Something I learned from Each one Teach one: Printing Press

A copy of the Gutenberg Bible were printed

The Printing Press is one of the largest innovations throughout the course of human history and was one of the first ever forms of mass communication.  Before the printing press, there was no way to communicate messages on a mass scale. The printing press not only enabled this, but like all major innovations, paved the way for subsequent technologies.

Experimentation and production of the printing press started in 1438. In 1450, the Gutenberg press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg; ready and equipped to be used on a commercial scale.  Perhaps the most interesting fact mentioned in the presentation was that before the printing press, only about 40 pages could be transcribed per day.  The printing press, however, could print anywhere from 1,600 to 3,600 pages per day. That a 3900% to 8900% increase in production.

The impacts of the printing press are hard to pinpoint; it invented mass communication as we know it. However, one of the immediate effects discussed in the presentation was the role it played in the protestant reformation in 1517. Martin Luther sums up the role of the printing press in the Protestant Reformation in the following quote: “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.” Now I certainly do not think that the printing press it is God's ultimate gift to humans and I don't think Martin Luther actually believed that either; Jesus is God's ultimate ultimacy gift to humans. However, as Christians, having personal access to the Bible is a huge deal, and I believe that is what Luther was getting at.

Johannes Gutenberg (pictured above) had a passion for printing the Bible. Using borrowed money, 200 copies of the "Gutenberg Bible" were printed and sold in 1455.  Nonetheless, and quite tragically, Johann Gutenberg died sometime around the year of 1468 in Germany, without official record. Not only this, but he never profited from his invention, and died in poverty. He was buried in a Franciscan church, which was demolished and replaced with another church; and later by another church.

Image Sources:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Gutenberg_Bible%2C_Lenox_Copy%2C_New_York_Public_Library%2C_2009._Pic_01.jpg

https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/3wNLhndKvdIfYgKhRq7AJxbAP3w=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-464446401-db854a1cae2641c0b4f698190c5c0f6f.jpg

Sources:

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/press.html

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Johannes_Gutenberg