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Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg

right Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1398 – c. February 3, 1468) was a German metal-worker and inventor who achieved fame for his contributions to the technology of printing during 1448, including a type metal alloy and oil-based inks, a mould for casting type accurately, and a new kind of printing press based on presses used in wine-making. Tradition credits him with inventing movable type in Europe -- an improvement on the block printing already in use there. By combining these elements into a production system, he allowed for the rapid printing of written materials, and an information explosion in Renaissance Europe. Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz, as the son of a merchant named Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden, who adopted the surname "zum Gutenberg" after the name of the neighborhood where the family had moved.

Printing

Block printing, whereby individual sheets of paper were pressed into wooden blocks with the text and illustrations carved in, was first recorded in Chinese history, and was in use in East Asia long before Gutenberg. By the 12th and 13th century many Arabic and Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of printed books. The Koreans and Chinese knew about movable metal types at the time, but arising from the complexity of the Chinese writing system, movable type printing wasn't as widely used as that of Renaissance Europe. It is not clear whether Gutenberg knew of these existing techniques or invented them independently, though the former is considered unlikely because of the substantial differences in technique. Some also claim the Dutchman Laurens Coster as the first European to invent movable type. Gutenberg certainly introduced efficient methods into book production, leading to a boom in the production of texts in Europe -- in large part, owing to the popularity of the Gutenberg Bibles, the first mass-produced work, starting on February 23 1455. Even so, Gutenberg was a poor businessman, and made little money from his printing system. Gutenberg began experimenting with metal typography after he had moved from his native town of Mainz to Strassburg (then in Germany, now Strasbourg, France) around 1430. Knowing that wood-block type involved a great deal of time and expense to reproduce, because it had to be hand carved, Gutenberg concluded that metal type could be reproduced much more quickly once a single mould had been fashioned. His initial efforts enabled him to mass-produce indulgences -- printed slips of paper sold by the Catholic Church to remit temporal punishments in purgatory for sins committed in this life, for those wealthy enough to afford indulgences. This, in part, led to Martin Luther's critical response to indulgences.

The Bible

In 1455, Gutenberg demonstrated the power of the printing press by selling copies of a two-volume Bible (Biblia Sacra) for 300 florins each. This was the equivalent of approximately three years' wages for an average clerk, but it was significantly cheaper than a handwritten Bible that could take a single monk 20 years to transcribe. The one copy of the Biblia Sacra dated 1455 went to Paris, and was dated by the binder. [http://prodigi.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/search.asp View the Gutenberg Bible]

Debt

Johann Fust extended Gutenberg money to allow him to carry out his work. The money Gutenberg earned at the fair was not enough to repay Fust for his investments. Fust sued, and the court's ruling not only effectively bankrupted Gutenberg, but it awarded control of the type used in his Bible, plus much of the printing equipment, to Fust. So, while Gutenberg ran a print shop until shortly before his death in Mainz in 1468, Fust became the first printer to publish a book with his name on it. Gutenberg was subsidized by the Archbishop of Mainz until his death. Gutenberg was also known to spend what little money he had on alcohol, so the Archbishop arranged for him to be paid in food and lodging, instead of coin. [http://www.http://prodigi.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/search.asp View the Gutenberg Bible]

Gutenberg Bibles

Johann Fust]] The Gutenberg Bibles surviving today are sometimes called the oldest surviving books printed with movable type -- although actually, the oldest such surviving book was published in Korea in 1377. However, it is still notable, in that the print technology that produced the Gutenberg Bible marks the beginning of a cultural revolution unlike any that followed the development of print culture in Asia. As of 2003, the Gutenberg Bible census includes 11 complete copies on vellum, 1 copy of the New Testament only on vellum, 48 substantially complete integral copies on paper, with another divided copy on paper, and an illuminated page (the Bagford fragment). The Gutenberg Bible lacks many print features that modern readers are accustomed to, such as pagination, word spacing, indentations, and paragraph breaks.

Other printed works

The Bible was not Gutenberg's first printed work, for he produced approximately two dozen editions of Ars Minor, a portion of Aelius Donatus's schoolbook on Latin grammar. The first edition is believed to have been printed between 1451 and 1452.

Legacy

Although Gutenberg was financially unsuccessful in his lifetime, his invention spread quickly, and news and books began to travel across Europe much faster than before. It fed the growing Renaissance, and since it greatly facilitated scientific publishing, it was a major catalyst for the later scientific revolution. The ability to produce many copies of a new book, and the appearance of Greek and Latin works in printed form was a major factor in the Reformation. Literacy also increased dramatically as a result. Gutenberg's inventions are sometimes considered the turning point from the Mediaeval Era to the Early Modern Period. The term incunabulum refers to any western printed book produced between the first work of Gutenberg and the end of the year 1500. There are many statues of Gutenberg in Germany -- one of the more famous being a work by Thorvaldsen, in Mainz, home to the Gutenberg Museum. The Gutenberg Galaxy and Project Gutenberg also commemorate Gutenberg's name.

External links

- [http://www.gutenberg-museum.de?language=e English Homepage of the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz / Germany]
- [http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/diamond.html BL.uk] - 'Diamond Sutra' (world’s oldest surviving complete dated printed book, circa AD 868)
- [http://www.silk-road.com/artl/printing.shtml Silk-Road.com] - 'Printing' (historical overview of printing)
- [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/project/ UTexas.edu] - 'The Digital Gutenberg Project' (the Gutenberg Bible in 1,300 digital images, every page of University of Texas copy)
- [http://histoireetgeographie.free.fr/index.php?2004/12/07/41-biographie-de-johannes-gutenberg-inventeur-de-limprimerie HistoireetGeographie.free.fr] - 'Biographie de Johannes Gutenberg, inventeur de l'Imprimerie' (a French biography of Gutenberg)

1398

Events

- Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland destroyed.
- Construction of the Stecknitz Canal as one of the oldest artificial waterways of the world.
- Timur arrived on the bank of the Indus River, and proceeded to sack Delhi.
- The Teutonic Order occupies the island of Gotland.

