The Gutenberg Device: The Printing Press

Because of the Internet’s popularity here in the 21^st century, we often take our books for granted.  Sometimes they serve as status symbols; bookshelves adorned with the entire Western literary canon can speak volumes of one’s intellect - or  at least give that illusion.

But do you ever stop to think what it would be like if it weren’t so easy to obtain a copy of your favorite book?  Do you ever wonder what it would be like had the printing press not been invented?  Well, there may never have been a Renaissance.  This nation may not have even existed.  Before the printing press, literacy was basically limited to the church and the elite in society.

Had it not been for the printing press, many things would be different about our society.  Literacy, thought, and the arts would definitely have been affected by the lack of a medium through which to transmit them.  With the invention of the printing press we have also seen radical changes in the way people feel, think, and establish themselves.

We live in  “the Information Age,”  where we have the world at our fingertips via the World Wide Web.  Through the Internet we have access to news, literature, references for research, and a wealth of other information.  However, perhaps none of this technology would be possible without the invention of the printing press, invented by Johann Gutenberg.

While printing presses did exist before his time, his stood apart from previous machines by allowing for much faster printing, which led to the rapid spread of information.  His invention had a profound effect on literacy, history and the way we process information today.  In fact, his printing press was probably to the fifteenth century what the Internet was to the twentieth century.