In the Western world, the operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of publishing and lent its name to a new branch of media, the "press" (see List of the oldest newspapers).
Spread of Gutenberg's press
Germany
Modern stamp commemorating the Gutenberg Bible, the first major European work printed by mechanical movable type
Gutenberg's first major print work was the 42-line Bible in Latin, probably printed 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 revoked, and the technology no longer secret, printing spread throughout Germany and beyond, diffused first by emigrating German printers, but soon also by foreign apprentices.
Europe
In rapid succession, printing presses were set up in Central and Western Europe. Major towns, in particular, functioned as centers of diffusion (Cologne 1466, Rome 1467, Venice 1469, Paris 1470, Buda 1473, Kraków 1473, London 1477). In 1481, barely 30 years after the publication of the 42-line Bible, the small Netherlands already featured printing shops in 21 cities and towns, while Italy and Germany each had shops in about 40 towns at that time. According to one estimate, "by 1500, 220 printing presses were in operation throughout Western Europe and had produced 8 million books" and during the 1550s there were "three hundred or more" printers and booksellers in Geneva alone. The output was in the order of twenty million volumes and rose in the sixteenth century tenfold to between 150 and 200 million copies. Germany and Italy were considered the two main centres of printing in terms of quantity and quality.
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 importantly, missionaries exported printing presses to the new European oversea domains, setting up new print shops and distributing printing material. In the Americas, the first extra-European print shop was founded in Mexico City in 1544 (or 1539), and soon after Jesuits started operating the first printing press[citation needed] in Asia (Goa, 1556).
According to Suraiya Faroqhi, lack of interest and religious reasons were among the reasons for the slow adoption of the printing press outside Europe: Thus, printing in the Arabic script, after encountering strong opposition by Muslim legal scholars and manuscript scribes, remained formally or informally prohibited in the Ottoman Empire between 1483 and 1729, according to some sources even on penalty of death, while some movable Arabic type printing was done by Pope Julius II (1503−1512) for distribution among Middle Eastern Christians, and the oldest Quran printed with movable type was produced in Venice in 1537/1538 for the Ottoman market.
Hebrew texts and presses were imported across the Middle East – as early as 1493 – Constantinople, Fez (1516), Cairo (1557) and Safed (1577). Disquiet among Muslims regarding the publication of religious texts in this way may have dampened down their production. In 1831, Israel Bak brought a Hebrew printing press from his family business in Berdichev, Ukraine to Safed and Jerusalem, and began printing the first Hebrew texts in the land of Israel in more than 250 years.
In India, reports are that Jesuits "presented a polyglot Bible to the Emperor Akbar in 1580 but did not succeed in arousing much curiosity." 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.
In the 19th century, the arrival of the Gutenberg-style press to 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), which radically departed from Gutenberg's design, but were still of the same development line.
Dates by location
The following represents a selection:
Germany, Austria and German printers in Central Europe
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.
Johann was granted a privilege for 5 years for movable type printing by the Senate, but died soon after. In 1501, Ottaviano Petrucci produced the first book of sheet music printed from movable type.
Probably in 1477, claimed to have the first engraved illustrations, although the 1476 Boccaccio edition by Colard Mansion in Bruges already had copper engravings
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. During these two centuries a total of 2894 printers were active in Italy, with only 216 of them located in southern Italy. Around 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 (approximately 30%).
The first work printed on Hungarian soil was the Latin history book Chronica Hungarorum published on 5 June 1472.
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.
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 Kraków until 1477, printing became permanently established in Kraków, and Poland, only after 1503. In 1491, the first book in Cyrillic script was published by Schweipolt Fiol from Franconia. In 1513, Florian Ungler printed Hortulus Animae, the first book in the Polish language.
The first dated prints in England are an indulgence dating to 13 December 1476 (date written in by hand), and the Dicts or Sayings, completed on 18 November 1477. Between 1472 and 1476, Caxton had already published several English works on the continent (see Bruges above).
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.
The country's first printed book was the Hebrew Pentateuch, the Faro Pentateuch published by the Jew Samuel Gacon in southern Portugal, after having fled from the Spanish Inquisition.
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.
