In 1450, all Europe's books were handcopied and amounted to only a few thousand. By 1500 they were printed, and numbered in their millions. The invention of one man - Johann Gutenberg - had caused a revolution. Printing by movable type was a discovery waiting to happen.
Born in 1400 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg struggled against a background of plague and religious upheaval to bring his remarkable invention to light. His story is full of paradox: his ambition was to reunite all Christendom, but his invention shattered it; he aimed to make a fortune, but was cruelly denied the fruits of his life's work. Yet history remembers him as a visionary; his discovery marks the beginning of the modern world.
- ISBN10 0553819666
- ISBN13 9780553819663
- Publish Date 30 July 2009 (first published 4 February 2002)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
- Imprint Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 304
- Language English