The printing press changed the course of history by making possible the massive reproduction of written works, a famous event attributed to the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg. His figure, however, is involved in many questions.
Who was really its creator? How did you shape mobile types? What process followed? A documentary produced by the public channel Arte analyzes its figure to try to give answers to enigmas that continue today.

Johannes Gutenberg, the German goldsmith, known for inventing the printing press, is a figure of which, however, little is known. Although there are dates and movements of his throughout the period, there is little reliable information about it. A minifilm produced by the European cultural chain Art, and made by Marc Jampolsky, tries to shed light on it and embarks on an arduous search into the past to find out.
The documentary, thus, presents testimonies of experts combined with a historical fiction about who could have been Gutenberg, and how he would have related to his contemporaries. Under some graphic and infographic resources, ‘The Gutenberg enigma’ places us in the Mainz of the XV century, in which we know closely the character, and its environment. The point of departure places us at the moment when Gutenberg needs funding for his project, and we accompany him in that search.
Among other curious facts, through this documentary we will know the existence of the donatos, the first grammar manuals to learn Latin, and how its success depended closely on the exponential growth of the universities. We will also see the process of each of the mobile types and how close to 300 of each letter (and 1000 in total) were needed for the technique to be sufficiently effective.

SOURCE: www.graffica.info