Movable-type printing press
A method of printing in which each letter is cast separately and then assembled into a line and a page. The idea is older than the European press and did not arise in Europe: Bi Sheng's clay type in China (1039-1048, described by Shen Kuo) and Korean metal type (Jikji, 1377).
The European press was assembled in Mainz: the earliest surviving dated European print is an indulgence of 22 October 1454, and by spring 1455 sheets of Gutenberg's 42-line Bible were already being shown to buyers in Frankfurt.
A copy is no longer costlier than the original, and tables, drawings and observations circulate in identical copies. Eisenstein's thesis that print standardised knowledge and thereby prepared the Scientific Revolution is influential, but book historians (Johns) regard such 'fixity' not as a property of the technology but as an outcome of human effort.
Why this date
1450 per the Cologne Chronicle of 1499 (on the word of the printer Ulrich Zel); earliest firm date of European printing 22 October 1454 (Cyprus indulgence); the Bible c. 1454-1455 per Piccolomini's letter of 12 March 1455. Movable type in China from 1039-1048 (Bi Sheng), metal type in Korea by 1377 (Jikji)
What it grew from
-
Paper as a cheap writing surface
prerequisite for · Confidence: high
Printing an edition from movable type physically requires a cheap and uniform surface: parchment will not serve, one large 8th century Bible took 515 calf skins, and almost the whole run of the Gutenberg Bible was printed on paper rather than on parchment.
Dispute: There is no dispute about the link itself, only about the count of the print run: Cornell gives 165 paper and 35 parchment copies, the Library of Congress 145 paper and 35 parchment. The proportion is the same either way: parchment went into a handful of presentation copies, while the ordinary book was made of paper.
Link sources
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
the three elements necessary for printing: (1) paper, the techniques for the manufacture of which they had known for several decades; (2) ink...and (3) surfaces bearing texts carved in relief
- «How many cows were needed to make medieval Bibles?», Encyclopaedia Britannica, One Good Fact Verified 20 Sep 2026
One large Bible made in the 8th century required 515 calf skins.
- «Gutenberg Bible», Cornell University Library Verified 20 Sep 2026
It is thought that Gutenberg printed 165 copies on paper and thirty-five copies on parchment.
- «The Gutenberg Bible», Library of Congress
Of these, 145 were done on paper.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026
Paper first penetrated Europe as a commodity from the 12th century onward through Italian ports that had active commercial relations with the Arab world.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong. "Assembled from fragments" means the words do not stand together on the page: we found each fragment separately and joined them with an ellipsis.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
-
Papermaking in Europe: Xàtiva and Fabriano
prerequisite for · Confidence: high
Printing made sense only because by the 15th century Europe had plenty of cheap paper; on parchment the invention would have remained useless.
Link sources
- Carter T. F. «The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward», New York: Columbia University Press, 1925, p. 153 (1925), 153 Verified 4 Oct 2026
It was paper that made printing worth while.
- Carter T. F. «The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward», New York: Columbia University Press, 1925, p. 153 (1925), 153 Verified 4 Oct 2026
Without a cheaper material to print on, the invention of printing would have been abortive.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Carter T. F. «The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward», New York: Columbia University Press, 1925, p. 153 (1925), 153 Verified 4 Oct 2026
What grew out of it
-
Scientific journal
influenced · Confidence: medium
The journal is a printed monthly: in March 1665 the Council of the Royal Society ordered that the Transactions "be printed the first Monday of every month", and before print learned news travelled by letter.
Dispute: No historian has been found who literally calls the printing press a prerequisite of the scientific journal; the link follows from the journal being by definition a printed periodical. A caveat: the Royal Society registered priority without print as well, through its manuscript Register Book (Biagioli, BJHS 2012, on the risks of publication and priority), so print was necessary for the journal as a publication but not for the journal as a rule of scientific life.
Link sources
- Royal Society Council Minutes, 1 March 1664/5 (1665) Verified 20 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
the Philosophical Transactions...be printed the first Monday of every month
- Gross A. G., Harmon J. E. «Scientific Journal, History», Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication (SAGE) (2010) Verified 20 Sep 2026
It is understandable that letters were the first means chosen for the rapid dissemination of scientific discoveries.
- Royal Society, «History of Philosophical Transactions» (Publishing 350) (2015) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Oldenburg spun his wide-ranging network of European natural-philosophical contacts, the activity of the Royal Society, and his skills as a linguist and scientific editor into a new form of print intended to promote the enterprise of early modern science and perhaps make some money on the side. The journal appeared monthly, selling for one shilling.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong. "Assembled from fragments" means the words do not stand together on the page: we found each fragment separately and joined them with an ellipsis.
- Royal Society Council Minutes, 1 March 1664/5 (1665) Verified 20 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
The dates of Bi Sheng's clay type come from the lead of the Wikipedia article. A verbatim quotation is needed from the work it cites: Wilkinson E., «Chinese History: A New Manual», 2022, p. 1031.
Node sources
- Princeton University Library, Scheide Library, «The Gutenberg Bible» (2020) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini's letter of 12 March 1455, sent from Wiener Neustadt to Cardinal Juan de Carvajal in Rome, mentioned that the previous Fall a 'miraculous man' in Frankfurt am Main had shown dozens of sheets from multiple Bibles, all featuring clearly legible letters; eyewitnesses claimed 158 copies were being produced for sale; others put the number at 180 copies.
- Princeton University Library, Scheide Library, «The Beginning of Printing in Mainz» (2016) Verified 20 Sep 2026
This small fragment records that it had been issued in Erfurt on 22 October 1454: the earliest firm date we possess for the existence of European printing.
- Princeton University Library, Scheide Library (2009) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Three fifteenth-century sources appear to mention Europe's first large-scale printing endeavor, a Latin Bible printed in Mainz, ca. 1454-55
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, «Jikji, a treasure of the world of printing» (2023) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Jikji is the oldest known book in the world printed with movable metal type. It was printed in 1377 in what is now the city of Cheongju
- Wikipedia, «Bi Sheng» (1985) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Bi's system used fired clay tiles, one for each Chinese character, and was invented between 1039 and 1048.
- Duffy S. E. Review of Eisenstein E. L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge UP, 1997), H-Ideas, June 2000 (2000)
the new ability to convey maps, charts, and pictures in a uniform and permanent way meant that older theories in cartography, astronomy, anatomy, and botany could be checked against new observations.
- Johns A. The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making, Chicago UP, pp. 19-20 (1998), 19-20 Verified 20 Sep 2026
we may adopt the principle that fixity exists only inasmuch as it is recognized and acted upon by people and not otherwise
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.