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From Gutenberg to the Internet Timeline An Annotated Chronology of the History of Information from about 30,000 B.C.E. to the present, by Jeremy M. Norman. |
| 1920194019501960 |
|
1450s |
Printed newsletters begin circulating in Europe. |
1452-53 |
Gutenberg, working in Mainz, Germany, prints Indulgences using moveable type. These are the earliest dated documents printed by this method in Europe .The copy in the British Library is dated 1455. Though no Indulgences have survived with a date as early as 1452, it is possible that Gutenberg is already printing them at this early date. The proceeds from the sale of the Indulgences are intended to assist in the defense of Byzantium against the Turks. After the Turks conquer Constantinople in 1453, Indulgences will be sold in order to finance a crusade against the Turks. It is also possible that Gutenberg issues at this time an edition of Aelius Donatus' Ars minor, a Latin grammar, but no complete copy has survived. |
| April 4, 1452-July 9, 1453 | The so-called "Giant Bible of Mainz," one of the most magnificent Middle-Rhenish manuscript books of the fifteenth century, is written out on parchment in gothic letters on leaves measuring 570 and 400mm. The identified scribe dates his work in various places in the manuscript. The manuscript is preserved in the Lessing Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress. The similarity in format, and calligraphic style between this manuscript and the typography of the Gutenberg Bible issued just two years later is striking, suggesting that this manuscript might be the model for the typography Gutenberg uses in his 42-line Bible. There is also a striking similarity between the illumination of this manuscript and the illumination of the William H. Scheide copy of the Gutenberg Bible at Princeton University Library. In an addition both styles of illumination bear a strong relationship to the style of certain engraved designs by the Master of the Playing Cards. In Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards (1966) Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt suggests that the illuminators of these manuscripts and the Master of the Playing Cards may have used a common model book which is now lost. |
| 1453 | Using European artillery experts and European artillery, the Ottoman Turks break Constantinople's wall, and capture the city, ending the reign of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Constantinople's roll as the capitol of the Byzantine Empire. Numerous Byzantine scholars travel westward to Europe bringing with them Greek manuscripts of the highest cultural value. |
| 1454 October 22 | The earliest document with a fixed date printed by moveable type is a 31-line Letter of Indulgence issued at Erfurt on October 22. The year 1454 is printed; the month and year is filled in by hand. This Indulgence is probably printed by Gutenberg. |
1454 |
Gutenberg has printed at least part of the 42-line bible. It has been stated that printing by moveable type is the first major invention in Europe associated with the name of an individual inventor, though ironically no documents have survived proving that Gutenberg actually invented the process. |
1455 |
Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, reports that in Frankfurt, the year before, "a marvelous man" had been promoting the sale of a printed bible. Piccolomini states that he saw parts of it and it had such clear, large lettering that one could read it without glasses. He also notes that every copy had been sold. |
1455 |
Johann Fust, a goldsmith and lawyer, files a lawsuit against Gutenberg to recover money that he had advanced to Gutenberg beginning in 1450. The total claim is 2026 gulden with interest. As a result of the lawsuit Fust gains possession of Gutenberg’s press and equipment. |
| 1455 | The only 15th century book printed from wood-blocks in France, Les Neuf Preux, is thought to be printed about this date. |
1455-56 |
Gutenberg, working with Fust and Peter Schöffer, completes printing the 42-line bible, the first book printed in Europe from moveable type. |
"The Göttingen Model Book dates from the mid-15th century and originally belonged to a monastery. The manuscript arrived in Goettingen in 1770 with the bequest of the library of Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach. "It is a painting book for the drawing of leaves, initials and patterned backgrounds in different color combinations; even the composition of the colors is described in detail. The book decorations described in this manuscript can be found in the earliest period of printing in several Gutenberg Bibles, including the Göttingen copy of the B42." |
|
1456-57 |
The “Bloodletting Calendar” for 1457 becomes the first known medical or scientific work to be printed. Popular during the Middle Ages, this form of calendar gives the lucky and unlucky days on which to perform the medical practice of “blood-letting.” It survives in only one copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. |
1457 |
Fust and Schöffer publish the Psalterium Latinum at Mainz. This magnificent book printed on vellum is the first printed book to give both the name of the printer and the date of printing. It has initial letters printed in red, light purple, and blue. It is also the first printed book to include music. Its colophon boasts of the new technology involved in its production, reading in translation, “The present copy of the Psalms, adorned with beauty of capital letters, and sufficiently marked out with rubrics, has been thus fashioned by an ingenious invention of printing and stamping without any driving of the pen. . . .” |
| Circa 1458 | Johann Mentelin, formerly a scribe and illuminator, sets up a printing press at Strasbourg. This is the second printing press known to have been established after the Gutenberg/Fust and Schoffer press. |
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| 1920194019501960 |
(This page was last revised on
October 16, 2006
. Please report errors
and broken links to jnorman@jnorman.com.) |
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