page_title: Global spread of the printing press
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Global spread of the printing press / Spread of the Gutenberg press / Germany
caption_attribution_description: Stamp description / Briefmarkenbeschreibung Deutsch: 500 Jahre Gutenberg-Bible English: 500 jears of the Gutenberg-Bible Graphics by Walter Brudi Ausgabepreis: 4 Pfennig First Day of Issue / Erstausgabetag: 5. Mai 1954 Michel-Katalog-Nr: 198
context_page_description: The global spread of the printing press began with the invention of the printing press with movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany c. 1439. Western printing technology was adopted in all world regions by the end of the 19th century, displacing the manuscript and block printing.
  In the Western world, the operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of publishing and lent its name to a new branch of media, the "press".
context_section_description: Gutenberg's first major print work was the 42-line Bible in Latin, printed probably between 1452 and 1454 in the German city of Mainz. After Gutenberg lost a lawsuit against his investor Johann Fust, Fust put Gutenberg's employee Peter Schöffer in charge of the print shop. Thereupon Gutenberg established a new one with the financial backing of another money lender. With Gutenberg's monopoly revoked, and the technology no longer secret, printing spread throughout Germany and beyond, diffused first by emigrating German printers, but soon also by foreign apprentices.
caption: Modern stamp commemorating the Gutenberg Bible, the first major European work printed by mechanical movable type
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