What Has Been Done Is But

This saying is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg but cannot be verified in any primary source; like nearly all Gutenberg quotations, it is apocryphal. Gutenberg himself left no personal writings, and what is known of his life comes from legal documents, civic records in Mainz and Strasbourg, and early histories of printing. The sentiment, however, reflects a documented pattern: Gutenberg's movable-type press was just one component of a complex new system — including oil-based ink, the screw press, and the casting of individual metal types — and the full implications for literacy, religion, and science unfolded over decades and centuries.