Renaissance Art: The Gutenberg Press
Jorden Rasche
The soul of the Renaissance is the Gutenberg Press. It was an old art form. The press was a way to make books fast. The Gutenberg printing press was important to people who made books and to people who wanted books, including the Bible.
The Gutenberg Press was made in Germany in 1440. It was made by Johannes Gutenberg. Before the press was invented, people had to make books by writing every letter and word by hand. They only made 12 books per year. After the Gutenberg Press was made, it could make 30,000 books per year. The Gutenberg Press improved how books were made. It helped with the speed of printing books. Books were made fast, and they didn’t cost too much money. The Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455.
The printing press began, and they put the pages together to make a book. First, they took a block of wood and used a tool to carve out letters one at a time. Then, they poked the ink with a dabber and put it on the block of wood with the letters. They laid the paper down and then pressed down to make an impression. I learned that the dabber was made from the skin of a dog because dog skin is good for inking the letters. Printing techniques got better when they started using metal letters. I learned that lowercase and uppercase letters were named this because some sat in a case that went on the upper shelf, and some sat in a case that went on the lower shelf. That is why we say uppercase and lowercase letters.
The printing press lets a lot of people get books in Europe, and then they were able to think and learn. This helped to spread Renaissance ideas and even art. The Gutenberg Press was a way to print images as well. The Bible was printed in black ink, but then they put some color in it. They used blue and red ink and colored it in by hand. They also added gold to some of the letters. The words were printed in the German language. They added colors to make the Bible look cooler, like a piece of art.
The Gutenberg Press was a machine that helped people put ink on paper and then put the paper into books, including the Bible. This was a form of art that was done during the Renaissance.