Johannes Gutenberg

This article is about the introducer of printing in Europe; for other uses, see Guttenberg (disambiguation) and Gutenberg.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg
Born	c. 1398 Mainz, Electorate of Mainz
Died	(1468-02-03)February 3, 1468 Mainz, Electorate of Mainz
Occupation(s)	Engraver, Inventor, and Printer

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1398 – February 3, 1468) was a German goldsmith and printer who is credited with being the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and is referred to as the "inventor of printing."

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "The invention of Gutenberg should be classed with the greatest events in the history of the world. It caused a revolution in the development of culture, equalled by hardly any other incident in the Christian Era. Facility in disseminating the treasure of the intellect was a necessary condition for the rapid development of the sciences in modern times.

"Happening as it did just at the time when science was becoming more secularized and its cultivation no longer resigned almost entirely to the monks, it may be said that the age was pregnant with this invention. Thus not only is Gutenberg's art inseparable from the progress of modern science, but it has also been an indispensable factor in the education of the people at large. Culture and knowledge, until then considered aristocratic privileges peculiar to certain classes, were popularized by typography, although in the process it unfortunately brought about an internal revolution in the intellectual world in the direction of what is profane and free from restraint." .

The use of movable type was a marked improvement on the handwritten manuscript, which was the existing method of book production in Europe, and upon woodblock printing, and revolutionized European book-making. Gutenberg's printing technology spread rapidly throughout Europe and is considered a key factor in the European Renaissance. Gutenberg remains a towering figure in the popular image; in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg #1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown, and in 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium.

Life

Early life

Photo of modern Mainz, Germany

Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz, the youngest son of the upper-class merchant Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden, and his second wife Else Wyrich, who was the daughter of a shopkeeper. Friele was possibly a goldsmith for the bishop at Mainz, or involved in the cloth trade. Gutenberg's year of birth was around 1398.

John Lienhard, technology historian, says "Most of Gutenberg's early life is a mystery. ... His father worked with the ecclesiastic mint. Gutenberg grew up knowing the trade of goldsmithing." This is supported by historian Heinrich Wallau, who adds, "In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries its scions claimed an hereditary position as so-called Hausgenossen, or retainers of the household, of the master of the archiepiscopal mint. In this capacity they doubtless acquired considerable knowledge and technical skill in metal working. They supplied the mint with the metal to be coined, changed the various species of coins, and had a seat at the assizes in forgery cases."

Wallau also writes, "His cognomen was derived from the house inhabited by his father and his paternal ancestors 'zu Laden, zu Gutenberg'. The house of Gänsfleisch was one of the patrician families of the town, tracing its lineage back to the thirteenth century." Patricians (aristocrats) in Mainz were often named after houses they owned. Around 1427, the name zu Gutenberg, after the family house in Mainz, is documented to have been used for the first time.

According to historian John Man, "the Gutenberg house was on 'Judenberg', the Jewish Hill, a name with significant connotations...[as] Mainz was the capital of European Jewry. It had its own Jewish academy for over 300 years. It was revered as the home of Gershom ben Judah, the 'Light of the Diaspora,' who in the eleventh century was the first to bring copies of the Talmud to Western Europe and whose directives helped Jews adapt to European practices...In the mid-fourteenth century, Mainz had the largest Jewish community in Europe, some 6,000 citizens." "Gershom’s school attracted Jews from all over Europe, including the famous [biblical scholar] Rashi." "In essence," states the City of Mainz web site, "this was a golden age as area bishops protected the Jews resulting in increased trade and prosperity."

Artwork of Gutenberg reviewing a press proof

However, beginning with the First Crusade in 1096, crusaders would routinely massacre whole Jewish communities on their way to the Holy Land, including those in the towns of Worms, Mainz and Cologne. In Mainz, 1,100 Jews were killed. "In the 1282 pogrom, fifty-four Jewish properties were abandoned and were grabbed by the rich and powerful. ...the Gutenberg house fell to the archbishop's treasurers. It was later acquired by the great-great-grandfather of our inventor and stayed in the family."

In the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church instituted the Inquisitions throughout Europe. "Secular and religious rulers alike attacked 'heretics' – a category that sometimes included Jews – with savagery, subjecting them to imprisonment, forced conversion, and often death. "In 14th century Barcelona, for example, the whole Jewish community was murdered by a rioting mob. First given shelter by some Christians, these Jews were pressured to convert. Those who did not were refused protection...[and] those of them who refused to accept baptism were immediately slain ..."

