Interesting, well written account of the invention of the printing press. ( )

I was at first disturbed with historical errors in the book. The author advances a grandson of Noah, a son of Japheth to full sonhood and equates him to Shem. Then I discovered worse problems than historical errors. Pagination is messed up and sections are missing. Page 121 follows page 56. Page 89 follows page 152, Page 121 (again) follows page 120. Page 152 (again) follows page 151. Net loss: pages 57 to 88.

This book did what I wanted it to - sorta. I wanted to learn more about Gutenberg and the creation of the printing press. While I do know more, I'm overall dissapointed by the world in general. How can we not have more information on this man!

The reason I've only given this book 3 stars is that I think there is way too much background information and it feels like padding to make up for the lack of available information on Gutenberg himself. I did, however, enjoy the section on important early books.

If you want to learn about the medieval Mainz with a side dish of the infancy of printing this is for you. However, if you want to focus on Gutenberg then I suggest you find a Tardis and travel back in time to meet the man himself. There just isn't enough existant information to put together a complete picture. ( )

Johannes Gutenberg’s life is just tangible enough to warrant a full-length biography, and just sketchy enough to beget a whole society of people who scour archives around Europe trying to find anything they can about him. If it weren’t for his many business dealings (and debts), we wouldn’t have half the information we do now. Born in 1398 to an upper-class merchant family, he grew up around the minting and goldsmithing trades. He is assumed to have studies at the University of Erfurt around 1418. And then he disappears.

John Man’s tale of the machine and its inventor is very good. He understands the shortcomings of the current knowledge of Gutenberg and tries to find avenues (both historical and religious) to explain some of the circumstances in his life. The digressions that do exist are fun and, many times, necessary. Anyone with an interest in early bibliography will enjoy this book. ( )

A fascinating look at the history of printing, as it evolved from the painfully copied and transposed palimpsest type of books that existed before the invention of movable type.
Man’s careful and scholarly research does not obscure his sheer enthusiasm for the man, history or the period. From the revealing of Gutenberg’s motives – profit and the spread of religion – through to his somewhat overwrought concluding chapter, the author holds our attention with prose that communicates his own delight in the important events, inventions and improving technical enhancements in the world of printing information to expand knowledge.