Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976): "The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450-1800", London: New Left Books, quoted in: Anderson, Benedict: "Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo", Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 58f.
At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born.
Anderson, Benedict: "Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo", Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN978-968-16-3867-2, pp.63-76
Gutenberg's invention took full advantage of the degree of abstraction in representing language forms that was offered by the alphabet and by the Western forms of script that were current in the fifteenth century.
The most momentous development in the history of the book until the invention of printing was the replacement of the roll by the codex; this we may define as a collection of sheets of any material, folded double and fastened together at the back or spine, and usually protected by covers. (p. 1)
Roberts & Skeat 1983, pp.45–53. Technically speaking, a scroll could be written on its back side, too, but the very few ancient specimen found indicate that this was never considered a viable option. (p. 46)
In the West, the only inhibiting expense in the production of writings for an increasingly literate market was the manual labor of the scribe himself. With his mechanization by movable-type printing in the 1440s, the manufacture of paper, until then relatively confined, began to spread very widely. The Paper Revolution of the thirteenth century thus entered a new era.
Despite all that has been said above, even the strongest supporters of papyrus would not deny that parchment of good quality is the finest writing material ever devised by man. It is immensely strong, remains flexible indefinitely under normal conditions, does not deteriorate with age, and possesses a smooth, even surface which is both pleasant to the eye and provides unlimited scope for the finest writing and illumination.
From old price tables it can be deduced that the capacity of a printing press around 1600, assuming a fifteen-hour workday, was between 3,200 and 3,600 impressions per day.
The outstanding difference between the two ends of the Old World was the absence of screw-presses from China, but this is only another manifestation of the fact that this basic mechanism was foreign to that culture.
Chinese paper was suitable only for calligraphy or block-printing; there were no screw-based presses in the east, because they were not wine-drinkers, didn’t have olives, and used other means to dry their paper.
The British Library Incunabula Short Title Catalogue gives 29,777 separate editions (not copies) as of 8 January 2008, which however includes some print items from the 16th century (retrieved 11 March 2010). According to Bettina Wagner: "Das Second-Life der Wiegendrucke. Die Inkunabelsammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek", in: Griebel, Rolf; Ceynowa, Klaus (eds.): "Information, Innovation, Inspiration. 450 Jahre Bayerische Staatsbibliothek", K G Saur, München 2008, ISBN978-3-598-11772-5, pp. 207-224 (207f.), the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue lists 28,107 editions published before 1501.
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Schulte,Alfred(1939),“Papierpresse, Druckerpresse und Kelter”,Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 52-56
Thompson,Susan(1978),“Paper Manufacturing and Early Books”,Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences314: 167-176,doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1978.tb47791.x
Tsien,Tsuen-Hsuin(1985),Paper and Printing,Science and Civilisation in China, Chemistry and Chemical Technology (Vol. 5, Part 1),Cambridge University Press
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Widmann,Hans(1974),“Der koreanische Buchdruck und Gutenbergs Erfindung”,Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 32-34
Wolf,Hans-Jürgen(1974),Geschichte der Druckpressen(1st ed.),Frankfurt/Main:Interprint