The global spread of the printing press began with the invention of the printing press with movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz , Germany c. Western printing technology was adopted in all world regions by the end of the 19th century, displacing the manuscript and block printing. In the Western world , the operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of publishing and lent its name to a new branch of media, the ” press ” see List of the oldest newspapers. Gutenberg’s first major print work was the line Bible in Latin , printed probably between and in the German city of Mainz. Thereupon Gutenberg established a new one with the financial backing of another money lender. With Gutenberg’s monopoly revoked, and the technology no longer secret, printing spread throughout Germany and beyond, diffused first by emigrating German printers, but soon also by foreign apprentices. In rapid succession, printing presses were set up in Central and Western Europe. In , barely 30 years after the publication of the line Bible, the small Netherlands already featured printing shops in 21 cities and towns, while Italy and Germany each had shops in about 40 towns at that time. According to one estimate, “by , printing presses were in operation throughout Western Europe and had produced 8 million books” [2] and during the s there were “three hundred or more” printers and booksellers in Geneva alone.
Continue reading “Who is britains oldest publisher dating from 1469 trailer” →
