Modern life It is impossible to imagine without the invention that was given to the world by a simple German artisan. Printing, of which he became the founder, changed the course of world history to such an extent that it is rightfully considered one of the greatest achievements of civilization. His merit is so great that those who, many centuries before, created the basis for the future discovery are undeservedly forgotten.
Print from a wooden board
The history of book printing originates in China, where, back in the 3rd century, the technique of so-called piece printing came into use - imprinting on textiles, and later on paper, various drawings and short texts cut out on a wooden board. This method was called woodblock printing and quickly spread from China throughout East Asia.
It should be noted that printed engravings appeared much earlier than books. Individual samples made in the first half of the 3rd century, when China was ruled by representatives of the same period, have survived to this day. The technique of three-color printing on silk and paper also appeared.
The first woodcut book
Researchers date the creation of the first printed book to 868 - this is the date on the earliest edition, made using the woodcut technique. It appeared in China and was a collection of religious and philosophical texts entitled “The Diamond Sutra”. During excavations at the Gyeongji Temple in Korea, a sample of a printed product was found that was made almost a century earlier, but due to some features, it belongs more likely to the category of amulets than books.
In the Middle East, piece printing, that is, as mentioned above, made from a board on which text or a drawing was cut out, came into use in the middle of the 4th century. Woodcut printing, called “tarsh” in Arabic, became widespread in Egypt and reached its peak by the beginning of the 10th century.
This method was used mainly for printing prayer texts and making written amulets. A characteristic feature of Egyptian woodcuts is the use of not only wooden boards for prints, but also those made of tin, lead and baked clay.
The emergence of movable type
However, no matter how the piece printing technology improved, its main drawback was the need to re-cut out all the text for each successive page. A breakthrough in this direction, thanks to which the history of printing received a significant impetus, also occurred in China.
According to the outstanding scientist and historian of past centuries Shen Ko, the Chinese master Bi Shen, who lived in the period from 990 to 1051, came up with the idea of making movable characters from baked clay and placing them in special frames. This made it possible to type a certain text from them, and after printing the required number of copies, scatter them and use them again in other combinations. This is how movable type was invented, which is used to this day.
However, this brilliant idea, which became the basis for all future book printing, did not receive proper development during that period. This is explained by the fact that in Chinese There are several thousand hieroglyphs, and making such a font seemed too difficult.
Meanwhile, considering all stages of book printing, it should be recognized that it was not Europeans who first used typesetting. The only known book of religious texts that has survived to this day was made in 1377 in Korea. As the researchers established, it was printed using movable type technology.
European inventor of the first printing press
In Christian Europe, the technique of piece printing appeared around 1300. On its basis, all kinds of religious images made on fabric were produced. They were sometimes quite complex and multi-colored. About a century later, when paper became relatively accessible, Christian engravings began to be printed on it, and in parallel with this - playing cards. Paradoxically, the progress of printing served both holiness and vice.
However, the full history of book printing begins with the invention of the printing press. This honor belongs to the German artisan from the city of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg, who in 1440 developed a method of repeatedly applying impressions to sheets of paper using movable type. Despite the fact that in subsequent centuries primacy in this field was attributed to other inventors, serious researchers have no reason to doubt that the emergence of book printing is associated precisely with his name.
The inventor and his investor
Gutenberg's invention consisted in the fact that he made letters from metal in their inverted (mirror) form, and then, having typed lines from them, made an impression on paper using a special press. Like most geniuses, Gutenberg had brilliant ideas, but lacked the funds to implement them.
To give life to his invention, the brilliant artisan was forced to seek help from a Mainz businessman named Johann Fust and enter into an agreement with him, by virtue of which he was obliged to finance future production, and for this he had the right to receive a certain percentage of the profits.
A companion who turned out to be a clever businessman
Despite the external primitiveness of the used technical means and the lack of qualified assistants, the inventor of the first printing press was able to short term produce a number of books, the most famous of which is the famous “Gutenberg Bible”, stored in the Mainz Museum.
