Johannes Gensfleisch, known as Johannes Gutenberg, or simply Gutenberg, was an inventor, engraver, and graphic designer during the Holy German Roman Empire. Born in 1400, in the city of Mainz, Germany, he was the pioneer in Europe in the mobile printing system, known as typography.

Gutenberg came from a wealthy family, and in his childhood and youth, he was dedicated to literature, which at that time were manuscripts, accessible only to those who were in good financial condition.

In his adult life, he worked as a jeweler, which in the future was useful in the process of casting letters for presses. We can see that in Gutenberg’s life, his inclinations, since childhood, resulted in an important achievement not only for him, but that influenced the whole world.

Gutenberg or the Chinese?

We need to understand what was the press to which the model invented by the Chinese Bi Sheng in the 11th century refers. In the past, prints were made using blocks, already used since the 7th century BC. By the Greeks. Bi Sheng innovated by making the small blocks mobile, where the characters were arranged in sequence and could be replaced, inks were passed over them, and then a sheet was placed on top and pressed.

We can say that the press was an innovation of the Chinese, but Gutenberg managed to develop the printing technology, modernizing it to the point that it was something that he could produce on a large scale, which is said to be the most important invention of the second millennium due to its developments.

In this video, we see an animation that recreates the printing process developed by the Chinese.

The innovation

Gutenberg’s press was inspired by the machines used to squeeze grapes in wine making, common in the area where he spent his childhood in Mainz. He joined the Chinese method with the grape press model, where a wooden lathe was rotated to apply pressure on the grapes, but now the pressure would be on the paper.

The use of oil paint was one of the factors that resulted in the success of Gutenberg’s invention. A material that did not run and was well absorbed by the paper was needed to ensure that the letters and prints were printed accurately, and so Gutenberg came up with oil-based ink.

Another improvement by Gutenberg was the material used in the blocks’ moles. While Gutenberg managed to make molds to make metal letters, the Chinese used wood or ceramic.

The speed of the Gutenberg press also stands out, each year, each could produce the same as 50 clerks. This is also due to phonemes, while the Latin alphabet has 26 letters, the Chinese have more than 50,000 characters.

In the following video, we can see the demonstration of the use of the only Gutenberg press currently active, at the Crandall Historical Printing Museum, in Utah, in the United States.

Legacy

Today, we may have no idea of Gutenberg’s role in history, but his inventions were essential for several movements, such as the Press Revolution, the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, and even the Scientific Revolution, since he developed a system capable of carrying out the large-scale printing, lowering the cost of copies of books, increasing the number of people reached by them.

The Gutenberg press substantially expanded the market for books, contributing to increased literacy. As an example, in colonial New England, there was a higher literacy rate in the 1750s than in China in the early 20th century.

In Mainz, Johannesburg’s hometown, there is the Gutenberg Museum, which is one of the oldest print-themed museums in the world, founded in 1900. In order to honor this great inventor, in addition to telling his history and his achievements, the museum has a collection of machinery, books, and old prints.

In Strasbourg, the city in Alsace where Gutenberg lived most of his life, there is a beautiful statue in his honor. It was in Strasbourg where he developed his research and improved what would become his famous press in the future.

The Gutenberg Festival is held annually in the United States, a fair that brings together companies and professionals in the field of printing, graphic designs, and the like, paying homage to Johannes Gutenberg, and seeing how magnificent his invention was for humanity.