Spread of the Gutenberg press Global spread of the printing press

1 spread of gutenberg press

1.1 germany
1.2 europe
1.3 rest of world

spread of gutenberg press
germany

modern stamp commemorating gutenberg bible, first major european work printed mechanical movable type

gutenberg s first major print work 42-line bible in latin, printed between 1452 , 1454 in german city of mainz. after gutenberg lost lawsuit against investor johann fust, fust put gutenberg s employee peter schöffer in charge of print shop. thereupon gutenberg established new 1 financial backing of money lender. gutenberg s monopoly revoked, , technology no longer secret, printing spread throughout germany , beyond, diffused first emigrating german printers, foreign apprentices.

europe

in rapid succession, printing presses set in central , western europe. major towns, in particular, functioned centers of diffusion (cologne 1466, rome 1467, venice 1469, paris 1470, kraków 1473, london 1477). in 1481, barely 30 years after publication of 42-line bible, small netherlands featured printing shops in 21 cities , towns, while italy , germany each had shops in 40 towns @ time. according 1 estimate, 1500, 1000 printing presses in operation throughout western europe , had produced 8 million books. according another, output in order of twenty million volumes , rose in sixteenth century tenfold between 150 , 200 million copies. germany , italy considered 2 main centres of printing in terms of quantity , quality.

rest of world

the near-simultaneous discovery of sea routes west (christopher columbus, 1492) , east (vasco da gama, 1498) , subsequent establishment of trade links facilitated global spread of gutenberg-style printing. traders, colonists, perhaps importantly, missionaries exported printing presses new european oversea domains, setting new print shops , distributing printing material. in americas, first extra-european print shop founded in mexico city in 1544 (1539?), , after jesuits started operating first printing press in asia (goa, 1556).

for long time however, movable type printing remained business of europeans working within confines of colonies. according suraiya faroqhi, lack of interest , religious reasons among reasons slow adoption of printing press outside europe: thus, printing of arabic, after encountering strong opposition muslim legal scholars , manuscript scribes, remained prohibited in ottoman empire between 1483 , 1729, on penalty of death, while movable arabic type printing done pope julius ii (1503−1512) distribution among middle eastern christians, , oldest qur’an printed movable type produced in venice in 1537/1538 ottoman market.

in india, reports jesuits presented polyglot bible emperor akbar in 1580 did not succeed in arousing curiosity. practical reasons seem have played role. english east india company, example, brought printer surat in 1675, not able cast type in indian scripts, venture failed.

north america saw adoption cherokee indian elias boudinot published tribe s first newspaper cherokee phoenix 1828, partly in native language, using cherokee alphabet invented compatriot sequoyah.

in 19th century, arrival of gutenberg-style press shores of tahiti (1818), hawaii (1821) , other pacific islands, marked end of global diffusion process had begun 400 years earlier. @ same time, old style press (as gutenberg model came termed in 19th century), in process of being displaced industrial machines steam powered press (1812) , rotary press (1833), radically departed gutenberg s design, still of same development line.