Short Biography of Johann Gutenberg

Short Biography profile and facts about the life of Johann Gutenberg:

The following biography information provides basic facts and information about the life and history of Johann Gutenberg a famous Medieval character of the Middle Ages:

• Nationality: German
• Lifespan: c1400 - 1468
• Date of Birth: He was born c1400 - his exact date of birth is unknown
• Family connections : He was the the son of a Goldsmith merchant called Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden. The family adopted the surname "zum Gutenberg" after the name of their neighborhood
• Career: German metal-worker and inventor
• Date of Death: Johann Gutenberg died on February 3, 1468
• Character of Johann Gutenberg: Determined, tenacious and ambitious
• Accomplishments or why Johann Gutenberg was famous: the inventor of the art of printing with movable types

Johann Gutenberg The story and biography of Johann Gutenberg which contains interesting information, facts & the history about the life of this Medieval person of historical importance. Johann Gutenberg Lived from 1400-1468

The Childhood of Johann Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg, who was born in Mainz. He was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types.  Gutenberg's father was a man of good family. Very likely the boy was taught to read. But the books from which he learned were not like ours; they were written by hand. A better name for them than books is "manuscripts," which means "hand-writings."

Block Printing While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block. This had to be very carefully done. When it was finished the printer had to cut away the wood from the sides of every letter. This left the letters raised, as the letters are in books now printed for the blind. The block was now ready to be used. The letters were inked, paper was laid upon them and pressed down. With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one page. Gutenberg enjoyed reading the manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends had; and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books.

Johann Gutenberg experiments in Strasburg  Finally he determined to contrive some easy and quick way of printing. He did a great deal of his work in secret, for he thought it was much better that his neighbors should know nothing of what he was doing. So he looked for a workshop where no one would be likely to find him. He was now living in Strasburg, and there was in that city a ruined old building where, long before his time, a number of monks had lived. There was one room of the building which needed only a little repairing to make it fit to be used. So Gutenberg got the right to repair that room and use it as his workshop. All his neighbors wondered what became of him when he left home in the early morning, and where he had been when they saw him coming back late in the twilight. Some felt sure that he must be a wizard, and that he had meetings somewhere with the devil, and that the devil was helping him to do some strange business. Gutenberg did not care much what people had to say, and in his quiet room he patiently tried one experiment after another, often feeling very sad and discouraged day after day because his experiments did not succeed.

Johann Gutenberg returns to Mainz and is sued by Fust At last the time came when he had no money left. He went back to his old home, Mainz, and there met a rich goldsmith named Fust (or Faust). Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply, and how he had now no more money to carry on his experiments. Fust became greatly interested and gave Gutenberg what money he needed. But as the experiments did not at first succeed Fust lost patience. He quarrelled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending money. At last he brought suit against him in the court, and the judge decided in favor of Fust. So everything in the world that Gutenberg had, even the tools with which he worked, came into Fust's possession.

Johann Gutenberg opens another workshop But though he had lost his tools, Gutenberg had not lost his courage. And he had not lost all his friends. One of them had money, and he bought Gutenberg a new set of tools and hired a workshop for him. And now at last Gutenberg's hopes were fulfilled. First of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood. Each type was a little block with a single letter at one end. Such types were a great deal better than block letters. The block letters were fixed. They could not be taken out of the words of which they were parts. The new types were movable so they could be set up to print one page, then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages. But type made of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly, so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried metal types.

Johann Gutenberg prints a Latin Bible Soon a Latin Bible was printed. It was in two volumes, each of which had three hundred pages, while each of the pages had forty-two lines. The letters were sharp and clear. They had been printed from movable types of metal. The news that books were being printed in Mainz by Gutenberg went all over Europe, and before he died printing-presses like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the continent.