Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz. He started his working life as a merchant but then moved into work as a blacksmith and goldsmith. Sometime in his 30s, Gutenberg moved, with his family to Strasbourg.
At one point, Gutenberg became heavily indebted due to a failed investment in holy mirrors. It is said he promised his creditors that they could have a share in the new printing press that he was working on. It is also said the idea for the printing press, came like a flash of light, though this may have been an embellished story – added at a later day.
The genius of Gutenberg’s printing press is that it incorporated various technologies from different fields into a practical and affordable way of printing books. With financial backing from a wealthy moneylender Johann Fust, Gutenberg was able to bring his ideas to fruition. His first working printing press was revealed in around 1450 in Strasbourg.
Replica of the Gutenberg Press
The key element of the printing press was the use of moveable type printing – adjustable wooden characters (later metal), the use of an oil-based ink and a wooden printing press derived from the screw presses used in agriculture.
Gutenberg died in 1468 and was buried in a church in his hometown of Mainz.
Ironically, since Church indulgences were the first thing Gutenberg printed, the printing press was also very influential in the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther was one of the early pioneers of mass producing pamphlets (over 300,000 were produced during his lifetime) and his short theses mass produced were critical for spreading ideas about the Reformation.
Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Johannes Gutenberg”, Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net 28 Dec. 2012. Updated 11 Jan 2018.
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Johannes Gutenberg created printing press?