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THE MANUSCRIPT A handwritten document is also called a manuscript The word manuscript comes from the Latin words manu hand and scriptus to write Manuscripts were written on specially prepared animal skins or plant fibers The oldest known manuscripts date to ancient Egypt although manuscripts were produced in ancient times in Asia the Middle East Europe and South America The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 in a cave near Qumran Israel is a collection of manuscripts roughly 2 200 years old The texts written in Hebrew and Aramaic offer a glimpse into religious and cultural aspects of Jewish life during that time Most of the manuscripts that survive from the Middle Ages are religious books that reflect the beliefs and practices of Christianity Judaism and Islam The British Library in London and the National Library of France house two of the world's largest collections of medieval manuscripts The process of hand copying was expensive a service only the wealthy and the church could afford Furthermore scribes eventually were unable to meet the demands of the government universities and the clergy for written material Yet for years often in secretsome clever individuals in Europe were hard at work trying to develop a faster and more efficient way of reproducing texts and images Among them was a little known metalworker from the German town of Mainz Medieval manuscripts were works of art but they were costly and slow to produce 11
The quick dissemination of news helped propel Europe into the modern era Who Was Gutenberg Very few details are known about the early life of Johann Gutenberg It is certain he was born in Mainz but the exact date of his birth is unknown Much of what we know about his later life comes from the records of court cases in which he was involved By the late 1430s accounts of Gutenberg's life indicate that he had begun work on some form of mechanical means that could reproduce texts in large quantities Witness testimony from a lawsuit brought against him in 1439
shows he was already engaged in developing some kind of a printing process Eventually with years of hard work marked by lawsuits and business failures Gutenberg devised a printing machine and a printing process A Force of Change Printing spread across Europe like wildfire By the end of the 1400s less than 50 years after Gutenberg's creation first appeared 236 towns had printing presses More than 35 000 editions of books s had been published amounting to 15 to 20 million copies The printing press became the primary technology for communication and the printed word became a powerful force for change Knowledge spread quickly across Europe through all forms of print books pamphlets maps charts and diagrams The availability of printed material improved the education process as more and more people learned to read Printed contracts and business Engineers at Google estimate 129 million different printed books have been published since the invention of the printing press 550 years ago documents made commerce and trade easier The printing press also made it easier to spread knowledge accurately Errors introduced into texts by scribes became a thing of the past Now it was 13
