Edward Garboczi
Tag: Book Review
One can try to make a list of the new technologies that have had the most effect on humankind. There will probably be some disagreement among various people’s lists, but I am quite sure that everyone would put the printing press somewhere in their top ten.
In Ink on His Fingers, Louise Vernon tells the story of Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the movable-type printing press, through the eyes of fictional 12-year-old Hans Dunne, an apprentice working in Gutenberg’s print shop about the year 1450 in Mainz, Germany.
Gutenberg was a goldsmith, so he knew metal and how to mold and machine metal into precise shapes. The movable-type press is a machine where each page of a book can be set up by placing metal type into a frame. That way, the type can be readily reused for new pages. Gutenberg’s greatest achievement, besides this invention that changed the world, was the first printing of the complete Bible (Latin Vulgate edition), beginning the process of making the Word of God more widely available, at a much lower cost, than it ever was before.
The author tells the story of Gutenberg and the first printed Bible, as well as surrounding problems, such as jealous rivals and burglary, as Hans works hard to get the first printed Bible finally published. There are still complete copies of Gutenberg’s Bibles existing today, almost 600 years later. One such copy is on display in the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC, which I have seen. Inexpensive, widely available printed matter, as is the text we read on websites, owes its origin to the genius and dedication of Johann Gutenberg.