From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Both woodblock printing on paper and movable type were invented in China and Korea before their invention in Europe.
From the modern western point of view, the global spread of printing with movable type from its origins in Germany began with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, (c. 1450) and ended with the adoption of printing in all major regions of the world by the 19th century. Genealogically, Gutenberg's printing press is the archetype of all modern movable type printing, and practically all printing technology can be traced back to a single source, Gutenberg's press.
[edit] Spread of printing
[edit] Germany
Gutenberg's first major print work was the 42-line bible in Latin (B42), printed probably between 1452 and 1454 in the German city of Mainz. After Gutenberg lost a lawsuit against his investor Johann Fust, Fust put Gutenberg's employee Peter Schöffer in charge of the print shop. Thereupon Gutenberg established a new one with the financial backing of another money lender. With Gutenberg's monopoly soon shattered, and the secrecy of the new technology compromised, printing spread throughout Germany and beyond, diffused first by emigrating German printers, but soon also by foreign apprentices.
[edit] Europe
In rapid succession, printing presses were set up in middle and western Europe. Major towns, in particular, functioned as centers of diffusion (Köln 1466, Rome 1467, Venice 1469, Paris 1470, London 1477). In 1481, barely 30 years after the publication of the B42, the small Netherlands already featured printing shops in 21 cities and towns, Italy even 40 (1480) and Germany a similar number. According to one estimate, "by 1500, 220 printing presses were in operation throughout Western Europe and had produced 8 million books."[1] Germany and Italy were considered the two main centres of printing in terms of quantity and quality.
[edit] Rest of the world
The near-simultaneous discovery of sea routes to the West (Christopher Columbus, 1492) and East (Vasco da Gama, 1498) and the subsequent establishment of trade links greatly facilitated the global spread of Gutenberg-style printing. Traders, colonists, but, perhaps most, missionaries exported printing presses to the new European oversea domains, setting up new print shops and distributing printing material. In America, the first extra-European print shop was founded in Mexico City in 1544 (1539?), and soon after Jesuits started operating the first printing press on Asian soil (Goa, 1556).
For a long time, however, movable type printing rather remained the business of Europeans, working from within the confines of their colonies. Ignorance and religious reasons seemed to be among the reasons for the slow adoption of the printing press by indigenous peoples. Thus, printing remained prohibited in the Ottoman empire between 1483 and 1727, initially even on death penalty. And in India, reports are that Jesuits "presented a polyglot Bible to the Emperor Akbar in 1580 but did not succeed in arousing much curiosity."[2] But also practical reasons seem to have played a role. The English East India Company, for example, brought a printer to Surat in 1675, but was not able to cast type in Indian scripts, so the venture failed.[2] A notable exception was the adoption by the Cherokee Indian Elias Boudinot who published the tribe's first newspaper Cherokee Phoenix partly in his native language, using the Cherokee alphabet recently invented by his compatriot Sequoyah.
In the 19th century, the arrival of the Gutenberg-style press - essentially unchanged from the time of its invention - on the shores of Tahiti (1818), Hawaii (1821) and other Pacific islands marked the end of a global diffusion process which had begun almost 400 years earlier. At the same time, the 'old style' press (as the Gutenberg model came to be termed in the 19th century), was already in the process of being displaced by industrial machines like the steam powered press (1812) and the rotary press (1833) - both of which are to be considered further developments of the Gutenberg press.
