1 Watch the video and fill in
the gaps in the text.
For centuries the dissemination
of knowledge through books had been only for the few reserved largely to monks
and priests. Each book was a priceless one-off,
but for most people in the Middle Ages this was an academic problem, they
couldn’t read or write anyway. During the Middle Ages books were written out 1__ _______ mostly in monasteries. Often the
monks would spend years on a work. Then in 1450 an invention changed the world.
In the German city of Mainz Johannes
Gutenberg invented the technique of printing with 2_____
type. This made it possible to 3______ books in large numbers and at relatively
low cost. The technological foundation was laid for the intellectual, political,
and religious changes of the 4______ centuries.
Johannes Gensfleisch,
who later changed his name to Gutenberg, was born in Mainz in 5_____ 1400. His
father was a 8______ merchant. Young Johannes 6_____ the monastic school in Mainz. That much we know,
but then his 7______ goes cold for a while. We only pick it up again in Strasbourg where he
settled in 1434. Here he set up a factory that produced mirrors for pilgrims. These
were very popular among the 8______ who hoped thereby to capture something of
the charisma emanating from the 9_____ they were visiting and from the relics
it contained. For Gutenberg it was a 10______ business. There was a 11_____
trade in 12_____ objects. Particularly popular were 13_____ depicting the
Saints. Woodcut is one of the earliest printing techniques, but it only reached
Europe in the early Middle Ages. Here it
served primarily for the 14_____ of pictures and texts. But cutting these whole
page blocks is a 15_____ process. First, a mirror image of the hand-written
page has to be drawn on the block. Then, the individual letters have to be 16____
out. Finally, the block is inked in and a sheet of paper is laid on top and rubbed
hard with the bone tool so that it takes up the ink. By the start of the 15th
century more and more of these page prints were coming onto the market. Occasionally
a number of pages were 17_____ into a book. The trade in these books also gave
a boost to manuscript production. 18_____ had long since 19______ to be the
exclusive preserve of the monasteries. Secular 20_____ were doing good business.
The establishment of the first universities had created a great 21_____ for
books. Libraries were 22_____ making knowledge in the form of books 23______. Books
needed to be cheaper and more quickly available, but that wasn’t all. In
particular, scholars wanted uniform copies. A new production technique was feverishly
24______. And one of the seekers was Gutenberg.
In 1446 he returned to Mainz.
Here he found solid financial 25_____ allowing him to 26 __ _____with his enterprise. His breakthrough
came with a brilliant idea. He broke up his text into its constituent parts: letters,
punctuation marks, and frequent combinations known as 27_____. These were then
combined to form the blocks for printing words, lines, and pages. The 28_____were
cast and could be used in new combinations time and again. A character is
produced as follows: on the end of a metal 29____ a mirror image of the letter
is 30_____. This is then pushed into softened copper producing a 31____ in the
shape of the letter. This matrix, as it’s called, acts as the 32_____ for the
actual type which is cast from 33_____. In order to manufacture the many
letters needed quickly and in sufficient quantity, Gutenberg took another
important step forward inventing the hand casting instrument. It consists of a
rectangular channel: the matrix is inserted at one end and molten lead 34_____
into the other. When the instrument is opened, a letter cast in lead is there
ready to be used. As the matrix is reusable, an unlimited number of identical
letters can be cast. Finally, the 35_____ can begin to combine the letters into
lines. In the form the lines or columns are combined to create the page 36_____
as desired. The result is a mirror image of the page to be printed. The form is
now inked in with printers’ ink. Gutenberg used a mixture in lamp-black 37_____
and egg white. Printing can now start.
Gutenberg used a special press
for this purpose, but he derived the principle from the traditional wine press.
Gutenberg’s first printed works were official documents, Papal 38____, and grammars.
But soon he started on a 39_____ venture:
the Latin Bible. For this project he cast more than a hundred thousand pieces of
type. For more than two years Gutenberg’s typesetters and printers worked on
the first edition of 180 copies. The text was printed in black letter or Gothic
type based on the handwriting of the day. Finally, the 40____ added the colored
initials and drawings. With his Bible, one of the world’s most beautiful
printed books, Gutenberg proved that the work printed with movable type could
be as 41_____ pleasing as one written by hand. The edition was soon sold out.
Gutenberg’s 42_____ were impressed. It was the first time the work had been
available in such a large edition, and every copy was identical. The written
word now had authoritative status.
The knowledge of this revolutionary technology was quick to spread. Soon
the first printing presses were set up in Cologne, Bamberg, and Basel. In
Venice an enterprising publisher named Aldus Manutius began to print the works
of the classical authors. His 43____ comprised the whole of Europe’s humanistic
intellectual 44____. Manutius employed the most talented printers of the age. They
develop the typeface known as Antiqua, which soon spread throughout Europe. Twenty
years after Gutenberg’s invention the new technology was firmly 45_____. Thousands
of titles were marketed in editions of up to 1,000. Books now became affordable
for ordinary people. As society grew more literate, the number of potential
readers increased.