In 1348, the bubonic plague struck Mainz. Some 10,000 people, or about half its inhabitants died. As had happened in other cities throughout Europe, "its citizens sought their traditional scapegoats...[and] 100 Jews were burned alive outside of St. Quentin's Church." In 1411, there was an uprising in Mainz against the patricians, and more than a hundred families were forced to leave. As a possible result, the Gutenbergs may have moved to Eltville am Rhein (Alta Villa), where his mother had an inherited estate. According to historian Heinrich Wallau, "All that is known of his youth is that he was not in Mainz in 1430. It is presumed that he migrated for political reasons to Strasburg, where the family probably had connections." He may also have studied at the University of Erfurt, where there is a record of a student in 1419 named Johannes de Alta villa. Following his father's death in 1419, he is mentioned in the inheritance proceedings.

Nothing is known of Gutenberg's life for the next fifteen years, but in March 1434, a letter by him indicates that he was living in Strasbourg, where he had some relatives on his mother's side. He also appears to have been a goldsmith member enrolled in the Strasbourg militia. In 1437, there is evidence that he was instructing a wealthy tradesman on polishing gems, but where he had acquired this knowledge is unknown. According to Wallau, "In the year 1437 Gutenberg was sued for 'breach of promise of marriage' by a young patrician girl of Strasburg, Ennel zur eisernen Tür. There is nothing to show whether this action led to a marriage or not, but Gutenberg left Strasburg, presumably about 1444."

Inventing the movable type printing press

early drawing of the Gutenberg press in use

Among the specific contributions to printing that are attributed to Gutenberg are the design of metal movable type, the invention of a process for making such type in quantity (mass production), the use of oil-based ink, and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the screw olive and wine presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system. Gutenberg may have been familiar with printing; it is claimed that he had worked on copper engravings with an artist known as the Master of the Playing Cards. Gutenberg's method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting type. It should be noted that new research may indicate that standardised moveable type was a more complex evolutionary process spread over multiple locations.

Around 1439, Gutenberg was involved in a financial misadventure making polished metal mirrors (which were believed to capture holy light from religious relics) for sale to pilgrims to Aachen: in 1439 the city was planning to exhibit its collection of relics from Emperor Charlemagne but the event was delayed by one year and the capital already spent could not be repaid. When the question of satisfying the investors came up, Gutenberg is said to have promised to share a "secret". It has been widely speculated that this secret may have been the idea of printing with movable type. Legend has it that the idea came to him "like a ray of light".

At least up to 1444, he lived in Strasbourg, most likely in the St. Arbogast suburb. It was in Strasbourg in 1440 that Gutenberg perfected and unveiled the secret of printing based on his research, mysteriously entitled Kunst und Aventur (art and enterprise). It is not clear what work he was engaged in, or whether some early trials with printing from movable type may have been conducted there. After this, there is a gap of four years in the record. In 1448, he was back in Mainz, where he took out a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, presumably for a printing press.

By 1450, the press was in operation, and a German poem had been printed, possibly the first item to be printed there. Gutenberg was able to convince the wealthy moneylender Johann Fust for a loan of 800 guilders. Peter Schöffer, who became Fust's son-in-law, also joined the enterprise. Schöffer had worked as a scribe in Paris and designed some of the first typefaces.

Gutenberg's workshop was set up at Hof Humbrecht, a property belonging to a distant relative. It is not clear when Gutenberg conceived the Bible project, but for this he borrowed another 800 guilders from Fust, and work commenced in 1452. At the same time, the press was also printing other, more lucrative texts (possibly Latin grammars). There is also some speculation that there may have been two presses, one for the pedestrian texts, and one for the Bible. One of the profit-making enterprises of the new press was the printing of thousands of indulgences for the church, documented from 1454–55.

In 1455 Gutenberg published his 42-line Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 were printed, most on paper and some on vellum.

Later life

File:Gutenberg statue.JPG

Engraved plaque in Mainz, Germany, made in 1837. Shows him as an idealized medieval scholar

In 1462, during a conflict between two archbishops, Mainz was sacked by archbishop Adolph von Nassau, and Gutenberg was exiled. An old man by now, he moved to Eltville where he may have initiated and supervised a new printing press belonging to the brothers Bechtermünze.

