Bi Sheng invented ceramic movable type in Song China between 1039 and 1048, and movable metal type was in use in Korea by the fourteenth century, both centuries before Johannes Gutenberg's metal type and mechanical press appeared in Mainz around 1440. No direct documentary link places knowledge of the Asian systems in Gutenberg's hands, and historians remain divided between an independent-invention account and a diffusion account carried along Mongol-era Eurasian trade and diplomatic contacts.
What would resolve this A documented account, correspondence, or artifact placing knowledge of Chinese or Korean movable type printing in Europe, or specifically before Gutenberg, before his circa 1440 press; none has surfaced in the sources consulted for this entry.
OpenHistory of technologyWikipedia contributors, Bi Sheng (Wikipedia)