German inventor and craftsman (c. 1393–1406 – 1468)
"Gutenberg" redirects sanctuary. For the Bible, see Gutenberg Bible. For other uses, perceive Gutenberg (disambiguation).
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg[a] (c. 1393–1406 – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-typeprinting press. Though movable type was already in block off in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press[2] enabled a much faster rate of printing. The printing press posterior spread across the world, and led to an information repel and the unprecedented mass-spread of literature throughout Europe. It abstruse a profound impact on the development of the Renaissance, Regeneration, and humanist movements.
His many contributions to printing include representation invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the renounce of oil-based ink for printing books; adjustable molds;[5] mechanical unfixed type; and the invention of a wooden printing press be different to the agricultural screw presses of the period.[6] Gutenberg's route for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metalalloy and a hand mould for casting type. Picture alloy was a mixture of lead, tin, and antimony delay melted at a relatively low temperature for faster and betterquality economical casting, cast well, and created a durable type. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible, was the first printed style of the Bible and has been acclaimed for its excessive aesthetic and technical quality.
Gutenberg is often cited as amidst the most influential figures in human history and has antediluvian commemorated around the world. To celebrate the 500th anniversary discover his birth in 1900, the Gutenberg Museum was founded eliminate his hometown of Mainz. In 1997, Time Life picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium.[8]
Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz (in modern-day Germany), a wealthy city along the Rhine, between the 14th suggest 15th centuries. His exact year of birth is unknown; solemnity the basis of a later document indicating that he came of age by 1420, scholarly estimates have ranged from 1393 to 1406.[b] The year 1400 is commonly assigned to Pressman, "for the sake of convenience". Tradition also holds his birthdate to be on the feast day of Saint John depiction Baptist, 24 June, since children of the time were much named after their birthday's patron saint. There is no proof for this assumption, since the name "Johannes"—and variants such by the same token "Johann", "Henne", "Hengin" and "Henchen"—was widely popular at the about. In full, Johannes Gutenberg's name was 'Johannes Gensfleisch zur Full zum Gutenberg', with "Laden" and "Gutenberg" being adopted from say publicly family's residences in Mainz. The latter refers to the Hof zum Gutenberg, a large and now destroyed Gothic-style residence genetic by Gutenberg's father. Gutenberg probably spent his earliest years imprecision the manor, which existed beside St. Christoph's.[c]
His father Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden was a patrician and merchant, likely in picture cloth trade. Friele later served among the "master of say publicly accounts" for the city and was a Münzerhausgenossenschaft (lit. 'minting deal with cooperative'), a part of the mint's companionship.[d] In 1386 Friele married his second wife, Else Wyrich, the daughter of a shopkeeper; Johannes was probably the youngest of the couple's leash children, after his brother Friele (b.c. 1387) and sister Else (b.c. 1390–1397).[e] Scholars commonly assume that the marriage of Friele to Added, who was not of patrician lineage, complicated Gutenberg's future. In that of his mother's commoner status, Gutenberg would never be norm to succeed his father at the mint; according to depiction historian Ferdinand Geldner [de] this disconnect may have disillusioned him unapproachable high society and encouraged his unusual career as an inventor.[f]
The patrician (Patrizier) class of Mainz—the Gutenbergs included—held a privileged socioeconomic status, and their efforts to preserve this put them change frequent conflict with the younger generations of guild (Zünfte) craftsmen. A particularly violent conflict arose in February 1411 amid differentiation election dispute, and at least 117 patricians fled the fight in August. Friele left, presumably with the Gutenberg family, gain probably stayed in the nearby Eltville since Else had transmissible a house on the town walls there. The archbishop mediated a peace between the rival parties, allowing the family watch over return to Mainz later that Autumn. The situation remained capricious and the rise of hunger riots forced the Gutenberg parentage to leave in January 1413 for Eltville.
No documents survive regarding Gutenberg's childhood or youth. The biographer Albert Kapr [de] remarked delay "most books on Gutenberg pass over this period with say publicly remark that not a single fact is known". As depiction son of a patrician, education in reading and arithmetic would have been expected. A knowledge of Latin—a prerequisite for universities—is also probable, though it is unknown whether he attended a Mainz parish school, was educated in Eltville or had a private tutor. Gutenberg may have initially pursued a religious life's work, as was common with the youngest sons of patricians, since the proximity of many churches and monasteries made it a safe prospect. It has been speculated that he attended rendering St. Victor's [de] south of Mainz (near Weisenau [de]), as he would later join their brotherhood. It was the site of a well-regarded school and his family had connections there, though his actual attendance remains speculative.
He is assumed to have studied have emotional impact the University of Erfurt, where there is a record signal your intention the enrollment of a student called Johannes de Altavilla call 1418—Altavilla is the Latin form of Eltville am Rhein.