One of Gutenberg’s greatest admirers was the reformer Martin Luther. The
new art of printing gave him a bright and 46_____ idea: the 47____ didn’t need
a priest to tell him what the Bible said. He could read it himself and decide
for himself between revealed truth and the false interpretation put about by
the Church. So Luther had more than half a million copies of his German
translation of the Bible printed, a huge number for those days. And to
disseminate his Protestant message he had hundreds of thousands of leaflets
distributed. But it wasn’t just Luther who exploited the new 48____. So did the
Emperor, along with kings and free cities of the Empire.
Soon single sheet 49_____, flyers we would call them, were discovered as
a news medium. When an unusual configuration of planets was announced for 1524,
the country faced an avalanche of these flyers warning of an 50_____ repeat of
Noah’s flood. The first daily newspaper appeared in Leipzig in 1650. Einkommende Zeitungen
it was called, roughly 51_____ News, and
it came out six days a week. But the triumphal march of the newspaper did not really
begin until steam-powered 52____ printing presses appeared in the nineteenth
century. And the offset process 53_____ in a radical transformation of printing
technology. Now the printing and non-printing elements are part of the single
continuous surface. First, the page to be printed is transferred by exposure to
light onto a thin printing plate. Then, the plate is 54_____ with water, so
that the non-printing areas do not absorb any ink. Next, the printing ink is
applied. This has a greasy element and it adheres to the areas previously 55_____
to light. In the offset process the ink is not transferred directly from the
form to the paper but first offset onto a rubber roller, hence the name, and
only then onto the paper. This allows for 56_____ printing, and lower-quality
paper can also be used.
Offset is the commonest printing process in use today, but in spite of
all these modern developments it was Johannes Gutenberg who laid the foundations
of our modern 57 _____ _______. His
invention is still regarded as one of the most important in human history. Gutenberg
himself did not 58 ______ _ _______ with his invention. He’d not even
finished printing his Bible before his financial backer called in the 59 _____.
In the legal battle that followed Gutenberg lost not only his printing press, but
also all the Bibles he’d already printed. Soon afterwards Mainz was occupied by
60_______ troops. Gutenberg had to go into exile. Three years later he was
allowed back as an employee of the new Archbishop. On the 3rd of February 1468 Johannes
Gutenberg died. He was buried in the Franciscan church in Mainz. But his
invention of printing with movable type had changed the world forever.
2 Vocabulary focus. Study the words and word combinations, practise
their translation, spelling. Check your knowledge
in the test. Play vocabulary game and set your own vocabulary game record.
3 Mark the following statements as True or False.
1.
Johannes Gutenberg was born of well-to-do parents.
2. Johannes Gutenberg
had a son called Johannes Gensfleisch.
3.
Gutenberg created metal casts of individual letters of
the alphabet.
4.
In the Middle Ages each book was a priceless one-off.
5.
Johannes Gutenberg had the lucrative business of
selling gold and gems to pilgrims.
6.
One of the earliest printing techniques, known as woodcut,
reached Europe only in the Middle Ages.
7.
Woodcut is a time-consuming process.
8.
In the 15th centuries some pages were bound
into books.
9.
Libraries created the demand for books.
10. Scholars wanted
uniform copies of books.
11. Secular scribes
created books for universities.
12. Gutenberg broke his
text into constituent parts.
13. Gutenberg’s molds
were reusable.
14. Gutenberg’s first
printed works were religious brochures.
15. Gutenberg decided
to print the English Bible.
16. Gutenberg’s printed
Bible was not as enticing as handwritten manuscript.
17. Aldus Manutius took the idea of printing from Gutenberg and developed
the typeface known as Times New Roman.
18. Printed works of
the classical authors were of great interest for humanistic intellectual elite.
19. Ordinary people
could not afford books until 1900.
20. Martin Luther used
the idea of printing press to disseminate his religious ideas.
21. Brochures about
imminent financial crisis and political scandals belonged to the first news
medium.
22. Offset is the
commonest printing process in use in the Middle Ages.
23. Guttenberg failed
to become rich.
24. Only religious
leaders used the opportunities offered by the printing press.
25. Typesetter had no
control over the page layout when Guttenberg’s printing press was used.
4 Answer the Questions.
1 Why were not books in demand in the early Middle Ages? Why were they
so few?
2 What business opportunities did Gutenberg see in selling goods for the
faithful?
3 What is woodcut? How text is produced using this technique?
4 What boosted the production of books? Is it connected with
dissemination of knowledge in society?
5 What technique did Gutenberg invent? How is
text produced using his method?
6 What did Gutenberg want to prove by creating
his copy of the Bible? Did he succeed?
7 What number of books could be printed back
then? Who was interested in buying and producing them?
8 What is offset process like? How is text produced
using this technique?