[edit] Spread of printing by location
The following represents a selection:[3]
[edit] Germany, Austria and German printers in Central Europe
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1452-54 |
Mainz |
Johannes Gutenberg, Peter Schöffer, Johann Fust (investor) |
Gutenberg Bible |
| Before 1462 |
Strassbourg |
|
In 1605, Johann Carolus publishes the German Relation aller Fuernemmen und gedenckwuerdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news), recognized by the World Association of Newspapers as the first newspaper.[4] |
| c. 1461 [5] |
Bamberg |
Albrecht Pfister, Johann Sensenschmid (from 1480) |
Pfister: first woodcut book illustration c. 1461[5] |
| 1466 |
Cologne |
Ulrich Zell |
|
| 1468 |
Augsburg |
Günther Zainer |
|
|
Lubeck |
|
1488, Missale Aboense and other versions, first books for the Scandinavian and Finnish markets, by Bartholomeus Ghotan |
|
Pilsen |
|
|
| 1470 |
Nuremberg |
Johann Sensenschmid, Johannes Regiomontanus (1472-75), Anton Koberger (1473-1513) |
|
| 1471 |
Speyer |
|
|
| 1473 |
Esslingen |
|
|
|
Laugingen |
|
|
Merseburg |
|
|
|
Ulm |
|
|
| 1475 |
Blaubeuren |
|
|
| " [6] |
Breslau (now Wrocław) |
Kasper Elyan |
Kasper's print shop remained operational until 1483 with an overall output of 11 titles.[6] |
|
Burgdorf |
|
|
|
Lubeck |
|
|
|
Trento |
|
|
| 1476 |
Rostock |
|
|
| 1478 |
Eichstatt |
|
|
|
Prague |
|
|
| 1479 |
Würzburg |
Georg Reyser |
|
| 1481 |
Leipzig |
Andreas Friesner |
|
| 1482 |
Vienna |
Johann Winterburger |
|
|
Munich |
Johann Schauer |
|
|
Erfurt |
|
|
|
Passau |
|
|
| 1483 |
Magdeburg |
|
|
| 1485 |
Heidelberg |
|
|
|
Regensburg |
|
|
| 1486 [7] |
Schleswig |
Stephan Arndes |
|
|
Stuttgart |
|
|
|
Münster |
|
|
|
Brno |
|
|
| 1491 |
Hamburg |
|
|
[edit] Rest of Europe
In the 15th century, printing presses were established in 77 Italian cities and towns. At the end of the following century, 151 locations in Italy had seen at one time printing activities, of which 130 (86%) were north of Rome.[10] During these two centuries a total of 2894 printers were active in Italy, with only 216 of them located in southern Italy. Ca. 60% of the Italian printing shops were situated in six cities (Venice, Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna and Florence), with the concentration of printers in Venice being particularly high (ca. 30%).[11]
[edit] Switzerland
[edit] France
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1470 |
Paris |
Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz, Michael Friburger |
|
|
Lyon |
Guillaume le Roy, Buyer |
|
| 1477 |
Angers |
|
|
| 1478 |
Chablis |
|
|
| 1479 |
Toulouse |
|
|
|
Poitiers[5] |
|
|
| 1480 |
Caen |
|
|
| 1481 |
Vienne |
|
|
| 1483 |
Troyes |
|
|
| 1484 |
Rennes |
|
| 1486 |
Abbéville |
|
|
| 1487 |
Rouen |
|
|
|
Besancon |
|
|
| 1490 |
Orléans |
|
|
| 1491 |
Dijon |
|
|
|
Angoulême |
|
|
| 1493 |
Nantes |
|
|
| 1495 |
Limoges |
|
|
| 1496 |
Tours |
|
|
| 1497 |
Avignon |
|
|
| 1500 |
Perpignan |
|
|
Apart from the cities above, there was a small number of lesser towns which set up printing presses.
[edit] The Netherlands
In 1481, printing was already done in 21 towns and cities.
