Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468) was a goldsmith and metalworker from Mainz, a city on the Rhine in Germany. We know his life mostly from legal and money records: loans, lawsuits and contracts. No letter or book by him in his own words survives. What survives is his work: the Bible he printed in Mainz around 1454–1455, of which about 49 copies still exist, some of them complete.
Key idea
The problem
Before printing, every book in Europe was copied by hand. A scribe might take months to copy one Bible. Printing from carved wooden blocks was already known in Europe for pictures and short texts, and in China and Korea people had printed books for centuries, including with movable type in clay (Bi Sheng, 1040s) and metal (Korea, 1200s and 1300s). But carving a whole block for every page is slow, and European writing, with its small alphabet, suited a different approach: make each letter once, as a reusable piece, and arrange them into any page.
How the idea came
Gutenberg knew metal casting from goldsmith work. The hard part was making thousands of letters that were all exactly the same height, so every one would touch the paper. His answer was the hand mould: a two-part metal box with a slot. Into the bottom he set a matrix, a small copper block with a letter punched into it. Pour in hot metal, open the mould, and out comes a sort, one piece of type. Change the matrix and the same mould makes the next letter.
- Type metal: mostly lead, with tin and antimony. Lead melts at a low heat; tin helps it flow; antimony makes it hard and keeps it from shrinking as it cools, so the letters stay sharp.
- Ink: the water-based inks scribes used would run off metal. Gutenberg used an oil-based ink, more like a varnish with soot, similar to the oil paints painters used.
- The press: a big wooden screw press, like the presses used to squeeze grapes for wine or olives for oil, pressed the paper or vellum evenly onto the type.
Why it works
What he tried, and what failed
Gutenberg worked on his ideas in Strasbourg in the late 1430s, where a lawsuit of 1439 mentions a secret project with a press, metal "forms" and lead. Back in Mainz he borrowed large sums from a merchant named Johann Fust. Printing a big Bible took years and cost a fortune in paper, vellum and metal before a single copy could be sold. In 1455 Fust sued for his money, and much of the workshop seems to have passed to Fust and Gutenberg's skilled helper Peter Schöffer. They went on to print books under their own names. Gutenberg's great invention did not make him rich.
| Way of making a book | About how fast |
|---|---|
| A scribe copying by hand | A few pages a day, so a large Bible took many months to a year or more |
| A Gutenberg-style press with a small team | Hundreds of sheets printed on one side per day, and many identical copies at once |
The Gutenberg Bible has 42 lines on most pages, set in two columns, in a type designed to look like the best handwriting. About 180 copies were printed, most on paper and some on vellum (calfskin). Each copy was then decorated by hand, so no two look exactly alike.
Worked example: Copies and pages
- Multiply pages by copies: $1282 \times 180$.
- $1282 \times 180 = 230{,}760$.
Answer: 230,760 printed pages.
Story or history?
Nobody knows exactly when Gutenberg first printed with movable type, or exactly what his first printed item was. Small items like a poem and indulgences (printed forms) came before the Bible. Dates like "1440" or "1450" in many books are estimates. Historians are confident about the Mainz Bible of about 1454–1455.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 1400 | Born in Mainz (the exact year is unknown) |
| 1439 | A Strasbourg lawsuit mentions his secret work with a press and metal |
| c. 1450 | Back in Mainz, borrows money from Johann Fust to set up a print shop |
| c. 1454–1455 | The 42-line Bible is finished; about 180 copies |
| 1455 | Fust sues Gutenberg for repayment |
| 1468 | Gutenberg dies in Mainz |
| 1500 | Printing presses in over 200 European towns |
What it led to
Printing spread across Europe within fifty years. Books became cheaper, more people learned to read, and scholars could all work from the same exact text instead of copies full of different errors. Scientists could share drawings and tables that stayed correct from copy to copy. Many historians tie printing to the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, though they debate how much it caused and how much it helped along.
Common mistake
Read more: Johannes Gutenberg and Printing press.