In the World

Thinking about the first printed books leads us to well known citizen of Mainz Johannes Gutenberg. If someone would ask us, who invented printing, we would say his name, but would this answer be correct? Chinese and Arabs started to print various pictures long before J. Gutenberg. Playing cards were used in China since the 10th century. Those were printed using technique called xylography or block printing. Using this technique a print is made from a block of wood with an image carved into its surface. Europeans could find out about this technique during the Crusades. Unfortunately, xylography could not be used for books. In the 15th century Europe society was ready to learn and thirsty for knowledge. This led to the search of more suitable printing methods and materials. Various printing presses were used in xylography and they were constantly improving. Then we could ask ourselves, what was so special about the J. Gutenberg’s invention? This goldsmith integrated several inventions. First one was an alloy made of 70% lead, 25% tin and 5% antimony. When the types made of this alloy were started to be used in printing, ink which was perfect for xylography turned out to be unsuitable. Another important invention was printing press. J. Gutenberg did not invent the printing press itself but adopted it for printing with metal types. All those developments and inventions together were the reason of printing revolution in the world and made the 42-line Bible (printing finished in 1455) the first printed book.