Johann Gutenberg is nearly universally credited with being the inventor of the Printing Press. This opened up the world to the quick and efficient spread of knowledge and ideas which is known as the Printing Revolution. Before the Printing Press, Monks were trained to carefully reprint books by hand, specifically the Bible. This was a very time consuming process and sometimes would take months to finish a single book. The Printing press used movable type dipped in ink and then pressed on a page. Instead of writing each word by hand, whole pages could be completed in a matter of seconds. The first book printed on the Printing Press was the bible.

. The first book printed on the Printing Press was the bible. However, the Printing Press made it easier to print, so different material was being printed and at a much faster rate. This made it easier for the spread of humanist ideas across Northern Italy and helped create a larger Renaissance movement. The Invention of the Printing Press did not come without it’s own scandal. Some Europeans complained about the lack of beauty in the printed copies. On top of that, Gutenburg made virtually no money off of his invention because it was used to pay back creditors. Even Gutenburg’s own business partner sued him for misusing funds and demanded back pay. Still, Gutenburg’s Press revolutionized printing and helped spread the written word and human thought across Europe. With his invention, he connected the ideas and people of the known world in a new and exciting way.

The Spread of Ideas

Harmonizing Christian Ideals with classical civilization

Dutch Writer Most influential humanist of northern Europe Believed that ideas of Christianity and classical civilizations could be harmonized. Criticized churches lack of spirituality Medieval scholars made Christian faith more complicated Argued for a return to the original, simple message of Jesus. Writer of “Praise of the Folly” In which he ridiculed ignorance, superstition, and vice among Christians.

English humanist Condemned governments as corrupt and thought that private ownership of land was unnecessary Contrasted Europe with his imaginary, ideal society In this ideal society, all male citizens were equal and everyone worked to support the society. Executed by Henry VIII for refusing to agree that the king was the supreme ruler of the church in England. Writer of “Utopia”

“…wherever you are, you always have to work. There’s never any excuse for idleness…Everyone has his eye on you, so you’re practically forced to get on with your job, and make some proper use of your spare time. Under such a system, there’s bound to be plenty of everything, and, as everything is divided equally among the entire population, there obviously can’t be any poor people or beggars.” How does More plan to solve the problem of poverty? Do you think it would be effective?

Famous Renaissance writer. Humanist ideals can be seen in his writing because they show a lot of realism.

Printing press did not print pictures, so visual themes spread up north in a different way Through the selling of painting through traveling merchants and Northern Europeans studying with Italian masters, the themes in art eventually spread.

Term used for describing the unique style that Northern Renaissance artist created. They are credited with perfecting certain techniques of paint in oil on canvas. These artists paid great attention to detail especially in creating realistic facial expressions.