Johannes Gutenberg and the European Printing Press

Introduction to Johannes Gutenberg
Books created before the invention of the European Printing press were created by scriveners and scribes who had to copy each individual word from a source book in order to make another copy. This method of producing copies of books took an extraordinarily long time and thus restricted access to any book as only small amounts could be manufactured due to the lengthy and difficult process of copying.To understand the effect the creation of ideas and their spread throughout societies through the medium of books, one must first understand the history and impact the creation of the European press by Johannes Gutenberg.

Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gutenberg (14th century - 1468) was born in Mainz, Germany to an upper class family of cloth makers. It is believed that Gutenberg’s main inspiration to create the printing press was because he had a hobby of carving letters made of wood in his childhood. When Gutenberg became an adult, he traveled to another German city, Strasburg, in search of a trade to master. As time passed in Strasburg, he became desperately poor as he did not learn or join a profession. However, it is during his time in Strasburg where he started to develop his invention of the printing press. With no resources to fund the production of his invention, he returned to his home city of Mainz and met Johann Frist, a banker, who invested in the creation of Gutenberg’s press. After the invention of Gutenberg’s European printing press in the early 1450’s, Gutenberg’s creation surprisingly did not bring him much fame or success as Fist forced Gutenberg out of his own workshop to continue printing with Gutenberg’s printing press invention without him. Gutenberg died in poverty and did not experience success or fame in his lifetime.

The European Printing Press
Gutenberg and his apprentice and later successor, Peter Schöffer, first printed Gutenberg’s version of the Bible. This copy was renowned for its highly artistic and aesthetically pleasing production. Although this most likely was one of the first books printed using the European press, it is speculated that roughly 180 copies were produced. Furthermore, due to its highly artistic value, a paper copy was priced at 20 gulden and a vellum copy at 50, far beyond the price range of anyone who wasn’t upper class or royalty. After Gutenberg’s passing, his apprentice Schöffer and another printing apprentice, Johannes Mentelin of Strasburg, started printing copies of classical works such as the classical Greek texts of Cicero and Virgil. This production of old literary works popularized the abilities of the printing press and soon a new social class emerged: the merchant publisher. This class was imposed of people who were already upper class who became book printers and gained massive success due to the extremely high interest in books. Merchant publishers established their printing shops near trade towns such as London and Nuremberg, thus giving more popularity and availability to printed books. At first, it was difficult for new authors before the Mid 1500’s to get their books published as there was a larger market for printing classical books than there was for newer authors. Eventually, books published after the beginning of the 17th century began to be printed after their publication as printing presses increased and demand for classical texts declined.