Gutenberg Story

GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c.
1398—1468), German printer, is supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at

Mainz of well-to-do parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother Elsgen Wyrich, whose
birthplace “Gutenberg”, was the name he adopted. The Germans, and most other people, contend that
Gutenberg was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types.
Early Life of Johann Gutenberg

Gutenberg's father was a man of good family. Very likely the boy was taught to read. But the books from
which he learned were not like ours; they were written by hand. A better name for them than books is
"manuscripts," which means "hand-writings."
While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better
than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the
size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth
face of his block. This had to be very carefully done. When it was finished the printer had to cut away the
wood from the sides of every letter. This left the letters raised, as the letters are in books now printed for
the blind. The block was now ready to be used. The letters were inked, paper was laid upon them and
pressed down. With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could
write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one
page.
Gutenberg enjoyed reading the manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends
had; and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books. Finally he determined to
contrive some easy and quick way of printing. Gutenberg did a great deal of his work in secret, for he
thought it was much better that his neighbors should know nothing of what he was doing. He looked for a
workshop where no one would be likely to find him. Gutenberg was now living in Strasburg, and there was
in that city a ruined old building where, long before his time, a number of monks had lived. There was one
room of the building which needed only a little repairing to make it fit to be used. So Gutenberg got the
right to repair that room and use it as his workshop.
All his neighbors wondered what became of him when he left home in the early morning, and where he
had been when they saw him coming back late in the twilight. Gutenberg did not care much what people
had to say, and in his quiet room he patiently tried one experiment after another, often feeling very sad
and discouraged day after day because his experiments did not succeed. At last the time came when he had
no money left.
Gutenberg Meets Fust

He went back to his old home, Mainz, and there met a rich goldsmith and lawyer named Joahann Fust (or
Faust). Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply,
and how he had now no more money to carry on his experiments. Fust became greatly interested and gave
Gutenberg what money he needed.
First of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood. Each type was a little block with a single letter at
one end. Such types were a great deal better than block letters. The block letters were fixed. They could not
be taken out of the words of which they were parts. The new types were movable so they could be set up to
print one page, then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages. But type made
of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly, so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried
metal types. This worked much better, and Gutenberg was progressing well toward the completion of the
first book ever printed by movable type: the Bible in Latin.
Gutenberg Loses His Business
Fust, however, was losing patience. He quarreled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending
money. At last he brought suit against him in the court, and the judge decided in favor of Fust. So everything in
the world that Gutenberg had, even the tools with which he worked, came into Fust's possession.
Soon a Latin Bible was printed. It was in two volumes, each of which had three hundred pages, while each of the
pages had forty-two lines. The letters were sharp and clear. They had been printed from movable types of metal.
The news that books were being printed in Mainz went all over Europe. Before Gutenberg died, printing-presses
like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the continent.
The Gutenberg Bible

Between 1450 and 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was completed. Early documentation states that a total of 200 copies
were scheduled to be printed on rag cotton linen paper, and 30 copies on velum animal skin. It is not known
exactly how many copies were actually printed. Today, only 22 copies are known to exist, of which 7 are on velum.
If an entire Gutenberg Bible should become available on the world market, it would likely fetch an estimated 100
million dollars! Even an individual leaf (a single two-sided page) from the original Gutenberg Bible can fetch
around $100,000. Gutenberg’s work is the most rare and valuable printed material in the world.
The Death of Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg died in Mainz, Germany in 1468. Ironically, the inventor of the most important invention in
history never profited from his invention and died in poverty… though the proceeds from the sale of just one
single leaf from his Bible in today’s market would have provided Gutenberg with enough money to live out his last
years comfortably. He was buried in a Franciscan church, which was demolished and replaced with another
church, which was also subsequently demolished. While Gutenberg sadly went without reward for producing the
machine that changed the world, history recognizes him as holding this honor. Without his invention, the
Protestant Reformation would not have been possible.

Gutenberg Story

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gutenberg Story

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gutenberg Story

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c.

1398—1468), German printer, is supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at

Early Life of Johann Gutenberg

Gutenberg Meets Fust

The Gutenberg Bible

The Death of Johann Gutenberg

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.