Gutenberg's press

This is a post expanding upon our lesson of the 03/11/09 about the evolution of mass media. In the lesson we went through a timeline of the changes to mass media; I got Gutenberg's press. After some guessing around at historical dates I concluded that it was made sometime in the 15th Century. To the surprise of my classmates: I don't study History, nor do I study English (why would I, I speaks the language)


The little knowledge I did have of the Gutenberg press was gained from a documentary on it by Stephen Fry. And the historical background of piracy (yes, I do mean the kind of piracy that involves downloading music 'illegally') the term originating in smugglers who distributed 'illegal' prints to presses around Europe.

Wikipedia confirms that Gutenberg's first press was set up and in operation by 1450 and that he produced  40 bibles printed on vellum (animal skin) and 135 bibles printed on paper until 1455. His press was one of the contributing factors to the renaissance period which took place at the time. Books were cheaper and faster to produce which led to a increase in the sharing of information which in turn led to a great expansion of the knowledge of the time.
Gutenberg also invented a new type of oil-based ink which stuck better to his metal types.
The British Library has an online copies of two Gutenberg Bibles.