The Gutenberg Bible in the exhibition was printed in 1454. By 1500 printing had spread to 250 cities across Europe.
- Suzanne Paul
From 3000-year-old Chinese oracle bones to Penguin paperbacks of the 20th century, the collections at Cambridge University Library chart the technological revolutions that have changed the world around us.
The objects in the film all feature in the Library's spectacular new exhibition Lines of Thought: Discoveries that Changed the World, which opened free to the public last week in Cambridge and online.
Technology has always driven and mediated human communication and all its forms can be found within the Library. The earliest written texts survive on bone and pottery. Early technological advances exploited other local materials – papyrus in Egypt, palm leaves in South-East Asia and parchment from the skins of sheep, calves and goats across the world.
The development of the ‘codex’, a book made up of folded sheets, made it possible to transport and easily consult texts, whilst the invention of printing made mass production possible. Johann Gutenberg’s invention of movable type transformed the scale and variety of the written word. With the advent of mass communication and mass literacy, ideas and opinions, as well as controversy and propaganda, spread rapidly and widely.
Watch the film and read the full story
Image: The Gutenberg Bible
Credit: University of Cambridge Library
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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