How the printing press changed books
The short answer
Before printing, every book was copied by hand, one letter at a time. Around 1440 Johannes Gutenberg made movable metal type: letters cast once, set into lines, printed on a screw press, then reused. Because one set of letters could make many copies, each book cost less to make, and the first Gutenberg Bibles were finished by 1454 or 1455.
Chapters and transcript
- 0:00
Before print, every book was copied by hand, letter by letter.
Before printing, every book was copied by hand, one letter at a time, so a copy took a long time to make.
- 0:11
Gutenberg cast letters in metal, set them in lines, printed, then used them again.
Around 1440 Johannes Gutenberg made movable metal type: letters cast once, set into lines, printed, then taken apart and reused.
- 0:29
The press pressed paper onto the inked letters, one sheet at a time.
His press was based on the screw press, which pressed paper onto the inked type one sheet at a time.
- 0:49
Set a page once, then pull copy after copy. Example: 19 units of work, not 180.
In the example, setting a page once and pulling 180 copies costs 1 + 180 × 0.1 = 19 units of work, against 180 units for copying each copy by hand. The units are an example, not a measured history.
- 1:07
Around 1440, Gutenberg invented the movable-type press; by 1455 the first Bibles were finished.
The first finished copies of the Gutenberg Bible appeared in 1454 or 1455, and in March 1455 Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages of it.
- 1:25
One set of letters, many copies: that is why books became cheaper and spread.
One set of letters can make many copies, so each book costs less to make, and more people could own one.
Sources
Every figure in the film comes from these. The animation is illustrative.