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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Meaning of the Renaissance   * Revival of Learning in Italy   * Paper and Printing   * Revival of Art in Italy   * Revival of Learning and Art beyond Italy   * The Renaissance in Literature   * The Renaissance in Education   * The Scientific Renaissance   * The Economic Renaissance

Page 9

DEVELOPMENT OF MOVABLE TYPE

The first step in the development of printing was the use of engraved blocks. Single letters, separate words, and sometimes entire pages of text were cut in hard wood or copper. When inked and applied to writing material, they left a clear impression. The second step was to cast the letters in separate pieces of metal, all of the same height and thickness. These could then be arranged in any desired way for printing.

GUTENBERG

Movable type had been used for centuries by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in the East, and in Europe several printers have been credited with their invention. A German, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, set up the first printing press with movable type about 1450 A.D., and from it issued the first printed book. This was a Latin translation of the Bible.

 

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Cf. Jacob Burckhardt's, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy