Printing press

Start here · 1 min read

Overview

The printing press with movable metal type was developed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, around 1450. It let a workshop produce many identical copies of a text far faster and more cheaply than hand copying. Within a few decades printed books, pamphlets and broadsheets circulated across Europe. The press matters because it changed who could own books, how quickly arguments spread, and how knowledge was checked and shared. Its effects on religion, science and schooling are still studied and still argued over.

Context

Before printing, books in Europe were copied by hand, mostly in monasteries and, later, in urban copying shops. Books were expensive and rare. Printing from carved woodblocks existed in China long before, and movable type had been tried in China and Korea. Gutenberg combined several pieces: metal type cast from a mould, oil-based ink and a press adapted from screw presses used for wine and paper.