Johannes Gutenberg
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (more commonly known as Johannes Gutenberg) (about 1390s - February 3, 1468), was a German metal-worker and inventor. He is famous for his work in printing in the 1450s.
Gutenberg was born in Mainz, the son of a merchant, Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden. Gutenberg's father took the surname "zum Gutenberg" after the name of the place they now lived.
Gutenberg invented a sort of metal for printing; inks; a way to fix type (metal letters) very accurately; and a new sort of printing press. He took the idea for his printing press from the presses wine-makers used. Many people say Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, but it was already invented in China before that.
Before movable type, people used block printing, where the printer prints a whole page from one piece of metal or wood. With movable type, the printer makes a letter (A, B, C ...) from a piece of metal or wood, and can use it again and again in different words. Together, all Gutenberg's inventions made printing fast. In Renaissance Europe, there was an information explosion - in a short time, people printed a lot of new books.
The high number of new books was partly because of the popular Bible Gutenberg printed - the Gutenberg Bible. This was the first Bible people made in large numbers; Gutenberg started on February 23, 1455. Gutenberg was not a clever businessman, and did not get much money from his system. He had legal problems, and lost his machines to his partner, Johann Fust. Gutenberg died in Mainz in 1468.
In his lifetime Gutenberg was not successful, but his invention was very important. In a short time, news and books were travelling around Europe very fast. Scientists could communicate better, and it helped start the Scientific Revolution. More people learned to read.
Today there are still 60 Gutenberg Bibles. They are probably the oldest books that printers made with movable type.
The Gutenberg Galaxy and Project Gutenberg use Gutenberg's name.
[edit] Difficult words
- metal-worker - a person who works with metal.
- inventor - a person who has new ideas and makes new things
- invent - think of new ideas for machines (etc.) and make them
- printing - putting words on paper (etc.) with a machine
- merchant - a person who buys and sells things in big numbers
- ink - coloured liquid for writing and printing
- type - metal letters (A, B, C etc.) for printing
- press - a printing machine
