Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1393–1406 – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already used in East Asia, Gutenberg’s invention made printing much faster. The printing press later spread across the world, leading to a big change in how information was shared and helped spread books and ideas across Europe.

Gutenberg made many important changes to printing. He created a way to make movable type quickly, used oil-based ink for printing books, and built a wooden printing press like the screw presses used in farming at the time. His most famous work was the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed version of the Bible, known for its beauty and high quality.

Because of his work, Gutenberg is often called one of the most important people in human history. To honor him, a Gutenberg Museum was opened in his hometown of Mainz in 1900. In 1997, Time Life chose his invention as the most important of the second millennium.

Life and career

Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz, a rich city along the Rhine in modern-day Germany, sometime between 1393 and 1406. We don’t know the exact year, but scholars think it was around 1400 for simplicity. His full name was Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg. His father was a merchant and part of a special group of wealthy families called patricians. Gutenberg’s mother was not from this same group, which may have affected his future.

We don’t have many details about Gutenberg’s early life or education. As a patrician’s son, he likely learned to read and do arithmetic. He may have studied at the University of Erfurt, but records are unclear. By 1434, he was living in Strasbourg, where he worked as a goldsmith.

Around 1440, Gutenberg began working on a revolutionary idea: the printing press with movable type. This allowed books to be made much faster than by hand. By 1450, his press was in use, and he printed Germany’s first book, possibly a poem. Gutenberg needed money, so he borrowed from a wealthy man named Johann Fust and his assistant Peter Schöffer. Together, they printed many important books, including the famous Gutenberg Bible around 1455.

Unfortunately, Gutenberg had money problems. He borrowed more than he could pay back, and Fust took control of the printing workshop. Gutenberg continued to work, but his later life is less clear. In 1462, during a conflict, Mainz was attacked. Gutenberg was honored by the Archbishop in 1465 and died in 1468. His grave is no longer known, but he is remembered as the inventor of the printing press, which changed the world.

Printing

We do not know many details about how Johannes Gutenberg first used his printing method or what books he printed with movable type. His later Bibles needed a lot of type, maybe as many as 100,000 pieces. Making each page could take half a day, and with all the work needed to print, Gutenberg’s shop probably had many craftsmen helping.

We are not sure exactly how Gutenberg made his movable type. In later years, punches and copper blocks became the normal way to make type across Europe. It is debated whether Gutenberg used this method or a simpler one.

In the usual way to make type, a hard metal punch is hammered into a softer copper block to make a matrix. This matrix is placed into a hand-held mold, and a piece of type, or “sort,” is made by pouring molten metal into the mold. The metal cools quickly, and the type piece can be taken out of the mold. The matrix can be reused many times to make identical letters, helping create uniform styles of letters, or fonts. After making the type, they were arranged into cases and used to print pages over and over. The type pieces could be reused in any order, which is why it is called “movable type.”

It is often said that Gutenberg invented this method of making type, but recent studies suggest his process may have been different. If he used punches and matrices, all his letters should look almost the same, with small differences because of mistakes in casting or applying ink. However, the type used in Gutenberg’s earliest work shows other kinds of differences.

In 2001, researchers used digital scans of a papal document to study the letters used in Gutenberg’s printing. They found that Gutenberg’s type had unusual variations, especially in simple marks like hyphens. These differences could not be explained by ink smudges or wear on the metal. Detailed analysis suggested the variations were because each letter was made from a different matrix. They guessed that Gutenberg may have used a simple way to press shapes onto a soft material, like sand, to make each matrix. This would mean that each time a new letter was needed, a new matrix had to be made. They thought that the idea of using a reusable mold for casting type may have come later, in the 1470s. Not everyone agrees with this idea, and the true method remains unclear.

A book from 1568 in Holland claimed that the idea of movable type came to Gutenberg from Laurens Janszoon Coster. Coster may have experimented with molds and metal type, but there is no proof he actually printed anything with them. Some old writings say printing happened in Mainz in 1450, and that a lower-quality kind of printing happened earlier in the Netherlands, but they still credit Gutenberg as the “first inventor of printing.” The earliest known printed book from Dutch printers is from 1471, and today the story about Coster is considered just a legend. Some experts have suggested that Gutenberg may have used wooden types carved one by one, but this is also uncertain.

Further information: Gutenberg Bible

Between 1450 and 1455, Gutenberg printed several texts, though we do not always know which ones. His printed works did not include his name or date, so we learn about them from studying the type and other clues. He definitely printed church documents, including a papal letter and two indulgences, one from Mainz. Because printing many copies was valuable, seven editions in two styles were made, resulting in several thousand copies. Some printed schoolbooks on Latin grammar may also have been printed by Gutenberg around 1451–52 or 1455.

All copies of printed books looked the same, which was very different from handwritten books that could have small mistakes. In 1455, Gutenberg finished copies of a carefully made Bible with 42 lines on each page. Copies sold for 30 florins each, about three years’ wages for a clerk, but this was still much cheaper than a handwritten Bible that could take a single scribe over a year to make. After printing, some copies were decorated by hand in an elegant way, like the handwritten Bibles of that time. About 48 nearly complete copies of this Bible are still known to exist, including two at the British Library that can be seen online. The text does not have modern features like page numbers, indentations, or paragraph breaks. An undated Bible with 36 lines per page was printed, probably in Bamberg between 1458 and 1460, maybe by Gutenberg. Much of it was set from a copy of Gutenberg’s Bible, showing that it was made after his.

Legacy

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press changed the world forever. Because of his work, books could be made faster and shared more widely. This helped start big changes like the Renaissance and the Reformation. Many people think Gutenberg was one of the most important people in history because of this.

There are statues and museums to remember Gutenberg, and even a stamp in the United States honored him. His name lives on in many ways, showing how much he meant to the world.