When did mass printing begin

A.� Printing�- a name used for several processes by which words, pictures, or designs are reproduced on paper, fabrics, metal, or other suitable materials. These processes consist of making numerous identical reproductions mechanically. Marco wants to know when it all began.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q. The first example of printing

A.� Signet stones, used in ancient Babylonia as substitutes for signatures and as religious symbols. Designs were cut or scratched on the surface, then dabbed with pigment or mud and pressed against a surface.

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Q.� The Chinese must have played some part

A.� Yes. By the second century AD, the Chinese were printing texts. The printing of designs on textiles came about a century before. The Chinese invented paper in 105 AD and this coincided with the spread of the Buddhist religion. The Buddhist practice of making many copies of prayers and sacred texts encouraged mechanical means of reproduction. The earliest surviving examples of Chinese printing, produced before 200 AD, were printed from letters and pictures cut on wood blocks.

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Q. And how did it all progress

A.� Next came movable type — from individual characters arranged in sequence as in present-day printing — about 1000 AD. But this was not practical to early Chinese, because their language required between 2000 and 40,000 separate characters.

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Q.� And when did it come to the West

A.� Movable metal type was first cast in Europe and printed with a printing press on paper by the middle of the 15th Century. The earliest Western printers in the Rhine valley used mechanical presses derived from winepresses and made of wood. During the Renaissance, the rise of a prosperous and literate middle class increased the demand for quantities of reading matter.

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Q.� Did one man invent it

A.� Johann Gutenberg, Mainz, Germany, is traditionally considered the inventor of Western printing in 1450.� In fact, his contribution was the development of a punch and mould system that allowed the mass production of the movable type. These letters would be put together in a type tray that was then used to print a page of text. If a letter broke, it could be replaced. When the printing of the copies of one page was finished, the type could be reused for the next page or the next book.

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Q. How did it spread

A. Between 1450 and 1500, more than 6,000 separate works were printed. The number of printers increased rapidly. In Italy, the first press was established in Venice in 1469, and the city had 417 printers by 1500. In 1476 William Caxton brought printing to England. Most printed works were religious ones, such as bibles, psalters, and missals. In Italy, though, many secular works were printed, including the Greek and Roman classics and the scientific works of Renaissance scholars. The printed book quickly becomes a regular object in the world. By 1501 there were 1,000 printing shops in Europe, which had produced 35,000 titles and 20 million copies.

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Q.� But it was all pretty conventional stuff

A.� Until the 16th and 17th Centuries, when political and religious controversies were raging and propaganda pamphlets were widely circulated. Production of pamphlets provided a substantial part of the printer's work in this era.

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By Steve Cunningham