Biography

Johannes Gutenberg was presumed to have been born in 1398 to Friele Gansfleisch and Else Wyrich. As much of an important and influential figure Gutenberg was, little is known about his childhood. All that is to be known about his early life was he no longer lived in Mainz in 1430 and appeared to have migrated to Strasbourg for political reasons. At the time, he joined the gold-smiths' guild. It was believed that Gutenberg wanted to make lots of money, and in trying to do that, he had a plan to mass-produce 32,000 mirrors, but there was nothing relevant for him to use at the time. It was then where he was in the works of developing a press of his own in the mid 1440s. In 1450, Gutenberg formed a partnership with Johann Fust who helped finance Gutenberg's idea which he had kept secret for many years. It wasn't until 1453 where Fust and Gutenberg developed the idea of printing the 42-line bible which was later called "The Gutenberg Bible". His success of his printing didn't go without conflict though. Not much longer after, Fust sued Gutenberg to recover the money he had originally financed the press for. After much debate, the property of the printing press machinery was handed to Fust. Unfortunately after this time, little was known of what happened to Gutenberg. On January 18, 1465 an appointment to the court of Archbishop Adolf of Nassau saved him from homelessness. Gutenberg died in, what was believed, 1468. Despite the somewhat mysterious lifestyle Gutenberg had, he will always be remembered as one of the greatest innovators of our time, and the vital component of starting the spread of information.














Fellow, American Media History, 3rd Ed.(Boston: Wadworth, 2013), #2, #3
Wallau, Heinrich. "Johann Gutenberg." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 5 Dec. 2013<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07090a.htm>