Benefits of the printing press
By: Mikaylee Henhawk
The start of the printing press.
From the article "The Printing Press and Its Impact on Literacy" The first mechanized printing press was invented by a German metal worker named Johann Gutenberg in 1452. He did not invent the printing press but he did conceive the idea of a movable type.
The benefits
From the article "The Printing Press and Its 'Impact' on Literacy". With the invention of the printing press, scientists were more readily to share and exchange information. Further, as diagrams were hand drawn, detailed diagrams and sketches would be time consuming and the printing press would easily reproduce copies with ease. By being able to quickly reproduce diagrams, pictures, and tables for mass consumption and readership, scholars were more eager to take the time to produce accurate and useful illustrations.
The birth of education in Europe
From the article "The Diffusion of the Movable Type Printing Press". Not many books existed from the time the movable type printing press was invented. The few that did exist were mostly children's stories or medical information.The printing press's speedy takeoff caused the price of reading materials and documents to drop rapidly. Before the printing press, mostly all books were written in Latin, and the clergy and higher classes were hugely the ones to be literate at all. Once the middle class was able to afford reading material, the demand for books in different languages rose. The common people now had the drive to learn to read and seek education, which led to the birth of a culture that encouraged knowledge.
Where Columbus's letter spread
From the article "The Diffusion of Columbus's Letter through Europe, 1493-1497" Christopher Columbus's 1493 announcement of the success of his voyage westward across the Atlantic Ocean quickly became one of the earliest 'best sellers' of European publishing. No less than eleven editions were published in 1493! They were issued across western Europe, in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Six more editions were published in 1494- 1497.