In 1450, all western Europe's books were handcopied and amounted to no more than a single modern library. By 1500 they were printed and numbered in their millions. Printing made possible the development of modern science and literature, and the political shift from statelets to nations. It brought about the biggest chages in human culture since the invention of the alphabet itself. The man responsible was Johann Gutenberg, born in Mainz, Germany in 1400. John Man explains how this technical genius, whose research into printing was funded by wealthy sponsors, struggled against a background of plague, religious upheaval and legal battles to bring his remarkable invention to light.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in Mongolia. His most recent books are GOBI: TRACKING THE DESERT and THE ATLAS OF THE YEAR 1000. He also wrote THE ATLAS OF D-DAY. He devised and presented the BBC Radio 4 series 'Survivors'.
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More About the Author
JOHN MAN
I usually write non-fiction, mainly exploring interests in Asia and the history of written communication. So 'The Lion's Share', available only on Kindle, is something different - a new edition of a thriller written some 25 years ago when I wasn't sure what I wanted to focus on. It's about the 'real' - in quotes, i.e. fictional - fate of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.
Most of the time, I like to mix history, narrative and personal experience, exploring the places I write about. It brings things to life, and it's a reaction against an enclosed, secure, rural childhood in Kent. I did German and French at Oxford, and two postgraduate courses, History and Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (to join an expedition that never happened).
After working in journalism and publishing, I turned to writing, with occasional forays into film, TV and radio. A planned trilogy on three major revolutions in writing has resulted in two books, 'Alpha Beta' (on the alphabet) and 'The Gutenberg Revolution', both republished in 2009. The third, on the origin of writing, is on hold, because it depends on researching in Iraq. (On the fourth revolution, the Internet, many others can write far better than me).
My interest in Mongolia revived in 1996 when I spent a couple of months in the Gobi. 'Gobi: Tracking the Desert' was the first book on the region since the 1920's (those by the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews). In Mongolia, everything leads back to Genghis. I followed. The result was 'Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection', now appearing in 20 languages. Luckily, there's more to Mongol studies than Genghis. 'Attila the Hun' and 'Kublai Khan' came next.
Another main theme in Asian history is the ancient and modern relationship between Mongolia and China. 'The Terracotta Army', published to in 2007, was followed by 'The Great Wall', which took me from Xinjiang to the Pacific. 'The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan' (combining history, character analysis and modern leadership theory) and 'Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East' pretty much exhausted Inner Asian themes for me.
So recently I have become interested in Japan. For 'Samurai: The Last Warrior', I followed in the footsteps of Saigo Takamori, the real 'Last Samurai', published in February 2011. After that, more fiction, perhaps.
I live in north London, inspired by a strong and beautiful family - wife, children and grand-children.
I usually write non-fiction, mainly exploring interests in Asia and the history of written communication. So 'The Lion's Share', available only on Kindle, is something different - a new edition of a thriller written some 25 years ago when I wasn't sure what I wanted to focus on. It's about the 'real' - in quotes, i.e. fictional - fate of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.
Most of the time, I like to mix history, narrative and personal experience, exploring the places I write about. It brings things to life, and it's a reaction against an enclosed, secure, rural childhood in Kent. I did German and French at Oxford, and two postgraduate courses, History and Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (to join an expedition that never happened).
After working in journalism and publishing, I turned to writing, with occasional forays into film, TV and radio. A planned trilogy on three major revolutions in writing has resulted in two books, 'Alpha Beta' (on the alphabet) and 'The Gutenberg Revolution', both republished in 2009. The third, on the origin of writing, is on hold, because it depends on researching in Iraq. (On the fourth revolution, the Internet, many others can write far better than me).
My interest in Mongolia revived in 1996 when I spent a couple of months in the Gobi. 'Gobi: Tracking the Desert' was the first book on the region since the 1920's (those by the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews). In Mongolia, everything leads back to Genghis. I followed. The result was 'Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection', now appearing in 20 languages. Luckily, there's more to Mongol studies than Genghis. 'Attila the Hun' and 'Kublai Khan' came next.
Another main theme in Asian history is the ancient and modern relationship between Mongolia and China. 'The Terracotta Army', published to in 2007, was followed by 'The Great Wall', which took me from Xinjiang to the Pacific. 'The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan' (combining history, character analysis and modern leadership theory) and 'Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East' pretty much exhausted Inner Asian themes for me.
So recently I have become interested in Japan. For 'Samurai: The Last Warrior', I followed in the footsteps of Saigo Takamori, the real 'Last Samurai', published in February 2011. After that, more fiction, perhaps.
