Turning points in modern history 1455

Gutenbergs printing revolution

The 15th century in Germany wasn't a good time. In that time, Germany wasn't even a
country, but there were a number of principalities and other states within that we now call
Germany. Heavily agricultural, with a large peasant population. The dominant religion at that
time was Roman Catholism, which had established churches and universities and had a strong
influence on the society of that time. Most Germans were illiterate, but right in this century,
something happened that would start changing this fact. Cities existed largely for protection
and many were walled, which was typical of Europe of that period. Urban population tended
to be poor and diesease was rampant in nearly all cities in that era. In all facets of society,
infant mortality was high, so families tended to have large numbers of children in hope that
enough would survive to carry on. Sanitation was often nonexistent. Medicine existed but was
available usually only to a few segments of the society of that time, and it often was at least
part based on superstition, although there were some very advanced medical practitioners at
that time. Iventions are the gold of history. Since always they have been turning points that
made our world this way. Even if sometimes the scientits can't explain how was something
made our even brought up in the first place, their achievements were foundatios for
evertything we have now. There are many inventions that we know of, the ones we study at
school, the ones we have heard about from our parents or the ones we saw in encyclopedias.
The name „Gutenberg“ rings a bell in everyones head. Some don't know why is this man
well-known, others know every detail of his work. But the bottom line is that we all know
about him. One event that marked not only German history but also the history of the whole
world was the invention of the printing press. The man who stands behind this project was
named Johannes Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg. Many things wouldn't be possible if there
wasn't for this man and his creativity. It is possbile that without this invention, there would
have been no Renaissance, no Industrial Revolution, no Technological Revolution and no
modern, western Democracy. In other words there would actually be no modern world, or this
world would be far away from our reach.

While primitive forms of printing had been invented a long time before in ancient
China (of course, doing everything in the hard way), and good quality paper had been
available for quite some time in some parts of Europe, but in the 15th century, books were
hobbies that only few could afford. Before Gutenberg invented the printing press, another
way of printing was already in existence. This was known as block printing and it involved
carving letters into blocks of wood which would then be dipped in ink and pressed onto paper.
Each page would be printed by carving the letters onto a block of wood the same size as the
page of a book. Once the letters had been carved, the remaining wood would be shaved away.
This made the letters raised, and they would then be imprinted on to the page. Although this
was a better way of producing books than copying each version by hand, it was still a very
slow process and the carved blocks could only be used for one book. Copying of texts and
documents was an exhausting process. That means that books were very expensive. That leads
us to the thought-his invention of the printing press meant that books could be produced in
larger numbers, more quickly and cheaper than ever before. That actually means that
Gutenbergs discovery had a great impact even on the education of that time, because he made
books affordable. But who is actually Johannes Gutenberg? His birth, his life, and education
is mostly unknown, but assumingly we got some matching informations.. They assume he
was born around 1395. in Mainz, Germany. There isn't much clues about his early life, but
local records indicate that he apprenticed as a goldsmith while he was living in Mainz. That
makes sence since his father was in the gold trade as well. In 1428 Johannes and his familiy
were exiled to Strasbourg. That is when and where Gutenberg started to do experiments with
printing. In 1448 he moved back to Mainz, and by the year of 1450 he was operating a print
shop. Historians assumed that Gutenberg developed printing technique in 1440 in Strasburg.
A German poem is the first book printed by using Gutenberg press. Other types of books
printed afterward included indulgences for the Catholic Church and Latin Grammars. Some
details of the Bible project are still unknown, but assuming led scientists to some ideas how
did he managed to do such a great acomplishment. Finally, in 1455 he publishes the first
edition of the Latin Bible that had a print run of one hundred and eighty copies. The
Gutenberg Bible was available in two versions–one cheaper version printed on paper and one
more expensive printed on vellum. The buyer paid a basic price for the printing and then
added frills (hand-coloration, illuminations, a binding, and a cover) for an extra fee. Today,
that may not seem like a huge achievement by our modern standards, but in that time it was
considered a miracle. The Gutenberg Bible was a tremendous undertaking. There is a legend
that his ideas came spontaneously, ''like a shade of light'' that popped to his head. It had
exatcly forty two lines on each page and it must have been very difficult to read as there was
no punctuation. Some sources say he borrowed money to start the Latin Bible project and
some say he financed the project himself. The story about the money he borrowed is
uncertain. The theory is that he borrowed 800 guilders from a local financier Johann Fust to
buy some equipment for his typography method. They say Gutenberg didn't have the money
to pay the loan so he had a court case with mr. Fust. He occused Gutenberg on wasting his
money. The court files are mostly lost but there are a few things that most scientists agree on
happening after this. Fust won the case and took over most of Gutenbergs printing business,
including the Bible production. There are some books and documents that are probbably made
from Gutenberg, but he didn't put his name on any of the printigs. It is believed that he went
blind a few years before his death. He died in 1468 and again, there are two theories about
where he was burried. The first one is that he was burried in a church in Mainz. The church
and sementary were later destroyed which means his body was lost. The second one is that he
was burried in a city nearby from Mainz, called Eltville. The importance of his achievement
was not valued in the time he lived. The Gutenberg Bible actually presented the Gutenberg
revolution. What he did was a masterpiece for the 15th century. Since than everything started
to go uphill. Now, his copies are still treasured. There are eleven copies of the Gutenberg
Bible in the United States. Four of those are complete and printed on paper, and one, in the
possession of the Library of Congress, is complete and printed on vellum. There are only four
known complete Gutenberg Bibles printed on vellum in the world. The last sale of a complete
Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, when it went for $2.2 million. Experts estimate that a
complete copy would now fetch around $35 million at auction. The cruel irony of his faith is
that he never profited from any of his work. He never profited for being part of the history or
for being responsible for the one of the biggest turning points in history. Now he has a name
we all recognize. It is hard to imagine how much effort he put and how much knowledge this
man had. Even the fact that he didn't really had much to work with, makes him a genious.