Gutenberg and the Impact of Printing (review)

In the foreword to this book, Stephan Füssel reminds us that Johann Gutenberg was named "man of the millennium" by American journalists, a recognition that spawned several Gutenberg biographies, from John Man's colloquial narrative to Bruce Koscielniak's book for children. Füssel's work adds to this assembly, offering the kind of scholarly and detailed discussion of early printing that one would expect from the Gutenberg Chair at Mainz University.

Though Gutenberg sits squarely in the title, Füssel's scope is decidedly broader: the role of the printing press in the transformation of Western intellectual history, particularly during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is widely accepted that the press fostered the spread of Renaissance humanist ideas, allowed for the mass-produced schoolbooks used in universities, contributed to the spread of Reformation ideas, and eventually—through broadsides and newspapers—gave legs to the expression of public opinion. Füssel's aim is to detail the ways in which Gutenberg's invention enabled these things to happen.

The opening chapter offers not only a summary of Gutenberg's life and work, but also that of his Mainz peers. Through a discussion of the famous forty-two-line Bible, we learn how the earliest books were printed and illuminated, and the accompanying images brilliantly illustrate the sheer artistry of these early works. Indeed, the sixty-two color plates in this book are one of its great strengths, bringing to life Füssel's bibliographic descriptions. More important, Füssel is careful to avoid the heroic generalizations found in other Gutenberg biographies by highlighting techniques that were in existence prior to Gutenberg's work and explaining how he brought the pieces of the puzzle together—including the problem of efficiently casting pieces of type. Unfortunately, Füssel's technical explanation of how the actual type was made is rather brief, and there are no accompanying illustrations. Those interested in the specifics of the punch, matrix, mold, and type will be disappointed, but such detail is readily found in other books, such as Philip Gaskell's seminal work on bibliography. Füssel's abbreviated discussion of these matters affords him more time to focus on the intellectual changes that printing fostered.

The rapid diffusion of print technology occupies Füssel in the second chapter, where he offers an overview of the major printing centers in late-sixteenth-century Europe: Rome, Venice, Paris, and London. Although there has been a great deal of research on print culture in these cities, Füssel emphasizes the speed with which this technology spread, and this lays the foundation for his excellent discussion of both classical and popular printed works of the period. The great strides in Renaissance humanist scholarship—particularly philology—were wholly contingent on the printing press, which made available both aesthetically appealing and affordable copies of Cicero, Horace, and other classical authors.

Printed works in the vernacular were also increasingly common. Füssel highlights interesting and lesser-known examples of fables, encyclopedias, and practical guides to gardening, surgery, mathematics, and midwifery that collectively reflect the growth in popular books. Coupled with the emergence of broadsides and newspapers, these examples support Füssel's claim that printing expanded the audience for books. No longer read solely by elites, books were increasingly used by tradesmen, merchants, and craftsmen. This widening of the reading audience is clearly seen in the Reformation era, to which Füssel devotes his final chapter. Martin Luther's German Bible, along with broadsides and pamphlets mocking both the Church and reformers, are examples of the potency of print technology in shaping public opinion.

For Füssel, Gutenberg's invention is more than an important technology in early modern Europe—it also "culminated all mankind's former advances." Books could be reproduced in great quantities, and the press allowed for a "quality and accuracy of publication, that vouched for the fact that education could now shed a universal light" (p. 108). Such a...