Gutenberg’s Magical Printing Press

Today is by traditional account the date that Johannes Gutenberg’s famous Bible was published.

Most of us in the West now know he in fact did not first invent movable type, which was developed first in Korea. Although his invention was almost certainly an independent inspiration, and he did invent lead letters and his press was a dramatic innovation. These bare words cannot convey the importance of that innovation. He is justly remembered as the inventor of the complete system that can be called a printing press.

Over a two-year span he was able to produce 180 copies of his bible.

There would not be a comparable innovation until the late twentieth century when electronic mediums would inaugurate a new age, the precise contours of which we are not yet able to discern…

We should pause and recall and appreciate…