Posted
on August 14, 2013
You may not realize that Chinese and Korean inventors had invented much earlier versions of printing presses, and that other European printers had tinkered with movable type as well—but Gutenberg gets the credit because his innovations on the idea made printing practical and relatively inexpensive.
And
because the idea really took off!
The printing press shook up society and is arguably one of the factors that created a
middle class, universal education, and mass media.
The first books printed on Gutenberg's press were Bibles (now known as
the Gutenberg Bible). However, we don't know the exact dates that
Gutenberg printed his Bibles. We do know the exact date for the Mainz
Psalter, a book of Psalms (praise songs from the Bible). And that
exact date is August 14, 1457.
So
today really is the date of the oldest printed book whose exact date
of publication we actually know.
Celebrate
today by trying to find the oldest copyright date on any of your
books. Go to the library and try to beat that by finding an even
earlier copyright date!
Here
are some old and oldish books I like—can you find them?
For
young children:
For elementary ages:
For
pre-teens and teens:
Ivanhoe,
by Walter Scott (1819)
Also
on this date:
Here
are my Pinterest pages on August
holidays, historical
anniversaries in August,
and August
birthdays.
And
here are my Pinterest pages on September
holidays, historical
anniversaries in September, and September
birthdays.
I just thought of another old book I loved as a child:
ReplyDeleteThe Good Master, by Kate Seredy (1935)
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Master-Puffin-Newbery-Library/dp/014030133X