Births

- February 25 - Xuande Emperor of China (died 1435)
- August 19 - Marqués de Santillana, Spanish poet (died 1458)
- Spytek z Melsztyna, Polish nobleman (died 1439)

Deaths

- January 31 - Emperor Suko of Japan (born 1334)
- February 3 - John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (born 1340)
- March 24 - Margaret Plantagenet, Duchess of Norfolk
- June 24 - Hongwu Emperor of China (born 1328)
- July 20 - Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the throne of England (born 1374)
- September 9 - James I of Cyprus (born 1334)
- Jeong Dojeon, Korean philosopher
- Blanche d'Evreux, French princess (born 1333) Category:1398 ko:1398년

February 3

February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 331 days remaining, (332 in leap years). In the Northern hemisphere, there are 88 days in winter (in a non-leap year). We are considered halfway through winter on February 3.

Events

- 1451 - Murad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Mehmed II.
- 1488 - Bartholomeu Diaz of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, becoming the first known European to travel this far south.
- 1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
- 1783 - American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
- 1787 - Shays' Rebellion is crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.
- 1809 - Illinois Territory is created.
- 1815 - The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland).
- 1867 - Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan.
- 1870 - The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
- 1900 - Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky. Former-Secretary of State Caleb Powers was later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebel.
- 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.
- 1916 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
- 1917 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long).
- 1931 - The Napier earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
- 1941 - World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.
- 1944 - United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
- 1947 - Percival Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House and Senate press gallery.
- 1951 - Dick Button wins the American figure skating championship for the fourth consecutive time.
- 1952 - The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida.
- 1957 - Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
- 1959 - The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.
- 1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
- 1967 - Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
- 1969 - In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
- 1972 - The first Winter Olympics to be held in Asia open in Sapporo, Japan.
- 1984 - Space Shuttle Challenger First untethered spacewalk.
- 1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.
- 1989 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.
- 1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
- 1998 - Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
- 1999 - In Jammu & Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.
- 2002 - Super Bowl XXXVI: The New England Patriots defeat the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, to win their first Super Bowl championship.
- 2008 - Super Bowl XLII will take place from the new Arizona Cardinals stadium currently under construction in Glendale, Arizona.

Births

- 1338 - Jeanne de Bourbon, queen of Charles V of France (d. 1378)
- 1677 - Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
- 1690 - Richard Rawlinson, English minister and antiquarian (d. 1755)
- 1721 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
- 1754 - George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (d. 1832)
- 1809 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
- 1811 - Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
- 1821 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)
- 1830 - Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
- 1842 - Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)
- 1859 - Hugo Junkers, German industrialist and aircraft designer (d. 1935)
- 1862 - James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)
- 1874 - Gertrude Stein, American writer and patron of the arts (d. 1946)
- 1887 - Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)
- 1893 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- 1894 - Norman Rockwell, American artist, illustrator (d. 1978)
- 1898 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
- 1899 - Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)
- 1904 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
- 1904 - Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
- 1907 - James Michener, American author (d. 1997)
- 1909 - Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- 1911 - Robert Earl Jones, American actor
- 1918 - Joey Bishop, American comedian and actor
- 1918 - Helen Stephens, American runner
- 1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician
- 1925 - John Fiedler, American voice actor
- 1926 - Shelley Berman, American comedian
- 1927 - Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer
- 1930 - Gillian Ayres, English painter
- 1932 - Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- 1933 - Paul Sarbanes, U.S. Senator
- 1938 - Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1939 - Michael Cimino, American film director
- 1940 - Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- 1941 - Neil Bogart, music company executive (d. 1982)
- 1943 - Blythe Danner, American actress
- 1945 - Bob Griese, American football player
- 1947 - Paul Auster, American novelist
- 1947 - Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)
- 1948 - Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1950 - Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- 1950 - Pamela Franklin, American actress
- 1952 - Fred Lynn, baseball player
- 1955 - Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
- 1955 - Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist
- 1956 - Nathan Lane, American actor
- 1956 - Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
- 1958 - N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist
- 1959 - Thomas Calabro, American actor
- 1960 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)
- 1961 - Keith Gordon, American actor and director
- 1965 - Maura Tierney, American actress
- 1970 - Warwick Davis, British actor
- 1971 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- 1972 - Mart Poom, Estonian soccer player
- 1974 - Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress and singer
- 1976 - Isla Fisher, Australian actress

Deaths

- 619 - Laurence of Canterbury, second Archbishop of Canterbury
- 699 - Saint Werburgh
- 1014 - King Sweyn I of Denmark
- 1116 - King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
- 1399 - John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
- 1428 - Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
- 1451 - Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
- 1468 - Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher
- 1566 - George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
- 1619 - Henry Brooke, 8th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)
- 1802 - Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman and writer (b. 1723)
- 1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
- 1889 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
- 1924 - Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)
- 1956 - Émile Borel, French mathematician, politician, statesman, and resistance figher (b. 1871)
- 1959 - Killed in a private plane crash:
- The Big Bopper, American singer (b. 1930)
- Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- 1960 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
- 1964 - Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)
- 1985 - Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
- 1989 - John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and writer (b. 1929)
- 1991 - Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1996 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1926)
- 1998 - Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
- 2000 - Richard Kleindienst, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2003 - Lana Clarkson, American actress (murdered) (b. 1962)
- 2003 - Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (b. 1926)
- 2005 - Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1903)
- 2005 - Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist (b. 1904)
- 2005 - Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963)

Holidays and observances

- Saint Blaise Roman Catholics visit churches to have their throats blessed.
- Boy Scout Sunday
- Feast day of Saint Werburgh
- Japan - the festival of Setsubun before spring
- Mozambique - Heroes' Day
- United States - Four Chaplains Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050203.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 2 - February 4 - January 3 - March 3 -- listing of all days February 03 ko:2월 3일 ms:3 Februari ja:2月3日 simple:February 3 th:3 กุมภาพันธ์

Holy Roman Empire

:This page is about the Germanic empire. For the ancient empire centred on Rome, see Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation , Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicae, see names and designations of the empire) was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun (843), it lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. By the 18th century, it consisted of the larger part of modern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as large parts of modern Poland and small parts of the Netherlands. Previously, it had included all of the Netherlands and Switzerland, and parts of modern France and Italy. In the 18th century, Voltaire ridiculed its nomenclature by saying that the Holy Roman Empire was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".

