the.com/printing press
the machine that made ideas contagious and made authority nervous.
means a device that mechanically stamps ink onto paper to reproduce text at scale, ending the era of hand-copied everything.
from johannes gutenberg adapted a wine press around 1440 in mainz, germany, pairing it with movable metal type he cast himself; the same squeeze that pressed grapes now pressed pages, and europe never recovered.
first bestsellerthe gutenberg bible, roughly 180 copies printed.
speed jumpone press could output what took scribes months.
reformation fuelluther's 95 theses spread via print in weeks.
literacy surgebook prices dropped enough to birth mass reading.