The Printing house of Kosinj[hr] is known for producing the Missale Romanum Glagolitice on February 22nd 1483. The Croatian text known as "Misal po zakonu rimskoga dvora" was significant as it is the first missal in Europe which was not printed in Latin script; only 28 years after the Gutenberg Bible.
Đurađ Crnojević used the printing press brought to Cetinje by his father Ivan Crnojević to print the first books in southeastern Europe, in 1493. The Crnojević printing house operated from 1493 through 1496, turning out religious books of which five have been preserved: Oktoih prvoglasnik, Oktoih petoglasnik, Psaltir, Molitvenik and Četvorojevanđelje (the first Bible in Serbian language). Đurađ managed the printing of the books, wrote prefaces and afterwords, and developed sophisticated tables of Psalms with the lunar calendar. The books from the Crnojević press were printed in two colors, red and black, and were richly ornamented. They served as models for many of the subsequent books printed in Cyrillic.
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.
Scotland
Date
City
Printer
Comment
1507 (the earliest surviving item is dated 4 April 1508)
William Elphinstone, the Bishop of Aberdeen, was anxious to get a breviary published (see Aberdeen Breviary), and petitioned King James IV to have a printing press set up. Myllar had previously been involved with printing in France, where Scots authors had traditionally had their books printed (see Auld Alliance). The earliest works were mainly small books (approximately 15 cm), but at least one book was printed in folio format, Blind Harry's The Wallace.
Macarie is brought into Wallachia by the prince Radu cel Mare. The first printed book in Romania is made in 1508, Liturghierul. Octoihul is also printed in 1510, and Evangheliarul is printed in 1512
Mostly religious books are printed, among them being Molitvenik. Books printed in Wallachia were also reprinted for use in Moldavia, which at the time did not have its own press.
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.
PostOrdnung (28 September 1632) was the first document printed in Tartu with date and printer's name. The printing press operated in connection with Tartu University (Academia Gustaviana) that was opened on the same year. The reverse side of the document contains a resolution of Johan Skytte about Academia Gustaviana.
The first published book in Etchmiadzin was titled Սաղմոսարան (Psalms). The printing house was St. Grigor Lusavorich.
The first book which had Armenian letters was published in Mainz in 1486. The first Armenian book to be published by the printing press was Urbatagirq—Book of Friday prayers—which was published by Hakob Meghapart in Venice in 1512.
Established by the archbishop Juan de Zumárraga, using Hans Cromberger from Seville, the first book printed was Breve y Mas Compendiosa Doctrina Christina, written in both Spanish and native Nahuatl. Esteban Martín of Mexico City has been determined to be the first printer in the Western Hemisphere. Between 1539 and 1600 presses produced 300 editions, and in the following century 2,007 editions were printed. In the 16th century, more than 31% of locally produced imprints were in native Indian languages, mostly religious texts and grammars or vocabularies of Amerindian languages. In the 17th century, this rate dropped to 3% of total output.
Almanach voor't jaar 1796. The possibility of printing may be as early as 1784 when Ritter arrived in the Cape but no earlier output has surfaced. Ritter is also said to have printed Almanacs for 1795 to 1797 suggesting a start to printing of 1794.
1798
Cairo
Egypt
French
c. 1825
Madagascar
English
Malagasy translation of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism
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.
An Italian Lazarist missionary set up the first printing press in Ethiopia to print missionary texts in Amharic. Biancheri called himself "Printer to His Majesty Emperor Theodros", but there is no evidence he had an imperial appointment. He died in 1864 and his press did not outlive him.
Fifth press in the Ethiopian Empire, but the first in what is today Ethiopia. Established by Franciscans, it printed periodicals in French and Amharic. It was later moved to Dire Dawa.
First press for printing in the Arabic script in the Ottoman Empire; operated until 1711. Funded by Constantin Brâncoveanu and established with the assistance of Anthim the Iberian.
First press for printing in the Arabic script established by Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, against opposition from the calligraphers and parts of the Ulama. It operated until 1742, producing altogether seventeen works, all of which were concerned with non-religious, utilitarian matters.
