The First Infancy of Printing.

Incunabula

The term stared to use in the late 17th century for printed books. It was first used in Bernard von Mallinckrodt's pamphet "Of the riseand progress of the typographic art", published in Cologne in 1639. The phrase was  prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing".

A single sheet that is not handwritten or printed image. They are usually very difficult to find and it is needed an expert to verify the nature of the sheet.

Rag Paper

First paper was made of Papyrrus was expensive so parchment replaced it. In China bamboo or silk were alternatives for paper but they were also not convenient. So books or newspapers were rare luxury objects and there was illiteracy. 

Steam-driven paper making machines made it really easy to produce paper and it become very cheap. These machines are the basis for most modern papermaking. Fiber from wood pulp is used to make paper.

By the introduction of cheap paper all book and newspapers become reachable for everybody. It is possible to say that new paper technology was the part of Industrial Revolution.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)

His invention of the technology of printing with movable types was so efficient that it led to a boom in the production of texts in Europe.

Block printing was an existing method and it was used in Chinese texts but Gutenberg used it in more efficiant way and discovered metal typography that could be reproduced much more quikly. As a result, first mass-produced work published, Gutenberg Bibles in 1455. This was a cultural revolution because demonstrated the power of the printing press by selling copies of a two-volume Bible (Biblia Sacra) for 300 florins each. This was the equivalent of approximately three years' wages for an average clerk.

metal types