But the way the world works is that in one person the gift of an inventor rarely coexists with the skills of a cold-blooded businessman. Very soon, Fust took advantage of the part of the profit that was not paid to him on time and, through the court, took control of the whole business. He became the sole owner of the printing house, and this explains the fact that for a long time the creation of the first printed book was mistakenly associated with his name.
Other candidates for the role of pioneer printers
As mentioned above, many peoples of Western Europe challenged Germany for the honor of being considered the founders of printing. In this regard, several names are mentioned, among which the most famous are Johann Mentelin from Strasbourg, who in 1458 managed to create a printing house similar to the one that Gutenberg had, as well as Pfister from Bamberg and the Dutchman Laurens Coster.
The Italians did not stand aside either, claiming that their compatriot Pamfilio Castaldi is the inventor of movable type, and that it was he who transferred his printing house to the German businessman Johann Fust. However, no serious evidence for such a claim was presented.
The beginning of book printing in Russia
And finally, let us dwell in more detail on how the history of book printing developed in Rus'. It is well known that the first printed book of the Moscow state is “The Apostle,” made in 1564 in the printing house of Ivan Fedorov and both of them were students of the Danish master Hans Missenheim, sent by the king at the request of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The book's afterword states that their printing house was founded in 1553.
According to researchers, the history of book printing in the Moscow state developed as a result of the urgent need to correct numerous errors that had crept into the texts of religious books, long years copied by hand. Inadvertently, and sometimes intentionally, the scribes introduced distortions, which became more and more frequent every year.
Held in 1551 in Moscow church cathedral, called “Stoglavy” (based on the number of chapters in his final resolution), issued a decree on the basis of which all handwritten books in which errors were noticed were withdrawn from use and subject to correction. However, often this practice only led to new distortions. It is quite clear that the solution to the problem could only be the widespread introduction of printed publications that would repeatedly reproduce the original text.
This problem was well known abroad, and therefore, in pursuit of commercial interests, many European countries, in particular, in Holland and Germany, they started printing books based on their sale among the Slavic peoples. This created favorable conditions for the subsequent creation of a number of domestic printing houses.
Russian book printing under Patriarch Job
A tangible impetus for the development of printing in Rus' was the establishment of the patriarchate in it. The first primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Job, who took the throne in 1589, from the first days began making efforts to provide the state with an adequate amount of spiritual literature. During his reign, the printing industry was managed by a master named Nevezha, who published fourteen different publications, in his own way. characteristic features very close to the “Apostle”, which was printed by Ivan Fedorov.
The history of book printing of a later period is associated with the names of such masters as O. I. Radishchevsky-Volyntsev and A. F. Pskovitin. Their printing house produced a lot of not only spiritual literature, but also educational books, in particular, manuals on studying grammar and mastering reading skills.
Subsequent development of printing in Russia
A sharp decline in the development of printing occurred at the beginning of the 17th century and was caused by events associated with the Polish-Lithuanian intervention and called the Time of Troubles. Some of the masters were forced to interrupt their work, and the rest died or left Russia. Mass book printing resumed only after the accession to the throne of the first sovereign from the House of Romanov, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.
Peter I did not remain indifferent to printing production. Having visited Amsterdam during his European voyage, he concluded an agreement with the Dutch merchant Jan Tessing, according to which he had the right to produce printed materials in Russian and bring them for sale to Arkhangelsk.
In addition, the sovereign ordered the production of a new civil font, which came into widespread use in 1708. Three years later, in St. Petersburg, which was preparing to become the capital of Russia, the largest printing house in the country was established, which later became the synodal one. From here, from the banks of the Neva, book printing spread throughout the country.
The first books were copied by hand, which was a very labor-intensive process and took a lot of time. Printed books first appeared in the 9th century in Ancient China. Books were printed from printing boards. First, a drawing or text was applied to a rectangular board made of hardwood. Then, using a sharp knife, they cut deep into the areas that were not to be printed. A convex image was created on the board, which was covered with paint. The paint was made from soot mixed with drying oil. A sheet of paper was pressed against a board covered with paint, resulting in an impression—an engraving. Then the board was re-painted and a new print was made. By the way, according to the information that has reached us, already in the 11th century in China, the blacksmith Bi-Sheng invented a method of setting printed text using clay movable type. For this purpose, he made letters or drawings from clay and fired them.