1734
Monastery of St. John of Choueir, Khenchara, Lebanon
Abortive attempt to revive printing in the Ottoman lands
According to some sources, Sultan Bayezid II and successors prohibited printing in Arabic script in the Ottoman Empire from 1483 on penalty of death, but printing in other scripts was done by Jews as well as the Greek, Armenian, and other Christian communities (1515 Saloniki, 1554 Bursa (Adrianople), 1552 Belgrade, 1658 Smyrna). Arabic-script printing by non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire began with the press of Athanasius Dabbas in Aleppo in 1706. In 1727, Sultan Achmed III gave his permission for the establishment of the first legal print house for printing secular works by Muslims in Arabic script (Islamic religious publications still remained forbidden), but printing activities did not really take off until the 19th century.
The first presses were imported by Western priests for their missionary work from Europe and America. The earliest known, an albion press, was set up in the Portuguese colony Macau and later moved to Guangzhou and Ningbo.
The first printing press was imported from Japan for publishing Korea's first Korean-language newspaper Hansong Sunbo. After the press was destroyed by conservatives, 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. 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.
This printing shop was located in the home of the first president of Harvard College, Henry Dunster. It printed the first Bible in British North America in 1663, in English as well as Algonquian.
The first book was a Maori translation of part of the Bible commissioned by the Church Missionary Society: "Ko nga Pukapuka o Paora te Apotoro ki te Hunga o Epeha o Piripai" (The Epistles of St Paul to the Philippians and the Ephesians).
Altman, Albert A. (1984), "Korea's First Newspaper: The Japanese Chosen shinpo", The Journal of Asian Studies, 43 (4): 685–696, doi:, JSTOR , S2CID
Appel, Klaus (1987), "Die Anfänge des Buchdrucks in Russland in der literaturfähigen Nationalsprache" [Beginnings of printing in Russia], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German), 62: 95–103
Blake, Normann F. (1978), "Dating the First Books Printed in English", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 43–50
Bolza, Hans (1967), "Friedrich Koenig und die Erfindung der Druckmaschine" [Friedrich Koenig and the invention of the printing press], Technikgeschichte (in German), 34 (1): 79–89
Borsa, Gedeon (1976), "Druckorte in Italien vor 1601" [Printing locations in Italy before 1601], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German): 311–314
Borsa, Gedeon (1977), "Drucker in Italien vor 1601" [Printers in Italy before 1601], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German): 166–169
Borsa, Gedeon (1987), "Die volkssprachigen Drucke im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert in Ungarn" [Vernacular printing in the 15th and 16th centuries in Hungary], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German), 62: 10903–109108
Dal, Erik (1987), "Bücher in dänischer Sprache vor 1600" [Books in Danish before 1600], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German), 62: 37–46
Gerhardt, Claus W. (1971), "Warum wurde die Gutenberg-Presse erst nach über 350 Jahren durch ein besseres System abgelöst?" [Why was the Gutenberg press replaced by a better system after more than 350 years?], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German): 43–57
Gerhardt, Claus W. (1978), "Besitzt Gutenbergs Erfindung heute noch einen Wert?" [Does Gutenberg's invention still have value today?], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German): 212–217
Horch, Rosemarie Erika (1987), "Zur Frage des ersten in portugiesischer Sprache gedruckten Buches" [On the question of the first book printed in Portuguese], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German), 62: 125–134
Weber, Johannes (2006), "Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe", German History, 24 (3): 387–412, doi:
Wydra, Wieslaw (1987), "Die ersten in polnischer Sprache gedruckten Texte, 1475–1520" [First texts printed in Polish, 1475–1520], Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (in German), 62: 88–94
Henry Cotton (1866). (2nd ed.). Clarendon Press – via HathiTrust.
Hessels, John Henry (1911). "Typography". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 509–548.
On the effects of Gutenberg's printing
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, September 1980, Paperback, 832 pages, ISBN 0-521-29955-1
McLuhan, Marshall, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) Univ. of Toronto Press (1st ed.); reissued by Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7100-1818-5
Febvre, Lucien & Martin, Henri-Jean, The Coming of the Book: the impact of printing 1450–1800, Verso, London & New York, 1990, ISBN 0-86091-797-5
External links
Media related to Global spread of the printing press at Wikimedia Commons
