It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams through it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men. Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg was the inventor and craftsman responsible for the creation of the movable-type printing press. If movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg’s invention enabled a much faster rate of print and led to both an information and a religious revolution.  Gutenberg’s Bible, the first printed version of the holy book of the Christian faith, enabled people to read the gospels and religious texts first hand and encouraged a more compassionate approach to religious thought. This coupled with more responsive government (the result of relatively small Italian city states) enabled ideas to proliferate.  In short, technology coupled with sympathetic conditions engendered a social and commercial revolution which in turn gave birth to the explosion of a cultural one. The worlds of art, architecture, politics, literature, exploration and science would never be the same again!