Johannes gutenberg printing press biography of martinez

Printing press A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as the most influential events in the second millenniumrevolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity. The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johanes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a complete printing system, which perfected the printing process through all of its stages by adapting existing technologies to the printing purposes, as well as making groundbreaking inventions of his own. His newly devised hand mould made for the first time possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities, a key element in the profitability of the whole printing enterprise. The mechanization of bookmaking led to the first mass production of books in history in assembly line-style. A single Renaissance printing press could produce 3,600 pages per workday, compared to forty by typographic hand-printing and a few by hand-copying. Books of bestselling authors like Luther or Erasmus were sold by the hundreds of thousands in their lifetime. From a single point of origin, Mainz, Germany, printing spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became so synonymous with the enterprise of printing that it lent its name to an entire new branch of media, the press. As early as 1620, the English statesman and

From moveable hand-carved woodblocks in Dunhuang, China, during the Tang Dynasty of 618-906 to adjustable type developed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, around 1450, print has played a vital role in the transfer of knowledge and ideas, communication, and the arts.

The first printing press in North America was established in present-day Mexico City in 1539 by publisher Juan Cromberger. It was not until a century later in 1638 that the first printing press in the British colonies arrived in Massachusetts by boat from England. While the popularity of print grew, there were no printing presses west of St. Louis, Missouri, into the early 1800s.

The First Printing Press in New Mexico

It was not until July of 1834, 13 years after the establishment of the Santa Fe Trail with the beginning of legal international trade with Mexico, that the first printing press arrived in present-day New Mexico. Trader Josiah Gregg brought the wood and iron Ramage Press from St. Louis to Santa Fe by way of the Trail. The press was likely constructed in Philadelphia at the shop of Adam Ramage, a native of Scotland, whose wood-frame screw press was among the most popular presses at the time. The Ramage Press remained the only printing press in New Mexico for over a decade.

Within a year of its arrival, Padre Antonio José Martínez, an influential priest and educator, acquired the Ramage Press and brought it to Taos where he printed textbooks for his school, in addition to several political and religious texts. He likely printed the first book in New Mexico in 1834, a Spanish spelling book called Cuaderno de Ortografia, thus establishing a long tradition of important texts published in northern New Mexico that continues to this day.

Padre Martínez loaned the press to the Mexican government in the 1840s which in turn published two newspapers in Santa Fe, which were likely printed in the Palace of the Governors. The press was also used