Gutenberg.

For an invention that so radically transformed history, we know remarkably little about the early development of the moveable-type printing press. All that can be said for certain is that it was a gradual process that culminated in the German city of Mainz sometime between 1445 and 1450, when several people, including a former goldsmith named Johann Gutenberg, contributed to the earliest workable prototype. Although it would be an exaggeration to say that Gutenberg "invented" moveable-type printing, it is true that his press was the first to publish a lengthy, substantial printed book, the famous Gutenberg Bible, 1454-1456. From Mainz the printing press spread rapidly, first through Germany and then into other areas of Europe. By 1500 more than one thousand presses had been established across the continent, and they had collectively produced more than nine million copies of...