Johannes Gutenburg's Influence

As André Gide once said, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” During the mid-1400s in Europe, German inventor Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press, a machine that revolutionized the way ideas spread. The printing press quickened the production of books, speeding up the spread of information from one place to another; it also educated people in the areas of reading and writing. However, the two main consequences of the printing press were the Exploration and the Protestant Reformation. Although the Reformation was substantially impacted by the printing press, exploration was a greater consequence of the printing press because it sparked interest in exploration in the European citizens,

The exploration of the printing press originally came from the Chinese. The Chinese were the ones to first invent the woodblock printing process and even tried to experiment with movable wood types. According to the (Background Essay) it claims “with 50,000 characters, carving each character was impossible.” The English language only had 26 letters, but that still did not make the written communication easy. A small book would take months to complete and a book the size of the Bible took years. In 1455 Gutenberg was

    The printing press inspired the most change in society between the 1300’s and 1700’s when it helped spread religion, scientific ideas, and literature. Before Johannes Gutenberg's great invention in 1456, books and documents had to be hand written. Printing 600 pages a day seemed like the impossible. In 1456 there was 1 printing press, then by 1500 there were 250. If it wasn't for the printing press everything would've stayed in slow motion.

After the Reformation, a significant amount of social changes came to light. Nevertheless, this time in history, as shown in Document 3, wouldn’t have reached the success that it did without the printing press. This was a machine that Johannes Gutenberg invented in order to spread information quickly and accurately. Martin Luther’s message was able to be easily spread throughout Europe now. And, with people having the ability to access the Bible on their own, not only was the population of Europe able to study Scripture without a priest, but also, the literacy rate in Europe dramatically increased.

In the beginning of the 1400s, books were all handwritten, and only institutions like churches had them. This made the chance for leaders that had access to books to change or censor some of the vital information withheld in them. However, in 1455, Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press, a machine that made it much easier to spread books and thus, ideas. This changed the entire course of history, making it possible for people to spread these ideas and discover truth for themselves. There are many specific instances of it, but it is hard to see the whole picture. The printing press, one of the most revolutionary inventions in human history, was an integral part of the Reformation during the 1400’s through the 1600’s.

It took sometimes years to complete one copy. The image in document B shows how the process is very long. The printing press changed it all because it can copy and get out more books then any monk could provide in a year. As stated in document G, “quick reproduction and widespread dissemination of religious and classical texts and ideas” were made possible because of the press. The Bible was now quickly accessible to all people.

To recap, the printing press was a phenomenal and a unique apparatus. It was constructed by a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg. The printing press made the lives of everyone simple, it was used for printing things. It was a big advancement during this time period. It was auspicious and many famous people used it such as Martin Luther. Martin Luther used it because he was disappointed with his church because they were selling indulgences. The printing press made it possible for Luther to copy 95 theses and nail them in the front door. The 95 these were known all through out, this would be impossible without the printing press to make the 95 Theses known “throughout Germany in two weeks and throughout Europe in a month.”. Although one of the consequences of the printing press was exploration, reformation was the most important because the printing press made people more literate and created new believes. They had a better understanding of the Bible and were able to tell if the pope was lying to them or not. This is why the most important consequence of the printing press was

Once the printing press printed the German Bibles, many people could read it for themselves. This created big changes in the Christian church, and all it took was one man's

In the early fourteen hundreds people adopted wood-block printing and engraving, which was an easier way to copy words down. A man named Johannes Gutenberg was not only a metal smith but a businessman as well. In 1438 he began experimenting with a metal movable type and got funds from two wealthy businessmen. In 1455 after completion of several working printers, the first copies of the bible were made. This increased literature and decreased the price of books.

Created by Johannes Gutenberg, The Gutenberg Bible was the first mass produced book through the use of a moveable printer. Known for its artistic Latin writing, the Bible only has forty-nine copies remaining, one residing at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The Gutenberg Bible exhibits religious qualities from the message, directly from God, and the original purpose of the creation of the Bible.

Ever since I was born I have been attending church. At this young age they teach you everything about the main stories or the main points of the Bible. At my church I learned stories from Noah’s ark to the story of Adam and Eve eating the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I learned about who was the narrator of the Bible and who created our earth. I never knew who were the people that printed out the pages or chose a specific font for the Bible. I didn’t have the background knowledge of what country or if it were the Romans that actually created the Bible. In this world there has been several theories that the Romans were the ones that wrote it or it was the English that wrote it and printed it out. After reading the book “How we got the Bible” by Neil R. Lightfoot, it gave me the right knowledge and understanding of who wrote the wonderful collection of books. Understanding how we got the Bible means that we have to know how it was written, on what it was written and who wrote it.

Johannes Gutenberg is best known for his invention of the printing press, otherwise known as the Gutenberg Press, an innovative printing machine, which uses movable type. Gutenberg was a goldsmith and business from the mining town of Mainz, Southern Germany. He was born between 1394 and 1400, in Mainz, Germany to the Gensfleisch aristocrat family. As a teenager Gutenberg worked in a mint, where he gained experience in metalwork. He realised that if he could use cut blocks with his machine, he could make the printing process a lot faster.

Johannes Gutenberg invented the first movable-printing press in the fifteenth century. The printing press affected Europe’s political, cultural, economic, and social development in the centuries that followed. According to Reader, “The eighteenth century saw a rapid expansion in the publication of books, periodicals, and pamphlets, which allowed wide dissemination of these new ideas, and with that, the early stages of public opinion” (24). The availability of paper and spreading of books, allowed various classes of people, many of whom had not previously been exposed to books, to read and interpret different ideas and publication. Access to different points of views caused tension between those in power and the lower classes. One specific example was the access to the Bible, which led to the lower classes questioning the foundations of the Church. In addition, the spread of ideas and power to publish their individual thoughts led to Enlightenment thinking and increased individualism. The idea that people should learn from their own experiences and learn to challenge what they are taught and search for real facts, made living in Europe with an educated, self-governing public possible.

That allowed the books to be created easily than the difficult process and earlier method of transcribing by hand. However, it took Gutenberg a great time of funding deal to support his invention that later resulted in political feuds. For some time, the the wooden blocks weren't distinct, precise or accurate enough, Gutenberg decided to move on and began to work with metal type instead. In order to transfer the first impression, from the wooden forme, he invented his own type of thick ink, created out of soot, walnut oil and turpentine. It allowed the ink to transfer constantly between the paper and the forme. His notable work in his day job as a printer was his copy of the Bible, which was forty two lines of text into two columns on each page and included of two volumes that resulted of 1, 282 pages, which it took him and the staff three years to complete, from 1452 to 1455. Not only the Bible's publication allowed communication, but also it boosted the information, concepts and ideas, In the later centuries, various printers and typographers emerged to improve the letterpress printing method, which later they birthed lithography, offset printing

By comparing the watermarks from The Gutenberg Bible with the 36-line Bible, which was long believed to be the oldest book made with moveable type, Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko was able to conclude that in fact, the Gutenberg Bible was the older of the two bibles (McCarthy). Each copy of The Gutenberg Bible required about 50,000 sheets of paper, with about 1286 of those sheets in each completed book. It took about three to five years to complete the printing, and it completed in 1454 or 1455. Figure 3 holds an example of what a spread from The Gutenberg Bible looks like. This particular photo is taken from the copy at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas ("The Gutenberg Bible").