Free About 1 hr0 learners Rev. 2026-10-13 0

The oldest printed book with a date on it is a Buddhist scripture from 868, found in a sealed cave in western China. Korea was casting metal type nearly eighty years before Gutenberg. So what exactly happened in Mainz in the 1450s that changed Europe so completely, and so fast?

Watch a goldsmith's son turn molds, ink and a wine press into a machine for copying ideas, then follow those ideas as they split the church, carry Copernicus and Vesalius across borders, fuel witch hunts and provoke the first great arguments for a free press. Every complaint people make about the internet today, from fake news to information overload, was made about printing first. Knowing how that earlier revolution played out is one of the best guides to the one we are living through.

Levels

  1. 1 1. Before the Press: Manuscripts, Paper and Printing in Asia 5-question quiz
  2. 2 2. Gutenberg's Invention 5-question quiz
  3. 3 3. A Revolution Spreads (1455 to 1500) 5-question quiz
  4. 4 4. Print and the Reformation 5-question quiz
  5. 5 5. Print and the Scientific Revolution 5-question quiz
  6. 6 6. Censorship and the Fight for a Free Press 5-question quiz
  7. 7 7. Print, Language and Society 5-question quiz
  8. 8 8. From Pamphlets to the Internet 5-question quiz

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