OFFER CONTENTS
1. A 1960 fine art production of an illuminated leaf from the Book of MACCABEES from the 1455 Gutenberg Bible published by Cooper Square Publishers with a Certificate of Authenticity. NOTE: The Gutenberg Bible did not have a title page or colophon.
2. A fine art reproduction of Johannes Gutenberg.
3. A fine art reproduction of the Gutenberg with his printing press.
The Printing Press
The Protestant Reformation will be 500 years old on 31 October 2017. In general there are five events that one needs to remember in order to understand the Reformation. 1. The Renaissance between 1300-1600. 2. The invention of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg between 1440-55. 3. The fall of Constantinople in 1453. 4. The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492. 5. The nailing of the 95 thesis to church door by Martin Luther in 1517. Each of these events plays an important part in the development of the Reformation.
MACCABEES - GUTENBERG 1960 COOPER SQUARE PUBLISHER'S EDITION
2. The invention of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg between 1440-55.
Prior to the printing press all books were laboriously and expensively written by hand. The lavish illustrations contained in these manuscripts were also all hand drawn, painted and often gold illuminated. For the vast majority of the population owning a single book was out of the question. It was just too expensive. Knowledge was the enclave of the rich and powerful.
However, right in the midst of the reemergence of the culture of classical antiquity [the Renaissance] the invention of printing with movable type brought the cost of manufacturing a book to within the reach of thousands and thousands of people who otherwise would have never even known how to read let alone own a book. You see a single printer could print thousands of copies of a single text faster than an entire scriptorium could write a single manuscript thereby reducing the cost of book production. As a result there was an expansion of knowledge unlike the world had ever seen. Not only were people suddenly learning about the past they were now sharing new and fresh ideas about the present world in which they lived and on a grand scale.