In Korea 
the process of printing from typesetters was significantly improved and in the 13th century bronze types began to be used instead of clay ones. Books printed in Korea in the 15th century using bronze type have survived to this day. Later, printing from typefaces spread to Japan and Central Asia.
In the middle of the 14th - early 15th centuries in Western Europe, the transition from crafts to manufacture was rapidly progressing, and the foundations of world trade were successfully laid and developed. is beginning to quickly replace the handwritten method of publishing books. 
In Europe, as in Ancient China, the first books were printed from boards on which text and drawings were cut out. The books printed in this way were small in volume. The first printed books that were very popular were: “The Bible of the Poor,” “The Mirror of Human Salvation,” “The Life and Passion of Christ.” Small textbooks on grammar, Latin grammar and others were also in great demand. Playing cards, cheap paintings, and calendars were printed this way. At first they printed only on one side of the sheet, but over time they began to print on both sides. Inexpensive books became increasingly popular over time and were in great demand.
However, board printing is a long and labor-intensive process. It cannot fully satisfy the needs of society, the board is used to print one specific book, this method becomes economically unprofitable. 
This is being replaced by the method of printing using movable letters, which can be used for many years to type completely different books. Printing with movable type was invented in Europe by the German Johannes Gutenberg. Coming from an old noble family of Gonzfleisch, in 1420 he left his hometown of Mainz and took up a craft, taking his mother’s surname - Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg used forms for printing that were assembled from individual typesetting metal types.
To make letters, Gutenberg invented a special alloy of lead, tin and antimony. The alloy was poured into a soft metal matrix, in which 
letter-shaped indentations were pressed out. After the alloy cooled, the type letters were removed from the matrix and stored in typesetting boxes. Now the form for any page could be assembled within a few minutes from the cast type stored in the typesetting desks. Gutenberg invented waterproof ink. But Gutenberg's main achievement was the invention of a method for creating flexible, quickly and easily assembled, universal printing forms. The conventional date for printing books in Europe in this way is 1440. The first books were calendars and Donatus's grammar. In 1455, Gutenberg published the first printed Bible, which had 1,286 pages.
Gutenberg's printing technology remained virtually unchanged until the end of the 18th century. The manual printing press was invented for printing. It was a hand press in which two horizontal planes. Typeface was placed on one plane, and paper was attached to the other plane. Printing in this way quickly spread throughout Europe, and printing houses appeared in different cities. From 1440 to 1500, more than 30 thousand were published different names books.
In Europe, he invented typography from typesetting. This meant that letters, numbers and punctuation marks were cast from metal and could be used repeatedly. And although a similar system was known to the Chinese around 1400 BC, it did not take root there due to the presence of several hundred written characters. And the method was forgotten. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg began printing texts in Germany in a new way. At first these were calendars or dictionaries, and in In 1452 he printed the first Bible. It later became known throughout the world as the Gutenberg Bible.
How did the first printing press work?
Individual printed characters, letters, were attached to solid metal in a mirror image. The typesetter put them into words and sentences until the page was ready. Printing ink was applied to these symbols. Using a lever, the page was pressed firmly against the paper placed underneath it. On the printed page, the letters were in in the right order. After printing, the letters were folded in a certain order and stored in the typesetting desk. This way the typesetter could quickly find them again. Today, a book is usually designed on a computer: the text is typed and sent directly from the computer to print.
Why was the invention of printing important?
Thanks to the new printing method, it has become possible to a short time printed a lot of texts, so suddenly many people had access to books. They were able to learn to read and develop spiritually. Church leaders no longer determined who could gain access to knowledge. Opinions were disseminated through books, newspapers or leaflets. And they were discussed. This freedom of thought was completely new for those times. Many rulers were afraid of her and ordered books to be burned. And even today this happens with some dictators: they arrest writers and journalists and ban their books.
All books printed before January 1, 1501 are called INCUNABULAMI. This word is translated as “cradle,” that is, the infancy of book printing.
