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Article: GUTENBERG'S PRESS SPREADS THE WORD MASS PRINTING OF BOOKS PLACED KNOWLEDGE IN COMMONERS' HANDS FOR THE FIRST TIME.(OUR MILLENNIUM)
- Article from:
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
- Article date:
- January 31, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: BROWN H. CARPENTER, STAFF WRITER
IT WAS AN INVENTION that changed human society, a technological revolution that marked a watershed in the stream of history. The printing press invented by Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg in the German city of Mainz in 1455 gave birth to an age of mass communication that continues to unfold.
By 1500, some 10 million books had been published all over Europe on moveable-type presses, shamelessly duplicating Gutenberg's since patent laws were a century or so in the future.
Gutenberg's first publications were his famous Bibles. But he also brought out the Catholicon, an encyclopedia considered ``the first ...