Books before print
Before the mid-1400s, European books were copied by hand. Monastery scribes and, later, professional copyists in towns produced them slowly, on parchment (animal skin) or increasingly on paper. A book could take months to copy and cost a great deal, so libraries were small and most people owned few or no books. Hand copying also introduced errors, and no two copies were exactly alike.
Printing before Gutenberg
Printing did not begin in Europe in the 1450s. Woodblock printing was used in China by at least the 700s CE, and a clay movable type was described by Bi Sheng in China in the eleventh century. In Korea, metal movable type was in use by the thirteenth century, and a Buddhist text called the Jikji, printed in 1377, is the oldest surviving book printed with metal type. These systems did not transform society as dramatically, partly because scripts with thousands of characters made typesetting complicated, though historians also point to other cultural and political reasons.
What Gutenberg did
Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith working in Mainz in what is now Germany, developed a printing system there around 1450. We lack full records of his methods, but the key elements are usually described like this:
- Type cast from metal. He made individual letters from a metal alloy using a mold, so identical letters could be produced in quantity and reused.
- Oil-based ink. Water-based inks did not stick well to metal type, so a thicker, oil-based ink was used.
- A press. Pressing paper against the inked type took inspiration from existing screw presses used for wine and olives.
The combination of these ideas made it possible to print many identical pages quickly. The Gutenberg Bible, completed around 1455, is the most famous result. Copies survive today, some printed on paper and some on vellum. Gutenberg himself struggled financially, and others took over his business, so his fame came largely after his death.
Rapid spread
Printing spread quickly through the Holy Roman Empire and then through Italy, France and beyond. By 1500 presses were operating in hundreds of European towns, and historians estimate that millions of copies of many thousands of editions had been produced, though exact totals are uncertain. Books printed before 1501 are called incunabula.
Early printers mostly produced things that would sell: religious texts, classical works, school books, calendars, legal forms, indulgence certificates and almanacs. Printing was a business, and printers like Aldus Manutius in Venice built reputations on well-edited and handy editions.
Effects on knowledge
Cheaper books helped more people read, and a growing readership encouraged more writing. Several effects are commonly noted.
- Wider access to texts. Scholars could get copies of the same text, compare editions and cite page numbers. The Italian Renaissance was already under way, but print helped its writings travel beyond Italy.
- More consistent information. Printed diagrams, maps and tables could be repeated accurately. Anatomical drawings and astronomical tables, for instance, no longer degraded with each copying, which suited the new habits of the Scientific Revolution. Whether print caused that revolution is debated, but it plainly helped scientists share and challenge results.
- Standard languages. Printers favored forms of languages that readers in a wide area would understand, which helped standardize spelling and grammar in vernacular languages. Printing also supported writing in local languages rather than only Latin.
- Religious change. When Martin Luther’s criticisms of church practices circulated from 1517, printers spread them across German-speaking lands within a short time. The Reformation made good use of print, in the form of pamphlets, translated Bibles and illustrated broadsheets. It also led to religious conflict, and authorities on all sides tried to censor books.
Limits of the story
It is easy to overstate the case. Literacy rose slowly, and many people still learned through speech, images and performance. Handwritten books and letters continued for centuries. The effects of the technology depended on who could afford books, which languages were printed and what governments permitted. Print also spread falsehoods and propaganda alongside knowledge. Scholars such as Elizabeth Eisenstein argued that print was a major agent of change, while others have emphasized continuity; the debate is lively.
Later developments
Printing technology continued to improve. In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution brought steam-powered presses, machine-made paper and mechanical typesetting, making newspapers and books cheap enough for mass audiences. Education and literacy campaigns grew with them, and the link between schooling and economic change is discussed in the question of education and growth. Digital text continues the same trend toward cheap copying and wide sharing. Anyone curious about how the internet works will find a modern parallel to the press in speed and reach, though with new problems of reliability.
Printing also made individual memory less central to storing knowledge. Where oral cultures depended on memorization, print let readers consult a text when needed, one of many ways in which tools change how people rely on memory formation and learning habits in daily life.