Johann Gutenberg was born in Mainz, Germany, in 1400 and died in 1468. He was the inventor of printing with movable type, which in the Renaissance, revolutionized the art of printing.
Since the creation of this machine the rustic wooden printing of the Middle Ages was replaced by a mechanism consisting of metal letters in relief that, unlike its predecessor, could move to form different texts and used on different occasions. Gutenberg had built metal molds in which the letters contained an alloy of lead and antimony. Before the end of the fifteenth century had already produced more than 1,000 printers such as the inventor.
The first book was the German inventor of printing was the famous 42-line Latin Bible, Johann Gutenberg printed in two volumes.
The Renaissance printing allowed to generate a much larger number of books the medieval, which lower the cost of the works and put them within reach of the middle strata of society.