In 1450, all Europe's books were handcopied and amounted to only a few thousand.
By 1500 they were printed, and numbered in their millions.
The invention of one man - Johann Gutenberg - had caused a revolution.
Printing by movable type was a discovery waiting to happen. Born in 1400 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg struggled against a background of plague and religious upheaval to bring his remarkable invention to light.
His story is full of paradox: his ambition was to reunite all Christendom, but his invention shattered it; he aimed to make a fortune, but was cruelly denied the fruits of his life's work.
Yet history remembers him as a visionary; his discovery marks the beginning of the modern world.
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304 pages, 8 pages colour
- Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
- Publication Date: 30/07/2009
- Category: European history
- ISBN: 9780553819663
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