From FinnegansWiki
- guten morgen: (German) good morning
- Johann Gutenberg: Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (born circa 1398 – presumed to have died 3 February 1468 in Mainz) was a German metal-worker and inventor who achieved fame for his contributions to the technology of printing during 1448, including a type metal alloy and oil-based inks, a mould for casting type accurately, and a new kind of printing press based on presses used in wine-making. Tradition credits him with inventing movable type in Europe -- an improvement on the block printing already in use there. By combining these elements into a production system, he allowed for the rapid printing of written materials, and an information explosion in Renaissance Europe
[edit] Commentary
Good morning is often the first thing spoken in the day. Here the German|Gutenberg conflation suggests the birth of modern printing.
In 1455, Gutenberg demonstrated the power of the printing press by selling copies of a two-volume Bible (Biblia Sacra) for 300 florins each. This was the equivalent of approximately three years' wages for an average clerk, but it was significantly cheaper than a handwritten Bible that could take a single monk 20 years to transcribe.