Few incunabula have survived to this day. They are preserved in museums and largest libraries in the world. The incunabula are beautiful, their fonts are elegant and clear, the text and illustrations are placed very harmoniously on the pages.
Their example shows that a book is a work of art.
One of the largest collections of incunabula in the world, about 6 thousand books, is stored in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. The collection is located in a special room, the so-called “Faust’s office,” recreating the atmosphere of a Western European monastery library of the 15th century.
Did you know that...
In ancient Rus' did they write on birch bark? This is the name of the outer part of birch bark, consisting of thin translucent layers that are easily separated from each other.
The first typewriter was made in the USA in 1867?
Is the number of books published all over the world growing year by year? True, this only applies to developed countries.
Check yourself.
1. In Germany, in the city of Strasbourg, in the central square there is a monument to Johannes Gutenberg. For what merits did grateful descendants perpetuate the memory of this German master?
2. Why are printed books from the 15th century called incunabula?
3. What new elements appeared in printed books in the 15th century?
4. Explain the meaning of the following concepts using reference books.
Big will help you encyclopedic Dictionary(any edition)
letter
typeset printing (typing)
font
printing house
engraving
Red line
Watch the cartoon about Johann Guttenberg:
http://video.mail.ru/mail/glazunova-l/4260/4336.html
Since ancient times, people have made books by hand (see Writing). A scribe worked for months, and sometimes years, to reproduce a literary or scientific work on durable sheets of expensive writing material - parchment made from animal skins. Paper, the inventor of which is considered to be the Chinese Tsai Lun, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries, made it possible to reduce the cost of a book and make it more widespread. n. e. In Europe, the first paper mill began operating in the 12th century.
Development of crafts and trade, Great geographical discoveries, the emergence of universities - all this contributed to the development of enlightenment and the growth of education. More and more books were needed. Manuscript workshops, located mainly in monasteries and in the castles of rulers, could not satisfy the increasing demand for books from year to year. Then book printing arose - a whole complex production processes which made it possible to produce books mechanically.
In fact, this is not one, but several inventions. It is based on the so-called printing form; it is a relief mirror image of text and illustrations that need to be reproduced in large quantities copies. The shape is rolled with paint, and then a sheet of paper is pressed against it with force. In this case, the paint transfers to the paper, reproducing a page or group of pages of the future book.
When creating book printing, people also took care to simplify and facilitate the process of making a printed form in every possible way. It was made up of metal blocks - letters, on the ends of which relief mirror images of letters, numbers, punctuation marks are reproduced... The letters were pre-cast using a simple type casting mold.
The first experiments in book printing were carried out back in 1041-1048. Chinese blacksmith Bi Sheng; He made letters from clay. In the 12th-13th centuries. In Korea, metal letters were already used. The creator of the European printing system was the great German innovator Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1399-1468). It was he who managed to find the best technical forms of implementing ideas that were partially expressed before him. Gutenberg published textbooks of Latin grammar - “Donata”, all kinds of calendars, works of medieval literature. His masterpiece is the 42-line Bible, printed 1452-1455.
The emergence of printing played a colossal role in the socio-political and cultural life humanity. Printing contributed to the development of science and culture, contributed to the fact that education lost its religious character, became secular, and made it possible to unify the grammatical norms of the language and graphic forms of writing. Books became cheaper, access to knowledge was easier, and they themselves became more democratic. “We can and must begin the history of our scientific worldview with the discovery of printing,” said the great Russian thinker, Academician V. I. Vernadsky.
Johannes Gutenberg reproduced mechanically only one text; all kinds of decorations and illustrations were drawn in ready-made handprints. In 1457, the inventor's student Peter Schaeffer (c. 1425 - c. 1503) managed to reproduce multi-colored initial letters and his publisher's mark on the pages of the Psalter. Another student of Gutenberg, Albrecht Pfister (c. 1410-1466), first printed illustrations in a book published in 1461. At first, ornaments and illustrations were reproduced using the method of so-called woodcuts - woodcuts, which appeared even earlier than printing. Later, the book included an engraving on copper, based on a different principle: the drawing to be reproduced is engraved here not in an elevated, but in a deep relief.
