ORIGIN OF THE PRINTING PRESS

The printing press is a device that enables for the production of uniform printed matter, mainly text within the form of books, newspapers and pamphlets, and it was created in China. BI SHENG and WANG CHEN are considered the initial inventors of printing press. The press revolutionized society there before being further developed in Europe within the 15th Century by Gutenberg and his invention of the Gutenberg press and after it took time in adaptation in the ottoman empire and other parts of the world.

WHEN WAS THE PRINTING PRESS INVENTED?

In reality, nobody knows when the first printing press was invented or who invented it, but the oldest known printed text originated in China during Tang Dynasty and the first millennium A.D.
The Diamond Sutra is the one of the oldest Buddhist books belongs to Dunhuang China. It belongs around 868 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty. It is said to be the oldest known printed book. The Diamond Sutra was created with a method known as block printing, that type of method utilized panels of hand-carved wood blocks in reverse.

Some other texts are still existing from Dunhuang as well, including a printed calendar from around 877 A.D., a vocabulary guide, mathematic charts, etiquette instruction, funeral and wedding guides, dictionaries and almanacs children’s educational material.

It was during this period of early printing that rolled-up scrolls began to be replaced by book-formatted texts. Woodblock printing was also used in Korea and Japan at the time, and metal block printing was also developed at some point during that period, typically for Buddhist and Taoist texts.

BI SHENG INVENTOR OF THE MOVEABLE TYPE PRINTING

Moveable type, which replaced panels of printing blocks with moveable individual letters that might be reused. this method was invented by Bi Sheng, from Yingshan, Hubei, China, who lived roughly from 970 to 1051 A.D. the primary moveable type was carved into clay and baked into hard blocks that were then arranged onto an iron frame that was pressed against an iron plate. 

The earliest mention of Bi Sheng’s press is within the book Dream Pool Essays, written in 1086 by scientist Shen Kuo, who noted that his nephews came into possession of Bi Sheng’s typefaces after his death. 

Shen Kuo explained that Bi Sheng did not use wood because the texture is inconsistent and absorbs moisture too easily, and also presents a problem of sticking within the ink. The baked clay cleaned-up easily and better for reuse. within the era of the Southern Sung dynasty, which ruled from 1127 to 1279 A.D., books had become prevalent in society and helped create a literate and scholarly class of citizens who had the capabilities to become civil servants. Massive printed book collections also became a standing symbol for the rich and wealthy class.

WANG CHEN

The wood style of the printing method came again in 1297 when Wang Chen Ching-te magistrate printed a treatise on agriculture and farming practices called Nung Shu. Wang Chen devised a process to make the wood more durable and precise. He then created a revolving table for typesetters to rearrange with more efficiency, which led to greater speed in printing. Nung Shu is taken into account the world’s first mass-produced book. it had been exported to Europe and, coincidentally, documented many Chinese inventions that are traditionally attributed to Europeans. Wang Chen’s method of woodblock type continued to be used by printers in China. 

PRINTING PRESS IN EUROPE AND JOHANNES GUTENBERG

In Europe, the printing machine did not appear until 150 years after Bi Sheng and Wang Chen’s innovation. Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany and he was a Goldsmith and inventor when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in the year of 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, and he had a printer perfected and prepared to use commercially.


GUTENBERG PRESS

Integral to Gutenberg’s design was replacing wood with metal and printing blocks with each letter, creating the EU version of moveable type or we will say that Gutenberg was the founding father of the European version of moveable type of printing.

In order to make the kind available in large quantities and to different stages of printing, Gutenberg applied the concept of replica casting, which saw letters created in reverse in brass then replicas made of these molds by pouring molten lead.

Researchers have speculated that Gutenberg actually used a sand-casting system that uses carved sand to make the metal molds. The letters were fashioned to suit together uniformly to make level lines of letters and consistent columns on flat media.

Gutenberg’s process wouldn't have worked as seamlessly because it did if he had not made his own ink, devised to affix to metal instead of wood. Gutenberg was also able to perfect a technique for flattening printing paper to be used by employing a winepress, traditionally want to press grapes for wine and olives for oil, retrofitted into his press design.

PETER SCHOFFER

Peter Schoffer used Gutenberg’s printing press as soon as it was acquired by him, and he is considered to be a technically better and good printer and typographer than Gutenberg. Within two years of seizing Gutenberg’s press, he produced an acclaimed version of The Book of Psalms that featured a three-color title page and varying types within the book.

One of the notable details about this edition is the inclusion of a colophon for the very first time in history. A colophon is the part of a book that details publication information. Only ten copies of this edition of The Book of Psalms are known to still exist.

PRINTING SPREADS THROUGH EUROPE

The spread of printing as a trade benefited from workers in Germany who had helped Gutenberg in his early printing experiments and so went on to become printers who taught the trade to others. After Germany, Italy became the subsequent recipient of Gutenberg’s invention when the press was delivered to the country in 1465. By 1470, Italian printers began to form a successful trade in printed matter. German printers were invited to line up presses at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1470, and also the librarian there chose books to be printed, mostly textbooks, for the scholars. By 1476, other German printers had moved to Paris and founded private companies. Spain welcomed German printers in 1473 in Valencia, spreading to Barcelona in 1475. In 1495, Portugal invited printers to Lisbon. Gutenberg’s invention was dropped at England in 1476 by William Caxton, an Englishman who had lived in Bruges, Belgium, for years. Caxton visited Cologne to learn to print in 1471 so as to line up a press in Bruges and publish his own translations of varied works. After returning to England, he founded a press in Westminster Abbey, where he worked as a printer for the monarchy until his death in 1491.