Design History

Gutenberg and His BibleAt the time of Johann Gutenberg's birth in

Mainz, Germany, in about 1400, books were

precious and expensive objects. Each book

was carefully copied by hand by a scribe-a

slow process.

Gutenberg became a goldsmith and

stone cutter, but his major contribution

to the history of printing was his invention

of movable type. He developed durable

metal type from a combination of lead, tin,

and antimony. Each letter or punctuation

mark was made in a mold and then mounted

in a wooden block. Each character could

be moved, used, and reused many times.

This innovation meant that books could

be printed much faster, more accurately,

and more cheaply than when they were

handwritten by scribes.

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8 The Nuts and Bolts of Graphic Design

Fig. 1-18. Johann Gutenberg. Portrait, 1584.

Gutenberg also developed a formula

for a sticky ink that adhered to metal type.

His printing press operated on the same

principles as local wine presses: it used a

large screw mechanism that pressed on

heavy blocks.

After years of secret experimentation, in

about 1455, Gutenberg's first printed book,

a Bible, was released. It changed Western

civilization forever.

Although Gutenberg was forced out of

business before the printing was complete,

between 158 and 180 copies of the Bible

were printed by 1455. Most were printed

on Italian paper; some were printed on

vellum, which is made from animal skins. All

were bound by hand. Twenty-two complete

copies of the Bible still survive today.

After Gutenberg's printing innovations

were made public, printing expanded

dramatically in Europe. By 1498, just 43

years later, 15 million new books had been

printed-about 30,000 new titles. Literacy

rates went up, and new ideas began to

spread quickly.

Fig. 1-/9. Each page of Gutenberg's Bible wasprinted from individual letters arranged to formwords, then locked into a wooden frame. Page162 from the Gutenberg Bible, 1455-1456.