Proceedings Colloquium on World History - Waldorf Research Institute

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to do. They had to copy a book. A bound manuscript cost as much as a
court official’s monthly salary, the equivalent of $2,000 today.
An intellectual ferment was occurring in the 1400s, a group of people
who had a tremendous need to read and discuss and think. In northern
Europe the discussion was focused on religious questions as with Jan Hus
business and Martin Luther. In Italy the interest was more focused on the
pagan classics. Thus there were two different areas of interest in which a
need existed to have important papers accessible for personal use. In addition
this was a time in which scholars enjoyed arguing, disputing – in the
Church as well as in the universities. Readers were becoming sophisticated.
The class of people who were reading was becoming interested in travel and
wanted travel books and almanacs. Mapmakers started making maps but
they had not figured out how to mass-produce them. Other people wanted
romance novels and poetry. A hunger grew in an emerging class of people,
mostly urban, who wanted to have their own copies. Another interest was in
the printing of music. Before 1500 there were 8 to 20 thousand books. So
even before the printing press a significant number of books were being
made. You could get a job anywhere if you could copy a book. So travel
books, as well as guides to the inquisition, were made in larger and larger
numbers. Meanwhile the monks were still making their beautiful manuscripts.
Gutenberg, originally named Johannes Gensfleish, was born between
1397 and 1400. He was making and selling things to pilgrims who
were still going on crusades and traveling to different holy sites. He realized
that he couldn’t make things fast enough for them and there would be a big
profit if he could mass produce the maps and guides then he could really
make a fortune. So he spent about twenty years adapting the technology.
He used the wine press, the textile press and the hand presses used by the
papermakers. He adapted these three presses to make the first printing press.
He wanted to be able to print out thousands of copies from this type. He
was a goldsmith, very familiar with working with different metals. Instead of
using clay he found he could get a very precise edge on the letter using
metal. European letters lent themselves to straight lines – most of them could
become ninety degree angles, whereas it would be very hard to do so with
Hebrew or Aramaic. He worked it out and made the molds and at the same
time he improved the ink. He used oil paint and copper and lead to get the
high glossy finish which is still used today. By 1450 Gutenberg had brought
together his business skill and his skill with metals to make a significant
technology which has lasted at least five hundred years.
The first book he chose to print was the Bible in 1455. By 1600
there were 200,000 different books or editions being printed in runs of 1,000
each. By 1600 the idea of the printing press had spread not only all over
Europe but to all the colonies. Wherever explorers went, wherever traders
went, wherever colonists went they took the printing press and they also
took it to China and India.
He printed two hundred copies of the Gutenberg Bible, some were
on vellum, some on paper. He arranged the text in double columns. At first