ELL High School Social Studies: World History (Grade 10+)
Standard: People, places and environment
1.3
Resource:
Name:
Growth is caused by printing press, paper manufacture.
Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1vl2j24Mtk
Unit Objectives:
 Learn when the printing press was first used in Europe
 Understand how the printing press enabled the “dissemination of knowledge.”
 Be able to watch and indentify main ideas from the first 10 minutes of Johannes Gutenberg
and the Printing Press. (Video)
 Compare printing technology in Europe and your native country at the time of Gutenberg.
Procedure:
1. Look up the definitions of words on the vocabulary list for this unit in your own native
language. Write the definitions (in your native language) beside each English word.
2. Form groups and take a pre-test about the Gutenberg printing press.
3. Do a web quest: Find some pictures of books that were printed on the original
Gutenberg printing press. Find out how much some of these books cost now. Make a
power point.
For centuries, the dissemination of knowledge through books had been only for the few,
reserved largely for monks and priests. Each book was a priceless one-off. For most people in
the middle ages, this was an academic problem. They couldn’t read or write, anyway.
During the middle ages, books were written out by hand, mostly in monasteries. Often
the monks would spend years on a work. Then in 1450, an invention changed the world. In the
German city of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg invented the technique of printing with movable
type. This made it possible to duplicate books in large numbers, and at relatively low cost. The
technological foundation was laid for the intellectual, political, and religious changes of the
succeeding centuries.
Johannes Gentz Fleich, who later changed his name to Gutenberg, was born in Mainz in
around 1400. His father was a wealthy merchant. Young Johannes attended the monastic
ELL High School Social Studies: World History (Grade 10+)
school in Mainz. That much we know. But then his trail goes cold for a while. We only pick it up
again in Strasburg, where he settled in 1434. Here, he set up a factory that produced mirrors for
pilgrims. There were very popular among the faithful, who hoped thereby to capture
something of the charisma emanating from the shrine that they were visiting, and from the
relics it contained.
For Gutenberg, it was a lucrative business. There was a flourishing trade in devotional
objects. Particularly popular were woodcuts depicting the saints. Woodcut is one of the earliest
printing techniques, but it only reached Europe in the early middle ages. Here is served
primarily for the dissemination of pictures and texts.
But cutting these whole page blocks was a time consuming process. First, a mirrorimage of the hand written page has to be drawn on the block. Then, the individual letters have
to be carved out. Finally, the block is inked in, and a sheet of paper was laid on top, and rubbed
hard with a bone tool so that it takes up the ink.
By the start of the fifteenth century, more and more of these page prints were coming
onto the market. Occasionally, a number of pages were bound into a book. The trade in these
books also gave a boost to manuscript production. Manuscripts had long since ceased to be
the exclusive reserve of the monasteries. Secular scribes were doing good business.
The establishment of the first universities had created a great demand for books.
Libraries were founded, making knowledge in the form of books accessible. Books needed to
be cheaper and more quickly available. But that wasn’t all. In particular, scholars wanted
uniform copies. A new production technique was feverishly sought after – and one of the
seekers was Gutenberg.
In 1446, he returned to Mainz. Here, he found solid financial backers, allowing him to
go ahead with his enterprise. His breakthrough came with a brilliant idea. He broke up his text
into its constituent parts: letters, punctuation marks, and frequent combinations known as
ligatures.
These were then combined to form the blocks for printing words, lines, and pages. The
characters were cast, and could be used in new combinations time and again. A character is
produced as follows: on the end of a metal rod, a mirror-image of the letter is engraved. This is
then pushed into softened copper, producing a pit in the shape of the letter. This matrix, as it’s
called, acts as the mould for the actual type, which is cast from lead.
In order to manufacture the many letters needed quickly and in sufficient quantity,
Gutenberg took another important step forward. He invented the hand casting instrument. It
ELL High School Social Studies: World History (Grade 10+)
consists of a rectangular channel. The matrix is inserted at one end, and molten lead poured
into the other. When the instrument is opened, a letter cast in lead is ready to be used.
As the matrix is reusable, an unlimited number of identical letters can be cast.
Finally, the type-setter can begin to combine the letters into lines. In the “form”, the lines of
columns are combined to create the page layout as designed. The result is a mirror-image of
the page to be printed. The form is now inked in with printer’s ink. Gutenberg used a mixture of
lamp----, varnish, and egg white.
Printing can now start. Gutenberg used a special press for this purpose, and he derived
the principal from the traditional wine press.
Gutenberg’s first printed works were official documents: papal decrees, and grammars.
But soon, he started on a mammoth venture – the Latin bible. For this project he cast more
than a hundred-thousand pieces of type. For more than two years, Gutenberg’s type-setters
and printers worked on the first edition of 180 copies. The text was printed in black-letter or
Gothic type, based on the handwriting of the day. Finally, the illuminator added the colored
initials and drawings.
With his bible, one of the world’s most beautiful printed books, Gutenberg proved that
a work printed with movable type could be as aesthetically pleasing as one written by hand.
The edition was soon sold out. Gutenberg’s contemporaries were impressed. It was the first
time a work had been available in such a large edition, and every copy was identical. The
written word now had authoritative status.
Knowledge of this revolutionary technology was quick to spread. Soon, the first printing
presses were set up in Cologne, Bamberg, and Basal. In Venice, an enterprising publisher
named Algus Manutius, began to print the works of the classical authors. His clientele
comprised of all of Europe’s humanistic intellectually elite. Manutius employed the most
talented printers of the age. They developed the typeface known as Antigua, which soon spread
throughout Europe.
20 years after Gutenberg’s invention, the new technology was firmly established.
Thousands of titles were marketed in editions of up to one thousand. Books now became
affordable for ordinary people. As society became more literate, the number of potential
readers increased.
ELL High School Social Studies: World History (Grade 10+)
Dissemination
accessible.
the few,
uniform copies.
monks priests.
sought after –
priceless
seekers.
one-off.
financial backers,
the middle ages,
enterprise.
monasteries.
breakthrough
invention
cast,
movable type.
a metal rod,
to duplicate
engraved.
foundation
Copper,
intellectual,
lead.
political,
manufacture
religious
sufficient
wealthy merchant.
molten lead
monastic school
traditional
pilgrims.
wine press.
shrine
papal decrees
relics.
a mammoth venture
a lucrative business
the Latin bible
a flourishing trade
first edition
woodcuts
aesthetically pleasing
saints
sold out
time consuming
contemporaries
mirror-image
identical.
carved
revolutionary technology
a boost
classical authors.
manuscript production.
intellectually elite
scribes
affordable
great demand
literate,
founded,