{{Short description|Mechanism that applies ink to a medium}} {{About|the historical device created by Johannes Gutenberg|the modern technology of printing|Printing}} {{good article}} {{pp|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox machine | image = PrintMus 038.jpg | alt = Wooden printing press with large screw mechanism in a museum setting | caption = A recreated Gutenberg press at the [[International Printing Museum]] in [[Carson, California]] | classification = [[Machine]] | application = [[Printing]] | inventor = [[Johannes Gutenberg]] | invented = {{start date and years ago|1440|df=y|p=y}} }} {{History of printing}}
A '''printing press''' is a mechanical machine that transfers ink onto materials such as paper or cloth by applying pressure to an inked surface. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods, in which the medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink. The invention and [[global spread of the printing press]] was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.
In Germany, around 1440, the goldsmith [[Johannes Gutenberg]] invented the [[movable type|movable-type]] printing press, which started the [[Printing Revolution]]. Modeled on the design of existing [[screw press]]es, a single [[Renaissance]] printing press could produce up to 3,600 pages per workday, compared to forty by [[History of typography in East Asia|hand-printing]] and a few by [[scribe|hand-copying]]. Gutenberg's newly devised [[hand mould]] made possible the rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. From [[Mainz]], the press spread within several decades to over 200 cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, presses in operation throughout Western Europe had produced more than 20 million volumes. The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing and lent its name to a new medium of expression and communication, "[[Newspaper|the press]]".
The spread of the printing press introduced the era of [[mass communication]], which altered the structure of European society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and ideas transcended borders, spread rapidly during the [[Reformation#Printing|Reformation]], and supported the collaborative networks of the [[Scientific_Revolution#Printing|Scientific Revolution]]. A sharp increase in [[literacy]] broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and strengthened the emerging [[middle class]]. As works were increasingly published in [[Vernacular language|vernacular languages]] rather than [[Latin]], printed texts helped to standardize the spelling and syntax of national languages.
Although the basic design of the wooden handpress remained largely unchanged for more than three centuries, the [[Industrial Revolution]] brought fundamental change. By 1800, [[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope|Lord Stanhope]] had built the first press entirely from [[cast iron]], doubling the printed area and output. In the 1810s, [[Friedrich Koenig]] introduced steam power and the rotary motion of cylinders, and his presses were adopted by ''[[The Times]]'' in 1814. The steam-powered [[rotary printing press]], invented by [[Richard M. Hoe]] in 1843, allowed millions of copies of a page to be produced in a single day. During the twentieth century, [[offset printing]], [[phototypesetting]], and [[digital printing]] successively replaced the letterpress method for most commercial applications.
== History == {{Main|History of printing}}
=== Economic conditions and intellectual climate === {{See also|History of capitalism|Medieval university}} [[File:Laurentius de Voltolina Vorlesung vor Studenten - Min 1233 - Kupferstichkabinett Berlin.jpg|thumb|alt=Medieval manuscript illustration of a lecturer addressing rows of students in a vaulted hall|A [[medieval university]] class, 1350s]]
The economic and cultural changes of [[Late Middle Ages|late medieval]] Europe helped to create conditions in which Gutenberg's printing press could succeed commercially. The growth of [[history of capitalism|trade and commerce]] had expanded the urban [[middle class]], while the multiplication of [[Medieval university|universities]] from the twelfth century onward had increased demand for books. Hand-copying was slow and expensive, and by the fifteenth century, the supply of manuscripts fell far short of this growing demand.<ref>{{harvnb|Eisenstein|1980|pp=45–47}}; {{harvnb|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=15–20}}; {{harvnb|Man|2002|p=87}}</ref>
=== Technological factors === {{See also|History of Western typography|Medieval technology}}
Gutenberg's press combined four pre-existing technologies that had each reached a level of development sufficient for printing by the mid-fifteenth century: the screw press, [[movable type]], the [[codex]] book format, and mechanized paper production. Gutenberg integrated these into a single working system and added a number of innovations of his own, including a [[hand mould]] for casting type and an oil-based ink suited to metal type.{{sfn|Childress|2008|pp=51–55}}
[[File:Holzspindelkelter von 1702.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Large wooden screw press with vertical timbers and central screw|Early modern [[wine press]]. Such screw presses, used in Europe for a wide range of uses, provided Gutenberg with the model for his printing press.]]
The first of these was the screw press, which allowed direct pressure to be applied on a flat plane. It was already of great antiquity in Gutenberg's time and was used for a wide range of tasks.{{sfn|Wolf|1974|pp=21–35}} Introduced in the 1st century AD by the [[Roman agriculture|Romans]], it was commonly employed in agricultural production for [[Pressing (wine)|pressing grapes]] for wine and olives for oil.<ref>{{harvnb|Onken|2009}}; {{harvnb|White|1984|pp=31ff.}}; {{harvnb|Schneider|2007|pp=156–159}}</ref> The device was also used from very early on in urban contexts as a cloth press for printing patterns.{{sfn|Schneider|2007|p=158}} Gutenberg may also have been inspired by the paper presses which had spread through the [[Holy Roman Empire|German lands]] since the late 14th century and operated on the same mechanical principles.{{sfn|Schulte|1939|p=56}}
Gutenberg adopted the basic design, thereby mechanizing the printing process.{{sfn|Wolf|1974|pp=39ff.}} Printing, however, put a demand on the machine quite different from pressing. Gutenberg adapted the construction so that the pressing power exerted by the [[platen]] on the paper was now applied both evenly and with the required sudden elasticity. To speed up the printing process, he introduced a movable undertable with a plane surface on which the sheets could be swiftly changed.{{sfn|Wolf|1974|pp=39–46}}
[[File:metal movable type.jpg|thumb|alt=Rows of small metal letter blocks arranged in a wooden compartmented case|[[Movable type]] sorted in a letter case and loaded in a [[composing stick]] on top]] The second element, movable type, existed in some form prior to 15th century Europe; sporadic evidence that the [[typographical principle]], the idea of creating a text by reusing individual characters, was known and had been cropping up since the 12th century and possibly before (the oldest known application dating back as far as the [[Phaistos disc#Typography|Phaistos disc]]). The first movable type was invented by [[History of science and technology in China|Chinese engineer]] [[Bi Sheng]] in the 11th century during the [[Song dynasty]], and a book dating to 1193 recorded the first copper movable type.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=911}}