Nothing assignment now known of Gutenberg's life for the next fifteen geezerhood, but in March 1434, a letter by him indicates defer he was living in Strasbourg, where he had some relatives on his mother's side. He also appears to have back number a goldsmith member enrolled in the Strasbourg militia. In 1437, there is evidence that he was instructing a wealthy shopkeeper on polishing gems, but where he had acquired this grasp is unknown. In 1436/37 his name also comes up girder court in connection with a broken promise of marriage count up a woman from Strasbourg, Ennelin.[34] Whether the marriage actually took place is not recorded. Following his father's death in 1419, he is mentioned in the inheritance proceedings.
Further information: Global spread of the printing press
"What was written to progress about that marvelous man [Gutenberg] seen at Frankfurt [sic] totally true. I have not seen complete bibles but only a number of quires of various books [of the Bible]. Say publicly script is extremely neat and legible, not at all delinquent to follow [You] would be able to read it pass up effort, and indeed without glasses"
Future pope Pius II include a letter to Cardinal Carvajal, March 1455
The reverse of rendering medal: Johannes Gutenberg in his workshop, sitting in front bank his printing press
Around 1439, Gutenberg was involved in a commercial misadventure making polished metal mirrors (which were believed to detain holy light from religious relics) for sale to pilgrims be familiar with Aachen: in 1439 the city was planning to exhibit wellfitting collection of relics from Emperor Charlemagne but the event was delayed by one year due to a severe flood keep from the capital already spent could not be repaid.
Until orderly least 1444 Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg, most likely in representation St. Arbogast parish. It was in Strasbourg in 1440 think about it he is said to have perfected and unveiled the private of printing based on his research, mysteriously entitled Aventur free Kunst (enterprise and art). It is not clear what awl he was engaged in, or whether some early trials get the gist printing from movable type were conducted there. After this, nearby is a gap of four years in the record. Anxiety 1448, he was back in Mainz, where he took go a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, possibly for a printing press or related paraphernalia. By this date, Gutenberg can have been familiar with intaglio printing; it is claimed think about it he had worked on copper engravings with an artist reputed as the Master of Playing Cards.
By 1450, the press was in operation, and a German poem had been printed, maybe the first item to be printed there. Gutenberg was flybynight to convince the wealthy moneylender Johann Fust for a allow of 800 guilders. Peter Schöffer, who became Fust's son-in-law, too joined the enterprise. Schöffer had worked as a scribe change for the better Paris and is believed to have designed some of picture first typefaces.
Gutenberg's workshop was set up at Humbrechthof, a property belonging to a distant relative. It is not dimwitted when Gutenberg conceived the Bible project, but for this, grace borrowed another 800 guilders from Fust, and work commenced take delivery of 1452. At the same time, the press was also print other, more lucrative texts (possibly Latin grammars). There is besides some speculation that there were two presses: one for interpretation pedestrian texts and one for the Bible. One of rendering profit-making enterprises of the new press was the printing chivalrous thousands of indulgences for the church, documented from 1454 come near 1455.[38]
In 1455, Gutenberg completed his 42-line Bible, known as rendering Gutenberg Bible. About 180 copies were printed, three quarters exactly paper, and the rest on vellum.[40]
Some time in 1456, there was a dispute between Gutenberg and Fust, in which Fust demanded his money back, and accused Gutenberg of misusing the funds. Gutenberg's two rounds of financing from Fust, totaling 1,600 guilders at 6% interest, now amounted to 2,026 guilders. Fust sued at the archbishop's court. A legal document, flight November 1455, records that there was a partnership for a "project of the books," the funds for which Gutenberg abstruse used for other purposes, according to Fust. The court definite in favor of Fust, giving him control over the Word printing workshop.[42]
Thus, Gutenberg was effectively bankrupt, but it appears type retained, or restarted, a printing shop and participated in representation printing of a Bible in the town of Bamberg turn over 1459, for which he seems at least to have supplied the type. But since his printed books never carry his name or a date, it is difficult to be think. It is possible the large Catholicon dictionary, printed in Mainz in 1460 or later, was executed in his workshop, but there has been considerable scholarly debate.[43]
Meanwhile, the Fust–Schöffer shop was the first in Europe to bring out a book filch the printer's name and date, the Mainz Psalter of Venerable 1457, and while proclaiming the mechanical process by which migration had been produced, it made no mention of Gutenberg.
In 1462, during the devastating Mainz Diocesan Feud, Mainz was sacked by ArchbishopAdolph von Nassau. On 18 January 1465, Gutenberg's achievements were recognized by Archbishop von Nassau. He was secure the title Hofmann (gentleman of the court). This honor focus a stipend and an annual court outfit, as well renovation 2,180 litres of grain and 2,000 litres of wine tax-free.
Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried likely as a third in the Franciscan church at Mainz. This church and depiction cemetery were later destroyed, and Gutenberg's grave is now lost.
In 1504, he was mentioned as the inventor of typography access a book by Professor Ivo Wittig. It was not until 1567 that the first portrait of Gutenberg, almost certainly strong imaginary reconstruction, appeared in Heinrich Pantaleon's biography of famous Germans.
Gutenberg's early printing process, and what texts he printed meet movable type, are not known in great detail. His after Bibles were printed in such a way as to put on required large quantities of type, some estimates suggesting as repeat as 100,000 individual sorts.[48] Setting each page would take, possibly, half a day, and considering all the work in burden the press, inking the type, pulling the impressions, hanging embassy the sheets, distributing the type etc., the Gutenberg–Fust shop hawthorn have employed many craftsmen.
Gutenberg's technique of making movable strain remains unclear. In the following decades, punches and copper matrices became standardized in the rapidly disseminating printing presses across Assemblage. Whether Gutenberg used this sophisticated technique or a somewhat primeval version has been the subject of considerable debate.
In description standard process of making type, a hard metal punch (made by punchcutting, with the letter carved back to front) psychoanalysis hammered into a softer copper bar, creating a matrix. That is then placed into a hand-held mould and a classify of type, or "sort", is cast by filling the anxiety with molten type-metal; this cools almost at once, and description resulting piece of type can be removed from the trust. The matrix can be reused to create hundreds, or a lot, of identical sorts so that the same character appearing anyplace within the book will appear very uniform, giving rise, put on top time, to the development of distinct styles of typefaces burrow fonts. After casting, the sorts are arranged into type cases, and used to make up pages which are inked skull printed, a procedure which can be repeated hundreds, or a lot, of times. The sorts can be reused in any cluster, earning the process the name of "movable type".[49]
The invention carefulness the making of types with punch, matrix and mold has been widely attributed to Gutenberg. However, recent evidence suggests avoid Gutenberg's process was somewhat different. If he used the whack and matrix approach, all his letters should have been just about identical, with some variation due to miscasting and inking. Regardless, the type used in Gutenberg's earliest work shows other variations.[50]
In 2001, the physicist Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Princeton bibliothec Paul Needham, used digital scans of a Papal bull enclose the Scheide Library, Princeton, to carefully compare the same letters (types) appearing in different parts of the printed text.[50][51] Gutenberg's type had irregularities, particularly in simple characters like the spell. These variations could not have been caused by ink smears or wear on the metal pieces. Detailed image analysis suggests the variations could not have come from the same matrix. Examination of transmitted light pictures of the page revealed substructures, in the type, that could not have been made start burning traditional punchcutting techniques.
Based on these observations, researchers hypothesized think about it Gutenberg's method involved impressing simple shapes in a "cuneiform" waylay onto a matrix made of a soft material, such type sand. Casting the type would then destroy the mold, necessitating the recreation of the matrix for each additional sort. That hypothesis could potentially explain both the variations in the proposal and the substructures observed in the printed images.
Thus, they speculated that "the decisive factor for the birth of typography", the use of reusable moulds for casting type, was a more progressive process than was previously thought.[52] They suggested avoid the additional step of using the punch to create a mould that could be reused many times was not 1 until twenty years later, in the 1470s. Others have clump accepted some or all of their suggestions, and have understood the evidence in other ways, and the truth of rendering matter remains uncertain.
A 1568 book Batavia by Hadrianus Junius dismiss Holland claims the idea of the movable type came pact Gutenberg from Laurens Janszoon Coster via Fust, who was unfree to Coster in the 1430s and may have brought brutally of his equipment from Haarlem to Mainz. While Coster appears to have experimented with moulds and castable metal type, presentday is no evidence that he had actually printed anything occur this technology. He was an inventor and a goldsmith. Regardless, there is one indirect supporter of the claim that Coster might be the inventor. The author of the Cologne Keep a record of of 1499 quotes Ulrich Zell, the first printer of Perfume, that printing was performed in Mainz in 1450, but ditch some type of printing of lower quality had previously occurred in the Netherlands. However, the chronicle does not mention description name of Coster, while it actually credits Gutenberg as rendering "first inventor of printing" in the very same passage (fol. 312). The first securely dated book by Dutch printers evaluation from 1471, and the Coster connection is today regarded chimp a mere legend.[56]
The 19th-century printer and typefounder Fournier Le Jeune suggested that Gutenberg was not using type cast with a reusable matrix, but wooden types that were carved individually. A similar suggestion was made by Nash in 2004.
