The Printing Press
Movable-type printing in mid-15th-century Europe made books cheaper and spread ideas faster than ever before.
- Place
- Mainz, Germany
- Date
- c. 1440s – 1450s
The invention
Johannes Gutenberg combined metal movable type, oil-based ink and a screw press. His Bible, completed around 1455, showed what the method could do. Movable type had already been used earlier in East Asia.
Consequences
Within decades, presses operated across Europe, fuelling the Reformation, the scientific revolution and mass literacy.