Character of the empire

Empire The Holy Roman Empire was an institution that is unique in world history and therefore difficult to grasp. To understand what it was, it might be helpful to assess first what it was not.
- It was never a nation state. Despite the German ethnicity of most of its rulers and subjects, from the very beginning many ethnicities constituted the Holy Roman Empire. Many of its most important noble families and appointed officials came from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and Slovenia, as well as eastern France, northern Italy and western Poland. Its languages thus comprised not only German and its many dialects and derivatives, but many Slavic languages and the languages which became modern French and Italian. Furthermore, its division into territories ruled by numerous secular and ecclesiastical princes, prelates, counts, imperial knights, and free cities made it, in the early modern period at least, far less cohesive than the emerging modern states around it.
- However, during most of its time it was more than a mere confederation. The concept of the Reich not only included the government of a specific territory, but had strong Christian religious connotations (hence the holy prefix). Until 1508, German Kings were not considered Emperors of the Reich until the Pope had formally crowned them as such. The Reich can thus best be described as a cross between a state and a religious confederation.

Names and designations of the empire

The Holy Roman Empire was an attempt to resurrect the Western Roman Empire in western Europe, which was established in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, though the empire and the imperial office did not become formalized for some decades. Charlemagne went on to adopt the title 'Augustus' from earlier Roman times. The name of the Empire in different languages:
- German: Heiliges Römisches Reich (later: Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation)
- Italian: Sacro Romano Impero
- Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium
- Czech: Svatá říše římská (later: Svatá říše římská národa německého)
- French: Saint Empire Romain Germanique
- Spanish: Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico
- Portuguese: Sacro Império Romano-Germânico
- Polish: Święte Cesarstwo Rzymskie Narodu Niemieckiego
- Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk
- Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo
- Serbian: Sveto rimsko carstvo nemačke narodnosti
- Hungarian: Német-Római Császárság
- Russian: Священная Римская Империя (later: Священная Римская Империя немецкой нации) Contemporary terminology for the Empire varied greatly over the centuries. The term Roman Empire was used in 1034 to denote the lands under Conrad II, and Holy Empire in 1157. The use of the term Roman Emperor to refer to Northern European rulers started earlier with Otto II (Emperor 973–983). Emperors from Charlemagne (c. 742 or 747 – 814) to Otto I the Great (Emperor 962–973) had simply used the phrase Imperator Augustus ("August Emperor"). The precise term Holy Roman Empire dates from 1254; the final version Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation) appears in 1512, after several variations in the late 15th century. Contemporaries did not quite know how to describe this entity either. In his famous 1667 description De statu imperii Germanici, published under the alias Severinus de Monzambano, Samuel Pufendorf wrote: "Nihil ergo aliud restat, quam ut dicamus Germaniam esse irregulare aliquod corpus et monstro simile ..." ("We are therefore left with calling Germany a body that conforms to no rule and resembles a monster"). Voltaire later described it as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire". In Faust I, in a scene written in 1775, the German author Goethe has one of the drinkers in Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig ask "Our Holy Roman Empire, lads, what still holds it together?" Goethe also has a longer, not very favourable essay about his personal experiences as a trainee at the Reichskammergericht in his autobiographical work Dichtung und Wahrheit.

Structure and institutions

From the High Middle Ages onwards, the Reich was stamped by a most peculiar coexistence of the Empire with the struggle of the dukes of the local territories to take power away from it. As opposed to the rulers of the West Frankish lands, which later became France, the Emperor never managed to gain much control over the lands that he formally owned. Instead, the Emperor was forced to grant more and more powers to the individual dukes in their respective territories. This process began in the 12th century and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Several attempts were made to reverse this degradation of the Reich's former glory, but failed. Formally, the Reich comprised the King, to be crowned Emperor by the pope (until 1508), on one side, and the Reichsstände (imperial estates) on the other.

King of the Romans (German king)

Peace of Westphalia.]] The pope's crowning of Charlemagne as Augustus in 800 formed the example that later kings would follow: it was the result of Charlemagne having defended the pope against the rebellious inhabitants of Rome, which initiated the notion of the Reich being the protector of the church. Becoming Emperor required becoming King of the Romans (Rex romanorum/römischer König) first. German kings had been elected since time immemorial: in the 9th century by the leaders of the five most important tribes (the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Swabians and Thuringians), later by the main lay and clerical dukes of the kingdom, finally only by the so-called Kurfürsten (electing dukes, electors). This college was formally established by a 1356 decree known as the Golden Bull. Initially, there were seven electors: the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Archbishops of Köln, Mainz, and Trier. During the Thirty Years War, the Duke of Bavaria was given the right to vote as the eighth elector. In order to be elected king, a candidate had to first win over the electors, usually with bribes or promises of land. Until 1508, the newly-elected king then travelled to Rome to be crowned Emperor by the Pope. In many cases, this took several years while the King was held up by other tasks: frequently he first had to resolve conflicts in rebellious northern Italy or was in quarrel with the Pope himself. At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders: after the late 15th century, the Reichstag established itself as the legislative body of the Empire, a complicated assembly that convened irregularly at the request of the Emperor at varying locations. Only after 1663 would the Reichstag become a permanent assembly.

Imperial estates

An entity was considered Reichsstand (imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no authority above it except the Holy Roman Emperor himself. They included:
- Territories governed by a prince or duke, and in some cases kings. (Rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, with the exception of the King of Bohemia, were not allowed to become a king within the Empire, but some had kingdoms outside the Empire, as was, for instance, the case in the Kingdom of Great Britain, where the ruler was also the Prince-elector of Hanover.)
- Clerical territories led by a Bishop or Prince-Bishop. In the latter case, the territory was frequently the same as a bishopric, giving the Bishop both worldly and clerical powers. An example, among many others, was Osnabrück. A noteworthy Prince-Bishop (Fürstbischof) within the Holy Roman Empire was the Bishop of Mainz with his see at Mainz Cathedral.
- Imperial Free Cities The number of territories was amazingly large, rising to several hundred at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. Many of these comprised no more than a few square miles. The Empire is thus aptly described as a "patchwork carpet" (Flickenteppich) by many. For a list as in 1792, see List of Reichstag participants (1792).