[edit] Hungary
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1473 [12] |
Buda
(now Budapest) |
Andreas Hess? |
The first work printed on Hungarian soil was the Latin history book Chronica Hungarum published on 5 June 1473.[12] |
| 1534 |
Braşov |
|
|
| 1550 [13] |
Klausenburg |
|
|
| 1561 [14] |
Debrecen |
|
The town becoming a stronghold of Calvinism in Hungary during the Reformation, the press was particulary active in service of the Calvinist cause.[14] |
In the 16th century, a total of 20 print shops were active in 30 different places in Hungary, as some of them were moving several times due to political instability.[14]
[edit] Belgium
[edit] Poland
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1473 [16] |
Cracow |
Kasper Straube (German) |
The oldest printed work in Poland is the Latin Calendarium Cracoviense (Cracovian Calendar), a single-sheet astronomical almanac for the year 1474. Although Straube continued to published in Cracow until 1477, printing became permanently established in Cracow, and Poland, only after 1503.[17] In 1491, the first book in Cyrillic script was published by Schweipolt Fiol.[18] |
| after 1490 [17] |
Malbork |
Jakob Karweyse |
Only two editions printed.[17] |
| 1593 |
Lviv |
Matth. Bernhart |
|
| 1625 |
Warsaw |
|
|
In the 15th and 16th century printing presses were also established in Posen, Vilnius, Lemberg and Brest-Litowsk.[6]
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1474 |
Valencia |
|
|
| 1475 |
Zaragoza |
Matthias Flander, Paul Hurus |
|
| 1477 |
Seville |
|
|
| 1478 |
Barcelona |
|
|
| 1496 |
Granada |
Meinrad Ungut, Hans Pegnitzer |
|
| 1500 |
Madrid |
|
|
[edit] England
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1476 [19] |
London |
William Caxton, shortly afterwards John Lettou, William Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde |
The first dated prints in England are an indulgence dating to the 13 December 1476 (date written in by hand), and the 'Dicts or Sayings', completed on 18th November 1477. Between 1472 and 1476, Caxton had already published several English works on the continent.[19] |
| 1478 |
Oxford |
Theoderich Rood |
|
[edit] Denmark
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1482 [7] |
Odense, Fune |
Johann Snell |
Snell was the first to introduce printing both in Denmark and Sweden.[7] |
| 1493 [7] |
Copenhagen |
Gottfried von Ghemen |
Von Ghemen published in Copenhagen from 1493 to 1495 and from 1505 to 1510. In the meantime, he was active in the Dutch town of Leiden. For 200 years, official policy confined printing in Denmark largely to Copenhagen.[20] |
[edit] Sweden
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1483 [7] |
Stockholm |
Johann Snell |
|
| 1495 |
Wadstena |
|
|
| 1510 |
Upsala |
|
|
[edit] Portugal
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1487 [21] |
Faro |
Samuel Gacon (also called Porteiro) |
The country's first printed book was the Hebrew Pentateuch, published by the Jew Samuel Gacon in southern Portugal, after having fled from the Spanish Inquisition.[21] |
| 1488 [22] |
Chaves [22] |
Unknown [22] |
According to the German scholar Horch the Sacramental is the first book printed in Portuguese, and not Ludolphus de Saxonia's Livro de Vita Christi of 1495 as previously assumed.[22] |
| 1489 |
Lissabon (Lisboa) |
Rabbi Zorba, Raban Eliezer |
|
| 1492 |
Leiria |
|
|
| 1494 |
Braga |
|
|
| 1536 |
Coimbra |
|
|
| 1571 |
Vizeu |
|
|
| 1583 |
Angra, Azoren |
|
|
| 1622 |
Oporto |
|
|
By 1500, the cut-off point for incunabula, 236 towns in Europe had presses, and it is estimated that twenty million books had been printed for a European population of perhaps seventy million.[5]
[edit] Scotland
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1507 |
? |
Walter Chepman, Andrew Millar |
|
[edit] Iceland
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| ca. 1530 [23] |
Holar |
Jon Matthiasson (Swede) |
Press imported on the initiative of Bishop Jon Arason. First known local print is the Latin songbook Breviarium Holense of 1534.[23] |
[edit] Norway
[edit] Ireland
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1551 |
? |
Humphrey Powell |
|
[edit] Russia
Until the reign of Peter the Great printing in Russia remained confined to the print office established by Fedorov in Moscow. In the 18th century, annual printing output gradually rose from 147 titles in 1724 to 435 (1787), but remained constrained by state censorship and widespread illiteracy.[26]
[edit] Latvia
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1588 |
Riga |
Nikolaus Mollin |
|
[edit] Georgia
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1701 |
Tbilisi |
|
|
[edit] Turkey
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1727 |
Constantinople |
Ibrahim Efendi |
|
Due to religious qualms, Sultan Bayezid II. prohibited printing in Arabic script in the Ottoman empire in 1483 on death penalty, but underground printing was done by Jews as well as the Greek and Armenian communities (1515 Saloniki, 1554 Adrianople, 1552 Belgrade, 1658 Smyrna). In 1727, Sultan Achmed III. gave his permission for the establishment of the first legal print shop for printing in Arabic script.
