Medieval Invention:

The Printing Press

 Life before the Printing Press
◉ Writing and drawings were created by hand.
◉ Different materials such as clay and papyrus, wax, and
parchment were utilized to transcribe books.
◉ Usually reserved for scribes who lived and worked in
monasteries.

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 Life before the Printing Press
◉ Block Printing – a method used by Chinese monks in
which wooden blocks are coated with ink and pressed
to sheets of paper.
◉ The Diamond Sutra
◉ Xylography – a method used by Europeans which is a
similar form to the Block Printing.

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 Life before the Printing Press
◉ Development of the world’s first movable type by Bi
Sheng followed by the independent creation of
movable types from Chinese officials to Korean monks.
◉ The effect of the complexities of Asian writing systems
to the movable type invention.

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 GUTENBERG’S
PRINTING PRESS

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GUTENBERG’S PRINTING
PRESS
Johannes Gutenberg started
experimenting with printing in
Strasbourg, France in 1440. By 1450,
he returned to Mainz and had a
printing machine perfected and ready
to use commercially.

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 Gutenberg’s Printing Press
◉ Break down the conventional wooden blocks down to
their individual components.
◉ Lead, antimony, tin – few of the metals he used as an
alternative for the wooden blocks.
◉ Developed his own ink using linseed oil and soot to
affix to metal rather than wood.

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 Gutenberg’s Printing Press
◉ Development of a press that mechanized the transfer
of ink from movable type to paper.
◉ Adapted screw mechanisms from wine presses,
papermakers’ presses and linen presses and retrofitted
it to his printing design.
◉ Gutenberg Bible – first printed book of the printing
press.
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 The Aftermath of the Creation
◉ Hand-inked books were seen as a sign of luxury and
grandeur.
◉ Developed into an entirely new trade.
◉ Quick and cheap method of spreading information to
vast audiences.

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 The Aftermath of the Creation
◉ Increased the discussion and development of new
ideas.
◉ Responsible for the decline of the Latin language.
◉ Helped standardize language, grammar and spelling.

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 References
◉ Palermo, E. (2014, February 25). Who Invented the Printing Press?
Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/43639-who-invented-the-
printing-press.html
◉ The Invention and History of the Printing Press. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.psprint.com/resources/printing-press/
◉ History. (2018). Printing Press. Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/topics/printing-press

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