Woodblock printing remained the dominant technique in East Asia. The oldest printed book using [[Type case|metal movable type]] was the ''[[Jikji]]'', printed in Korea in 1377 during the [[Goryeo]] era. Other notable examples include the [[Prüfening dedicatory inscription|Prüfening inscription]] from Germany, [[letter tiles]] from England and [[Altarpiece of Pellegrino II]] in Italy.<ref>Germany: {{harvnb|Brekle|1995|pp=23–26}}, {{harvnb|Brekle|1997|p=62}}, {{harvnb|Brekle|2005|p=25}}; England: {{harvnb|Lehmann-Haupt|1940|pp=93–97}}, {{harvnb|Brekle|1997|p=62}}; Italy: {{harvnb|Lipinsky|1986|pp=75–80}}, {{harvnb|Koch|1994|p=213}}. Lipinsky surmises that this typographical technique was known in Constantinople from the 10th to the 12th century and that the Venetians received it from there (p. 78).</ref> However, the various techniques employed (imprinting, punching and assembling individual letters) did not have the refinement and efficiency needed to become widely accepted. Tsuen-Hsuin and Needham, and Briggs and Burke suggest that the movable-type printing in China and Korea was rarely employed, in part because the large number of characters in logographic writing systems made movable type less practical than in alphabetic systems.<ref name=Needham>{{cite book |title=Paper and Printing |author=Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin |author-link=Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin |author2=Joseph Needham |author2-link=Joseph Needham |series=Science and Civilisation in China|volume=5 part 1|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=158, 201|year=1985}}</ref><ref name=Briggs>Briggs, Asa and Burke, Peter (2002). ''A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet'', Polity, Cambridge, pp. 15–23, 61–73.</ref> Gutenberg's use of the [[Latin alphabet]] was a practical advantage in this respect because it allowed the type-setter to represent any text with a relatively small set of characters.<ref>{{harvnb|Childress|2008|pp=51–55}}; {{harvnb|Hellinga|2007|p=208}}: "Gutenberg's invention took full advantage of the degree of abstraction in representing language forms that was offered by the alphabet and by the Western forms of script that were current in the fifteenth century."</ref>
The third element was the codex book format, which had originated in the [[Roman Empire|Roman period]].{{sfn|Roberts|Skeat|1983|pp=24–30}} Considered the most important advance in the history of the book prior to printing itself, the codex had completely replaced the ancient [[scroll]] at the onset of the Middle Ages (AD{{nbsp}}500).<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|Skeat|1983|pp=1, 38–67, 75}}: "The most momentous development in the history of the book until the invention of printing was the replacement of the roll by the codex; this we may define as a collection of sheets of any material, folded double and fastened together at the back or spine, and usually protected by covers." (p. 1)</ref> The codex holds considerable practical advantages over the scroll format: it is more convenient to read (by turning pages), more compact, and less costly, and both [[recto and verso]] sides could be used for writing or printing, unlike the scroll.<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|Skeat|1983|pp=45–53}}. Technically speaking, a scroll could be written on its back side, too, but the very few ancient specimens found indicate that this was never considered a viable option. (p. 46)</ref>
[[File:Gutenberg Bible, Lenox Copy, New York Public Library, 2009. Pic 01.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|alt=Open book showing two columns of dense black printed text on a cream page|A paper codex of the 42-line Bible, Gutenberg's major work]]
The fourth element was paper. Medieval papermakers had succeeded in mechanizing paper manufacture: the introduction of water-powered [[paper mill]]s, the first certain evidence of which dates to 1282,{{sfn|Burns|1996|p=418}} allowed for a massive expansion of production and replaced the laborious handcraft characteristic of both Chinese<ref>{{harvnb|Thompson|1978|p=169}}; {{harvnb|Tsien|1985|p=68−73}}; {{harvnb|Lucas|2005|p=28, fn. 70}}</ref> and Muslim papermaking.<ref>{{harvnb|Thompson|1978|p=169}}; {{harvnb|Burns|1996|pp=414–417}}</ref> Papermaking centers began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy, reducing the price of paper to one-sixth of [[parchment]] and then falling further. Papermaking centers reached Germany a century later.{{sfn|Burns|1996|p=417}}
Despite the spread of paper centers in Europe, the final breakthrough of paper depended just as much on the rapid spread of movable-type printing.<ref>{{harvnb|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=41–44}}; {{harvnb|Burns|1996|p=419}}: "In the West, the only inhibiting expense in the production of writings for an increasingly literate market was the manual labor of the scribe himself. With his mechanization by movable-type printing in the 1440s, the manufacture of paper, until then relatively confined, began to spread very widely. The Paper Revolution of the thirteenth century thus entered a new era."</ref> Codices of parchment, which in terms of quality is superior to any other [[writing material]],<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|Skeat|1983|pp=7f.}}: "Despite all that has been said above, even the strongest supporters of papyrus would not deny that parchment of good quality is the finest writing material ever devised by man. It is immensely strong, remains flexible indefinitely under normal conditions, does not deteriorate with age, and possesses a smooth, even surface which is both pleasant to the eye and provides unlimited scope for the finest writing and illumination."</ref> still had a substantial share in Gutenberg's edition of the [[42-line Bible]].<ref>The ratio between paper and parchment copies is estimated at around 150 to 30 ({{harvnb|Hanebutt-Benz|2000|pp=158–189}}).</ref> After much experimentation, Gutenberg managed to overcome the difficulties which traditional water-based inks caused by soaking the paper, and found the formula for an oil-based ink suitable for high-quality printing with metal type.{{sfn|Childress|2008|p=60}}
=== Gutenberg's press === {{See also|Letterpress printing}} [[File:Printing and writing materials - their evolution (1904) (14777458662).jpg|thumb|alt=Drawing of Johannes Gutenberg standing beside a printing press, holding a printed sheet|Johannes Gutenberg, 1904 reconstruction]] Gutenberg's work on the printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehn, who had previously instructed in [[Lapidary|gem-cutting]], and Andreas Heilmann, owner of a paper mill.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=58–69}} However, it was not until a 1439 [[lawsuit]] against Gutenberg that an official record existed; witnesses' testimony discussed Gutenberg's types, an inventory of metals (including lead), and his type molds.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=58–69}}
Having previously worked as a professional goldsmith, Gutenberg made skillful use of the knowledge of metals he had learned as a craftsman. He was the first to make type from an alloy of [[lead]], [[tin]], and [[antimony]], which was critical for producing durable type that produced high-quality printed books and proved to be much better suited for printing than all other known materials. To create these lead types, Gutenberg used what is considered one of his most ingenious inventions,{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=58–69}} a special matrix enabling the quick and precise molding of new type blocks from a uniform template. His type case is estimated to have contained around 290 separate letter boxes, most of which were required for special characters, [[typographic ligature|ligatures]], [[punctuation marks]], and so forth.{{sfn|Mahnke|2009|p=290}}
Gutenberg is also credited with introducing an oil-based ink, which was more durable than the previously used water-based inks. As printing material, he used both paper and [[vellum]] (high-quality parchment). In the [[Gutenberg Bible]], Gutenberg made a trial of color printing for a few of the page headings, present only in some copies.{{sfn|Kapr|1996|p=172}} A later work, the [[Mainz Psalter]] of 1453, presumably designed by Gutenberg but published under the imprint of his successors [[Johann Fust]] and [[Peter Schöffer]], had elaborate red and blue printed initials.{{sfn|Kapr|1996|p=203}}
