The Common Press - Mid 15th Century to Early 19th Century
For further reading, try Gutenberg, How One Man Remade the World with Words by John Mann (2002, John Wiley & Son Inc. New York.)
English Box Hose Common Press Ca. 1820
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The Common Press - Mid 15th Century to Early 19th Century |
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| The history of the printing press
starts with the wooden hand-press and the system of movable type invented
Mainz, Germany
by Johannas Gutenberg around 1450. Before this time, scribes worked a
month or more to make one copy of a book, soon after it's invention, a
small print shop with a single press could print as many as 500 books in a
week. Gutenberg’s invention was improved upon
over the years, but essentially the same system used from the mid 15th
century to the beginning of the 19th century. The central mechanics
behind Gutenberg’s press was likely inspired by the technology of the day, wooden screw
presses were used in home and industry for many functions in his native Germany. Even though the
Chinese invented movable type hundreds of years earlier, and the mechanics
of the screw press were well established, it was Gutenberg's genius that
put all the parts together. Prior to Gutenberg’s press, books were
few, scribes laboriously copied each leaf by hand, these manuscript volumes
became the property of the political and religious elite. Within
50 years of Gutenberg’s invention, millions of books had been produced by
over a thousand printing houses scattered in 236 towns throughout Europe, over 30,000
titles had been put to press. Books became available and
affordable to the new middle class. The Gutenberg system of printing
fueled the Renaissance, made possible the Age of Enlightenment, our system
of education, our modern society. For further reading, try Gutenberg, How One Man Remade the World with Words by John Mann (2002, John Wiley & Son Inc. New York.) |
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English Box Hose Common Press Ca. 1820 |
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