printing press

History 

Diamond Sutra, found in the cave of Dunhuang (China). It is the printed document dated oldest known preserved. Was held on May 11 of the year 871.1

The Romans had stamps printed sheets inscriptions on clay objects around the year 440 a. C. and 430. C. Between 1041 and 1048, Bi Sheng invented in China, where there was already a rice-paper type the first system of movable type, based on complex pieces of porcelain in which Chinese characters were carved; this was a complex procedure by the vast number of characters that were needed to Chinese writing. In 1234 craftsmen of the kingdom of Koryo (now Korea), connoisseurs of Chinese progress with movable type, created a set of movable metal type that anticipated modern printing, but used it raramente.2 However, modern printing was not created until approximately 1440, with the help of Johannes Gutenberg.

In Europe, many individuals and populations pretended to be part of this art; although opinions suggest that was the alemánJohannes Gutenberg, the ideas I had and the initiative to join a team of printers, supporting him as the inventor of latipografía. There subsequent documentation credited with inventing though, curiously, is not named in any known Gutenberg printed.

Given the controversial history appeared to dispute the glory of the "Father of Printing" German names Mentelin, printer Strasbourg (1410-1478); Italian Panfilo Castaldi, doctor and then typographer in 1470, another Italian named Aldus, Lorenzo de Coster of Haarlem (Netherlands) (1370-1430). Each has a monument in their respective localities; however, lost the lawsuit definitely Mentelin supporters and Castaldi.

An edition dating from 1502 in Mainz, Germany, printed by Peter Schöffer, successor to the press that in the past belonged to Gutenberg says:

... This book was printed in Mainz, the city where the admirable art of typography was invented in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg witty and then perfected at the expense and work of Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer ... among others .. .