Review: Useful, but padded
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2012
This Single has one useful, interesting section on the business history of Gutenberg.  The balance sheet alone is a lode of information.  Consider: "wages, bed and board" for one worker for one year is about 15-20 guldens ($3000 to $4000).  A handwritten Bible was priced at 80 guldens -- more than one worker makes in 4-5 years!  Gutenberg's new printed bibles cost 20 gulden to manufacture: still more than a worker makes in a year.  In modern American terms: a handwritten Bible had a price tag as large as a house, and a printed Bible had manufacturing costs comparable to a luxury car.  Printing really was a big deal!Unfortunately, much of the rest of the essay is commentary on the modern Internet.  I get too much of that already from a lot of sources.  I would have been more interested in historical developments between Gutenberg and 2010.How much did a book cost when 10 years after Gutenberg?  50 years after?  How about when Ben Franklin was a printer?  In what year could a person earning the median wage for their society afford to buy 1 book per week?  I wanted more of that history.