In 1455, his business partner, Johann Fust, brought suit against Gutenberg to recover 2000 gulden he had loaned him, which he was unable to repay when due. "As a result of Gutenberg's insolvency," writes historian Heinrich Wallau, "the machinery and type which he had made and pledged to Fust became the property of the latter. In addition to the types for the 42-line Bible, the mortgage covered the copious stock of type which had evidently been already prepared for the edition of the Psalter, which was printed by Fust and Schäffer in August, 1457."

Wallau also wrote, "Little more is known of Gutenberg. We are aware that his declining years were spent in the court of Archbishop Adolf of Nassau, to whose suite he was appointed on 18 January, 1465. The distinction thus conferred on him carried with it allowances of clothing and other necessities which saved him from actual want. In all likelihood he died at Mainz towards the end of 1467 or the beginning of 1468, and was buried probably as a tertiary in the Franciscan church, no longer in existence."

In 1504, he was mentioned as the inventor of typography in a book by Professor Ivo Wittig. It was not until 1567 that the first portrait of Gutenberg, appeared in Heinrich Pantaleon's biography of famous Germans.

The Gutenberg Bible

Main article: Gutenberg Bible

Gutenberg Bible, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Between 1450 and 1455, Gutenberg printed several texts, but details are not known; his texts did not bear the printer's name or date, so attribution is possible only through external references. Certainly several church documents including a papal letter and two indulgences were printed. Some printed editions of Ars Minor, a schoolbook on Latin grammar by Aelius Donatus may have been printed by Gutenberg; these have been dated either 1451–52 or 1455.

In 1455 (possibly starting 1454), Gutenberg brought out copies of a beautifully executed folio Bible (Biblia Sacra), with 42 lines on each page. The pages of the books were not bound, and the date 1455 is documented on the spine by the binder for a copy bound in Paris.

The Bible sold for 30 florins each, which was roughly three years' wages for an average clerk. Nonetheless, it was significantly cheaper than a handwritten Bible that could take a single scribe over a year to prepare. After printing the text portions, each book was hand illustrated in the same elegant way as manuscript Bibles from the same period written by scribes.

48 substantially complete copies are known to exist, including two at the British Library that can be viewed and compared online. The text lacks modern features such as pagination, indentations, and paragraph breaks.

Another, 36-line edition of the Bible was also printed, some years after the first edition, and in large part set from a copy of it, thus disproving earlier speculation that this may have been the first Bible of the two.

Printing with movable type

Movable metal type, and composing stick, descended from Gutenberg's press

Gutenberg's early printing process, and what tests he may have made with movable type, are not known in great detail. His later Bibles were printed six pages at a time, and would have required 100,000 pieces of type—making the type alone would take years. Setting each page would take at least half a day, and considering all the work in loading the press, inking the type, hanging up the sheets, etc., it is thought that the Gutenberg–Fust shop might have employed about 25 craftsmen.

Gutenberg's technique of making movable type remains unclear. In the following decades, punches and copper matrices became standardized in the rapidly disseminating printing presses across Europe. Whether Gutenberg used this sophisticated technique or a somewhat primitive version has been the subject of considerable debate.

In the standard process of making type, a hard metal punch (with the letter carved back to front) is hammered into the soft metal copper, creating a mould or matrix. This is then placed into a holder, and cast by filling with hot type-metal, which cooled down to create a piece of type. The matrix can now be reused to create hundreds of identical letters, so that the same type appearing anywhere in the book will appear similar, giving rise to the growth of fonts. Subsequently, these letters are placed on a rack and inked; using a press, many hundred copies can be made. The letters can be reused in any combination, earning the process the name of 'movable type'. (For details, see Typography).

Speculations on other early developments

There are additional facts about the early development of movable type in other continents and by other printing craftsmen. The material below include a few of these speculations.

On punches and copper matrices

Such is the process that has been widely attributed to have been Gutenberg's invention, but it appears from recent evidence that Gutenberg's actual process was somewhat different. If he used the punch and matrix approach, all his letters should have been identical, within some variation possibly due to inking. However, the type used in Gutenberg's printed Bibles were quite irregular.

