Johann Gutenberg

The most interesting aspect of Micheal Pollard's look at "Johann Gutenberg: Master of Modern Printing" are the old prints and illustrations showing the evolution of printing, both before and after the subject invented letterpress printing. Ultimately this book is much more about the invention of printing and its impact on civilization than it is a biography of Gutenberg. After all, Pollard has to hedge his look at the man himself with comments that Mainz was probably where he was born, around 1398, and likely made his living as a craftsman in Strasbourg. But then certainly the life of Gutenberg becomes rather incidental compared against the tremendous impact of this creation and Pollard certainly does a first rate job of putting the printing press in the context of the history of printing. Pollard begins the book with a bit of drama involving the law suit in which Gutenberg would lose his press, the type, and the completed forty-two line Bibles that made him famous, to Johann Fust, his investor (the trial is the one part of Gutenberg's life that is known in detail). Consequently, Gutenberg never saw any profit from the printed Bibles that would bear his name. This book covers the story of printing from the time before print, through the history of Gutenberg's invention, and the improvements seen in the field afterwards. Pollard makes a case for how printing helped to spark the Reformation (since the Bible would now be available to everyone and not just to the Church). The connection between printing and political change is detailed as well as Pollard brings the story of the technology up to the present. Again, the illustrations here are fascinating companions to the text, allowing young readers to compare a page from a 15th century hand-copied Bible with one from a Gutenberg edition. There is also a strange woodcut showing Death seizing and carrying off printers and a painting of books being burned that were not approved by the Church. This is a very informative little volume and Pollard is to be commended for developing both the history and the significance of this invention. The "Giants of Science" series was first published in Great Britain as "Scientists Who Have Changed the World," and other titles look at Alexander Graham Bell, Galileo Galilei, the Wright Brothers, and other recognizable names.