=== Function and approach === [[File:Printing press.jpg|thumb|alt=Technical engraving showing the side view of a printing press with its screw, platen, and frame|Printing press, engraving by W Lowry after [[John Farey Jr.]], 1819]] [[File:Printer in 1568-ce.png|thumb|alt=Woodcut showing two printers at work: one removes a printed sheet while the other inks type with leather balls|This [[woodcut]] from 1568 shows the left printer removing a page from the press while the one at right inks the text-blocks. Such a duo could reach 14,000 hand movements per working day, printing {{Circa|3,600}} pages in the process.<ref name="Wolf 1974, 67f."/>]]A printing press, in its classical form, is a standing mechanism, ranging from {{convert|5|to|7|ft}} long, {{convert|3|ft}} wide, and {{convert|7|ft}} tall.{{sfn|Childress|2008|p=56}} A compositor set the small individual metal letters known as type into the desired lines of text.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}} Several lines were arranged at once and placed in a wooden frame known as a [[Galley proof|galley]]. Once the correct number of pages was composed, the galleys were laid face up in a frame called a forme,{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}} which was placed onto a flat stone known as the bed.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}}
The type was inked using two [[Ink ball|ink balls]], pads of leather stuffed with wool or horsehair, and mounted on wooden handles. The leather was usually sheepskin, though calfskin and dogskin were also used.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}} The ink was distributed evenly by pressing the two balls together before applying them to the type. A sheet of dampened paper was placed on the [[tympan]] and held in position with small pins. A [[frisket]], a thin frame covered in paper with cut-out apertures matching the type, was folded over the sheet to protect the margins from ink.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}}
The tympan and frisket were then folded down so that the paper lay on the inked type. The bed was rolled under the platen using a [[windlass]] mechanism operated by a small handle called the rounce. The impression was made by turning a long handle, known as the bar, which drove a screw that pressed the platen onto the paper.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=59}} The springiness of the tympan assembly caused the bar to spring back after each pull. The bed was then wound out, the tympan and frisket opened, and the printed sheet removed. Such presses were worked entirely by hand until the development of iron presses after around 1800, some of which could be operated by [[steam power]].{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}}
=== Printing revolution ===
The printing revolution occurred when the spread of the printing press facilitated the wide circulation of information and ideas, a process that Eisenstein termed an "agent of change" in the societies that it reached.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=xv–xvi}} Its consequences included the mass production of books, shifts in reading habits and the relationship between authors and texts, the decline of Latin as the language of scholarship, and new economic patterns in the book trade.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=xv–xvi}}
==== Mass production and spread in Europe ==== {{See also|List of early modern newspapers}} [[File:Printing towns incunabula.svg|thumb|alt=Map of Europe with dots marking cities where printing presses were established by the end of the fifteenth century|The spread of printing in the 15th century from [[Mainz]], Germany]] [[File:European Output of Printed Books ca. 1450–1800.svg|thumb|alt=Line graph showing European printed book output rising from near zero around 1450 to approximately one billion by 1800|European book output rose from a few million to around one billion copies within a span of less than four centuries{{sfn|Buringh|van Zanden|2009|p=417, table 2}}]]
The invention of mechanical movable-type printing led to a rapid increase in printing activities across Europe within only a few decades. Demand for Bibles and other religious literature was one of the main drivers of the very rapid initial expansion of printing.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=248–261}} From a single print shop in Mainz, Germany, printing had spread to around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern Europe by the end of the 15th century.<ref name="ISTC">{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |title=Incunabula Short Title Catalogue |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=12 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312185857/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As early as 1480, there were printers active in 110 different places in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Bohemia and Poland.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=182–183}} The historians [[Lucien Febvre]] and [[Henri-Jean Martin]] conclude that by this date the printed book was in universal use in Europe.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|p=182}}
In Italy, a center of early printing, print shops had been established in 77 cities and towns by 1500. At the end of the following century, 151 locations in Italy had seen at one time printing activities, with a total of nearly three thousand printers known to be active. Despite this proliferation, printing centers soon emerged; thus, one third of the Italian printers published in [[Venice]].<ref>{{harvnb|Borsa|1976|p=314}}; {{harvnb|Borsa|1977|p=166−169}}</ref>
By 1500, the printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million copies.{{sfn|Buringh|van Zanden|2009|p=417}} In the following century, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.{{sfn|Buringh|van Zanden|2009|p=417}} European printing presses of around 1600 were capable of producing between 1,500{{sfn|Pollak|1972}} and 3,600 impressions per workday.<ref name="Wolf 1974, 67f.">{{harvnb|Wolf|1974|pp=67f.}}: {{quote|From old price tables it can be deduced that the capacity of a printing press around 1600, assuming a fifteen-hour workday, was between 3.200 and 3.600 impressions per day.}}</ref> By comparison, [[Far Eastern]] printing, where the back of the paper was manually rubbed to the page,<ref>{{harvnb|Needham|1965|p=211}}: {{quote|The outstanding difference between the two ends of the Old World was the absence of screw-presses from China, but this is only another manifestation of the fact that this basic mechanism was foreign to that culture.}} {{harvnb|Widmann|1974|p=34, fn. 14}}: {{quote|In East Asia, both woodblock and movable type printing were manual reproduction techniques, that is hand printing.}} {{harvnb|Duchesne|2006|p=83}}; {{harvnb|Man|2002|pp=112–115}}: {{quote|Chinese paper was suitable only for calligraphy or block-printing; there were no screw-based presses in the east, because they were not wine-drinkers, didn't have olives, and used other means to dry their paper.}} Encyclopædia Britannica 2006: "Printing": {{quote|The second necessary element was the concept of the printing press itself, an idea that had never been conceived in the Far East.}}</ref> did not exceed an output of forty pages per day.<ref name="Ch'on Hye-bong 1993, 12">{{harvnb|Ch'on|1993|p=12}}: {{quote|This method almost doubled the printing speed and produced more than 40 copies a day. Printing technology reached its peak at this point.}}</ref>
The scale of the new industry can be seen in individual sales figures: of [[Erasmus]]'s work, at least 750,000 copies were sold during his lifetime alone (1469–1536).{{sfn|Issawi|1980|p=492}} In the early days of the Reformation, the volume of bulk printing took princes and [[papacy]] alike by surprise. In 1518 and 1519, [[Martin Luther]] became Europe's most published author; his 45 original works, written in both Latin and German, were reprinted by printers across Germany and reached a total of 291 editions.{{sfn|Pettegree|2015|p=104}} Many were short pamphlets of eight pages or fewer, which could be produced cheaply and distributed quickly.{{sfn|Pettegree|2015|p=80}} In the period from 1518 to 1524, the publication of books in Germany alone rose sevenfold; between 1518 and 1520, Luther's tracts were distributed in 300,000 printed copies.{{sfn|Duchesne|2006|p=83}}
