PRIMARY SOURCES Primary sources are the raw materials of history They can include books news articles photos official documents diaries and recordings They serve as original sources of information about a topic of study For example the U S Constitution is a primary source A book written about the Constitution would be considered a secondary source Some artifacts can be primary sources as well Artifacts are objects created by people Artifacts are important for what they teach about the past This book from the fifteenth century is a primary source 4
The Gutenberg Bible for example is one of many copies of the Bible It is important because it was the first book to be printed in Europe Primary sources are important for many reasons They give us direct information about people places and events of the past They can provide historical knowledge that other sources cannot They can also allow us to have a more direct experience of history Many books in libraries and bookstores are secondary sources Can you come up with several examples of primary sources Can you think of any secondary sources for each example How are the primary sources different from the secondary sources Compare and Contrast 5
THE GUTENBERG BIBLE Many religions have books that they hold sacred The Bible is an important book to both Jews and Christians The Bible of Judaism is different from the Bible of Christianity even though they both contain some of the same writings The Christian Bible is made up of the Old Testament and the New Testament This King James Version from 1611 is one of many versions of the Bible 6
One of the most special copies of the Christian Bible is the Gutenberg Bible A man named Johannes Gutenberg created it more than 500 years ago To produce his Bible he invented a new method of printing He used movable type and a machine called a printing press The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed using movable type It marked the beginning of a revolution in communication and the spread of human knowledge Today there are forty-eight surviving copies of the Gutenberg Bible They are among the world’s most valuable books The Gutenberg Bible is an important book that changed the world Movable type is a method of printing that uses individual letters usually made of metal that can be arranged and rearranged to form words Vocabulary 7
