2. Life Before Gutenberg
• Books could be found only in
monasteries, places of education,
and in the homes of the very
wealthy
• As copying was a laborious process,
only texts that held wide appeal
were reproduced
• Not surprisingly, the Bible was the
primary text
3. • Scribes were responsible for
copying manuscripts, while
“illuminators” created the
illustrations
• Illuminators added stylized fonts,
gold trimming, and beautiful color
to the tomes
• Worked in special rooms called
scriptoriums
• Scribes and similar trades formed
guilds, similar to today’s unions
4. Early Process
• Parchment was made from animal skin
• Bought, brought to the monastery, and
rubbed smooth by an assistant, before the
copying could begin
• Lines had to be spaced exactly, marked by
knife incisions
5. Gutenberg
• Trained as a metallurgist and goldsmith
• Hailed from Mainz, Germany. Born around 1399
• Used his skills in metalworking to aid in the
construction of his most important invention
• First mass-marketed book he produced was the
Gutenberg Bible
6. The Printing Press
• Inspired by the wine press, which uses a similar
technique
• Constructed mainly of wood
• Letters were carved onto movable “keys”. These
were coated with ink
8. Its Influence
• Allowed books to be mass
produced
• Naturally, knowledge would
be available to many more
people
• Learning something—be it a
trade, language, etc—once
required the assistance of a
mentor. Now all one had to
do was learn to read
9. • Created an intellectual revolution in all areas
of thought—philosophy, science, and religion
• Since the layperson could buy a Bible now, it
was open to individual interpretation
• The Copernican Revolution would not have
been possible without the printing press
• Culture moved from oral to literate
10. Food for Thought
• The invention, and subsequent massproduction, of books allowed humanity to
store its collective knowledge
• No longer do we have to rely on heredity and
oral tradition
• Books are the new DNA. Humanity has
transcended physical evolution
• Echoes what famous astronomer said (was it
Sagan or Hawking?)
11. Superstition and the Written Word
• A demon known as Tutivillus was said to
haunt scribes
• Legend continued even after the
printing press
• Demon would cause errors and lack of
concentration (typos and writer’s block)
• According to some tales, monks would
be punished in afterlife for too many
spelling errors
12. Sources
• "A Gallimaufry." 'a Gallimaufry' N.p., 14 Mar. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
• "End of Europe's Middle Ages - The Impact of the Printing Press." End of
Europe's Middle Ages - The Impact of the Printing Press. University
of Calgary, 6 Nov. 2001. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
• "Harry Ransom Center the University of Texas at Austin." Harry Ransom
Center RSS. University of Texas at Austin, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
• "Inventor of the Week: Archive." Inventor of the Week: Archive. Lemelson
MIT, Aug. 2004. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
