Drawing and writings were done thoroughly by hands before the invention of the printing press. For writing scribes were hired in the time era who lived and worked in monasteries. There was a special room that monasteries had called "Scriptorium". Where the scribes work silently, they first do the measuring and outlining the page layouts and after this they carefully copy the text from the books. When the book was completed, then the illuminator take over and add plans, blueprints, drawing, sketch, diagram and then do the decoration onto the pages of the book. Most of the books in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages were religious books which were only owned by the extremely rich and noble families, monasteries, educational institutions. It was Very fortunate that few families owned books and they were a copy of Bibble
Inspiration and invention of the printing press
Around the late 1430s, a German man named Johannes Gutenberg the founder of the movable type printing press was invented.
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During the years 1300s to 1400s, people had already developed a very basic form of printing by stamping on papers. It involved letters or images cut on blocks of wood. The block would be dipped in ink and then stamped onto paper.
Gutenberg already had his previous experience working at mint, and he realized that if he could use cut blocks of wood within a machine, he could make the printing process very fast.
Gutenberg mind was sharp and business mind and even better, he would be able to reproduce texts in great numbers. However, instead of using the wood blocks, he decided to use the metal instead.
This was known as a "movable type machine," since the metal block letters could be moved around to create new words and sentences.
From all the dates that I have studied It appears to have been invented around 1439 or 1440. Gutenberg's invention was profoundly important for the humans and it launched a revolution in printing.
Johannes Gutenberg’s invention less than 550 years ago of a printing press with movable type made possible the rapid spread of printed news. Gutenberg’s invention spread rapidly.
With this machine, Gutenberg made the very first printed book, which was naturally a reproduction of the Bible. Today the Gutenberg Bible is an incredibly valuable, treasured item for its historical legacy.
By the year 1500, there were printing presses in 60 German towns and 12 other European countries.
Religious Books
The very first book Gutenberg printed with his movable printing press were copies of the Bible. The Gutenberg Bibles were very popular, first 200 copies were being printed and sold even before the copying was complete. There been changes in the text of the Bible time by time and the Bible printed by Gutenberg’s printing machine was based on documents used in the Rhine area of Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries. This newly version of Bible printed by Gutenberg’s became the standard version and the basis for most future Bible texts.
Cost of Books
In early time the cost to make a copy of Bible was highly expensive. Monks wrote on the vellum (treated skins), and one copy of Bible could require 170+ calfskins or 300+ sheepskins.
Printing press made copying easier, cheaper and faster. Like I mentioned before the books at that were only owned by the extremely rich and noble families, monasteries, educational institutions but Gutenberg’s printing press led to higher literacy rates because books were now more widely and cheaply available to those outside of just the upper classes.
Printing press led to higher literacy
One key impacts of the printing press on European society was the spread of ideas.
Production of literature on a vast scale was far more accessible so many theologians, scientists, poets, authors, philosophers etc. could print their theories, philosophy and ideas and spread them far quicker and easier than they had before the printing press was invented.
Printing news was making people more politicized through the reading of newspapers. This change the people mentality and people thoughts because they were being aware of good and bad and it change the popular thought processes , people began to question commonly established theories and views that had been accepted in society for many years.
The printing press was instrumental in the Reformation. The printing press was instrumental in the spread of new medical ideas that helped shape the advanced medicines and practices that we have today. No idea if you are gonna read all of this but hope this helps
Great Britain was able to avoid revolution in the 1830's and 1840's because it was able to make reforms, unlike in some European counties that refused any kind of change (e.g. Russia).