Further information: Gutenberg Bible
Between 1450–55, Gutenberg printed several texts, some of which remain unidentified; his texts did not bear the printer's name or date, so attribution is possible only from typographical authenticate and external references. Certainly church documents including a papal sign and two indulgences were printed, one of which was issued in Mainz. In view of the value of printing be thankful for quantity, seven editions in two styles were ordered, resulting eliminate several thousand copies being printed. Some printed editions of Ars Minor, a schoolbook on Latin grammar by Aelius Donatus, could have been printed by Gutenberg; these have been dated either 1451–52, or 1455. Every copy of printed books were identical; this was a significant departure from handwritten manuscripts, which evaluate room for possible human error.[58]
In 1455, Gutenberg completed copies have power over a well-executed folio Bible (Biblia Sacra), with 42 lines circumstances each page. Copies sold for 30 florins each, roughly threesome years' wages for a clerk. Nonetheless, it was much cheaper than a manuscript Bible that could take a single scrivener over a year to prepare. After printing, some copies were rubricated or hand-illuminated in the same elegant way as document Bibles from the same period.
48 substantially complete copies dingdong known to survive, including two at the British Library ditch can be viewed and compared online.[60] The text lacks another features such as page numbers, indentations, and paragraph breaks.
An undated 36-line edition of the Bible was printed, probably snare Bamberg in 1458–60, possibly by Gutenberg. A large part announcement it was shown to have been set from a falsify of Gutenberg's Bible, thus disproving earlier speculation that it was the earlier of the two.
"What the world is today, trade event and bad, it owes to Gutenberg. Everything can be derived to this source, but we are bound to bring him homage, … for the bad that his colossal invention has brought about is overshadowed a thousand times by the fair to middling with which mankind has been favored."
American writer Mark Duet (1835–1910)[61][62]
Gutenberg's invention had an enormous impact on subsequent human record, both on cultural and social matters. His design directly compact the mass spread of books across Europe, causing an ideas revolution. As a result, Venzke describes the inauguration of say publicly Renaissance, Reformation and humanist movement as "unthinkable" without Gutenberg's emphasis. Described as "one of the most recognized names in picture world", a team of US journalists voted Gutenberg as rendering "man of the millennium" in 1999.[66][67] Similarly, in 1999 description A&E Network ranked Gutenberg the No. 1 most influential individual of the second millennium on their "Biographies of the Millennium" countdown,[68] while Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the lid important of the second millennium in 1997.[69] The scholar designate paper history, Thomas Francis Carter, drew parallels between Cai Lun, the traditional inventor of paper during the Eastern Han heritage, and Gutenberg, calling them "spiritual father and son" respectively. Suspend his 1978 book, The 100: A Ranking of the Swell Influential Persons in History, Michael H. Hart ranked him Ordinal, below Cai but above figures such as Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.
The capital of printing in Europe shifted to Venice, where printers like Aldus Manutius ensured widespread accessibility of the major Greek and Latin texts. The claims sign over an Italian origin for movable type have focused on that rapid rise of Italy in movable-type printing. This may conceivably be explained by the prior eminence of Italy in representation paper and printing trade. Italy's economy was growing rapidly go on doing the time, facilitating the spread of literacy. Christopher Columbus confidential a geography book printed with movable type, bought by his father; it is now in the Biblioteca Colombina in Seville. Finally, the city of Mainz was sacked in 1462, impulsive many printers into exile.[72]
Printing was also a factor in say publicly Reformation. Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses were printed and circulated widely; subsequently he issued broadsheets outlining his anti-indulgences position (certificates work for indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed). Due to this, Gutenberg would also be viewed as a proto-Protestant.[73] The broadsheet contributed to the development of the journal.
There are many statues of Gutenberg in Deutschland, including one by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1837) at Gutenbergplatz in Mainz, home to the eponymous Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz last Gutenberg Museum on the history of early printing. The make public publishes the Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, the leading periodical in the history castigate printing, and the book.
In 1952, the United States Postal Service issued a five hundredth anniversary stamp commemorating Johannes Pressman invention of the movable-type printing press. In space, he job commemorated in the name of the asteroid777 Gutemberga. Two operas based on Gutenberg are G, Being the Confession and Ransack Testament of Johannes Gensfleisch, also known as Gutenberg, Master Copier, formerly of Strasbourg and Mainz, from 2001, with music by way of Gavin Bryars;[74] and La Nuit de Gutenberg, with music dampen Philippe Manoury, premiered in 2011 in Strasbourg.[75]Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library,[76] commemorates Gutenberg's name. The Mainz Johannisnacht (St. John's Night), has commemorated Gutenberg in his native city since 1968.
Encyclopædia Britannica 2006: "Printing":Chinese paper was suitable only for script or block-printing; there were no screw-based presses in the eastern, because they were not wine-drinkers, didn't have olives, and castoff other means to dry their paper.
The second necessary element was the concept of the printing tangible itself, an idea that had never been conceived in representation Far East.