How did johannes gutenbergs invention of the printing press change western civililation?
The Renaissance witnessed the development of printing, which made an immediate impact on European intellectual life and thought. Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz played an important role in bringing the process of printing with movable type to completion. By 1500, there were more than a thousand printers in Europe, who collectively had published almost forty thousand titles. The printing of books encouraged the development of scholarly research and the desire to attain knowledge. Printing also stimulated the development of an ever expanding lay reading public, a development that had an enormous impact on European society. Printing allowed European civilization to compete for the first time with the civilization to China.