Printing was a surprisingly timely invention; it spread very quickly throughout Europe. In 1465, the printing press began operating in Italy, in 1470 - in France, in 1473 - in Belgium and Hungary, around 1473 - in Poland, in 1474 - in Spain, in 1476 - in Czechoslovakia and England. Schweipolt Fiol (d. 1525) first began printing in the Slavic script - Cyrillic in 1491 in Krakow.
Scientists have calculated that approximately 50 years before January 1, 1501, printing houses began operating in 260 European cities. Total number they reached 1,500, and they published approximately 40 thousand publications with a total circulation of over 10 million copies. Historians call these first books incunabula; they are carefully collected and stored in the largest libraries in the world.
In the history of domestic book printing, the name of the great Belarusian educator Francis Skaryna (c. 1486 - c. 1541) should be named first. In 1517, he founded a Slavic printing house in Prague, where he printed the Old Testament books of the Bible in separate editions. In 1522, Skaryna created the first printing house in Vilnius and published the “Small Travel Book” and “Apostle” here.
The first printing house in Moscow was founded around 1553. It is called anonymous because the seven editions it produced do not indicate the name of the printer, nor the time and place of printing. The first accurately dated Russian printed book, “The Apostle,” was published on March 1, 1564 by the great Russian educator Ivan Fedorov (c. 1510 - 1583) and his colleague Pyotr Timofeev Mstislavets. The initiator of the emergence of book printing in Moscow was the so-called Chosen Rada - a government circle under the young Tsar Ivan IV. Later, however, under the influence of reactionary religious circles, Ivan Fedorov was forced to leave Moscow and move to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in the eastern lands of which lived Ukrainians and Belarusians who professed Orthodoxy. The first printer worked in the Belarusian city of Zabludov, and then moved to Lviv, where in 1574 he published the first Ukrainian printed books - “Azbuka” and “Apostle”. In 1581, in Ostrog, Ivan Fedorov printed the first complete East Slavic Bible.
In the 17th century The printing craft workshop is being replaced by a printing manufactory with a widely developed division of labor. The Moscow Printing Yard was such an enterprise. Book printing was reformed by Peter I, who in 1702-1703. began publishing the first Russian newspaper, and in 1708 introduced a new civil font, which is still in use today.
Johann Gutenberg and Ivan Fedorov printed their books on a manual printing press, which was made entirely of wood, its productivity was low. At the beginning of the 19th century. German inventor Friedrich Koenig (1774-1833) designed a printing machine. In the history of book printing, the day of November 29, 1814 is memorable, when the first issue of the London newspaper The Times was printed on a printing press. Thus began the industrial revolution in book publishing. Its result was the introduction of machines into printing production. The hand typesetter, for example, was replaced by the "linotype", invented in 1886 by Othmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899). High-performance rotary printing machines and units for stitching and binding books are appearing in printing houses. Illustrations, starting from the 2nd half of the 19th century, are reproduced using photomechanical processes, which are based on the invention invented in 1839 by L. J. M. Daguerre (1787-1851) and J. N. Niepce (1765-1833). photo. The same method made it possible to improve typing processes; we are talking about a phototypesetting machine created in 1895 by V. A. Gassiev.
The 20th century was a period of transition in book printing from machines that mechanized individual production operations to automatic systems. Inventors have put forward designs for fully automated printing presses. IN Lately portable printing houses have appeared, which are based on microcomputer and microprocessor technology. Such printing houses are called desktop; they make it possible for everyone to publish books at relatively low cost.
Modern book printing is a highly developed branch of culture and industry. Here is some data on the circulation of published books. In 1955, 269 thousand publications were published worldwide, in 1965 - 426 thousand, in 1975 - 572 thousand, in 1986 - 819.5 thousand. About the total circulation of books published annually in the world There is no exact information. In China, almost 6 billion copies were published in 1985.
In our country, 80-85 thousand publications were published annually with a total circulation of over 2 billion copies.
“The history of the mind represents two main eras,” argued the Russian writer and historiographer N.M. Karamzin, “the invention of letters and typography; all others were their consequences. Reading and writing open up a person new world, - especially in our time, with the current successes of the mind.” These words were written almost two centuries ago, but they are still true today.
