How did Gutenberg's printing press contribute to the growth of learning and literacy especially Bible reading in Europe?

Answer 1

Gutenberg was instrumental in changing the speed at which the world communicated.

Prior to Gutenberg adding several changes together, to wind up with his version of the 'printing press'. There were several 'ideas' that preceded him.

The first advance was the use of block letters in a fixed frame,

Then came the idea of moving the paper into and out of the press.

Finally, was the use of a molton metal (Lead-tin Mixture) that allowed for the Type Pattern to be recycled for every letter that was needed.

The copying by hand , the previous editions of 'the book', was a laborious process that required many hands to copy out the text onto linen 'pages', and to make sure that what was written ,was accurate. [errors did crop in ocassionally].

Finally the scribes were very upset when Gutenberg was able to reproduce texts faster than any scribe was able to set about copying a volume of 100 pages or so(The Boook of .....)

So while it would take up to 6 months to finish one copy of a book, Gutenberg was able to produce hundreds in 6-8weeks time.

He was vilified in the local village gossip for causing the scribes to loose their work, but he felt it was his christian duty to promote this 'invention' for everyone. In some respects the church was not happy,but in others the church elders were happy that he donated time to spreading the word(s) of those books.

AS the Book of The Bible was able to be reproduced in larger and larger quantities Gutenberg was able to bring the costs down.

SO as the costs became less, then more and more people were able to afford (or were giver a copy aspart of their 'NEW life together' as in a Marriage, then the copies were handed down through the generations.

This enabled more people top read the books of the Bible.