It Is A Press Certainly But

This passage is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg in early biographical accounts of the printing press, but no primary source from Gutenberg himself survives — he left no personal correspondence, diaries, or published writings. Gutenberg's press (c. 1450) was a commercial enterprise documented primarily through litigation records, including the 1455 Helmasperger Instrument, a legal document concerning a dispute with his financier Johann Fust. The metaphor of an inexhaustible stream conveying knowledge was widely applied to the press by later humanists and reformers, including Martin Luther, who made full use of printing to spread the Protestant Reformation.