What is life without a book for a cultured person? This is a rhetorical question, the answer to which is obvious. We are so accustomed to being surrounded by literally a sea of printed materials that we no longer think about the fact that once upon a time a book was not only a source of wisdom and knowledge, but was worth its weight in gold, since the process of its production was incredibly labor-intensive.
Until a certain point, in Europe, all books (and, of course, scrolls) were handwritten. Basically, they were of a religious nature and were quite expensive. Books were then something of a treasure that only very wealthy people could afford. But in 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, thanks to which books became much more widespread. The principle of operation of this machine was quite simple: lines were typed from movable ones cut into reverse view raised letters that were imprinted on paper using a press.
However, Gutenberg's invention was not the first printing device in human history. Back in the era early Middle Ages(according to some sources - in 581, according to others - between 936 and 993) in China they used the following technology: raised letters were cut out on wooden trestles, then liquid paint was applied to them, a sheet of paper was placed on top and rubbed with a special with a soft brush. The first Chinese printed book is considered to be the Diamond Sutra, dated 868. The printing method described above is called woodcut. By the way, during excavations of ancient cities, for example, Babylon, researchers found bricks with inscriptions squeezed into them. A similar method of “sealing” was known to both the Assyrians and the ancient Romans. The surface on which the impression was made was most often clay. Usually these were everyday inscriptions. For example, when a potter fulfilled an order, he put an imprint on the pottery with the name of the customer.
But let's return to Europe. After Gutenberg invented the first printing press, his invention, of course, could not be kept secret for long. In the second half of the fifteenth century, printing houses began to appear throughout Germany: in 1460 - in Strasbourg, in 1461 - in Bamberg. From 1466 to 1471 printing houses opened in Basel, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main. Later, towards the end of the fifteenth century, the art of printing spread throughout Europe. Printing was the last to appear in France. Why - scientists do not have an exact answer. It is only known that in 1470 two respected professors of the Sorbonne, Johann Heylin and Wilhelm Fische, invited three printers from Germany.
The real flowering of printing art came in the eighteenth century. This was facilitated by the development of literature and science.
In the nineteenth century, thanks to technological progress, special machines were designed for casting letters, as well as machines that allowed simultaneous printing on both sides of the sheet. In 1810, Koenig invented a steam printing press, and a little later rotary presses appeared that allowed printing 12,000 sheets at a time.
What about Russia? As is known, the first printed book of the Moscow state was “The Apostle,” published by Ivan Fedorov and his student Pyotr Mstislavets. Its publication date is 1564. The Apostle was printed with incredible grace, careful typesetting and perfectly straight lines.
Until 1589, when the patriarchate was established, book printing in the Moscow state was not regular. The most famous publications of that time were the Book of Hours, which was used to teach children to read and write, and the Educational Psalter. However, subsequently, various books began to be periodically printed in the Moscow printing house. Of course, they were all of religious content.
Under Peter I, a printing house was founded in St. Petersburg, where books were printed in civil type, ordered by the emperor in Amsterdam. Not only have they become widespread religious books, but books of a secular nature, which was largely due to the development of literature and social thought.
By the end of the nineteenth century, there were 1958 printing houses, lithographs, metallographs, etc. in our country. Most of them were in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Odessa, and Warsaw. Technical schools were founded to train typographic craftsmen and typesetters. If you are interested, you can read in more detail about what types and types of leather were used previously and are now used in the manufacture of bindings, as well as about the history of its origin.
Today, in the age of extraordinary progress and development of all kinds of technologies, the book is still best gift, and this is an indisputable fact. Many people collect their own home libraries, which are a source of pride for them. Collectors select rare, unique publications for their libraries and often visit second-hand bookstores. Sometimes such collections are of great value.
Books made in expensive, unusual bindings are very popular. These bindings can be made of genuine leather, decorated precious stones or gold thread. The rarest copy is a book that is bound by hand. The publication with a beautiful, original binding is a wonderful gift for any occasion and a wonderful copy for your home collection, which will not only complement it, but also decorate it.
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