Question

how did the printing press change history? how were books made before the printing press was invented

Answer 1

Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer. He was the first to develop movable type printing press in 1450. This allowed for the mass production of books.

Effects:

◎Cost of Books

The printing press drastically cut the cost of producing books and other printed materials. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, the only way of making multiple copies of a book was to copy the text by hand, an laborious and intensely time-consuming occupation usually performed by monks. The materials involved were also costly: Monks wrote on treated skins, known as vellum which was very costly and could not be afforded by everyone.

◎Religious Books

The first books Gutenberg printed with his press were copies of the Bible. The Gutenberg Bibles were immensely popular, and all 200 copies were sold even before the copying was complete.

◎The Reformation

Gutenberg’s printing press “meant more access to information, more dissent, more informed discussion and more widespread criticism of authorities.As such, the printing press played a key role in popularizing ideas associated with the new Protestant faith during the European Reformation, allowing the press to “shape and channel a mass movement."

◎Reformation Texts

Protestant thinkers used the printing press to spread their ideas across Europe, mainly through pamphlets. 


How it shaped History :

◎The birth of a new sect of Christianity and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

◎Rise in literacy rate ,since everyone now wanted to read for the books became very cheap and most could possess them.

◎The Roman church imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited books from 1558.

◎The ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible to the common people.Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published and maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.Scientists like Isaac Newton could not only publish their discoveries ,they could also influence a much wider circle of scientifically minded readers.Thus,their ideas about science reason and rationality found their way into popular literature.


Books were at the beginning copied by hand using calligraphy. The state of Imperial china was the major producer of printed material.From AD 594 onwards,books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.