Brian Krikorian
Published on Nov 20, 2015
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Gutenberg's printing press influences modern times by spreading literacy and standardizing knowledge
Ideas could be spread quicker as literacy spread and more people could share ideas through reading and writing
Photo by inarges
BACKGROUND before
- Only clerks could write
- Only rich had books
- Bibles were the only books written
- Very few people could read
- Clergies were the only ones who had to read
Before the press, reading and writing did not seem that big of a deal to people, but as it spread the importance grew more and more
Gutenberg's printing press helped spread books and literacy around the world, increasing their importance, since his press was able to spread books, like his Gutenberg Bible, much faster than a hand copy
The press was able to print books much quicker than hand written ones, allowing more books to be spread, causing more people to learn how to read
Photo by Kelly McCarthy
"Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized the creation of books and helped make them affordable, ushering in a new era of affordable books and literature." "It helped provide an economical way to share ideas and knowledge which was affordable for ordinary people." -Tejvan Pettinger from Biography Online
One hand copied bible took a scribe four years to finish, while twenty men produced 450 Gutenberg Bibles in one year, so the press produced bibles 90 times faster, and cost one tenth as much as the hand copied version
Gutenberg's press also standardized knowledge with the spread of literacy since the press could reprint text, making certain spellings and ideas standard
When the same book can be printed over and over instead of having multiple people print it and possibly make mistakes, things like spelling and certain ideas become standard
"By giving all scholars the same text to work from, it made progress in critical scholarship faster and more reliable." "Printing also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form-this was most important in the advance of science, technology, and scholarship."
-Steven Kreis from the History Guide
Many different people used to write the same book with many differences, until the press helped the spread and maintenance of standardized knowledge with the ability to reprint the same text over and over
Without Gutenberg's press, who knows how much literacy would be stressed in our world today, and their might not be any standardized knowledge or spelling
THE END
THANKS FOR WATCHING
If we continued to have only certain people learn to read, and had multiple different forms of the same text, who knows how much our everyday life would be changed
SOURCES
- Daniel Petzold Photography on Flickr(Gutenberg Statue)
- Inarges on Flickr (Printing Press)
- Kelly McCarthy on Flickr (Gutenberg Bible)
- Richard Tames' "The Printing Press"
- Steven Kreis from The History Guide "The Printing Press"
Sources Cont.
- Tejvan Pettinger from Biography Online
- "Biography of Johannes Gutenberg"^
