves to printing calendars, brochures and other ephemeral items.
In 1452, Gutenberg produced the only book to come out of his shop: a bible. It is estimated that he printed 180 copies of the 1,300-page Gutenberg Bible, up to 60 of them on vellum. each page of the bible contained 42 lines of text in gothic font, with double columns and with some letters in color.
for the bible, gutenberg used 300 separate molded alphabet blocks and 50,000 sheets of paper. many fragments of the books survive. There are 21 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible and four complete copies of the vellum version.
gutenberg’s last years
In 1455, it was seized for the first time in Gutenberg. In a subsequent lawsuit, the entire Gutenberg team went to Fust and Peter Schoffer of Gernsheim, Germany, a former calligrapher.
It is believed that Gutenberg continued to print, probably producing an edition of the Catholicon, a Latin dictionary, in 1460. But Gutenberg stopped printing after 1460, possibly due to poor eyesight. he died in 1468.
peter schoffer
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Schoffer made use of Gutenberg’s press as soon as he acquired it, and is considered technically a better printer and typesetter than Gutenberg. Two years after seizing Gutenberg’s printing press, he produced an acclaimed version of the Book of Psalms that featured a three-color title page and different fonts within the book.
A notable detail of this edition is the inclusion of a colophon for the first time in history. A colophon is the section of a book that details publication information. it is known that ten copies of this edition of the book of psalms still exist.
printing spreads across europe
The spread of printing as a craft benefited from workers in Germany who had assisted Gutenberg in his early printing experiments and later became printers who taught the craft to others.
After Germany, Italy became the next recipient of Gutenberg’s invention when the printing press was brought to the country in 1465. By 1470, Italian printers began to do a successful trade in printed matter.
German printers were invited to set up printing presses at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1470, and the librarian chose the books to be printed, mostly textbooks, for the students. In 1476, other German printers moved to Paris and established private companies.
Spain welcomed German printers in 1473 in Valencia, spreading to Barcelona in 1475. In 1495, Portugal invited printers to Lisbon.
Gutenberg’s invention was brought to England in 1476 by William Caxton, an Englishman who had lived in Bruges, Belgium, for years. Caxton went to Cologne to learn printing in 1471 in order to set up a printing press in Bruges and publish his own translations of various works.
After returning to England, he set up a printing press at Westminster Abbey, where he worked as a printer for the monarchy until his death in 1491.
printing changes the world
The worldwide expansion of the printing press meant a greater distribution of ideas that threatened the iron power structures of Europe.
In 1501, Pope Alexander VI promised the excommunication of anyone who printed manuscripts without church approval. Twenty years later, the books of John Calvin and Martin Luther spread, making what Alexander had feared come true.
Furthering this threat, Copernicus published his on the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, which was seen as heresy by the church.
around 1605, the first official newspaper, the relation, was printed and distributed in strasbourg. Newspapers appeared across Europe, formalizing the contribution of printing to the growth of literacy, education, and the wide-ranging availability of uniform information to ordinary people.
sources
the invention of the printing press. Theodore Low de Vinne. 500 years of printing. s.h. steinberg. misprint: an irreverent history of books. rebeca romney science and civilization in china: volume 5, chemistry and chemical technology, paper and printing. joseph needham, tsien tsuen-hsuin. cambridge illustrated chinese history Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
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