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Johann Gutenberg the Inventor of Printing
31p 18 plates, hardback with fresh dustjacket, excellent, this copy published in the year 1970
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
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February 5, 2021
Johann Gutenberg (1400 – 1468)
Inventor of Printing
On the road to Progress of the Human Mind, the fifteenth century seemed to have been ripe for the invention of Printing. Several traces of information indicate that men in Holland, France and Italy were working on the problem.
Only Johannes Gutenberg had all the necessary conditions to succeed, all except money.
His father was Goldsmith and Johann got familiar with metalwork from a young age.
The essential part of his invention is the manufacturing of metal casting dies able to produce reusable individual letters of the alphabet on the necessary small scale and in minute details. The dies were prepared for one letter at the time and the filled with molten liquid lead, a metal that liquifies at a relatively low temperature.
These lead letters were then assembled in line and framed per page as required by the literature to be printed. The following printing process, one page at the time using black oil paint and a basic table hand press were not the most difficult to do.
The problem that Johannes Gutenberg had encountered was to find enough money to finance the raw materials, like steel and lead, paint and paper. He had found several men interested, first to lend against interest and later to lend on the condition to become partners in the business.
It seems that, by the time the first book was printed, a beautiful 42-line Bible in about 1453-5, which was subsequently copied 180 times, Gutenberg had been dispossessed by his partners of his tools and material for printing.
Like so many inventors, Gutenberg seemed to have been better with the technicalities of his idea than with the business and financial side of it.
Gutenberg was saved from poverty by an annual pension received as a courtesan at the court of Adolphe II of Nassau.
Inventor of Printing
On the road to Progress of the Human Mind, the fifteenth century seemed to have been ripe for the invention of Printing. Several traces of information indicate that men in Holland, France and Italy were working on the problem.
Only Johannes Gutenberg had all the necessary conditions to succeed, all except money.
His father was Goldsmith and Johann got familiar with metalwork from a young age.
The essential part of his invention is the manufacturing of metal casting dies able to produce reusable individual letters of the alphabet on the necessary small scale and in minute details. The dies were prepared for one letter at the time and the filled with molten liquid lead, a metal that liquifies at a relatively low temperature.
These lead letters were then assembled in line and framed per page as required by the literature to be printed. The following printing process, one page at the time using black oil paint and a basic table hand press were not the most difficult to do.
The problem that Johannes Gutenberg had encountered was to find enough money to finance the raw materials, like steel and lead, paint and paper. He had found several men interested, first to lend against interest and later to lend on the condition to become partners in the business.
It seems that, by the time the first book was printed, a beautiful 42-line Bible in about 1453-5, which was subsequently copied 180 times, Gutenberg had been dispossessed by his partners of his tools and material for printing.
Like so many inventors, Gutenberg seemed to have been better with the technicalities of his idea than with the business and financial side of it.
Gutenberg was saved from poverty by an annual pension received as a courtesan at the court of Adolphe II of Nassau.
Displaying 1 of 1 review