A big development in writing and literature was the invention of the printing press. Invented in 1436 by a 39 year old German man named Johann Gutenberg, the printing press was a great improvement over hand-copying. Before the development of this time-saving and economical machine, monks had to hand copy everything. This time-consuming and tedious process made books and scripts extremely hard to come by, and astronomically expensive. Gutenberg used his printing press to put ink on hundreds of individual letters that could be combined in numerous ways to create a entire page of text. After this stage was completed, as many copies as desired could be rendered. However, to print a different page, the individual letters had to be completely rearranged. This great invention helped Gutenberg reach his greatest achievement of the first mass-production of the Bible, which he published in 1456 in Mainz, Germany.
Written and Compiled by Adam Sorkin
References:
Parker, Steve. How Things Work . Random House,
Inc. New York, 1991.
Williams, Jay. Leonardo Da Vinci. American
Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. New York, 1965.
Yenne, Bill. 100 Inventions That Shaped World History.
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