The Gutenberg printing press is widely considered to be one of humanityβs defining inventions. But it couldnβt have changed the world without another brilliant invention: paper.
The Gutenberg printing press is widely considered to be one of humanityβs defining inventions. Actually, you can quibble with Gutenbergβs place in history. He wasnβt the first to invent a movable type press β it was originally developed in China. Still the Gutenberg press changed the world. It led to Europeβs reformation, science, the newspaper, the novel, the school textbook, and much else. But, as Tim Harford explains, it could not have done so without another invention, just as essential but often overlooked: paper. Paper was another Chinese idea, just over 2000 years ago.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Image: Stack of coloured paper, Credit: Laborant/Shutterstock)
Last on
Sources and related links
Mark Kurlansky -Β Paper: Paging Through History (New York: W.W. Norton) 2016Β
Jonathan Bloom -Β Paper Before Print (Yale University Press) 2001Β Β
James Moseley -Β βThe Technologies of Printβ in M.F. Suarez, S.J. and H.R. Woudhuysen The Book: A Global History (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 2013Β
Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper -Β The Myth of the Paperless Office (Cambridge: M.I.T.) 2001Β
Broadcasts
- Sat 28 Jan 2017 19:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Sun 29 Jan 2017 11:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 04:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia
- Tue 31 Jan 2017 23:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Americas and the Caribbean
Podcast
-
![]()
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world
