Early Printing

WHS connected to early examples of woodblock printing (China/Egypt 3th/4th century) or use of the printing press (invented in 1439). "Early" is translated as "before the 19th century", as Western printing technology then had become common and widespread around the world.

Connected Sites

Site Rationale Link
Aachen Cathedral Gutenburg created his first pieces with moveable type as momentos for pilgrims heading to Aachen, when this was cancelled one year he was forced to reveal his secret invention as a way of repaying len
Haeinsa Temple Houses the 81,258 wooden printing blocks from the Tripitaka Koreana
Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra Pechersk Lavra: early 17th century printshop, now Book and Book Binding Museum
Lima First print shop in 1584
Luther Memorials
Lyon
Mantua and Sabbioneta Sabbioneta: Hebrew printing-press (1567)
Mexico City and Xochimilco The house at "the corner of Moneda and Licenciado Primo Verdad streets in Mexico City was the home of the first printing press/print shop in the New World. (It) is located on the outer edge of what was the sacred precinct of the Templo Mayor" (Wiki). It was constructed in 1524 by Geronimo de Aguilar, a Spaniard captured by Mayans after a shipwreck who was obtained by Cortes to help as a translator during his conquest (via a Nahuatal/Mayan speaker). The first printing press arrived in 1539
Mogao Caves "the oldest printed book in existence, a ninth-century copy of the Diamond Sutra" (woodblock)
Paris, Banks of the Seine
Plantin-Moretus Museum
Qadisha Valley The first printing press in the middle east was built in 1610 at the Monastery of Qozhaya in the Kadisha valley. It used Syriac characters. Also this printing press was the first to print in Arabic language.
Spissky Hrad and Levoca Levoca: "There was a printing press as early as 1624" (wiki)
Strasbourg This is where Gutenberg lived when he perfected the movable type and first displayed the printing press
Sviyazhsk "book-printing which started here several years before the publishing of the famous “Apostle” by Ivan Fedorov in 1564. The printer brought from St. German in Moscow worked in Sviyazhsk and it published a number of books of liturgical and Christian educational character. The printer was also closely connected with the school" (nom file)
University of Coimbra introduction of the printing press in Coimbra in 1530
Venice and its Lagoon

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A connection should:

  1. Not be "self evident"
  2. Link at least 3 different sites
  3. Not duplicate or merely subdivide the "Category" assignment already identified on this site.
  4. Add some knowledge or insight (whether significant or trivial!) about WHS for the users of this site
  5. Be explained, with reference to a source