Very Im“press”ive!

Have you ever given any thought to where your textbooks come from? What about the books you read for fun, or even comic books?

Today books, newspapers and magazines are readily available. But less than 600 years ago, books were very rare, and not many people could read. Only men in the clergy or the aristocracy were able to read or own books. Monks belonging to certain religious orders spent hours copying manuscripts by hand. By 1424, the library at Cambridge University contained only 122 books—each of which had a value equal to a farm or vineyard.

The Chinese first invented the printing press in the 700s, but it didn’t spread to Europe. The first modern printing press was invented in Europe in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. It used a heavy screw to force an inked printing block onto a sheet of paper. Gutenberg made words from individual metal letters. Each letter was placed by hand onto a line of type and locked into place. This became known as movable type.

Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer, and his major work is known as the Gutenberg Bible, or the 42-line Bible. It is believed that there were 180 copies of the Bible produced, 135 on paper and 45 on vellum. The paper copies required 49,290 sheets of paper while the vellum copies required 11,130 sheets. The handmade paper used by Gutenberg was imported from Italy.

The Gutenberg Bibles were printed in Mainz, Germany, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455. Fewer than 50 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist!

Gutenberg’s printing press started a whole new industry. By 1500, there were 250 cities with printing presses, making books more common and more affordable. Thankfully, books are all around us today. Reading opens many doors—from helping you do better in school to letting you imagine whole new worlds. Happy reading!