The history of printing is also a history of people, culture and trade. Technological changes come as they are needed and as people are ready for them. Cultures rise to their day in the sun and fall into decline, sometimes suffering a long darkness. Printing began as all things begin: a thousand efforts, with no goal in sight, no big picture, combined in a thousand ways to affect a thousand ends. The history of printing could as well be the history of civilization. The story of print is a long and complex one. It may be too much to claim that print was the single cause of the massive social, political and psychological changes it is associated with. However, print did wield enormous influence on every aspect of European culture. Some historians suggest that print was instrumental in bringing about all the major shifts in science, religion, politics and the modes of thought that are commonly associated with modern Western culture.
The history of printing goes back to the duplication of images by means of stamps in very early times. The use of round seals for rolling an impression into clay tablets goes back to early Mesopotamian civilization before 3000 BC, where they are the most common works of art to survive, and feature complex and beautiful images. The printing press is considered one of the most important inventions in history. This device has made it possible for books, newspapers, magazines, and other reading materials to be produced in great numbers, and it plays an important role in promoting literacy among the masses. It was developed based on early principles of printing, and it has undergone many modifications over the years to meet the needs of people in different eras. In both China and Egypt, the use of small stamps for seals preceded the use of larger blocks.
Believe it or not printing predates even paper. Somewhere around 3000 BC Mesopotamian peoples began to copy images with round cylinder seals that were used to roll out impresses onto clay tablets. Because these could be done relatively easily in large quantities they are the most common pieces of Mesopotamian art to survive into modern times – but that was just the beginning…
A few thousand years befor BC the Assyrians Khshthayy was stamped clay. Seal rings which were used in ancient times accordingly worked for centuries before Gutenberg's printing printing was known in China during the Tang Dynasty in China (906-618), the earliest manifestations of the printing industry has seen. During this period, Wood carving patterns on the screen, and then printing on fabric. The first mention in print, in the year 593, and a command of the Chinese government, in which the emperor Venti gives orders to print Buddhist images and texts.
One of the first great advances in the evolution of printing came between 220 BC and 868 BC, and originated from Buddhism. In the Buddhist religious tradition the preservation and copying of texts is greatly revered as not only a method for spreading and preserving religious manuscripts, but also as a virtuous practice in and of itself. Members of the Buddhist religion were encouraged not only to learn and memorize texts but also to obtain and preserve good copies of important religious doctrines. This special attention to the accurate reproduction of religious information led to a variety of practices developed for producing and reproducing these texts. This practice eventually spread throughout India and into China and Tibet by way of Buddhist influence.
Movable Type and the European Age of Printing
The next great set of advances seems to have occurred around the 1000 to 1400 AD as block printing gained popularity, and was used to produce large numbers of elaborately illustrated religious texts. The production of these texts really started to accelerate in the 1420’s, and from that point on they were produced en mass. Around 1450 or so, stenciling was quite common in Europe (as it had been in Japan for some time) and was greatly preferred for producing large numbers of documents and manuscripts as the respective copies did not have to be hand written.
It is disputed among scholars whether woodblock printing or movable type was first used in Europe on a large scale although most scholars tend to lean towards the opinion that the popularization of woodblock printing actually occurred after movable type had been introduced because initially it was still cheaper
The first known movable type system was developed in China by Ba Shang and was made out of porcelain. The first metal movable type came out of Korea during the ordeal dynasty. Neither of these was widely used. This lack of widespread use is commonly attributed to the veritable plethora of Chinese characters one would need to develop movable type pieces for.
It is generally recognized that the first widely used example of movable printing technology was developed in 1439 by Jonas Gutenberg of Germany.
In 1452, Gutenberg printed the idea of moving fulfilled. His studio material technology and oil-based inks for printing presses and printing press invented a book together. In fact, her technologies those years ago they thought and effort had been scored. Gutenberg, a German printer, the first one for each letter, considered a separate piece of metal. He put the pieces together to combine the right words over them, rubbing compound, and pressed on paper plates and thus created a new print. His letters originally made of wood, then the lead, and then the alloy of lead, tin, and antimony alloy metal construction alleged to be selected in such a way that the characters are not too hard or soft. Daily Gutenberg printed 300 to 500 sheets, Such as the printing presses of the period in Nuremberg Anton noted that the number of printing machines, 24 machines and hundreds of people who worked in the print shop, and Gutenberg's printing press, and therefore costs a lot more attention to the rich people. Changes in publishing after Gutenberg are a slow process, and the seventeenth century where major changes occurred.
There are 48 known copies of the Gutenberg Bible (a number imperfect, some comprising one volume of two, and a few of those imperfect.) All but three are in institutional collection. The last substantially complete copy at auction sold in 1978 for $2,000,000 and the Doheny copy of volume one, consisting of 324 leaves of the Old Testament only, sold for a hammer price of $4,900,000 in 1987. (Author: Bloy, Colin H.)