The rapidity of typographical text production, as well as the sharp fall in unit costs, led to the issuing of the first newspapers (see ''[[Relation (journal)|Relation]]''), which provided a new means of conveying up-to-date information to the public.{{sfn|Weber|2006|pp=387f.}} Pettegree argues that the market for printed news grew directly out of the Reformation: printers who had built a readership through Luther's pamphlets sustained it by producing news sheets covering battles, natural disasters, and public affairs. These news pamphlets closely resembled the Reformation ''[[Flugschriften]]'' in format, typically running to four or eight pages in quarto. In the early seventeenth century, a German publisher began issuing bulletins of news on a regular schedule, creating the first weekly newspaper; the format spread through German cities and remained the principal news medium of northern Europe for over a century.{{sfn|Pettegree|2015|pp=336–337}} Surviving pre-16th century print works, known as [[incunable]], are collected by many of the libraries in Europe and North America.<ref>The British Library [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html Incunabula Short Title Catalogue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312185857/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html|date=12 March 2011}} gives 29,777 separate ''editions'' (not copies) as of 8 January 2008, which however includes some print items from the 16th century (retrieved 11 March 2010). According to Bettina Wagner: "Das Second-Life der Wiegendrucke. Die Inkunabelsammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek", in: Griebel, Rolf; Ceynowa, Klaus (eds.): "Information, Innovation, Inspiration. 450 Jahre Bayerische Staatsbibliothek", K G Saur, München 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-598-11772-5}}, pp. 207–224 (207f.), the [[Incunabula Short Title Catalogue]] lists 28,107 editions published before 1501.</ref>
==== Global spread ==== {{Main|Global spread of the printing press}} Beyond Europe, the printing press spread primarily through colonial and missionary networks. [[Jesuit]] missionaries established the first press in Asia at [[Old Goa|Goa]] in 1556, where João de Bustamante served as the first printer; the press had originally been intended for Abyssinia but remained in Goa after the patriarch-designate was persuaded to stay during a stopover.{{sfn|Lent|1980}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Priolkar |first=Anant Kakba |title=The Printing Press in India: Its Beginnings and Early Development |year=1958 |publisher=Marathi Samshodhana Mandala |location=Bombay |pages=3–4}}</ref> The Portuguese Jesuit [[Diogo de Mesquita]] acquired a press during a visit to Europe in 1586 and established it at [[Nagasaki]], where it produced ecclesiastical works in Japanese until his death in 1614.{{sfn|Lent|1980}} In the Philippines, the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] set up the first press, which published the ''[[Doctrina Christiana]]'' in 1593.{{sfn|Lent|1980}} In the [[Ottoman Empire]], non-Muslim communities operated presses from an early date: [[Sephardi Jews]] established a Hebrew press in [[Constantinople]] in 1493, followed by an Armenian press in 1567 and a Greek press in 1627. The first press to print in Arabic script for a Muslim readership was established by [[İbrahim Müteferrika]] in 1729, producing seventeen works before 1742.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Watson |first=William J. |title=İbrāhīm Müteferriḳa and Turkish Incunabula |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=88 |issue=3 |year=1968 |pages=435–441 |doi=10.2307/596868 |jstor=596868}}</ref> In the Americas, the printer [[Juan Pablos]] established the first press in [[Mexico City]] in 1539, working on behalf of the Seville-based publisher Juan Cromberger; a press was established in the British colonies at [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], in 1638.<ref>{{cite book |last=McMurtrie |first=Douglas C. |title=The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1943 |edition=3rd |pages=141–143}}</ref>
=== Industrial printing presses === {{See also|History of printing}} Although the basic design of the wooden handpress remained recognizable throughout its long history, its construction and performance improved considerably between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Wooden screws were replaced by metal ones, probably by around 1550, and the tympan and frisket were adopted as standard fittings.{{sfn|Pollak|1972|pp=227–228}} Around 1620, the Dutch cartographer and printer [[Willem Blaeu]] introduced a press with a more advanced hose arrangement and a more reliable mechanism for moving the type form into position beneath the platen. [[Joseph Moxon]], writing in the 1680s, considered the Blaeu press superior to the English presses then in use.{{sfn|Pollak|1972|p=228}} Further refinements followed over the next two centuries: wooden components were progressively reinforced or replaced with metal, the straight lever bar was bent into a curve so that the pressman could swing it more easily, and the screw dimensions were adjusted to suit particular press sizes. By the closing years of the wooden-press era, the Ramage press incorporated a mechanism that returned the platen automatically after each impression, replacing the less reliable rebound action of earlier designs.{{sfn|Pollak|1972|pp=228–229}} Clapham estimates that the cumulative effect of these improvements raised the productivity of the press by a factor of three or four between the printing of the Gutenberg Bible and the late sixteenth century.{{sfn|Pollak|1972|p=228}}
At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the mechanics of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press were still essentially unchanged, although new materials in its construction, among other innovations, had gradually improved its printing efficiency. By 1800, [[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope|Lord Stanhope]] had built a press completely from cast iron, which reduced the force required by 90%, while doubling the size of the printed area.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}} With a capacity of 480 pages per hour, the Stanhope press doubled the output of the old-style press.{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=80}}
Two ideas altered the design of the printing press radically: first, the use of steam power for running the machinery, and second, the replacement of the printing flatbed with the rotary motion of cylinders. Both elements were for the first time successfully implemented by the German printer Friedrich Koenig in a series of press designs devised between 1802 and 1818.{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=88}} Having moved to London in 1804, Koenig soon met [[Thomas Bensley]] and secured financial support for his project in 1807.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}} Patented in 1810, Koenig had designed a steam press "much like a hand press connected to a [[steam engine]]."{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}} In April 1811, the first production trial of this model occurred. He produced his machine with assistance from German engineer [[Andreas Friedrich Bauer]].{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}}
In 1814, Koenig and Bauer sold two of their first models to ''[[The Times]]'' in London, capable of 1,100 impressions per hour. The first edition so printed was on 28 November 1814.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}} They improved the early model so that it could print on both sides of a sheet at once, beginning the long process of making newspapers available to a mass audience.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=130–133}}
==== Rotary press ==== The steam-powered [[rotary printing press]], invented in 1843 in the United States by [[Richard M. Hoe]],{{sfn|Meggs|1998|p=147}} ultimately allowed millions of copies of a page to be produced in a single day. Mass production of printed works flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a much faster pace. Hoe's original design operated at up to 2,000 revolutions per hour, where each revolution deposited 4 page images, giving the press a throughput of 8,000 pages per hour.<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard March Hoe {{!}} American inventor and manufacturer |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-March-Hoe |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> By 1891, The [[New York World]] and Philadelphia Item were operating presses producing either 90,000 4-page sheets per hour or 48,000 8-page sheets.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peck |first1=Harry Thurston |title=The International Cyclopædia A Compendium of Human Knowledge, Revised with Large Additions · Volume 12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9YpRAAAAYAAJ |year=1895 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |access-date=28 June 2020 |page=168}}</ref>
