Summary

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, a German goldsmith of the 15th century, was
the inventor of printing press but he was forced to reveal his ideas when he found himself between
a rock and a hard place after his failure to sell his polished metal mirrors. His ideas would lead to
the rebirth or revival in the printing world at the time when everything was delicately written by
hand over a long period of time which meant that only a few books were available to the
commoners. This invention lead to the mass printing and availability of bibles and other books
which soon had a hand in increasing the literacy rate among the plebeians now that they can afford
them. Johannes Gutenberg used his newly invented contraption to reproduce 165 to 185 of the
Bibles which were pretty exorbitant at the time but still less pricey than the hand written ones.
These original books printed by Johannes Gutenberg are now being sold at a whopping price of
nearly 5 million dollars. Even though his invention helped in spreading literature to all parts of the
world, he did not end up being financially successful due to the mismanaging of his funds.