I live in north London, inspired by a strong and beautiful family - wife, children and grand-children.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great history of Gutenberg and his life and times,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Gutenberg Revolution (Paperback)
_The Gutenberg Revolution_ is a highly informative book, not just about the man, Johannes Gutenberg, but about his machine, his time, and his legacy. Several chapters are devoted to the history and politics of late-medieval Germany, and they provided wonderful context for the overall story. I learned a great deal from this book, however, the writing style was slightly annoying. Man, the author, tries to chat with his reader, and while it was interesting some of the time, I felt it was overdone, and that the book began to suffer because of it. Sentences like "So: Here we go", do not belong in a history book. Other than that tendency, I really did like the book. I am very interested in the History of Books, and this is one of the few sources (in English) written about the father of modern printing; so for that reason, I value it.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And we think we live in disheavled times...,
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This review is from: The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention That Changed the World (Hardcover)
The changes that occurred in Europe in the middle of the 15th.Century were monumental in the advance of civilization.This change was extremely quick;essentially taking place in only a decade or so. All the requirements were in place ,such as writing,presses inks,papers,techniques of working with metals for making type,etc.All that was missing was the will to pull all the things together to produce books using movable type instead of hand reproduction. This period was totally different from what we know today.A very few people owned and controlled everything.There were very few books,none available to anyone except the upper classes and academics.This mattered little, as few commoners read anyway.Europe was ravished by wars and every so often breakouts of the Black Death.The ruling class ,in conjunction with the Church ruled and controlled everything.Gutenberg's introduction of movable type printing provided the vehicle that changed all that. More than just dealing with printing, this book is excellent in describing how society operated and how changes in printing on a mass scale, effected changes that resulted in society being turned upside down forever.It took something like this to advance out of the Middle Ages;just like it took electricity to create the Industrial Age. What I found so good about this book is that ,unlike most history books that describe what happened,this author shows why these things happened. The author has dealt with all this in a very readible manner.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Een onbedoelde splijtzwam,
By Bart van den Bosch (Amsterdam) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gutenberg Revolution (Paperback)
Dit is een erg leuk boek voor typo- en bibliofielen. John Man, ook bekend van boeken over Genghiz Khan en Attila, vertelt het verhaal van de uitvinding van de boekdrukkunst. Het aardige is dat hij dit doet vanuit verschillende invalshoeken; Gutenbergs biografie (voor zover reconstrueerbaar), de ontwikkeling van niet-geschreven tekst vanaf de Chinezen tot het Duitsland van de 15de eeuw, de techniek van het drukken met 'movable type' van het stansen van de letters tot het mengen van de inkt en het vergelijken van culturele factoren die of een stimulans, of een blokkade vormden voor de uitvinding van de boekdrukkunst. De aardigste these die Man aannemelijk maakt, is echter de constatering dat de ideologie achter de uitvinding, behalve een economische, een katholieke was. Voor de boekdruk werden alle teksten met de hand gecopieerd. Het corpus van christelijke teksten, met name de bijbel, was na de vaststelling van de orthodoxie in de 4de eeuw door overschrijffouten in de kloosters tot op zekere hoogte onbetrouwbaar geworden. De handgeschreven bijbels, waarvan er in het hele middeleeuwse christendom maar een paar duizend in omloop waren, verschilden onderling teveel, hetgeen allerlei theologische en interpretatieproblemen opleverde. Gutenberg wilde met zijn vinding aan al die verschillen een einde maken; hij streefde naar 1 bijbel die in alle kerkelijke instellingen hetzelfde was. Man probeert vervolgens aannemelijk te maken dat de kerkhervormer Nicolaas van Cusa hetzelfde doel nastreefde; eenheid in de kerk door eenduidigheid van de kerkelijke teksten. Hoewel er geen bewijs is dat Nicolas en Johann elkaar ooit hebben ontmoet, is Man's idee dat beide elkaar beinvloed hebben, aannemelijk. Met dit verhaal belicht Man een aspect van de uitvinding van de boekdrukkunst dat vaak over het hoofd wordt gezien. De explosieve ontwikkeling van het drukken van boeken wordt juist vaak geduid als een van de belangrijkste voorwaarden voor de reformatie. Des te aardiger dat dit boek aannemelijk maakt dat de oorspronkelijke motivatie juist de eenheid van het christendom beoogde. Kijk zelf op [...]
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