Johannes Gutenberg is famous as the inventor of Europe’s first typographic printing method, and his life and legacy have long fascinated a wide audience. Due to scant and vague fifteenth-century documentation, however, Gutenberg’s career has long been obscured by derivative storytelling, competing agendas and scholarly guesswork. This new biography removes these barriers to retell his story directly, through his pioneering work: schoolbooks, pamphlets, indulgences, broadsides and, notably, the first printed Bible. The book also describes Gutenberg’s posthumous fortunes, and his eventual recognition as ‘Man of the Millennium’. This much-needed corrective to the old legends and conjectures brings Gutenberg to life through the books that remain his lasting monument. ‘Eric Marshall White’s Johannes Gutenberg: A Biography in Books brings us as close to Gutenberg as the evidence allows: stripping away myth and guesswork, this book is invigorating and hard to put down.’ Erik Kwakkel, author of Books Before Print
