Johannes Gutenberg

My name is Johannes Gutenberg. I was born in Mainz, Germany around the year 1398. I was the son of a Goldsmith. I didn’t live only in Mainz, I moved a few times around Germany.

I invented the printing press. It wasn’t that hard because I took some existing technologies and some of my other inventions, I put them together and come up with the printing press in 1450. What I used was the moveable type (That was totally my idea). Instead of using wooden blocks to press ink in paper, I used moveable metal pieces to create pages faster. I made the printing process way more fast. My printing presses could print thousands of pages in a day. In the old method they could only print between 40 to 50 copies in a whole day. This was a really big improve and it allowed the middle class to have access to books so knowledge and education spread in all Europe.

The first printed thing that cameo out from the press was a German poem. Bibles were uncommon, it could take a year for a priest to transcribe a bible. I printed around 200 bibles in a really short time.

In 1462 I was exiled from Mainz. But, things turned and in 1465 I received a fancy title, a salary, and more things because of the my invention.

My original Bible was sold for 30 florins. It was a lot of money at that time, but this bible was much cheaper than a hand written one.

There are around 21 complete “Gutenberg Bibles” existing today. One of these Bibles is likely worth around 30000000 (million) dollars.