[edit] Greece
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1817 |
Corfu |
|
|
Greek books were published in Italy and the Ottoman Empire, especially in Constantinople and Smyrna by Greeks from the 15th Century onwards.
[edit] Greenland
| Date |
City |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1860 |
Godthaab |
|
|
[edit] Rest of the world
[edit] Latin America
[edit] North America
[edit] Africa
| Date |
City |
Country |
Printer |
Comment |
| As early as 16th century |
|
Mozambique |
Portuguese |
|
|
Luanda |
Angola |
Portuguese |
|
|
Malindi |
Kenya |
Portuguese |
|
| 1798 |
Cairo |
Egypt |
French |
|
| 1806 |
Capetown |
South Africa |
|
|
| c.1825 |
|
Madagascar |
|
|
| 1833 |
|
Mauritius |
|
|
| 1855 [31] |
Scheppmansdorf
(now: Rooibank) |
Namibia |
Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt |
On 29 June 1855, Protestant missionary Kleinschmidt published 300 copies of Luther's catechism in the Nama language which represent the first printed works in that tongue. Political unrest seems to have prevented further printing activities. The press was reported as being functional as late as 1868, but whether printing was resumed is unknown.[31] |
[edit] South Asia
| Date |
City |
Country |
Printer |
Comments |
| 1556 |
Goa |
India |
Jesuits |
|
| 1569 |
Tranquebar |
India |
London Missionary Company |
|
| 1737 |
? |
Sri Lanka |
|
|
| 1772 |
Madras |
India |
|
|
| 1778 |
Calcutta |
India |
Charl. Wilkins |
|
| 1792 |
Bombay |
India |
|
|
[edit] South East Asia
| Date |
City |
Country |
Printer |
Comments |
| 1590 |
Manila |
Philippines |
|
|
| 1668 |
Batavia |
Indonesia |
|
|
| 1818 |
Sumatra Island |
Indonesia |
|
|
[edit] Inner Asia
[edit] Australia & Oceania
[edit] East Asia
| Date |
City |
Country |
Printer |
Comment |
| 1883 [32] |
Seoul |
South Korea |
Inoue Kakugoro (Japanese) |
The first printing press was imported from Japan for publishing Korea's first Korean-language newspaper Hansong Sunbo. After the press was destroyed by conservatists, Inoue returned with a new one from Japan, reviving the paper as a weekly under the name Hansong Chubo. Presses were also established in Seoul in 1885, 1888 and 1891 by Western missionaries.[32] However, the earliest printing press was apparently introduced by the Japanese in the treaty port of Pusan in 1881 to publish Korea's first newspaper, the bilingual Chosen shinpo.[33] |
[edit] References
- ^ E. L. Eisenstein: The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 1993 pp.13–17, quoted in: Angus Maddison: Growth and Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity, Washington 2005, p.17f.
- ^ a b Angus Maddison: Growth and Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity, Washington 2005, p.65
- ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th edition, 1888–1890, entry 'Buchdruckerkunst (Ausbreitung der Erfindung)'. All data not otherwise marked comes from this source.
- ^ World Association of Newspapers: "Newspapers: 400 Years Young!"
- ^ a b c d Fernand Braudel, "Civilization & Capitalism, 15-18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," William Collins & Sons, London 1981
- ^ a b c Wieslaw Wydra, "Die ersten in polnischer Sprache gedruckten Texte, 1475-1520", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.88-94 (89)
- ^ a b c d e Erik Dal, "Bücher in dänischer Sprache vor 1600", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.37-46 (37)
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gedeon Borsa, "Druckorte in Italien vor 1601", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 1976 (1976), pp.311-314 (313)
- ^ Helmut Schippel: Die Anfänge des Erfinderschutzes in Venedig, in: Uta Lindgren (Hrsg.): Europäische Technik im Mittelalter. 800 bis 1400. Tradition und Innovation, 4th ed., Berlin 2001, p.540f. ISBN 3-7861-1748-9
- ^ Gedeon Borsa, “Druckorte in Italien vor 1601“, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 1976 (1976), pp.311-314 (314)
- ^ Gedeon Borsa, "Drucker in Italien vor 1601", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 1977 (1977), pp.166-169
- ^ a b Gedeon Bursa, "Die volkssprachigen Drucke im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert in Ungarn", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.104-108 (104)
- ^ Gedeon Bursa, "Die volkssprachigen Drucke im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert in Ungarn", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.104-108 (106)
- ^ a b c Gedeon Bursa, "Die volkssprachigen Drucke im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert in Ungarn", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.104-108 (107)
- ^ Dirk Martens Website (Dutch).
