Gutenberg's Printing Press

What happened

In Mainz, around 1454–1455, Johannes Gutenberg produced his great Bible, the first large book printed in Europe with movable metal type. Gutenberg is credited with inventing the process of making uniform, interchangeable metal types; his Bible was printed in double columns of 42 lines to a page, with the coloured initials added by hand.

Why it matters

The printing press made books faster and cheaper to produce than ever before, allowing ideas — humanist scholarship, science, and soon the Reformation — to spread across Europe at unprecedented speed.

Sources

• Library of Congress. The Gutenberg Bible · Primary source