The Art Of Printing Is The

This saying is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg but cannot be traced to a specific primary source; it is apocryphal. The idea that printing is uniquely foundational among the arts — preserving and disseminating all others — was a common theme among humanist writers of the 15th and 16th centuries who celebrated the press. Gutenberg's 42-line Bible (c. 1455) is generally cited as the first major book produced with movable metal type in Europe, and its production quality was so high that early copies were sometimes mistaken for manuscripts.