- ^ Wieslaw Wydra, "Die ersten in polnischer Sprache gedruckten Texte, 1475-1520", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.88-94 (88)
- ^ a b c Wieslaw Wydra, "Die ersten in polnischer Sprache gedruckten Texte, 1475-1520", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.88-94 (88f.)
- ^ a b c The European Library
- ^ a b Normann F. Blake, "Dating the First Books Printed in English", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 1978 (1978), pp.43-50 (43)
- ^ Erik Dal, "Bücher in dänischer Sprache vor 1600", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.37-46 (37f.)
- ^ a b Rosemarie Erika Horch, "Zur Frage des ersten in portugiesischer Sprache gedruckten Buches", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.125-134 (125)
- ^ a b c d Rosemarie Erika Horch, "Zur Frage des ersten in portugiesischer Sprache gedruckten Buches", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.125-134 (132)
- ^ a b Gudrun Kvaran, "Die Anfänge der Buchdruckerkunst in Island und die isländische Bibel von 1584", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 72 (1997), pp.140-147 (140)
- ^ a b Klaus Appel, "Die Anfänge des Buchdrucks in Russland in der literaturfähigen Nationalsprache", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.95-103 (95)
- ^ Klaus Appel, "Die Anfänge des Buchdrucks in Russland in der literaturfähigen Nationalsprache", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.95-103 (97)
- ^ Klaus Appel, "Die Anfänge des Buchdrucks in Russland in der literaturfähigen Nationalsprache", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 62 (1987), pp.95-103 (96ff.)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hensley C. Woodbridge & Lawrence S. Thompson, "Printing in Colonial Spanish America", Troy, N.Y., Whitson Publishing Company, 1976, quoted in: Hortensia Calvo, "The Politics of Print: The Historiography of the Book in Early Spanish America", Book History, Vol. 6, 2003, pp. 277-305 (278)
- ^ Magdalena Chocano Mena, “Colonial Printing and Metropolitan Books: Printed Texts and the Shaping of Scholarly Culture in New Spain: 1539–1700”, Colonial Latin American Historical Review 6, No. 1 (1997): 71–72, quoted in: Hortensia Calvo, "The Politics of Print: The Historiography of the Book in Early Spanish America", Book History, Vol. 6, 2003, pp. 277-305 (296)
- ^ Magdalena Chocano Mena, “Colonial Printing and Metropolitan Books: Printed Texts and the Shaping of Scholarly Culture in New Spain: 1539–1700”, Colonial Latin American Historical Review 6, No. 1 (1997): 73&76, quoted in: Hortensia Calvo, "The Politics of Print: The Historiography of the Book in Early Spanish America", Book History, Vol. 6, 2003, pp. 277-305 (279)
- ^ Pedro Guibovich, “The Printing Press in Colonial Peru: Production Process and Literary Categories in Lima, 1584–1699”, Colonial Latin American Review 10, No. 2 (2001): 173, quoted in: Hortensia Calvo, "The Politics of Print: The Historiography of the Book in Early Spanish America", Book History, Vol. 6, 2003, pp. 277-305 (296)
- ^ a b Walter Moritz, "Die Anfänge des Buchdrucks in Südwestafrika/Namibia", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, Vol. 1979 (1979), pp.269-276
- ^ a b Melvin McGovern, "Early Western Presses in Korea", Korea Journal, 1967, pp.21-23
- ^ Albert A. Altman, "Korea's First Newspaper: The Japanese Chosen shinpo", The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 4. (Aug., 1984), pp. 685-696
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