In the middle of the 19th century, a separate class of [[jobbing presses]] emerged for small-format commercial work such as cards, [[billhead]]s, and leaflets. The modern platen jobber descended from presses built by Stephen P. Ruggles in Boston from the 1830s and was refined by George Phineas Gordon, whose Franklin press captured so much of the market that by 1894 at least eleven firms were manufacturing Gordon-type presses. Moran estimates that between 1840 and 1940, no fewer than 120 different kinds of treadle-driven jobbers were made in the United States alone. In its development, the jobbing platen played an important part in the transformation of the printing trade, speeding the production of the mass of small items required by industry and commerce.{{sfn|Moran|1973|pp=148–153}}
=== Later developments === {{Main|Offset printing|Phototypesetting|Digital printing}} During the twentieth century, printing technology moved beyond the letterpress principle. [[Offset printing]], which transfers an image from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to paper, was developed in the early 1900s and had become the dominant commercial printing method by mid-century, valued for its speed and consistent image quality on large runs.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Printing - The 20th Century |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/printing-publishing/The-20th-century |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 March 2026}}</ref> The introduction of [[phototypesetting]] in the 1960s and 1970s replaced hot-metal type composition with photographic methods, and the spread of [[desktop publishing]] software from the mid-1980s shifted much of the typesetting process to personal computers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Romano |first=Frank J. |title=Machine Writing and Typesetting |publisher=Graphic Arts Research Center, Rochester Institute of Technology |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-89938-016-2 |pages=xi–xii}}</ref> By the early twenty-first century, [[digital printing]] had made short-run and on-demand production commercially viable, while offset remained the standard for high-volume work.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kipphan |first=Helmut |title=Handbook of Print Media: Technologies and Production Methods |publisher=Springer |year=2001 |isbn=978-3-540-67326-2 |pages=6–12}}</ref>
== Impact == {{See also|Scientific Revolution#Printing|The Gutenberg Galaxy}}
=== Authorship and reading === The printing press changed the relationship between authors and their texts. Because each copy of a printed edition was identical, it became possible to cite references precisely, and the identity and exact wording of an author mattered in ways they had not when scribal copies of the same work varied between cities.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=80–88}} For many works produced before the printing press, the name of the author has been entirely lost.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=80–88}} The consistency of the printed page also encouraged page numbering, [[Table of contents|tables of contents]] and [[Index (publishing)|indices]] as standard features of books, though all three had existed in some manuscript traditions.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=88–92}}
Reading habits shifted in parallel. Printed texts, cheaper and more widely available than manuscripts, encouraged silent and private reading over the communal oral recitation common in medieval settings, marking what Eisenstein describes as a transition "from a hearing public to a reading public".{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=129–131}} The new reading public differed in kind from earlier audiences: where a sermon or speech required listeners to gather in one place at one time, a printed text could be read alone, in private, by people scattered across a city or a continent. The reading public was therefore more dispersed than a hearing public, and also more atomistic and individualistic. Its members were often unknown to each other, and their links were impersonal ones formed through bookshops, coffeehouses, reading rooms, and subscription lists rather than through physical assembly. Pamphlets and news-sheets could reach this dispersed audience directly, allowing arguments to circulate without the mediation of preachers, lecturers, or town criers. Classical models of citizenship, which envisaged orators addressing assembled crowds in the public square, suited such a public less well than they had suited audiences in the ancient world.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=131–133}} The wider availability of printed material contributed to a rise in adult literacy across Europe over the following two centuries, though the pace of change varied between regions.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=262–265}}
By the end of the fifteenth century, editions of the major classical authors had been printed and circulated throughout Europe, and the printed book had come to play a central role in the diffusion of classical literature.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=262, 265}} Between 1495 and 1515, the Venetian printer [[Aldus Manutius]], drawing on the knowledge of Greek scholars who had arrived in Italy following the collapse of the [[Byzantine Empire]], published the greater part of surviving Greek literature in printed editions; without the press, the equivalent recovery of Latin texts had taken over a century.{{sfn|Barker|1978|p=74}} Book production became increasingly commercial, and the first [[copyright]] laws were passed.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=160–164}}
The press also changed how scholars worked. Although Latin scientific treatises rarely became bestsellers, the shift from script to print preceded the conceptual revolutions of the sixteenth century rather than following them. Ptolemy's ''[[Almagest]]'' had remained authoritative as an astronomical text for some fourteen hundred years, whereas [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]]'s ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium|De revolutionibus]]'' (1543) was surpassed in less than a hundred. According to Eisenstein, the difference lay less in the genius of individual investigators than in the replacement of scribe by printer: printed editions of classical and contemporary texts allowed natural philosophers to compare different versions of a text systematically, to identify accumulated copyists' errors, and to build on each other's observations across a wider geographical range than scribal exchange could reach.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=453–455, 462–466}}
=== Scientific practice === Several features later associated with the modern scientific community had begun to take shape in the era of incunabula, well before the appearance of the first learned journals in the late seventeenth century: serial publication of new findings, the preservation of data across generations, a shift from professional secrecy to public disclosure, and feedback between informed readers and responsive authors and editors.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|p=462}} Hand-copied medical and botanical illustrations had degenerated over time, and classical authorities had warned against trusting pictures and counselled direct inspection of nature. Printed anatomical plates, herbal woodcuts, and star charts could be reproduced without further loss of detail, allowing observers such as [[Andreas Vesalius]] to disseminate carefully drawn figures alongside their texts and making cumulative correction of the visual record possible for the first time.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=469–470, 484–486}}
