First off, the new Star Trek rocks! As much as I love Next Generation and Jean Luc Picard, his quiet intelligence and the way the story develops and unfolds, the new one did keep me on the edge of my seat. In spite of knowing that Kirk and Spock and the crew would be perfectly fine, the movie still managed to make me feel they were in peril and might not survive. My Bookman and I did have to laugh though because in good Star Trek tradition, in one scene the unfortunate guy that beamed down wearing red did not make it. Most excellent!
Now that’s out of my system, let’s move on to something a little more refined, the history of the book. I have now reached Gutenberg’s marvelous invention. Gutenberg’s revolutionary invention was not, in fact, the printing press. There were already printing presses and printed books but these all used wood blocks to print. Nor was it the invention of moveable type. The Chinese had invented that in the eleventh century and used baked clay.
What Gutenberg did that revolutionized printing was invent a method of creating moveable metal type quickly and accurately. More specifically, he invented the method of making punches and molds so each letter was exactly the same and so you could make dozens and dozens of letters, say the letter “a” that looked exactly like every other letter “a” in your set of type. And because Gutenberg was a metallurgist (his father was a coin maker), he was also able to create just the right metal alloy to serve his purposes: lead, tin, and antimony heated to about 600 degrees fahrenheit.
While Gutenberg gets all the credit and fame, he didn’t get to spend many years in the printing business. He lost his presses and most of his type when Johann Fust decided to call in all the money he had leant to Gutenberg. The courts allowed Fust to foreclose and, very suspiciously, Fust then went into the printing business with Peter Schöffer in whose shop Gutenberg had his presses and who happened to be married to Fust’s daughter. Our poor Gutenberg did all the work but never really got to receive any of the profit from is invention.
The Gutenberg Bible was indeed printed by him, he did get some things off the presses before Fust and Schöffer conspired against him. The Bible consists of 641 leaves (equal to 1282 pages) and is divided into two volumes. Each page is 16.5 x 12 inches and the text printed in two columns on each page in a Gothic font. There are 42 lines on each page. A few early copies have only 40 lines and historians suspect that Gutenberg shaved the type down so he could fit more on the page thus saving 30 leaves of paper per copy (paper was expensive!).
The book was not entirely printed on the press. The capital letters that begin each sentence and chapter were done by hand as were all marginal decoration. The original print run is estimated at 180 copies. Of these 140 were printed on paper and 40 on vellum. There are 48 copies extant today, 36 on paper and 12 on vellum.
One of the vellum editions is on permanent display at the Huntington Library in southern California. When I lived there (in California that is, not at the library–how I wish!) I had the pleasure of seeing the Bible multiple times. It really is amazing. Thanks to the magic of the internet and digitization, you can look at volume one compliments of the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. It isn’t as great as seeing it in person, but all things considered it is the next best thing.
My information about Gutenberg was gleaned from The Book: The Life Story of a Technology by Nicole Howard.
So interesting! I used to work at a newspaper and they still had drawers of type, which was completely fascinating.
I can’t wait to see the Star Trek movie!
Isn’t that the way with innovators? Last night I heard on the radio about all the trouble the inventors of wifi had hanging on to their patent in the face of multiple lawsuits from huge tech companies. The vultures are always waiting to profit from someone else’s work and genius.
I nominate Fust for inclusion in the Book of Book Villians!
Poor Gutenberg! I am feeling retrospectively outraged on his behalf. Still, at least it is obvious what was done to him, and no one remembers the other two, do they?
And I will recommend the Star Trek movie to my boys – they’ll enjoy that!
Gutenberg was one of my childhood obsessions, much to my parent’s bemusement. If you haven’t seen it, Stephen Fry made a great doco about Gutenberg and his press- he visits where Gutenberg lived and worked and gets involved in an attempt to replicate his press.
You’ve inspired me to watch the new Star Trek movie! (over Christmas, when I have some time)
Stephanie, I hope you won’t mind me asking this question but this is best forum I can think of! My book group and I are a bit stumped for an enjoyable, relatively easy Christmas read. Has anyone any recommendations, please?
Typically the artisan is ripped off by the businessmen. Alas.
Star Trek is out? Excellent! /off to put it in my Netlix queue.
[...] Yesterday I talked about Gutenberg and what his real invention was. So we have the press already in existence, a descendent of wine and olive presses. And we have moveable type already in existence thanks to the Chinese, but now we have Gutenberg’s invention for creating metal type. All this is useless unless you have paper and paper has its own long and illustrious history. [...]
Daphne, how cool to be able to look at those drawers of type!
Sylvia, LOL, Book of Book Villains, I love it! And Fust is a perfect name too. Inventors do often get the short end of the stick don’t they?
Litlove, you are right, Gutenberg gets the credit and until I started reading this book I had never heard of the other two guys.
Sarah, I will have to look for the documentary! And of all the things a kid can be obsessed with I think your parents are probably thanking their lucky stars
Maggie, what about something by Barbara Pym like Less Than Angels or Excellent Women? Or there is Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. None of them are long or difficult but they are all substantial enough to have a discussion about.
Carrie, unfortunate, isn’t it? Oh yes, the Star Trek is out. Enjoy!
It’s so interesting how we say things like Gutenberg invented the printing press, when it’s entirely untrue. The story is always more complicated than that. Of course, he was important, but in a different way than we usually think. It’s fun to find out the truth.
Well, Fust may have stolen the press, but Gutenberg got all the glory. Who’s every heard of Johann Fust anyway!
Excellent point!
My husband’s father raised him on Star Trek of every kind so he’s slowly initiating me. He really wants to see that movie!
I saw the Gutenberg Bible at the Library of Congress. At least I think I did. I love all the facts you share! Sounds like a great book you’re reading.
Thanks for the reading suggestions, Stefanie!
Dorothy, it is so easy to simplify history isn’t it rather than explain the details? Unfortunately we miss out on what ends up being much more interesting.
Danielle, you are right. I had never heard of Fust until I read about him in the book.
Rebecca, resistance is futile, you’ll be a Start Trek fan and learning Klingon before you know it!
And you probably did see the Bible at LOC, I’m pretty sure they have one.
Maggie, you’re welcome!
haven’t seen the new star track yet but I plan on watching