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Show centuries as the first important book definitely known to have ! been printed with movable type. In addition, it is famous for the great beauty of its typography, which has probably never been surpassed. t Gutenberg Considered . Inventor of ! Western Printing It is hard to imagine how the world today could carry on without with-out printing. How, without it, could democratic government and public schools function in a complex society as ours? How, without it, could science be applied ap-plied to a thousand daily uses and the vast stream of present day commerce and industry be kept flowing steadily? Printing with movable type has been of inestimable importance since the beginning of the modern mod-ern age. Indeed, the invention of it played a leading role in ushering in this era, which began be-gan about the time Columbus discovered America. Hence it is highly regrettable that there is so much uncertainty as to whether Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468) or one or another of his contemporaries was the actual inventor of this kind of printing. However, it is generally conceded that Gutenberg has the strongest claim to the honor. In fact, a biography published in 1940 by a lifelong student of printing and its history cites evidence evi-dence which tends to confirm Gutenberg's right to full credit for the invention. This, it should be remembered, refers to the western world, for in the Far East similar printing was done before the time of Gutenberg, Gut-enberg, but since Oriental peoples peo-ples made relatively little use of the process and since it was independently in Europe, the early possession of it in China, Japan and Korea is mainly of incidental interest. Authorities on the history of printing generally admit their uncertainty as to what was the first piece of copy printed in Europe with movable type. But the aforementioned recent biography biog-raphy says that it was ten lines of the Donatus Latin Grammar printed by Gutenberg and his assistants, Andreas Heilman and Hans Riffe, at Strasbourg in the summer of 1440. The same biography states that in printing this 28-page handwritten hand-written volume Gutenberg was preparing himself for what was then a monumental undertaking, the printing of the Bible. This was done at Mainz in two Latin volumes totaling 1,282 folio pages between 1450 and 1455, or, at any rate, before August 15, 1456. This Bible has been regarded for |