Reichstag

The Reichstag was the legislative body of the Holy Roman Empire. It was divided into three distinct classes:
- The Council of Electors, which included the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
- The Council of Princes, which included both laypersons and clerics.
- The Secular Bench: Princes (those with the title of Prince, Grand Duke, Duke, Count Palatine, Margrave, or Landgrave) held individual votes; some held more than one vote on the basis of ruling several territories. Also, the Council included Counts or Grafs, who were grouped into four Colleges: Wetterau, Swabia, Franconia, and Westphalia. Each College could cast one vote as a whole.
- The Ecclesiastical Bench: Bishops, certain Abbots, and the two Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order and the Order of St John had individual votes. Certain other Abbots were grouped into two Colleges: Swabia and the Rhine. Each College held one collective vote.
- The Council of Imperial Cities, which included representatives from Imperial Cities grouped into two Colleges: Swabia and the Rhine. Each College had one collective vote. The Council of Imperial Cities was not fully equal to the others; it could not vote on several matters such as the admission of new territories.

Imperial courts

The Reich also had two courts: the Reichshofrat (also known in English as the Aulic Council) at the court of the King/Emperor (that is, later in Vienna), and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), established with the Imperial Reform of 1495.

Imperial circles

As part of the Reichsreform, ten Imperial Circles were established in 1512. These were regional groupings of most (though not all) of the various states of the Empire for the purposes of defence and imperial taxation. Each circle had its own Kreisrat ("Circle Diet").

Chronology

From the East Franks to the Investiture Controversy

1512. From the 'Atlas to Freeman's Historical Geography', edited by J.B. Bury, Longmans Green and Co. Third Edition 1903.]] The Holy Roman Empire is usually considered to have been founded at the latest in 962 by Otto I the Great. Although some date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans in 800, Charlemagne himself more typically used the title king of the Franks. This title also makes clearer that the Frankish Kingdom covered an area that included modern-day France and Germany and was thus the kernel of both countries. Most historians therefore consider the establishment of the Empire to be a process that started with the split of the Frankish realm in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, continuing the Carolingian dynasty independently in all three sections. The eastern part fell to Louis the German, who was followed by several leaders until the death of Louis the Child, the last Carolingian in the eastern part. The leaders of Alamannia, Bavaria, Frankia and Saxonia elected Conrad I of the Franks, not a Carolingian, as their leader in 911. His successor, Henry (Heinrich) I the Fowler (r. 919–936), a Saxon elected at the Reichstag of Fritzlar in 919, achieved the acceptance of a separate Eastern Empire by the West Frankish (still ruled by the Carolingians) in 921, calling himself rex Francorum orientalum (King of the East Franks). Heinrich designated his son Otto to be his successor, who was elected King in Aachen in 936. His later crowning as Emperor Otto I (later called "the Great") in 962 would mark an important step, since from then on the Empire – and not the West-Frankish kingdom that was the other remainder of the Frankish kingdoms – would have the blessing of the Pope. Otto had gained much of his power earlier, when, in 955, the Magyars were defeated in the Battle of Lechfeld. In contemporary and later writings, the crowning would be referred to as translatio imperii, the transfer of the Empire from the Romans to a new Empire. The German Emperors thus thought of themselves as being in direct succession of those of the Roman Empire; this is why they initially called themselves Augustus. Still, they did not call themselves "Roman" Emperors at first, probably in order not to provoke conflict with the Roman Emperor who still existed in Constantinople. The term imperator Romanorum only became common under Conrad II later. At this time, the eastern kingdom was not so much "German" as rather a "confederation" of the old Germanic tribes of the Bavarians, Alamanns, Franks and Saxons. The Empire as a political union probably only survived because of the strong personal influence of King Henry the Saxon and his son, Otto. Although formally elected by the leaders of the Germanic tribes, they were actually able to designate their successors. This changed after Henry II died in 1024 without any children. Conrad II, first of the Salian Dynasty, was then elected king in 1024 only after some debate. How exactly the king was chosen thus seems to be a complicated conglomeration of personal influence, tribal quarrels, inheritance, and acclamation by those leaders that would eventually become the collegiate of Electors. Already at this time the dualism between the "territories", then those of the old tribes rooted in the Frankish lands, and the King/Emperor, became apparent. Each king preferred to spend most time in his own homelands; the Saxons, for example, spent much time in palatinates around the Harz mountains, among them Goslar. This practice had only changed under Otto III (king 983, Emperor 996–1002), who began to utilize bishopries all over the Empire as temporary seats of government. Also, his successors, Henry II, Conrad II, and Henry III, apparently managed to appoint the dukes of the territories. It is thus no coincidence that at this time, the terminology changes and the first occurrences of a regnum Teutonicum are found. The glory of the Empire almost collapsed in the Investiture Controversy, in which Pope Gregory VII declared a ban on King Henry IV (king 1056, Emperor 1084–1106). Although this was taken back after the 1077 Walk to Canossa, the ban had wide-reaching consequences. Meanwhile, the German dukes had elected a second king, Rudolf of Swabia, whom Henry IV could only defeat after a three-year war in 1080. The mythical roots of the Empire were permanently damaged; the German king was humiliated. Most importantly though, the church became an independent player in the political system of the Empire.

