Printing Press and Its Importance
Francesco Loli
Hist 201
May 27, 2011
Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press There are thousands upon thousands of books at the BYU library. Some of those books are newer than others; some are thicker; some are about history, geography, economics, or engineering. Not every book is in English, rather some are in Spanish or other foreign languages. No matter the type of book, it took just a couple hours to print them. It is incredible to think how it is possible to have so many books available for us, and we can have access anytime we want.
In contrast, many centuries ago books were very different from modern books. In fact, the earliest books were written on scrolls. In the Middle Age, books were produced by monks who copied them with pen and ink to study them later. Even a small book with just less than hundred pages could have taken several weeks or maybe months to be completed. A longer book, such as the Bible, could have taken years to copy.
This tedious and exhausting process ended in 1444. A man from Germany named Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which made possible for people to have copies of books in much lesser time than they were used to. The invention of the printing press was one of most notable inventions from the last millennium because it brought very important changes and accomplishments in the whole world that we can still see now.
The invention of the printing press cut the costs of books and multiplied the output. Kreis (2000) reports that in consequence of this cost cut, information was available to a larger group of the world who were excited about learning and accessing to a great variety of information. Moreover, with the invention of printing press, libraries were capable to store so much greater information, and the cost to access it was much cheaper (Kreis, 2000). In addition, Kreis (2000) reports that the most important progress of science, technology and scholarship is to spread knowledge in a very fast way, and
Hist 201
May 27, 2011
Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press There are thousands upon thousands of books at the BYU library. Some of those books are newer than others; some are thicker; some are about history, geography, economics, or engineering. Not every book is in English, rather some are in Spanish or other foreign languages. No matter the type of book, it took just a couple hours to print them. It is incredible to think how it is possible to have so many books available for us, and we can have access anytime we want.
In contrast, many centuries ago books were very different from modern books. In fact, the earliest books were written on scrolls. In the Middle Age, books were produced by monks who copied them with pen and ink to study them later. Even a small book with just less than hundred pages could have taken several weeks or maybe months to be completed. A longer book, such as the Bible, could have taken years to copy.
This tedious and exhausting process ended in 1444. A man from Germany named Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which made possible for people to have copies of books in much lesser time than they were used to. The invention of the printing press was one of most notable inventions from the last millennium because it brought very important changes and accomplishments in the whole world that we can still see now.
The invention of the printing press cut the costs of books and multiplied the output. Kreis (2000) reports that in consequence of this cost cut, information was available to a larger group of the world who were excited about learning and accessing to a great variety of information. Moreover, with the invention of printing press, libraries were capable to store so much greater information, and the cost to access it was much cheaper (Kreis, 2000). In addition, Kreis (2000) reports that the most important progress of science, technology and scholarship is to spread knowledge in a very fast way, and