The history of printing is closely linked to the development of humanity and culture. It was Johannes Gutenberg who is considered the inventor of modern printing in the West, around 1454. Gutenberg was born in Mainz between 1394 and 1399 and was a goldsmith by trade, but he began to take an interest in reproducing texts around 1436.
Before him, the Chinese were the first to explore the idea of printing, in order to simplify the dissemination and use of their ideographic writing.
So it was in the 15th century that Johannes Gutenberg developed a mechanism capable of significantly accelerating the speed of reproduction, thanks to two related inventions: the hand press and movable metal type. From there, printing would greatly contribute to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge, ideas, and thought during the famous Renaissance period.
Thanks to this invention, and to rotary printing, hundreds, thousands, millions of books would be shared throughout the world, and this would radically change the face of humanity and the world. The very first book printed using this technique was the famous Latin Bible, known as the "42-line Bible" or the Gutenberg Bible. To this day, there are 48 copies remaining out of the 300 originally printed, with each copy containing 1282 pages.
It is important to understand that not only did Gutenberg's invention revolutionize the way we read, but it also had enormous repercussions on thought, as it allowed for direct and rapid access to biblical and ancient sources. From that moment in history, we can consider that culture gradually emancipated itself from political power, as humanistic ideas and precepts spread like wildfire throughout Europe.