Christopher Heller

November 20, 1999 History-

West Civ- Marsh Jones

Johann Gutenberg "The Man behind the Printing Press"

The earliest dated printed book, known as the Diamond Sutra, was produced in China in 868 CE, but it is believed that the practice dates back well before this date. The Japanese and the Chinese regularly used wood blocks carved in relief to produce Buddhist charms as early as the fifth century CE. Nearly six hundred years later Europeans began block printing, whether or not this was influenced by examples from the orient or an independent development is not certain--for religious illustrations and playing cards. Before the introduction of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg, the tasks of making books was tedious and laborious. It was also very expensive to own a book, the price of a good book was that of a small farm. It had been customary, in the case of books bound in leather, to impress upon the top cover of the title of the text within, or the name of that author, by using brass punches with the letters of the alphabet. Also in the beginning there was a possible method of cutting a whole page of lettering on a block of wood, which would be very inefficient. Gutenberg invented typography (the use of movable type) before the middle of the 15th century. Gutenberg was a Native of Mainz, Germany 1394-1399. His exact date of birth, like many parts of his life, are unknown, but most likely lies between 1394 and 1399. Originally named (Johannes Gensfliesch),he belonged to the family of Gensfleisch, one of the patrician classes of Mainz. Mainz was at the junction of the Rhine and the Main, the seat of an Archbishop and a city of considerable importance in the fifteenth century (Scholderer 8) His full title was Gensfleisch zur Ladenhe, but was ordinarily known as Gutenberg meaning "good mountain". Mainz was known for it's possession of skilled workers and craftsmen in precious metals. Even Gutenberg's father Friele zun Gutenberg was associated with the archiepiscopal mint. His parents were wealthy and provided a great deal of opportunities for learning. He started reading at a young age, which was uncommon for the time, because very few could read. Gutenberg has an insatiable appetite for literary material, and could not get enough. In 1428 he worked cutting and polishing Gemstones. He learned how to make designs in metal and began to devise a machine to print words mechanically to print books. He worked his young life in Mainz and then later in life after his escapades with the printing press, he moved to Strasbourg to retire, where he was pensioned by the Archbishop Adolph of Mainz on account of the service he had rendered. Then when he died at the beginning of 1468, a Dr. Homery laid claim to the type and the other apparatus that he had been using. Gutenberg printed two books in his lifetime the 42 line Bible and the Catholicon by Balbus. The Catholicon was an enormous encyclopedia: 748 pages in two columns of 66 lines each (Guten) Many years of Gutenberg's life are lost to history, but in 1450 he was back in Mainz at work on a printing press. Some historians believed that the ideas that got Gutenberg started in development for the printing press, were originally from China, and someone brought tales of this machine, because no one had seen China directly, until the time of Marco Polo. More likely is the fact that tales of this invention were passed along from town to town across Asia and then Europe. Another distinct possibility is that Gutenberg's invention of the movable type was his original idea, a thought that some historians. To add to the confusion, much of Gutenberg's young life is unknown to us (press) Technical problems. The reason that the invention of the printing press did not come earlier was, 1. Nobody thought of it 2. The nature of Western script, with it's twenty-six alphabetic signs perpetually repeated in various combinations (Scholderer 8) The difference in the Chinese way of printing is that Chinese script, with ideograms, were all of readily manageable size and only recurring once in a while. This being much easier to reproduce than repeating patterns of 26 letters. In his early years, which much is not known, he testified in court about one of his co-workers, but was later reconciled. After some loans that Gutenberg could not pay back for business expenditures that went bad, he decided to move out of Strasbourg. Apparently he was unable to find new sources of money in the area, and even his private resources were likely to have been greatly drained due to his experiments. The last mention of him in the tax records of the time was from March 12, 1444, when he paid excise duty to a guilder on the contents of his wine cellar, which was always well stocked (In 1439 it contained ~420 gallons)(Scholderer 13). In 1449 or 1450 Gutenberg received from Fust a loan of 800 guilders, carrying interest at six percent, to be used in completing his work on his apparatus, this being pledged to Fust as security. After a short period of time, it appeared that 800 guilders were not enough, so Gutenberg applied for a further loan. Fust obviously declined in the offer, but offered instead to advance in Gutenberg another 800 guilders, on the condition of being taken into partnership with them for "the work of the books". Out of desperation Gutenberg agreed. "All went as planned until late in 1455, when Fust sued Gutenberg for the repayment of the loan and the investments, together with interest amounting in all of 2026 guilders"(Scholderer 14). During the time that Gutenberg was printing, he came up with the most efficient and cheap way of printing. The book that was undertaken was the 42-line Bible, in which one style of type is used without the entire book, therefore saving on costs. He has been further accredited with an edition of an immense Latin Dictionary and encyclopedia and the Catholicon of Joannes Balbus, which states principles of Catholisicm in a condensed version (Scholderer 18). During the time of printing, nobody bothered to date anything. The 42-line Bible was neither signed nor dated, Gutenberg never attached his name to any piece of printing,but the copy of preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains notes of when the book was bound. Another consideration is why Fust decided to foreclose on the loan at that time, and for that he is contrived to be a villain. However, this may not be the case. It is entirely possible that's Gutenberg was, like so many inventors, and unbusinesslike person, was only concerned with working at his discoveries, and that Fust, seriously concerned about his money, had to get rid of Gutenberg in order to not go into bankruptcy (Scholderer 15). If that was not the end of his problems, there was worse to come. On the night of October 28, 1462, the Archbishop of Mainz, Count Adolph of Nassau, assaulted and sacked Mainz, with the pursuance of their feuds, and Gutenberg was one of the 800 citizens of Mainz that were driven from their homes that day. However out of guilt and then respect for Gutenberg, the Archbishop gave Gutenberg a civil-list pension by enrolling him an annual allowance of a gentleman's suit of clothing and of specified quantities of corn and wine, together with all exemption from all dues and taxes. It's nice to think that in his last years, such a great and overlooked man had his remainder of his days in relative comfort. Nothing was known of his appearance. Most impressions come from an engraving made in 1584, yet some do not believe this was the "real McCoy". One of several mistakes that Gutenberg made in his life, was the fact that he told too many people of his invention and because of that people claimed to have invented it before him and other nonsense, that probably is not true. Also he did not establish himself as the true inventor of the printing press, mostly be not signing or dating anything. To further push established beliefs, Gutenberg's claim to being the inventor of printing in the west is well established, it has not always been so concrete. A story of long ago tells of a man, Lourens Coster in 1440, of Haarlem in Holland, "Occupied himself during an after dinner stroll in the local woods but cutting letters out of tree bark and then put them together on paper for his grandchildren's amusement, and then the story diverges and gets blurred with historical inaccuracies and other fallacies. There are also many other legal and historical issues concerning Gutenberg (Scholderer 19). In conclusion, Johann Gutenberg was one of the greatest inventors of all known history. He helped issue in the Renaissance, and exponentially helped literacy rates, because of affordable books. Most technology could not existed when it had in our civilization, if he had not devised this tool. There is another argument against Gutenberg's achievements, that is, that if he never came up with the printing press, there would be a lot more trees, and the environment would be better, but then if Gutenberg had not invented the printing press and movable type (typography) then would that same person have the education to know how the environment works? Probably not.

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