In 2001, the physicist Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Princeton librarian Paul Needham, used digital scans of the Gutenberg Bible in the Scheide Library, Princeton, to carefully compare the same letters (types) appearing in different parts of the Gutenberg 42-line Bible. The irregularities in Gutenberg's type, particularly in simple characters such as the hyphen, made it clear that the variations could not have come from either ink smear or from wear and damage on the pieces of metal on the types themselves. While some identical types are clearly used on other pages, other variations, subjected to detailed image analysis, made for only one conclusion: that they could not have been produced from the same matrix. Transmitted light pictures of the page also revealed substructures in the type that could not arise from punchcutting techniques. They hypothesized that the method involved impressing simple shapes to create alphabets in "cuneiform" style in a mould like sand. Casting the type would destroy the mould, and the alphabet would need to be recreated to make additional type. This would explain the non-identical type, as well as the substructures observed in the printed type.

Thus, they feel that "the decisive factor for the birth of typography", the use of reusable moulds for casting type, might have been a more progressive process than was previously thought. They suggest that the additional step of using the punch to create a mould that could be reused many times was not taken until twenty years later, in the 1470s.

possible European origins

The nineteenth century printer and typefounder Fournier Le Jeune suggested that Gutenberg might not have been using type cast with a reusable matrix, but possibly wooden types that were carved individually. However, this appears unlikely given the uniformity of the bulk of the type he used.

It has also been questioned whether Gutenberg used movable types at all. In 2004, Italian professor Bruno Fabbiani claimed that examination of the 42-line Bible revealed an overlapping of letters, suggesting that Gutenberg did not in fact use movable type (individual cast characters) but rather used whole plates made from a system somewhat like a modern typewriter, whereby the letters were stamped successively into the plate and then printed. However, most specialists regard the occasional overlapping of type as caused by paper movement over pieces of type of slightly unequal height.

A 1568 history by Hadrianus Junius of Holland claims that the basic idea of the movable type came to Gutenberg from Laurens Janszoon Coster via Fust, who was apprenticed to Coster in the 1430s and may have brought some of his equipment from Haarlem to Mainz. While Coster appears to have experimented with moulds and castable metal type, there is no evidence that he had actually printed anything with this technology. He was an inventor and a goldsmith. However, there is one supporter of the claim that Coster might be the inventor. In the Kölner Chronik of 1499 Ulrich Zell, the first printer of Cologne, mentions that printing was performed in Mainz in 1450, but that some type of printing of lower quality had previously occurred in the Netherlands. However the name of Coster is not mentioned in that chronicle.

possible East Asian origins

Main article: History of typography in East Asia

Since the use of printing from movable type arose in East Asia well before it did in Europe, it is relevant to ask whether Gutenberg may have been influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Chinese or Korean inventions of movable type printing, or their earlier discoveries of block printing.

There are no historical documents which single out that Gutenberg was aware of existing Asian printing techniques. Nonetheless, several historians have drawn inferences. The earliest woodblocks used for printing in Europe, in the fourteenth century, using exactly the same technique as Chinese woodblocks, led some early writers on Asian subjects to speculate about a connection: "the process of printing them must have been copied from ancient Chinese specimens, brought from that country by some early travelers, whose names have not been handed down to our times" (Robert Curzon, 1810-1873). Since the 13th century, with the expansion of the Mongol Empire to the door of Europe, numerous travelers bridged the distance between Europe and China, such as Marco Polo or the Mongol Chinese Rabban Bar Sauma, and numerous direct contacts occurred in attempts at creating a Franco-Mongol alliance, giving ample opportunity for the transmission of printing technology from China.

However, European woodblock printing shows a clear progression from patterns to images, both printed on cloth, then to images printed on paper, when it became widely available in Europe in about 1400. In particular, text and images printed together only appear in about 1460, some sixty years later than images alone, and after Gutenberg's invention of metal movable type.

Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China has a chapter that suggests that "European block printers must not only have seen Chinese samples, but perhaps had been taught by missionaries or others who had learned these un-European methods from Chinese printers during their residence in China."