The Empire under the Hohenstaufen

Conrad III came to the throne in 1138, being the first of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which was about to restore the glory of the Empire even under the new conditions of the 1122 Concordat of Worms. It was Frederick I "Barbarossa" (king 1152, Emperor 1155–1190) who first called the Empire "holy", with which he intended to address mainly law and legislation. Also, under Barbarossa, the idea of the "Romanness" of the Empire culminated again, which seemed to be an attempt to justify the Emperor's power independently of the (now strengthened) Pope. An imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia in 1158 explicitly reclaimed imperial rights at the advice of quattuor doctores of the emerging judicial facility of the University of Bologna, citing phrases such as princeps legibus solutus ("the leader is not bound by law") from the Digestae of the Corpus Juris Civilis. That the Roman laws were created for an entirely different system and didn't fit the structure of the Empire was obviously secondary; the point here was that the court of the Emperor made an attempt to establish a legal constitution. Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since the Investiture Controversy, but were enumerated for the first time at Roncaglia as well. This comprehensive list included public roads, tariffs, coining, collecting punitive fees, and the investiture, the seating and unseating of office holders. These rights were now explicitly rooted in Roman Law, a far-reaching constitutional act; north of the Alps, the system was also now connected to feudal law, a change most visible in the withdrawal of the feuds of Henry the Lion in 1180 which led to his public banning. Barbarossa thus managed for a time to more closely bind the stubborn Germanic dukes to the Empire as a whole. Another important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace (Landfrieden) for all of the Empire, an attempt to (on the one hand) abolish private vendettas not only between the many local dukes, but on the other hand a means to tie the Emperor's subordinates to a legal system of jurisdiction and public prosecution of criminal acts – a predecessor concept of "rule of law", in modern terms, that was, at this time, not yet universally accepted. In order to solve the problem that the emperor was (after the Investiture Controversy) no longer as able to use the church as a mechanism to maintain power, the Staufer increasingly lent land to ministerialia, formerly unfree service men, which Frederick hoped would be more reliable than local dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people would form the basis for the later knights, another basis of imperial power. Another new concept of the time was the systematic foundation of new cities, both by the emperor and the local dukes. These were partly due to the explosion in population, but also to concentrate economic power at strategic locations, while formerly cities only existed in the shape of either old Roman foundations or older bishoprics. Cities that were founded in the 12th century include Freiburg, possibly the economic model for many later cities, and Munich. The later reign of the last Staufer Emperor, Frederick II, was in many ways different from that of earlier Emperors. Still a child, he first reigned in Sicily, while in Germany, Barbarossa's second son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion's son Otto IV competed with him for the title of King of the Germans. After finally having been crowned emperor in 1220, he risked conflict with the pope when he claimed power over Rome; astonishingly to many, he managed to claim Jerusalem in a Crusade in 1228 while still under the pope's ban. While Frederick brought the mythical idea of the Empire to a last highpoint, he was also the one to initiate the major steps that led to its disintegration. On the one hand, he concentrated on establishing a – for the times – extraordinarily modern state in Sicily, with public services, finances, and jurisdiction. On the other hand, Frederick was the emperor who granted major powers to the German dukes in two far-reaching privileges that would never be reclaimed by the central power. In the 1220 Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, Frederick basically gave up a number of regalia in favour of the bishops, among them tariffs, coining, jurisdiction and fortification. The 1232 Statutum in favorem principum mostly extended these privileges to the other (non-clerical) territories (Frederick II was forced to give those privileges by a rebellion of his son, Henry). Although many of these privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and once and for all, to allow the German dukes to maintain order north of the Alps while Frederick wanted to concentrate on his homelands in Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that the German dukes were called domini terrae, owners of their lands, a remarkable change in terminology as well. The Teutonic Knights were invited to Poland by the duke of Masovia Konrad of Masovia to Christianize the Prussians in 1226.

The rise of the territories after the Staufen

After the death of Frederick II in 1250, none of the dynasties worthy of producing the king proved able to do so, and the leading dukes elected several competing kings. The time from 1246 (beginning with the election of Heinrich Raspe and William of Holland) to 1273, when Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected king, is commonly referred to as the Interregnum. During the Interregnum, much of what was left of imperial authority was lost, as the princes were given time to consolidate their holdings and become even more independent rulers. The difficulties in electing the king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed college of electors, the Kurfürsten, whose composition and procedures were set forth in the Golden Bull of 1356. This development probably best symbolizes the emerging duality between Kaiser und Reich, emperor and realm, who were no longer considered identical. This is also revealed in the way the post-Staufen kings attempted to sustain their power. Earlier, the Empire's strength (and finances) greatly relied on the Empire's own lands, the so-called Reichsgut, which always belonged to the respective king (and included many Imperial Cities). After the 13th century, its relevance faded (even though some fractions of it did remain until the Empire's end in 1806). Instead, the Reichsgut was increasingly pawned to local dukes sometimes to raise money for the Empire but, more frequently, to reward faithful duty or as an attempt to civilize stubborn dukes. The direct governance of the Reichsgut no longer matched the needs of either the king or the dukes. Instead, the kings, beginning with Rudolph I of Habsburg, increasingly relied on the lands of their respective dynasties to support their power. In contrast with the Reichsgut, which was mostly scattered and difficult to administer, the territories were comparably compact and thus easier to control. In 1282, Rudolph I thus lent his own Austria and the Steiermark to his own sons. With Henry VII, the House of Luxembourg entered the stage. In 1312, he was crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor since Frederick II. After him all kings and emperors relied on the lands of their own family (Hausmacht): Louis IV of Wittelsbach (king 1314, emperor 1328–1347) relied on his lands in Bavaria; Charles IV of Luxembourg, the grandson of Henry VII, drew strength from his own lands in Bohemia. Interestingly, it was thus increasingly in the king's own interest to strengthen the power of the territories, since the king profited from such a benefit in his own lands as well. The 13th century also saw a general structural change in how land was administered. Instead of personal duties, money increasingly became the common means to represent economic value in agriculture. Peasants were increasingly required to pay tribute for their lands. The concept of "property" more and more replaced more ancient forms of jurisdiction, although they were still very much tied together. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power became increasingly bundled: Whoever owned the land had jurisdiction, from which other powers derived. It is important to note, however, that jurisdiction at this time did not include legislation, which virtually did not exist until well into the 15th century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules described as customary. It is during this time that the territories began to transform themselves into predecessors of modern states. The process varied greatly among the various lands and was most advanced in those territories that were most identical to the lands of the old Germanic tribes, e.g. Bavaria. It was slower in those scattered territories that were founded through imperial privileges.

