Biography

2. Biography • Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz, the youngest son of the upper-class merchant Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden, and his second wife Else Wyrich, who was the daughter of a shopkeeper. According to some accounts Friele was a goldsmith for the bishop at Mainz, but most likely he was involved in the cloth trade.[3] Gutenberg's year of birth is not precisely known but was most likely around 1398.. He may have studied at the University of Erfurt, where there is a record of a student in 1419 named Johannes de Alta villa. In 1455 Gutenberg published his 42-line Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 were printed, most on paper and some on vellum. Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried in the Franciscan church at Mainz, his contributions largely unknown. This church and the cemetery were later destroyed, and Gutenberg's grave is now lost.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

3. Biography • Johannes Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz, probably in the year 1398. He may have studied at the University of Erfurt, where there is a record of a student in 1419 named Johannes de Alta villa. In 1455 Gutenberg published his 42-line Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 were printed, most on paper and some on vellum. Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried in the Franciscan church at Mainz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

4. Classical influence/development • Writing in early Mesopotamia seems to have grown out of the need to document economic transactions, and consisted often in lists which scribes knowledgeable in writing and arithmetics engraved in cuneiform letters into tablets of clay.[9] Apart from administration and accountancy, Mesopotamian scribes observed the sky and wrote literary works as well as the famous myth The Epic of Gilgamesh. They wrote on papyrus paper[10] as well as clay tablets. They also wrote and kept records. Scribe's writing tools were made of reeds and were called a stylus. Babylonian scribes concentrated their schooling on learning how to write both Akkadian and Sumerian, in cuneiform, for the purposes of accountancy and contract dealings, in addition to interpersonal discourse and mathematical documentations.[8] • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribe • Scriptorium,[2] literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes. Written accounts, surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations all show, however, that contrary to popular belief[citation needed] such rooms rarely existed: most monastic writing was done in cubicle-like recesses in the cloister, or in the monks' own cells. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptorium • The earliest woodblock printed fragments are from China. They consist of printed flowers in three colours on silk. They are generally assigned to the Han dynasty so date before 220 BC.[5] The earliest Egyptian printed cloth, in contrast, dates from a slightly later time, about the fourth century.[4] The technology of printing on cloth in China was adapted to paper under the influence of Buddhism which mandated the circulation of standard translations over a wide area, as well as the production of multiple copies of key texts for religious reasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing

5. Classical influence/development • Writing began as pictures more than 5000 years ago in ancient Sumer: a pictographic script dated before 3000 B.C., called proto-cuneiform. • During the dark and middle ages, books were expensive to produce and therefore very rare. A Medieval Bible required the skins of 50 to 70 sheep for parchment and took nearly a year to copy the text. • The Chinese had invented paper and wooden blocks on a movable type press to mass produce books • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing

6. Major Contribution • Gutenberg’s major contribution is the printing press and the Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz in 1455. His invention “used a printing press that used movable type—characters that could be rearranged and used over again on other printing jobs…Gutenberg cast his type in metal.” History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, p. 334 In the middle of the 15th century, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany advanced Western Civilization immeasurably with the development of the printing press with movable type. In the first 50 years of printing in Europe after Gutenberg, known as incunabula printing, 15-20 million books were printed. As a result, the masses became educated and birthed an educated middle-class. http://www.inkandblood.com/exhibit/overview/index.php

7. Major Contribution • Gutenberg’s major contribution is the printing press and the Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz in 1455. His invention “used a printing press that used movable type—characters that could be rearranged and used over again on other printing jobs…Gutenberg cast his type in metal.” History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, p. 334 “In the first 50 years of printing in Europe after Gutenberg, 15-20 million books were printed. As a result, the masses became educated and birthed an educated middle-class.” http://www.inkandblood.com/exhibit/overview/index.php

8. Development • Three inventions within a span of a couple of years revolutionized Gutenberg's printing press. The first is Tolbert Lanston's 1884 monotype machine. Since Gutenberg, the metal letters that compose a printed page had to be picked by hand and then set into position. Tolbert's machine allows a person to type the text, which then prints out a perforated paper with patterns of holes that represent characters. This is then read by a second machine that reads the "patterns" and triggers brass letters to slide down from a bank into position on the printing plate. • A year later, Ottmar Mergenthaler invented the one-operator linotype machine, which fuses the individual letters into a solid line (slug) of molten lead. Working with an entire line of text, rather than scores of individual letters, is much faster and produces more legible type. In addition, the slugs could be melted down and reused. The first linotype machine printed the New York Tribune in 1886. • The same year Frederick Ives invented a way to reproduce photograph in print, called the halftone process -- this involves a series of black and white dots, which like tiles in a mosaic, simulate a continuous image to the eye, with full ranges of grey. • This completed the second revolution after Gutenberg. Two other "printing" revolutions later occurred. The third revolution came about 80 years later (early 1960s) with the photo-typesetting process that creates type by exposing film onto photosensitive paper. • The fourth printing revolution occurred in the 1980s with digital printing, which made the desktop computer a printing press. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/history_knowledge/printpress.html

9. Development • Three inventions revolutionized Gutenberg's printing press: the monotype machine, the one-operator linotype machine and the halftone process. The third revolution came in the early 1960s with the photo-typesetting process that creates type by exposing film onto photosensitive paper. A fourth revolution happened in the1980s with digital printing, which made the desktop computer a printing press. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/history_knowledge/printpress.html

10. Modern Day Application • A Modern-Day Gutenberg Readies for the 21st Century • Tired of the flood of newsletters, take-out menus and pamphlets that make your mail box bulge or wind up eliminating all empty space on local bulletin boards? You can blame Paul Brainerd in part for the proliferation of such epistles--at least those made on personal computers. • Brainerd's products are perhaps the ultimate First Amendment tool. His company, Aldus Corp., makes PageMaker desktop publishing software: software that enables a relatively inexpensive personal computer to design and layout and document electronically. Before companies like Aldus, people had no recourse but to go to expensive typesetting shops or other professionals to get a flier printed up and get the word out. • "It gives people the chance to be heard," Brainerd says of desktop publishing. One person grateful for the opportunity was Art Agnos, the mayor of San Francisco. In a story that has become part of computing folklore, Aldus played a crucial role in the 1987 San Francisco mayoral race. "The mayor of San Francisco claims desktop publishing was a major tool in his becoming elected," Brainerd recalls. "As a candidate he was being vastly outspent and was in third place. No one thought he had a chance. Well, he took PageMaker and made an old-style political pamphlet. He made 250,000 of them with the last $60,000 he had. He distributed them by hand and won the election." http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9209609_ITM

11. Modern Day Application • Paul Brainerd developed PageMaker, desktop publishing software that enables anyone to design and layout and document electronically. Before people had no recourse but to go to expensive typesetting shops or other professionals to get a flier or magazine printed. Now anyone with a computer and printer can publish documents for the masses. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9209609_ITM