TIME

Gutenberg’s Printing Press

c. 1450

Woodcut of printers working a wooden press and setting type, by Jost Amman, 1568.

Recorded HistoryGutenberg’s Printing Press

Movable type in Mainz.

Around 1450 in Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg was printing with movable metal type. His type, press and ink made it possible to print books in hundreds.

Presses soon spread across Europe, and the 42-line Bible was finished about 1455. No document dates the press to a single day.

c. 1450, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Recorded History
Period
c. 1450
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing a fifteenth-century printing workshop. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The press and the room are imagined.