Tăng Sáng's Profile

Before Gutenberg (1394 – 1468), all books had to be copied by hand. The so-called ‘manuscripts’ of medieval times were laboriously hand-written, often by monks who had devoted years the work. Earlier attempts had been (3) _________ to produce printing ‘blocks’. The designs on playing cards (4) _________ example were carved from wooden blocks which were inked and (5) _________ printed onto cards. There are even examples of whole pages in books being hand carved and printed. Gutenberg however came up with the idea of printing using, not whole page blocks, but letter blocks. (6) _________ he was a goldsmith by trade, he knew how to mould metal into (7) _________ shape was needed. He made thousands of tiny blocks of ‘type’, (8) _________ with a letter raised on it, which could be lined up and clamped into position in a ‘forme’ (page block). The type could be linked, paper laid on top, and the whole thing compressed by turning a handle. When released, the paper had the page printed on it. Years of work went into this invention. Gutenberg (9) _________ to make the letters, develop an ink which would cling to metal (most didn’t), build the forme, and above (10) _________ find the money to do all this while not working as a goldsmith.