Imperial Reform

The "constitution" of the Empire was still largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century. Although some procedures and institutions had been fixed, for example by the Golden Bull of 1356, the rules of how the king, the electors, and the other dukes should cooperate in the Empire much depended on the personality of the respective king. It therefore proved somewhat fatal that Sigismund of Luxemburg (king 1410, emperor 1433–1437) and Frederick III (king 1440, emperor 1452–1493) neglected the old core lands of the empire and mostly resided in their own lands. Without the presence of the king, the old institution of the Hoftag, the assembly of the realm's leading men, deteriorated. The Reichstag as a legislative organ of the Empire did not exist yet. Even worse, dukes often went into feuds against each other that, more often than not, escalated into local wars. At the same time, the church was in crisis too. The conflict between several competing popes was only resolved at the Council of Constance (1414–1418); after 1419, much energy was spent on fighting the heresy of the Hussites. The medieval idea of a unified Corpus christianum, of which the papacy and the Empire were the leading institutions, began to decline. With these drastic changes, much discussion emerged in the 15th century about the Empire itself. Rules from the past no longer adequately described the structure of the time, and a reinforcement of earlier Landfrieden was urgently called for. During this time, the concept of "reform" emerges, in the original sense of the Latin verb re-formare, to regain an earlier shape that had been lost. When Frederick III needed the dukes to finance war against Hungary in 1486 and at the same time had his son, later Maximilian I elected king, he was presented with the dukes' united demand to participate in an Imperial Court. For the first time, the assembly of the electors and other dukes was now called Reichstag (to be joined by the Imperial Cities later). While Frederick refused, his more conciliant son finally convoked the Reichstag at Worms in 1495, after his father's death in 1493. Here, the king and the dukes agreed on four bills, commonly referred to as the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform): a set of legal acts to give the disintegrating Empire back some structure. Among others, this act produced the Imperial Circle Estates and the Reichskammergericht, (Imperial Chamber Court); structures that would – to a degree – persist until the end of the Empire in 1806. thumb However, it should take a few more decades until the new regulation was universally accepted and the new court began to actually function; only in 1512 would the Imperial Circles be finalized. The King also made sure that his own court, the Reichshofrat, continued to function in parallel to the Reichskammergericht. It is interesting to note that in this year, the Empire also receives its new title, the Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation").

Crisis after Reformation

When Martin Luther in 1517 initiated what would later be known as the Reformation, many local dukes saw the chance to oppose the Emperor Charles V. The empire became fatally divided along religious lines, with the North and East and many of the major cities, such as Strassburg, Frankfurt and Nuremberg, becoming Protestant, and the southern and western regions largely remaining Catholic. Religious conflicts were waged in various parts of Europe for a century, though in German regions there was relative quiet from the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 until the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. When Bohemians rebelled against the emperor, the immediate result was the series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated the Empire. Foreign powers, including France and Sweden intervened in the conflict, strengthening those fighting Imperial power, and seizing considerable chunks of territory for themselves. The long conflict bled the empire which would never recover its former strength.

The long decline

The actual end of the empire came in several steps. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which gave the territories almost complete sovereignty, even allowing them to form independent alliances with other states, the Empire was only a mere conglomeration of largely independent states. By the rise of Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Empire had lost all power and clout in major European politics. The Habsburg emperors relied more on their role as Austrian archdukes when challenged by Prussia, a partially constituent kingdom. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts. From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently. The Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by the French Army under Napoleon (see Treaty of Lunéville). Napoleon reorganized much of the empire into the Confederation of the Rhine. This ended the so-called First Reich. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918. Germany itself would not become one unified state until 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.

Analysis

It has been said that modern history of Germany was primarily predetermined by three factors: the Reich, the Reformation, and the later dualism between Austria and Prussia.[1] Many attempts have been made to explain why the Reich never managed to gain a strong centralised power over the territories, as opposed to neighbouring France. Some reasons include:
- The Reich had been a very federal body from the beginning: again, as opposed to France, which had mostly been part of the Roman Empire, in the eastern parts of the Frankish kingdom, the Germanic tribes were much more independent and reluctant to cede power to a central authority. All attempts to make the kingdom hereditary failed; instead, the king was always elected. Later, every candidate for the king had to make promises to his electorate, the so-called Wahlkapitulationen (election capitulations), thus granting the territories more and more power over the centuries.
- Due to its religious connotations, the Reich as an institution was severely damaged by the contest between the Pope and the German Kings over their respective coronations as Emperor. It was never entirely clear under which conditions the pope would crown the emperor and especially not whether the worldly power of the emperor was dependent on the clerical of the pope. Much debate occurred over this, especially during the 11th century, eventually leading to the Investiture Controversy and the Concordat of Worms in 1122.
- Whether the feudal system of the Reich, where the King formally was the top of the so-called "feudal pyramid", was a cause for or a symptom of the Empire's weakness, is unclear. In any case, military obedience, which – according to Germanic tradition – was closely tied to the giving of land to tributaries, was always a problem: when the Reich had to go to war, decisions were slow and brittle.
- Until the sixteenth century, the economic interests of the south and west diverged from those of the north where the Hanseatic League operated. This was far more closely allied to Scandinavia and the Baltic than the rest of Germany.

Successive German Reichs

After the unification of Germany as a nation state in 1871 (see German Empire), the Holy Roman Empire was sometimes known as the First Reich while the new empire was known as the Second Reich. After the end of World War I, the creation of the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany's rise, the Nazis referred to Germany as the Third Reich, counting the 1871 Empire as the second, to connect itself with an idealized past and present itself as being in continuity with ancient traditions.

References

# Heinrich August Winkler, Der lange Weg nach Westen, Vol. 1: Deutsche Geschichte vom Ende des Alten Reiches bis zum Ende der Weimarer Republik, ISBN 3-406-46001-1, p. 5. # The Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce ISBN 0333036093

External links

- [http://www.orteliusmaps.com/book/ort56.html 1570 map of H.R.E. Germany with double-headed eagle flag]
- [http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/germany/milxhrempire.html List of Wars of the Holy Roman Empire]
- [http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/lexikothek/reich2.html Deutschland beim Tode Kaiser Karls IV. 1378 (The Holy Roman Empire at the death of emperor Charles IV.) taken from "Meyers Kleines Konversationslexikon in sechs Bänden. Bd. 2. Leipzig u. Wien : Bibliogr. Institut 1908", map inserted after page 342]
- Germany Category:History of Austria Category:Emperors Category:Habsburg Category:Former monarchies Category:History of Austria Category:History of Germany Roman zh-min-nan:Sèng Roma Tè-kok ja:神聖ローマ帝国

Printing

:For other articles which otherwise might have the same name, see Print (disambiguation). Print Printing is an industrial process for production of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.

