Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer who built the press most directly ancestral to the modern one in Mainz around 1440, combining movable metal type with a mechanical press adapted from wine and paper pressing. Movable type printing had been independently invented earlier in China, where Bi Sheng developed ceramic movable type around 1040, but Gutenberg's combination of metal type, oil based ink and a mechanized press was the version that made rapid, high volume book production practical in Europe for the first time.
Facts
Disputed
Birth YearGutenberg's exact birth year is not recorded; 1400 is the conventionally cited estimate based on guild registration records. Johannes Gutenberg
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Developed the movable-type printing press mechanism that mechanized text reproduction.
In Field
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Held Differently
Movable Type Printing, Inventions Why this is disputed. Independently developed movable metal type and a mechanical press in Europe roughly four centuries after Bi Sheng's earlier ceramic movable type in Song-dynasty China.
Invented
Source Printing Press (Wikipedia)
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Germany, nationality there.
Sources
1. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954View the Source Printing Press (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationInvented: Printing Press, Lead sectionQuote, Invented: Printing Press, Lead section
The printing press was invented by the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, and its subsequent global spread revolutionized literary production and communication during the early modern period.
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