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It was actually the development of cheap paper that propelled the use of Gutenberg's movable type. So long as either writing or printing was done on very expens
by Merrill 8y ago
It was actually the development of cheap paper that propelled the use of Gutenberg's movable type. So long as either writing or printing was done on very expensive parchment and vellum made from animal hides, there was not much economic advantage from movable type because print runs on a very expensive medium would be short. The cost of materials dominated the labor costs.
About 1350 the price of paper began to fall exponentially in England and Holland. This made movable type economic almost 100 years later.
See Figure 5 on page 10 of "Prices and the Growth of the European Knowledge Economy, 1200-2007" https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:384596/FULLTEXT01.pdf https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:384596/FULLTEXT0...
The Moore's Law of paper prices was to printing as the Moore's Law of silicon integrated circuits is to the internet.
- askvictor 8y agoBegan to fall logarithmically perhaps?
- chmod775 8y agoRadical idea: Could it be that both cheap paper and Gutenberg's invention contributed directly?
- nonbel 8y agoIt wasn't either of those things. It was only possible due to the development of novel ink: https://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/ink.html https://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/ink.html
- jacobush 8y agoI'd argue type and ink were an integral invention.
- Merrill 8y agoCould be, but it appears that the price of paper started its decline long before movable type was invented. Using the internet analogy, movable type printing would be more like the LCD flat screen, which contributes mightily to the internet (especially mobile) but well after the Moore's Laws of integrated circuits, magnetic storage, and optical communications technologies have provided the basic infrastructure.
- theoh 8y agoThere's another aspect to the cost of materials, which is the investment required to make the type itself. A lot of capital was locked up in a printer's store of lead type.
- quotemstr 8y agoPapyrus was also very cheap; it also makes for an excellent writing surface. The Romans didn't quite have paper, but they had something functionally equivalent and good enough to run their society.
- curtis 8y agoInterestingly the Romans sometimes wrote on cards that were essentially wooden shavings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindolanda_tablets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindolanda_tablets.