History of printing

Printing was first conceived and developed in China. Primitive Woodblock printing was already in use by the 6th century. The oldest surviving book printed using the more sophisticated block printing dates from 868 AD (The Diamond Sutra of AD 868, a Buddhist scripture). The movable type printer was invented by Pi Sheng in 1040. The movable type metal printing press was invented in Korea between 1234 and 1241. By the 12th and 13th century many Arabic and Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of printed books. There is little direct evidence, but it is highly probable that Chinese printing technology diffused into Europe through trade links that went through India and on through the Arabic world. Johann Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, developed European printing technology in 1440. Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer experimented with him at Mainz. Basing the design of his machine on a wine press, Gutenberg developed the use of raised and movable type, and from the start used oil-based inks. This development of the printing press revolutionized the spread of knowledge: a printing press was built in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476, a printing press was developed in England by William Caxton; in 1539, the Italian Juan Pablos set up an imported press in Mexico City, Mexico. Stephen Day built the first printing press in North America at Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and helped establish the Cambridge Press. In Prints and Visual Communication, William Ivins offers the following concise history of a series of rapid innovations in image and type printing at the end of the eighteenth century: :At the end of the eighteenth century there were several remarkable innovations in the graphic techniques and those that were utilized to make their materials. Bewick developed the method of using engraving tools on the end of the wood. Senefelder discovered lithography. Blake made relief etchings. Early in the nineteenth century Stanhope, George E. Clymer, Koenig and others introduced new kinds of type presses, which for strength surpassed anything that had previously been known.

Modern printing technology

Books and newspapers are usually printed today using the technique of offset printing. Other common printing techniques include relief print, (which is principally used for catalogues), screen printing, rotogravure, and digital-based inkjet and laser printing. The largest commercial and industrial printer in the world is Montréal, Quebec-based Quebecor World. Digital printing primarily uses an electrical charge to transfer toner or liquid ink to the substrate that it is going down on. Digital printing quality has steadily improved through the years from color and black & white copiers to sophisticated color digital presses like the Xerox iGen3, the Kodak Nexpress and the HP Indigo series presses. The iGen3 and Nexpress use toner particles and the Indigo uses liquid ink. All three are made for small runs and variable data and rival offset in quality. The only digital offset presses are called DI presses and are made by Heidelberg or Ryobi. These presses can not do variable data. Small press and fanzines generally use offset printing or xerography, but prior to the advent of cheap photocopying, the use of machines such as the spirit duplicator were common.

External links

- [http://www.printinghistory.org/htm/misc/links.html American Printing History Association] - Numerous links to Online Resources and Other Organizations
- [http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=19&language=e The development of Book and Printing of the 15.th/ 16.-18.th/ and 19.-20.th Century. English Website of the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz (Germany)] Category:Documents
- Printing ja:印刷

Printing press

:Movable type redirects here. For the weblog software, see Movable Type The printing press is a mechanical device for printing multiple copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. It was invented in the West by a German goldsmith and eventual printer, Johann Gutenberg in the 1450s. Apart from Gutenberg, the Dutch Laurens Janszoon Coster has also been credited with this invention.

Development of the printing press

The original method of printing was block printing, pressing sheets of paper into individually carved wooden blocks (xylography). It is believed that block printing originated in China and the earliest known printed text, the Diamond Sutra (a Buddhist scripture), was printed in China in 868 A.D. The technique was also known in Europe, where it was mostly used to print Bibles. Because of the difficulties inherent in carving massive quantities of minute text for every block, and given the levels of peasant illiteracy at the time, texts such as the "Pauper's Bibles" emphasized illustrations and used words sparsely. As a new block had to be carved for each page, printing different books was an incredibly time consuming activity. Moveable clay and metal type are processes much more flexible than hand copying. Movable type for printing was invented in 1041 AD by Bi Sheng in China. Sheng used clay type, which broke easily, but eventually Goryeo (Korea) sponsored the production of metal type (a type foundry with brass was established by the Korean government in 1234 AD). Since there are thousands of Chinese characters (Koreans also used Chinese characters in literature), the benefit of the technique is not as apparent as with alphabetic based languages which typically have less than 50 characters. Movable type did spur, however, additional scholarly pursuits in Song China and facilitated more creative modes of printing. Nevertheless, movable type was never extensively used in China until the European style printing press was introduced in relatively recent times (thus bringing the technology full circle). German inventor Johann Gutenberg (1397-1468) may or may not have been aware of the Chinese/Korean printing methods (with substantial evidence for both sides of the argument). Prior to Gutenberg, each piece of metal type for printing presses had to be individually carved by hand. Gutenberg developed molds that allowed for the mass production of individual pieces of metal type. This allowed a widespread use of movable type, where each character is a separate block, in mirror image, and these blocks are assembled into a frame to form text. Because of his molds, an entire upper case and lower case alphabet set could be made much more quickly than if they were individually hand carved. (Upper case pieces of type were stored on the top shelf and lower case pieces of type were stored on the bottom shelf.) Printing presses began to spring up all over Europe. Gutenberg is also credited with the first use of an oil-based ink, and using "rag" paper introduced into Europe from China by way of Muslims, who had a paper mill in operation in Baghdad as early as 794. Before inventing the printing press in the 1450s, Gutenberg had worked as a goldsmith. Without a doubt, the skills and knowledge of metals that he learned as a craftsman were crucial to the later invention of the press. Gutenberg made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, which was critical for producing durable type that produced high-quality prints. However, the claim that Gutenberg introduced or invented the printing press in Europe is not accepted by all. The other candidate advanced is the Dutchman Laurens Janszoon Coster.

Impact of printing

Diffusion of printing in Europe

Previously, books were copied mainly in monasteries, or (from the 13th century) in commercial scriptoria, where scribes wrote them out by hand. Books were therefore a scarce resource. While it might take someone a year or more to hand copy a Bible, with the Gutenberg press it was possible to create several hundred copies a year, with two or three people that could read, and a few people to support the effort. Each sheet still had to be fed manually, which limited the reproduction speed, and the type had to be set manually for each page, which limited the number of different pages created per day. Books produced in this period, between the first work of Johann Gutenberg and the year 1500, are collectively referred to as incunabula. The supplantation of hand copied manuscripts with printed works was not received with unanimous encomium. Not only did the papal court contemplate making printing presses an industry requiring a license from the Catholic Church (an idea rejected in the end), but as early as in the 15th century some nobles refused to have printed books in their libraries to sully their valuable handcopied manuscripts. Similar resistance was later encountered in much of the Islamic world, where calligraphic traditions were extremely important, and also in the Far East. Despite this resistance, Gutenberg's printing press spread rapidly across Europe. Within thirty years of its invention in 1453, towns from Hungary to Spain, and from Italy to Britain had functional printing presses. It has been theorized that this incredibly rapid expansion shows not only a higher level of industry (fueled by the high-quality European paper mills that had been opening over the previous century) than expected, but also a significantly higher level of literacy than has often been estimated. The first printing press in a Muslim territory opened in Andalusia (Muslim Spain) in the 1480s. This printing press was run by a family of Jewish merchants who printed texts with the Hebrew script. After the reconquista in the 1490s, the press was moved from Granada to Istanbul (a popular destination for thousands of Andalusian Jews).

