26-08-2017, 11:12 PM
28-08-2017, 10:37 AM
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting on a recording medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Usually used for texts, the invention and diffusion of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.
The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a printing system, adapting existing technologies to the purposes of printing, as well as making own inventions. Its newly designed hand mold made possible the rapid and accurate creation of movable type metal in large quantities. The printing press extended in several decades to more than two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses operating throughout Western Europe had already produced more than 20 million volumes. In the sixteenth century, with the presses extending farther, its production multiplied by ten, to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became synonymous with the company of the printing press, and gave its name to a new branch of the media, "the press".
In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical type printing introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestrained circulation of (revolutionary) information and ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation, and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite in education and learning and reinforced the emerging middle class. Throughout Europe, the growing cultural awareness of their peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism and accelerated with the development of European vernacular languages, to the detriment of the lingua franca of Latin. In the nineteenth century, the replacement of the Gutenberg hand press by rotary steam presses allowed the printing on an industrial scale.