=== Politics, state and church === Rulers and governments adapted quickly to the new medium. Princes who had previously relied on manuscript proclamations turned to print to publish declarations of war, treaties, and disputed points of policy in pamphlet form.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|p=135}} The campaign mounted by [[Thomas Cromwell]] in the 1530s in support of [[Henry VIII]]'s break with Rome was, according to Eisenstein citing the historian [[Geoffrey Elton]], the first by any European government to exploit the propaganda potential of the press; Cromwell co-ordinated a coterie of printers and publicists to issue vernacular tracts in defense of royal supremacy, and Parliament was used in parallel to formalize the breach.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|p=312}} The French monarchy used printed bulletins on similar lines to evoke the [[patrie]] as the realm of France and to represent the king as its personification, giving early modern states a means of conducting a "psychological war" alongside their military operations.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|p=135}}
The political reach of print provoked sustained efforts at control. A series of pre-Reformation papal and episcopal censorship measures began with the Mainz archbishop's licensing edict of 1485 and culminated in the [[Pope Leo X|Leo X]] decree of 1515, which required all translations to be vetted by bishops or inquisitors. The Counter-Reformation papacy went further: the first [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Papal Index]] under [[Pope Paul IV|Paul IV]] in 1559 forbade lay Catholics to read certain books, and the 1564 Index of [[Pope Pius IV|Pius IV]] reiterated the prohibition on vernacular Bibles. Secular governments introduced licensing systems requiring printers to obtain authorization before issuing new works, and some jurisdictions banned imported books outright.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=347–350}} These measures had only partial success: printed material crossed borders easily, clandestine presses operated in many cities, and the contest between authorities seeking to regulate the press and those seeking to circulate forbidden material became a recurring feature of European political life for the next three centuries.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=347–350}} Andrew Pettegree argues that print was particularly important in the confessional conflicts of the later sixteenth century, including the [[French Wars of Religion]] and the [[Dutch Revolt]]: in territories where open Protestant preaching was suppressed, pamphlets, broadsheets and clandestine printing became the main vehicle by which Reformed ideas reached a wider public, and Catholic polemic responded in kind.{{sfn|Pettegree|2005}} Printed literature later played a major role in rallying support, and opposition, during the lead-up to the [[English Civil War]], and later the [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution]]s, through newspapers, pamphlets and bulletins.{{sfn|Bailyn|Hench|1981|pp=1–3}}
Quantitative work in economics has tested some of these claims. [[Jeremiah Dittmar]] has shown that cities where printing was established in the fifteenth century grew around 60 percent faster than comparable cities without presses between 1500 and 1600, using distance from Mainz as an instrument for the timing of press adoption.{{sfn|Dittmar|2011}} Jared Rubin, using the same instrument, estimates that cities with at least one press by 1500 were 52 percentage points more likely to have adopted Protestantism by 1530, 42 by 1560, and 29 by 1600; the declining effect suggests that the press mattered most in the early phase of the Reformation, before politics and the wider diffusion of printing took over.{{sfn|Rubin|2014|pp=270–271, 281}}
In a survey of the literature, Sascha Becker, Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin distinguish between supply-side accounts of the Reformation, which attribute its spread to institutional or technological factors such as the press, and demand-side accounts, which emphasize the religious, political, and economic grievances that drew populations and rulers towards reform.{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|pp=1–4}} Subsequent work has refined the picture. Davide Cantoni finds that German princes were much more likely to adopt the Reformation if their immediate neighbors had done so, attributing the apparent effect of distance from Wittenberg to strategic neighborhood interactions rather than print exposure alone.{{sfn|Cantoni|2012|p=502}} Becker, Yuan Hsiao, Pfaff and Rubin reconstruct Luther's personal network from his surviving correspondence, recorded visits, and student enrollments at the University of Wittenberg before 1523, and report that 36 percent of cities with any documented contact with Luther had adopted the Reformation by 1530, against 6 percent of cities without such contact; they argue that personal ties combined with trade-route diffusion explain the spatial pattern of early adoption more fully than printing alone.{{sfn|Becker|Hsiao|Pfaff|Rubin|2020|p=861}} The press is now generally treated as one channel among several rather than the single decisive cause.{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016|pp=16–18}}
[[Benedict Anderson]] places printing in a longer arc of political change. He argues that the gradual erosion of three older "axiomatic" cultural conceptions, namely that a sacred script offered privileged access to truth, that society was naturally organized under monarchs ruling by divine dispensation, and that time was indistinguishable from cosmology, was one of the preconditions for the rise of national consciousness in the late eighteenth century. Print-capitalism, by displacing sacred languages with vernaculars and by accustoming readers to news organized in homogeneous, calendrical time, was for Anderson a central mechanism in this displacement, and contributed to the long decline of the doctrine of the [[divine right of kings]].{{sfn|Anderson|2006|pp=36, 39–46}}
=== Contemporary criticism === Not all contemporaries welcomed these developments. The Dominican friar Filippo de Strata, writing around 1473, characterized the press as a "whore" (''meretrix'') compared to the "virgin" pen, and argued that printers valued profit over accuracy and classical scholarship.{{sfn|Lee|2022}} The Benedictine abbot [[Johannes Trithemius]], in his 1492 treatise ''De laude scriptorum manualium'', argued that printing would make monks intellectually lazy, that paper books were less durable than parchment manuscripts, and that hand-copying sacred text was a spiritual discipline that mechanical reproduction could not replace.{{sfn|Trithemius|Behrendt|1974}} The Florentine humanist Niccolò Perotti argued in 1470 that many printed books in circulation were badly inaccurate; Gerolamo Squarzafico claimed in 1481 that most printers were illiterate; and Giorgio Merula voiced concern that printing could damage classical scholarship. The Swiss physician [[Paracelsus]] and his followers urged practitioners to reject inherited textual authority, repeating the Galenic slogan that "the sick should be the doctor's books" and promoting direct observation over book learning. Paracelsus himself made full use of print to broadcast his views, and the slogan made better sense in scribal culture, where hand-copied medical illustrations had been prone to degeneration, than in print culture, where repeatable woodblock images allowed observations from nature to be preserved more reliably.{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980|pp=474, 484–486}} Some critics also feared that religious heterodoxy would spread as biblical texts became accessible to readers without formal training.{{sfn|Lee|2022}}
The spread of printing also contributed to the decline of Latin as the dominant language of publication. As works were increasingly issued in the [[vernacular]] language of each region, printed texts helped to standardize the spelling and syntax of these languages, reducing their variability. Febvre and Martin argue that printing exercised a greater influence on the development of national languages than any other single factor, and identify the process as one of several forces contributing to the rise of nationalism in Europe.{{sfn|Febvre|Martin|1997|pp=319–332}}
== Printing capacity == The table lists the maximum number of pages which the various press designs could print ''per hour''.