Effects of printing on culture

The discovery and establishment of the printing of books with moveable type marks a paradigm shift in the way information was transferred in Europe. The impact of printing is comparable to the development of language, and the invention of the alphabet, as far as its effects on the society. Gutenberg's findings not only allowed a much broader audience to read Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible, it also helped spread Luther's other writings, greatly accelerating the pace of Protestant Reformation. They also led to the establishment of a community of scientists (previously scientists were mostly isolated) who could easily communicate their discoveries, bringing on the scientific revolution. Also, although early texts were printed in Latin, books were soon produced in common European vernacular, leading to the decline of the Latin language. In Korea and China, there were no texts similar to the Bible which could guarantee a printer return on the high capital investment of a printing press, and so the primary form of printing was wood block printing which was more suited for short runs of texts for which the return was uncertain. Some credit the printing press with giving Europe the technological and communication edge over Eastern countries in the end, one of the major questions in world history. Because of the printing press, authorship became more meaningful. It was suddenly important who had said or written what, and what the precise formulation and time of composition was. This allowed the exact citing of references, producing the rule, "One Author, one work (title), one piece of information" (Giesecke, 1989; 325). Before, the author was less important, since a copy of Aristotle made in Paris might not be identical to one made in Bologna. For many works prior to the printing press, the name of the author was entirely lost. Because the printing process ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page numbering, tables of contents, and indices became common. The process of reading was also changed, gradually changing from oral readings to silent, private reading. This gradually raised the literacy level as well, revolutionizing education. It can also be argued that printing changed the way Europeans thought. With the older illuminated manuscripts, the emphasis was on the images and the beauty of the page. Early printed works emphasized principally the text and the line of argument. In the sciences, the introduction of the printing press marked a move from the medieval language of metaphors to the adoption of the scientific method. In general, knowledge came closer to the hands of the people, since printed books could be sold for a fraction of the cost of illuminated manuscripts. There were also more copies of each book available, so that more people could discuss them. Within 50-60 years, the entire library of "classical" knowledge had been printed on the new presses (Eisenstein, 1969; 52). The spread of works also led to the creation of copies by other parties than the original author, leading to the formulation of copyright laws. Furthermore, as the books spread into the hands of the people, Latin was gradually replaced by the national languages. This development was one of the keys to the creation of modern nations. Some theorists, such as McLuhan, Eisenstein, Kittler, and Giesecke, see an "alphabetic monopoly" as having developed from printing, removing the role of the image from society. Other authors stress that printed works themselves are a visual medium.

The art of book printing

For years, book printing was considered a true art form. Typesetting, or the placement of the characters on the page, including the use of ligatures, was passed down from master to apprentice. In Germany, the art of typesetting was termed the "black art". It has largely been replaced by computer typesetting programs, which make it possible to get similar results with less human involvement. Some few practitioners continue to print books the way Gutenberg did. For example, there is a yearly convention of traditional book printers in Mainz, Germany.

Printing in the industrial age

The Gutenberg press was much more efficient than manual copying, as testament to its effectiveness, it was essentially unchanged from the time of its invention until the Industrial Revolution, some three hundred years later. The invention of the steam powered press, credited to Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer in 1812, made it possible to print tens of thousands of copies of a page in a day. Koenig and Bauer sold two of their first models to The Times in London in 1814, capable of 1,100 impressions per hour. The first edition so printed was on November 28, 1814. Koenig and Bauer went on to perfect the early model so that it could print on both sides of a sheet at once. This began to make newspapers available to a mass audience (which in turn helped spread literacy), and from the 1820s changed the nature of book production, forcing a greater standardization in titles and other metadata. metadata Koenig and Bauer's press was improved by Applegath and Cooper. The diagram indicates the principle operation of a Cowper and Applegath's Single Machine. The press is built up from a large flat inking table (A) which moves regularly back and forth, the form (B) on the table holds the type. The paper travels clockwise round a large cloth covered cylinder, the impression roller (C), and is pressed against the table. The ductor roller (D) rotates and so draws ink from the attached reservoir. The ink passes from the ductor roller to the vibrating roller (E), this moves, on its arms, in a regular motion between the ductor roller and the table. The ink is spread thinly and evenly by the distributing rollers (F) and then, as the table moves, passes onto the inking rollers (G). The axles of the inking rollers rest in groves, allowing them to rise and fall, they are also position at a slight angle to the table to improve ink distribution. As the table continues to move the form passes alternately under the inking rollers, twice, and then under the impression roller. Later on in the middle of the 19th century the rotary press (invented in 1843 in the United States by Richard M. Hoe) allowed millions of copies of a page in a single day. Mass production of printed works flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a much faster pace. Movable type has been credited as the single most important invention of the millennium. Later inventions in this field include: paper history - [http://www.venuspaper.com/paper-history.htm Paper making]
- Lithography
- Offset printing
- Desktop publishing
- Electronic publishing (on CD-ROM or online)
- Computer printer

References

Fontaine, Jean-Paul. L'aventure du livre: Du manuscrit medieval a nos jours. Paris: Bibliotheque de l'image, 1999. A Category:Printing ko:활자 ja:活字

Johann Gutenberg

Printing

The Bible

Debt

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1398

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February 3

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Holy Roman Empire

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Printing

History of printing

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Printing press

Development of the printing press

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Diffusion of printing in Europe

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The art of book printing

Printing in the industrial age

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References

Printing press

Development of the printing press