How did Johanne Gutenberg influence the middle ages?

Answer 1

Sorry, but there is no clear answer to this.

The Gutenberg Bible is believed to have appeared in 1454 or 1455.

If you side with historians who date the end of the Middle Ages in 1453 or earlier, which most appear to do, then it is pretty easy to argue that Gutenberg had no influence whatever on the Middle Ages.

On the other hand, there are historians who date the end of the Middle Ages in 1485 or 1500, or even as late as 1517, and if we use any of these dates, we could claim that Gutenberg had profound influence on the end of the Middle Ages by giving people an ability to communicate widely and inexpensively that they had never had before.

I know there are people who believe that Gutenberg ended the Middle Ages with his printing press. Perhaps that is the best approach. The trouble is, the nature of the time was already changing rapidly, and I cannot say someone else would not have done the work Gutenberg did if he had not done it. The same job could even have been done using a different technology. Engraving was being developed at the same time, and could have been used for printing books also. It was not, possibly because it was more expensive to set up. But if engraving had been done, it would have meant more printers could have started business more quickly; production runs of books could have been longer; and books could have been reprinted more easily.