A 180 copy print of the "Gutenberg Bible" changed Europe, helping increase literacy rates and spread of knowledge, as texts, and the ideas they contained, were discussed and debated. Information became more accessible. Until then this had been limited to a privileged few, but thanks to Gutenberg’s invention was now available to anyone who knew how to read Latin.
Or had access to someone who did. One of the most beautiful books ever printed, the Gutenberg Bible was the first in Europe to be mass-produced, printed instead of copied by hand, where assembly-line production of identical texts had not been possible. Although the process was already well-established in other parts of the world. His printing method, with movable metal type, combined some of his other inventions. Including adapted paper with ink made from linseed oil and lampblack. A fine soot.
Letters of indulgence printed for the church in their thousands between 1454 and 1455, were also a big hit. People bought them in the belief they would forgive their past sins.
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, craftsman and inventor, was born sometime around 1395, the date is not known, and died 3 February 1468 in Mainz. Capital of the Electorate of Mainz in the Holy Roman Empire at the time, and now the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate on the western side of Germany.
