You’d be hard-pressed to have any difficulty finding a book to bring home, even if only temporarily. Libraries and countless stores, both physical and virtual, have books readily available. All you have to do is pick one. There are billions of them. This was not always the case, however.

Woodblock Printing

In ancient times, if you wanted a copy of a book, pamphlet, scroll, or any piece of writing, you had to copy it by hand. This, as you can imagine, was painstaking and laborious work, especially if you were trying to copy something as extensive as religious texts. It wasn’t until the 8th century, during what historians call a “golden age of civilization” in Chinese history, under the Tang dynasty, that this began to change.

Buddhism was the major religion in China at the time, and for Buddhists, being able to copy and distribute religious texts to share the word, as well as having them on hand as mystical relics that could protect their owner, was vital. It was religion that drove the invention of printing, as they needed a way to produce copies of the teachings of their masters quickly.

Woodblock printing was developed for this purpose. Delicate and neatly copied characters were written on thin paper, then placed on a wooden board to be traced over. A woodsmith would carefully cut away any wood that wasn’t part of the characters, leaving behind a relief that could be coated in ink. Sheets of paper would be pressed down onto it, transferring the ink to the page like a giant stamp. This made copying religious texts far easier.

However, it came with its drawbacks, as carving the wood panel took a lot of time and effort to ensure accuracy. In China, the oldest document created by woodblock printing with a date on it is a copy of the Diamond Sutra, discovered inside a cave in 1907. The scroll is 14 feet long and can be traced back to May 11th, 868 AD. There is an older work, a copy of a piece of the Lotus Sutra, but it has no date upon it.

This method spread into Japan and Korea and was also used for printing images onto fabric. In the late 700s AD, Empress Shotoku of Japan ordered 1 million copies to be made of a sutra now known as the ‘1,000,000 Pagodas and Dharani Prayers.’ This was possible because of woodblock printing.

Over time, woodblock printing caught on throughout Asia and Europe, reaching the Byzantine Empire, although it wasn’t common until the 13th century. Eventually, materials like copper and clay were also used.

Johannes Gutenberg

Fast forward to the 1400s in Europe, a time when literacy was improving and more people wanted their own copies of the Bible. Hand-printing was too slow to accommodate the people’s demands.

A German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg took inspiration from the ancient Roman presses used to press olives and grapes into oil and wine to make his own alloy of metals and a matrix, which was used for casting, in order to mass-produce letters. The alloy was perfect–so perfect that it’s still used in printing today.

His combination of creations resulted in the first mechanized printing press, and the Gutenberg Bible became the first major book to be produced by printing. One of the surviving 49 copies today would cost around $38 million. Even back in the beginning, it would have taken average people years to afford one. They were mostly supplied to monasteries and schools.

Printing became a trade, and those who had helped Gutenberg build and maintain the press taught others how to do so. The press was then copied by the Italians and spread to France, where German printers set up private shops.

Religion and Literacy

As great as the printing press was for allowing religious texts to move through Europe and enabling the production of textbooks for students, it was also dangerous. Soon, it was being used to spread what was considered heresy by the Catholic Church. Ideas that challenged the norms of the age were being distributed more widely, and the Pope saw this as a threat. He threatened those who printed anything without his approval would be excommunicated. In the 1500s, excommunication was equivalent to public death. You could be disowned by your family, prevented from working, and even killed.

Still, people like Martin Luther spread their ideas, shaking up public opinion on the Catholic Church. People who would not otherwise have questioned the way things were began to have their own thoughts, and independent thinking became a massive issue.

In the 1600s, newspapers started sprouting up in cities across the continent, and their popularization became a great source for people to practice literacy. Before the printing press, only about 1 in 10 people could read fluently. By the 1800s, in Western Europe, at least fifty percent of people were literate. Now, the global literacy rate is estimated to be around 86.3 percent!

More than a Hobby

Next time you hold a copy of your favorite book, think about what it took for that book to be in your hands: centuries of trial, error, and innovation, and countless people working and risking their lives to make religious ideas and reading more accessible.

Think of how many authors would not exist, how many stories we would be without, and how many people would not have gotten an education and changed the world with their breakthroughs in science, medicine, philosophy, and countless other fields that have grown rapidly since the 1400s.

Without the printing press, the first book forge, your ability to read this blog post and my ability to write it would be nonexistent.

Next time anyone says, “writing books is just a little hobby,” you can kindly remind them that writing is so, so much more.

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