But historians of the Western prints themselves see no need for such a direct and late connection. Rather, they assume that European woodcut appeared "spontaneously and presumably as a result of the use of paper as it had been observed that paper was better suited than rough-surfaced parchment for making the impressions from wood-reliefs". Also, A. Hyatt Mayor states:

A little before 1400 Europeans had enough paper to begin making holy images and playing cards in woodcut. They need not have learned woodcut from the Chinese, because they had been using woodblocks for about 1,000 years to stamp designs on linen.

Whatever the facts regarding Asian influences in this invention, there can be no doubt about Gutenberg's genius in putting together the technologies that eventually went on to fuel the European Renaissance.

Legacy

Recognition throughout Europe

File:Strasbourg plaque.jpg

A plaque on the Gutenberg statue in Strasbourg, France, symbolizing the introduction of books and freedom to the uncivilized world

Alsatian humanist Sebastian Brant wrote in 1498, "In our time, thanks to the talent and industry of those from the Rhine, books have emerged in lavish numbers. A book that once would have belonged only to the rich -- nay, to a king -- can now be seen under a modest roof... There is nothing nowadays that our children...fail to know." And in 1517 humanist scholar Erasmus proclaimed, "Immortal God, what a world I see dawning. Why can I not be young again?"

"As the significance of Gutenberg's invention in 1440 became ever more obvious," writes historian John Man, "it became the subject of centennial celebrations. In 1540 Wittenberg took the lead, followed a century later in Leipzig, Breslau and Strasbourg. In 1740 Dresden, Bamberg, Halle and Frankfurt joined in.

"Mainz was slow off the mark. It took the French to point out what they were missing, after Napoleon's army took Mainz in 1792. The revolutionaries knew how to value printing. A Franco-German with the glorious name of Anacharsis Cloots made a passionate speech to the National Assembly, extolling Gutenberg as a benefactor of mankind whose ashes should at once be joined with those of the great and good in the Pantheon of Paris. 'Gutenberg's invention,' he cried, 'will become the tool with which we will rework the future!'"

"French administrators in Mayence, spent two million francs tearing down old buildings to create today's Gutenbergplatz.... In 1840 Germans struggling to paste together a nation from medieval shards found in printing a fitting symbol of German enterprise and creativity. In eighty-nine towns from Aachen to Zurich, German/speakers celebrated their discovery in verses, pageants and concerts."

Recognition in Mainz

"The impact on the world by Mainz's native son," states the web site for the City of Mainz, "... is of such consequence that he is considered to be the most important individual-contributor of the Second Millennium. Indeed, he has been accorded the honor as the godfather of information technology.... and [his invention] spelled an eventual end to Feudalism, absolute control of lives by Church and State.... Literacy evolved and liberty followed. All lives on Earth were changed forever by the printing press."

"Mainz's own two-day festival was rather overshadowed.... At a meeting of Mainz's journalists and writers on 20 April 1896, the mayor presented [its] glorious vision, and the local paper, the Mainzer Anzeiger, backed him in ringing tones: 'Everyone agreed that Mainz was not only justified in opting for a festival -- it had a duty to do so.' ... [and] from then on, the world looked to Mainz, where the Gutenberg Museum became a focal point for Gutenberg studies and Gutenberg tourism."

In 1900, more than 300,000 people came to Mainz to pay homage, claims Gutenberg author Blake Morrison. He adds that today, however, "despite the shops, squares and cruise boats named in his honour, evidence of Mainz's most famous resident is almost impossible to find. The site of his birthplasce in now a chemist's shop. St. Christoph, the church where he was baptised and went to school, is an ivied ruin. His printshops have been swallowed up by a shopping centre -- his grave too."

The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz was established nine years after Gutenberg's death in 1468. According the school's web site, "With the opening of the University of Mainz in 1477, the archbishop of Mainz, elector and arch-chancellor of the German nation, Diether von Isenburg, realized a dream of his predecessor." Today, the school, with "approximately 35,000 students from more than 130 nations, Johannes Gutenberg University ranks as one of Germany’s largest universities and is the scientific and academic center of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz)."

Effects of printing on the world

Gutenberg's first publications were his famous Bibles. But he also brought out the Catholicon, an encyclopedia considered "the first item of secular literature in mass circulation," according to historian Norman Davies. Explaining the effects that printing had on the world, author Brown H. Carpenter writes that by 1455, the new presses had already raised the consciousness of Europeans... Any Christian could read the Scriptures and come to his own conclusions about their meaning."

