Johann Gutenberg; The Inventor of Printing Press

Image a world without books, newspapers, magazines and all other printed material we take for granted today. People had none of these things before Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the fifteenth century. Although there were a few books available at that time, most were people did not have access to them. Each book was handwritten by monks and it took months to produce a single copy. The books they produced were so rare and precious that they were locked away in monastery libraries.

Gutenberg was born in the German town of Mainz in 1397 where his father was the master of the Mint. The young boy was fascinated by the way the goldsmiths stamped letters and figures on to coins. Eventually, he became a skilled metal worker himself.

Gutenberg was also interested in the hand written books in the monastery library. He would spend hours poring over them and watching the monks laboriously copying the scripts. As watched, an idea came to him. Could a metalwork process be used to produce words on a pages. Gutenberg’s idea was to cut the letters of the alphabet on individual blocks of metal which could then be moved round to form words. He invented a printing press in which metal letters were fitted into a frame to make up the words on a page.

Gutenberg was a poor man and he needed money to develop his idea. Therefore, he agreed to proposal put to him by a cunning lawyer named Johann Fust. Fust offered to pay for the printing press, ink and papers Gutenberg needed if he could become Gutenberg’s partner.

In 145, Fust printed 300 copies of the famous Gutenberg Bible. This was the start of book publishing and should have made Gutenberg rich and famous. But Fust was greedy, and decided to get rid of his partner. He demanded his money back. Gutenberg could not pay, so Fust seized his equipment and took over the business. Gutenberg did not earn any money from his invention and died penniless twelve years later