Johannes gutenberg birth and death
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Johannes Gutenberg – knowledge for the whole world
In the 15th century, during the era of the Holy Roman Empire as Germany was then called, people were keen to set their ideas down on paper. Knowledge of technology and medicine was constantly growing, and there was a desire to share it. Those working in the trades and crafts saw the benefits of documenting contracts, orders and loans in writing. City and court administrations increasingly relied on well-educated civil servants. In short: there were more and more lawyers, theologians, philosophers and doctors – and they all needed books. At the time, these were copied by hand, which took a long time and was expensive. It was almost certainly early on that Gutenberg started thinking about how to speed up this process and make it cheaper.
Via Strasbourg back to Mainz
In 1434 Johannes Gutenberg moved to Strasbourg, where he worked as an entrepreneur, craftsman and inventor. He had inherited money and learned how to cut precious stones, and he also knew how to emboss and press metal. Since there are hardly any sources that rev
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Johannes Gutenberg
c. 1395– c. 1468
Who Was Johannes Gutenberg?
Johannes Gutenberg started experimenting with printing by 1438. In 1450, Gutenberg obtained backing from the financier, Johann Fust, whose impatience and other factors led to Gutenberg's loss of his establishment to Fust several years later. Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever printed in Europe from movable type, is the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible, completed no later than 1455.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Johannes Gutenberg
BORN: c. 1395
DIED: c. 1468
BIRTHPLACE: Mainz, Germany
Early Life
Born into a modest merchant family in Mainz, Germany, circa 1395, Johannes Gutenberg’s work as an inventor and printer would have a major impact on communication and learning worldwide. He was the third son of Freile zum Gensfleisch and his second wife, Else Wirick zum Gutenberg, whose maiden name Johann later adopted. There is little recorded history of this early life, but local records indicate he apprenticed as a goldsmith while living in Mainz.
Experiments in Printing
When a craftsman revolt erupted in M
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Johannes Gutenberg
German inventor and craftsman (c. 1393–1406 – 1468)
"Gutenberg" redirects here. For the Bible, see Gutenberg Bible. For other uses, see Gutenberg (disambiguation).
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg[a] (c. 1393–1406 – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-typeprinting press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press[2] enabled a much faster rate of printing. The printing press later spread across the world, and led to an information revolution and the unprecedented mass-spread of literature throughout Europe. It had a profound impact on the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, and humanist movements.
His many contributions to printing include the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the use of oil-based ink for printing books; adjustable molds;[5] mechanical movable type; and the invention of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period.[6] Gut
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