Gutenberg

Gutenberg (a proper noun) started as a place-name - Google Maps records five settlements with the name in Germany and two in Switzerland; wikipedia adds one in Austria. Many uses of the name are derived from one or other of these. Two are likely to be of general use to HE students:

• Joannes Gutenberg ( c. 1400-1468) , whose family name probably originated in one of the places, is the first person recorded to have used movable type for printing. This was invented around 1440, in Strasbourg: by 1448 he had set up a printing press in Mainz (his birthplace), and various work was done there. By 1455, he had published his first major book, a copy of the Latin Bible with 42 lines on each page, - the Gutenberg Bible, or '42-line Bible' (there is no authorial, printer's nor publisher's name). This is the oldest printed book in Europe. About 49 copies survive, out of the original print of 180-200 copies.
• This Johannes Gutenberg has given his name to Project Gutenberg, an attempt to make the texts of all books whose copyright has expired available on-line. In 2009, "There are nearly 30,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog" (Project Gutenberg home page, http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 26/08/09); 54,000 on 31-10-2017. It is named as mark of respect to the man who made the modern (paper) book possible, from those who want to do the same for digital books.

Of less general interest,

• • there is a crater on the Moon named Gutenberg, after the printer.
  • A book called The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), by Marshall McLuhan, is an investigation into aspects of media, including print.
    • The seismological phenomenon known as the 'Gutenberg discontinuity' is named after its discoverer, Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960), and has no discernible link with the printer.