{| class="wikitable" |+Printing speed of press designs !Design !Year !Impressions per hour |- ! colspan="3" |Hand-operated presses |- |[[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]]-style |{{circa|1600}} |240<ref name="Wolf 1974, 67f."/> |- |[[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope|Stanhope]] press |{{circa|1800}} |480{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=80}} |- ! colspan="3" |Steam-powered presses |- | rowspan="4" |[[Friedrich Koenig|Koenig]] press |1812 |800{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=83}} |- |1813 |1100{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=87}} |- |1814 |2000{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=88}} |- |1818 |2400{{sfn|Bolza|1967|p=88}} |}
== Gallery == <gallery mode="packed" heights="150px" style="text-align:left"> File:Handtiegelpresse von 1811.jpg|Printing press from 1811 File:Iserlohn-Druckpresse1-Bubo.JPG|[[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope|Stanhope]] press from 1842 File:Cccasarealjf.JPG|Printing press by John Sherwin, 1860 File:1890 Reliance Printing Press.jpg|Reliance Printing Press from the 1890s File:One of Toledo Blade's Big Presses, Toledo, Ohio - DPLA - ac45dd72060a183713cbf7f487305972 (page 1) (cropped).jpg|''[[The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)|Toledo Blade]]'' newspaper printing press File:Old Threshers Miehle Press Drum.jpg|A Miehle flat-bed cylinder press in operation </gallery>
== See also == ===General=== * [[Early American publishers and printers]] * [[Imprimatur]] * [[Printer's hat]] * [[William Caxton]], the first person to introduce a printing press into England in 1476
===Printing presses=== * [[Adana Printing Machines]] * [[Albion press]] * [[Flexography]] * [[Heidelberg Platen Press]] * [[Augustus Applegath]], inventor of the vertical-drum rotary printing press
===Other inventions=== * [[Color printing]] * [[Composing stick]]
== Notes == {{Reflist|30em}}
== Bibliography == ===On the effects of the printing press=== * {{Citation |last=Anderson |first=Benedict |author-link=Benedict Anderson |title=Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism |publisher=Verso |place=London |year=2006 |edition=revised |orig-year=1983 |isbn=978-1-84467-086-4 }} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Bailyn |editor1-first=Bernard |editor2-last=Hench |editor2-first=John B. |title=The Press & the American Revolution |publisher=Boston: Northeastern University Press (Originally published: Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society) |year=1981 |orig-year=1980 |isbn=978-0-9303-50307 |url=https://archive.org/details/pressamericanrev0000unse}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=z5JZAAAAMAAJ Google book]) * {{Citation |last=Barker |first=Nicolas |title=The Invention of Printing: Revolution within Revolution |journal=The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=64–76 |year=1978 |jstor=29781767 }} * {{Citation |last1=Becker |first1=Sascha O. |last2=Pfaff |first2=Steven |last3=Rubin |first3=Jared |title=Causes and consequences of the Protestant Reformation |journal=[[Explorations in Economic History]] |volume=62 |pages=1–25 |year=2016 |doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2016.07.007 }} * {{Citation |last1=Becker |first1=Sascha O. |last2=Hsiao |first2=Yuan |last3=Pfaff |first3=Steven |last4=Rubin |first4=Jared |title=Multiplex network ties and the spatial diffusion of radical innovations: Martin Luther's leadership in the early Reformation |journal=[[American Sociological Review]] |volume=85 |issue=5 |pages=857–894 |year=2020 |doi=10.1177/0003122420948059 }} * {{Citation |last1=Buringh |first1=Eltjo |last2=van Zanden |first2=Jan Luiten |title=Charting the "Rise of the West": Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries |journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]] |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=409–445 |year=2009 |doi=10.1017/s0022050709000837 |s2cid=154362112 }} * {{Citation |last=Cantoni |first=Davide |title=Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany |journal=[[The Economic Journal]] |volume=122 |issue=560 |pages=502–531 |year=2012 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02495.x }} * {{Citation |last=Dittmar |first=Jeremiah E. |title=Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of the Printing Press |journal=[[The Quarterly Journal of Economics]] |volume=126 |issue=3 |pages=1133–1172 |year=2011 |doi=10.1093/qje/qjr035 }} * {{Citation |last=Eisenstein |first=Elizabeth L. |author-link=Elizabeth L. Eisenstein |title=The Printing Press as an Agent of Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-521-29955-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/printingpressasa001-2eise_l3z7 }} * {{Citation |last1=Febvre |first1=Lucien |author-link1=Lucien Febvre |last2=Martin |first2=Henri-Jean |author-link2=Henri-Jean Martin |title=The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800 |publisher=Verso |place=London |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-85984-108-2 }} * {{Citation |last=Lee |first=Alexander |title=The War Against Printing |publisher=Engelsberg Ideas |year=2022 |url=https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-against-printing/ }} * {{Citation |last=Lent |first=John A. |title=The Missionary Press of Asia, 1550–1860 |journal=Communicatio Socialis |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=119–141 |year=1980 |doi=10.5771/0010-3497-1980-2-119 }} * {{Citation |last=Man |first=John |author-link=John Man (author) |title=The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention that Changed the World |publisher=Headline Review |place=London |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7472-4504-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/gutenbergrevolut0000manj }} * {{Citation |last1=Trithemius |first1=Johannes |last2=Behrendt |first2=Roland |title=In Praise of Scribes: De Laude Scriptorum |publisher=Coronado Press |location=Lawrence, Kansas |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-87291-066-9 }}
===Technology of printing=== * {{Citation |last=Bolza |first=Hans |title=Friedrich Koenig und die Erfindung der Druckmaschine |journal=Technikgeschichte |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=79–89 |year=1967 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Borsa |first=Gedeon |title=Druckorte in Italien vor 1601 |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=311–314 |year=1976 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Borsa |first=Gedeon |title=Drucker in Italien vor 1601 |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=166–169 |year=1977 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Brekle |first=Herbert E. |author-link=Herbert E. Brekle |title=Eine weitere Spur einer typographischen Werkstatt beim Kloster Prüfening im 12. Jahrhundert |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |volume=70 |pages=23–26 |year=1995 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Brekle |first=Herbert E. |title=Das typographische Prinzip. Versuch einer Begriffsklärung |url=http://www.typeforum.de/news_332.htm |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |volume=72 |pages=58–63 |year=1997 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Brekle |first=Herbert E. |title=Die Prüfeninger Weihinschrift von 1119. Eine paläographisch-typographische Untersuchung (brief summary) |url=http://www.typeforum.de/news_308.htm |publisher=Scriptorium Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft |place=Regensburg |year=2005 |isbn=978-3-937527-06-2 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Burns |first=Robert I. |editor-last=Lindgren |editor-first=Uta|editor-link= Uta Lindgren |contribution=Paper comes to the West, 800–1400 |title=Europäische Technik im Mittelalter. 800 bis 1400. Tradition und Innovation |edition=4th |year=1996 |publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-7861-1748-3 |pages=413–422 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Childress |first=Diana |title=Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |place=Minneapolis |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7613-4024-9 }} * {{Citation |last=Ch'on |first=Hye-bong |title=Typography in Korea |journal=Koreana |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=10–19 |year=1993 |language=ko}} * {{Citation |last=Duchesne |first=Ricardo |title=Asia First? |journal=The Journal of the Historical Society |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=69–91 |year=2006 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5923.2006.00168.x }} * {{Citation |last=Hanebutt-Benz |first=Eva-Maria |contribution=Gutenbergs Erfindungen |title=Gutenberg. Aventur und Kunst: Vom Geheimunternehmen zur ersten Medienrevolution |publisher=Stadt Mainz |year=2000 |location=Mainz |pages=158–189 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Hellinga |first=Lotte |contribution=The Gutenberg Revolutions |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |editor-last=Eliot |editor-first=Simon |editor2-last=Rose |editor2-first=Jonathan |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |pages=207–220 |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4051-2765-3 }} * {{Citation |last=Issawi |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Issawi |title=Europe, the Middle East and the Shift in Power: Reflections on a Theme by Marshall Hodgson |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=487–504 |year=1980 |doi=10.1017/s001041750000949x |s2cid=143805644 }} * {{Citation |last=Kapr |first=Albert |title=Johannes Gutenberg. The Man and his Invention |publisher=Scolar |place=Aldershot |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-85928-114-7 }} * {{Citation |last=Koch |first=Walter |title=Literaturbericht zur mittelalterlichen und neuzeitlichen Epigraphik (1985–1991) |series=[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]: Hilfsmittel |volume=14 |year=1994 |location=München |isbn=978-3-88612-114-4 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Lehmann-Haupt |first=Hellmut |title=Englische Holzstempelalphabete des XIII. Jahrhunderts |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=93–97 |year=1940 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Lipinsky |first=Angelo |title=La pala argentea del Patriarca Pellegrino nella Collegiata di Cividale e le sue iscrizioni con caratteri mobili |journal=Ateneo Veneto |volume=24 |pages=75–80 |year=1986 |language=it }} * {{Citation |last=Lucas |first=Adam Robert |title=Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |year=2005 |doi=10.1353/tech.2005.0026 |s2cid=109564224 }} * {{Citation |last1=Lyons |first1=Martyn |title=Books: A Living History |publisher=Getty Publications |place=Los Angeles |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-60606-083-4 }} * {{Citation |last=Meggs |first=Philip B. |author-link=Philip B. Meggs |title=A History of Graphic Design |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |edition=3rd |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-471-29198-5 }} * {{Citation |last=Mahnke |first=Helmut |title=Der kunstreiche Johannes Gutenberg und die Frühzeit der Druckkunst |publisher=Books on Demand |location=Norderstedt |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-8370-5041-7 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Moran |first=James |title=Printing Presses: History and Development from the Fifteenth Century to Modern Times |publisher=University of California Press |place=Berkeley |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-520-02245-4 }} * {{Citation |last=Needham |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Needham |title=Science and Civilisation in China |series=Physics and Physical Technology |volume=4 |number=part 2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1965}} * {{Citation |last=Onken |first=Björn |year=2009 |contribution=Presses |editor-last=Cancik |editor-first=Hubert |editor2-last=Schneider |editor2-first=Helmuth |title=Brill's New Pauly |title-link=Brill's New Pauly }} * {{Citation |last=Pettegree |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Pettegree |title=Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-60264-8 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511614613 }} * {{Citation |last=Pettegree |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Pettegree |title=Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe – and Started the Protestant Reformation |publisher=Penguin Press |place=New York |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-59420-496-8 }} * {{Citation |last=Pollak |first=Michael |title=The Performance of the Wooden Printing Press |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=218–264 |year=1972 |doi=10.1086/620028 |jstor=4306163 }} * {{Citation |title=Printing |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2006 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/printing-publishing |access-date=27 November 2006}} * {{Citation |last1=Roberts |first1=Colin H. |last2=Skeat |first2=T. C. |title=The Birth of the Codex |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-19-726024-1 }} * {{Citation |last=Rubin |first=Jared |title=Printing and Protestants: An Empirical Test of the Role of Printing in the Reformation |journal=[[The Review of Economics and Statistics]] |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=270–286 |year=2014 |doi=10.1162/REST_a_00368 |jstor=43554930 }} * {{Citation |last=Schneider |first=Helmuth |editor1-last=Scheidel |editor1-first=Walter |editor2-last=Morris |editor2-first=Ian |editor3-last=Saller |editor3-first=Richard |editor1-link=Walter Scheidel |editor2-link=Ian Morris (historian) |contribution=Technology |title=The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-78053-7 |pages=144–171 }} * {{Citation |last=Schulte |first=Alfred |title=Papierpresse, Druckerpresse und Kelter |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=52–56 |year=1939 |language=de }} * {{Citation |last=Thompson |first=Susan |title=Paper Manufacturing and Early Books |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=314 |pages=167–176 |year=1978 |issue=1 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1978.tb47791.x |bibcode=1978NYASA.314..167T |s2cid=85153174 }} * {{Citation|last=Tsien|first=Tsuen-Hsuin|series=Science and Civilisation in China, Chemistry and Chemical Technology (Vol. 5, Part 1)|title=Paper and Printing|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1985}} * {{Citation |last=Weber |first=Johannes |title=Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe |journal=German History |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=387–412 |year=2006 |doi=10.1191/0266355406gh380oa }} * {{Citation |last=White |first=K. D. |title=Greek and Roman Technology |publisher=Thames and Hudson |place=London |year=1984 }} * {{Citation |last=Widmann |first=Hans |title=Der koreanische Buchdruck und Gutenbergs Erfindung |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=32–34 |year=1974 |language=de }} * {{citation |last=Wilkinson |first=Endymion |year=2012 |title=Chinese History: A New Manual |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenning Institute}} * {{Citation |last=Wolf |first=Hans-Jürgen |title=Geschichte der Druckpressen |place=Frankfurt/Main |publisher=Interprint |edition=1st |year=1974 |language=de }}
== Further reading == * {{citation |last=Berthold |first=Arthur Benedict |title=American colonial printing as determined by contemporary cultural forces, 1639–1763 |publisher=New York: B. Franklin |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-8337-02616 |url=https://archive.org/details/americancolonial0000bert}} * {{Citation |last=Bechtel |first=G. |title=Gutenberg et l'invention de l'imprimerie |publisher=Fayard |place=Paris |year=1992 |isbn=978-2-213-02865-1 |language=fr}} * {{Citation |last1=Boruchoff |first1=David A. |contribution=The Three Greatest Inventions of Modern Times: An Idea and Its Public |title=Entangled Knowledge: Scientific Discourses and Cultural Difference |editor=Klaus Hock |editor2=Gesa Mackenthun |publisher=Waxmann |year=2012 |location=Münster |pages=133–163 |isbn=978-3-8309-2729-7}} * {{Citation |last=Crompton |first=Samuel Willard |title=The Printing Press. Transforming Power of Technology |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |place=Philadelphia |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7910-7451-0}} * {{Citation |last=Eisenstein |first=Elizabeth L. |title=The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |edition=2nd, rev. |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-60774-2}} * {{Citation |last=Fontaine |first=Jean-Paul |title=L'aventure du livre: Du manuscrit medieval a nos jours |publisher=Bibliothèque de l'image |place=Paris |year=1999 |language=fr}} * {{Citation |last=Gerhardt |first=Claus W. |title=Warum wurde die Gutenberg-Presse erst nach über 350 Jahren durch ein besseres System abgelöst? |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=43–57 |year=1971 |language=de}} * {{Citation |last=Gerhardt |first=Claus W. |title=Besitzt Gutenbergs Erfindung heute noch einen Wert? |journal=[[Gutenberg-Jahrbuch]] |pages=212–217 |year=1978 |language=de}} * Hind, Arthur M., ''An Introduction to a History of Woodcut'', Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 {{ISBN|0-486-20952-0}} * {{Citation |last=McLuhan |first=Marshall |author-link=Marshall McLuhan |title=The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Making of Typographic Man |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1962 |oclc =428949}}
== External links == {{Commons}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160606062022/http://www.chb.hss.ed.ac.uk/ Centre for the History of the Book] (archived 6 June 2016) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928194729/http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/press.html Gutenberg printing] − Photos of ''Incunabula'' and the Gutenberg Bible (1455) (archived 28 September 2007) * [https://archive.org/details/Printing1947 Internet Archive: Printing (1947)] − a film from the Prelinger Archives explaining the printing industry
{{Letterpress}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Printing|press]] [[Category:Textual scholarship]] [[Category:Johannes Gutenberg]] [[Category:15th-century introductions]] [[Category:15th-century inventions]] [[Category:German inventions]] [[Category:1440 in Europe]] [[Category:1440s in the Holy Roman Empire]]