Summaries:

When it was first invented in the fifteenth century, Gutenberg’s printing press might have seemed like a fad that would quickly go away and the production of books by had would continue on.  Once the initial newness of the printing press wore off books in this form were still in high demand.  No longer would citizens have to wait for extended periods of time in order for their book to be done since the production was done at an unfathomable speed.

For the text to be produced there needed to be a good amount of letters in order to create a full page of writing.  Molds of all of the letters were created in steel.  Then, depending on the frequency that the certain letter was used, more molds would be formed.  Once all the letters were lined up in a correct fashion, the paper would be pressed on the ink forming the page of text. 

The book trade throughout Europe was much larger than you would expect it to be. Between 1467 and 1472 there was an excess amount of books produced in Rome so the trade expanded.  When the books arrived in different parts of the country an artist would add an illustration of their own.  

Comment

I think it is interesting how people have been able to find an accurate route that the spread of printing houses.  Even though they quickly popped up around the continent, once some smaller areas had fulfilled their need for a printing house they would close down and only stay open in larger trade centers, like Venice.

Question:

In the reading it states that it was sometimes difficult to sell the books once they had been mass-produced.  Do you think some people were skeptical about transitioning to the books created from the printing press? Why?