File:Discovery channel collage.jpg

Italian museum collage, Genova

However, explains Carpenter, "the ever vigilant Vatican took notice of the printing press, setting up a censorship office in 1485 in Frankfort-am-Main to suppress vernacular Bible translations. Works by Boccaccio, Calvin, Dante, and Erasmus were placed on the first Papal Index in 1559... Ultimately, the Vatican used its own presses to distribute Bibles to the New World peoples subjugated and converted to Christianity by the Spanish and Portuguese."

Although Gutenberg was financially unsuccessful in his lifetime, the printing technologies spread quickly, and news and books began to travel across Europe much faster than before. It fed the growing Renaissance, and since it greatly facilitated scientific publishing, it was a major catalyst for the later scientific revolution.

The capital of printing in Europe shifted to Venice, where visionary printers like Aldus Manutius ensured widespread availability of the major Greek and Latin texts. The claims of an Italian origin for movable type have also focused on this rapid rise of Italy in movable-type printing. This may perhaps be explained by the prior eminence of Italy in the paper and printing trade. Additionally, Italy's economy was growing rapidly at the time, facilitating the spread of literacy. Finally, the city of Mainz was sacked in 1462, driving many (including a number of printers and punch cutters) into exile.

File:915h Johannes Gutenberg (Gensfleisch) statue, Mainz, 1 Ma.jpg

Gutenberg statue by Bertel Thorvaldsen in Mainz, Germany

Printing was also a factor in the Reformation: Martin Luther found that the 95 Theses, which he posted on the door of his church, were printed and circulated widely; subsequently he also issued broadsheets outlining his anti-indulgences position (ironically, indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed). The broadsheet evolved into newspapers and defined the mass media we know today.

In the decades after Gutenberg, many conservative patrons looked down on cheap printed books; books produced by hand were considered more desirable. At one point the papal court debated a policy of requiring printing presses to obtain a license, but this could not be decreed.

"The printing press played a major role in Europe's rise to dominance," wrote Brown Carpenter, and "the Muslim world banned presses until the 19th century, a policy that no doubt contributed to the decline of the once magnificent Islamic civilization. Chinese writing was not nearly as adaptable to Gutenberg's moveable type despite earlier wood-block printing innovations in Asia."

Other commemoration

There are many statues of Gutenberg in Germany, including the famous one by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1837) in Mainz, home to the Gutenberg Museum and the eponymous Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.

Project Gutenberg commemorates Gutenberg's name.

Matthew Skelton's book Endymion Spring explores a controversial theory about Johann Gutenberg and his partner Fust.

In 1961 the Canadian philosopher and scholar Marshall McLuhan entitled his pioneering study in the fields of print culture, cultural studies, and media ecology, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man

Johann Gutenberg has been ranked #8 in Michael H. Hart's controversial book, The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History.

In 2006, Gutenberg! The Musical!, a musical about two people who wrote a musical about Johann Gutenberg inventing the printing press, began its Off-Broadway run in New York City.

Today there is a large antique market for the earliest printed objects. Books printed prior to 1500 are known as incunabula.

See also

• Printing
• Printing press
• Typography
• Incunabulum
• History of the book
• Gutenberg Bible
• Laurens Janszoon Coster

Further reading

• Michael H. Hart, The 100, Carol Publishing Group, July 1992, paperback, 576 pages, ISBN 0-8065-1350-0

Standard biographic works on Gutenberg

• Albert Kapr, Johann Gutenberg: the Man and his Invention.Translated from the German by Douglas Martin, Scolar Press, 1996. "Third ed., revised by the author for ... the English translation.

On the effects of Gutenberg's printing

• Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, September 1980, Paperback, 832 pages, ISBN 0-521-29955-1
• Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) Univ. of Toronto Press (1st ed.); reissued by Routledge & Kegan Paul ISBN 0-7100-1818-5.

External links

• English homepage of the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz, Germany.
• Historical overview of printing at the Silk Road site.
• The Digital Gutenberg Project: the Gutenberg Bible in 1,300 digital images, every page of the University of Texas at Austin copy.
• Template:Fr icon Biographie de Johannes Gutenberg, inventeur de l'Imprimerie (a biography of Gutenberg at the Histoire et Geographie site).
• Treasures in Full – Gutenberg Bible View the British Library's Digital Versions Online

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