American Minute for August 24th:
Johannes Gutenberg invented the first moveable type printing press. His masterpiece, the Gutenberg Bible, was printed AUGUST 24, 1455. No longer copied by hand and chained to pulpits, Bibles were mass produced. Unfortunately his business partner sued and took his rights. Gutenberg, whose name means "beautiful mountain," wrote: "Let us break the seal which seals up holy things and give wings to Truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world." In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831, book 5, Victor Hugo wrote: "The 15th century everything changes. Human thought discovers a mode of perpetuating itself... Gutenberg's letters of lead...supersede Orpheus's letters of stone...The invention of printing is the greatest event in history. It is the mother of revolution." Victor Hugo continued: "Whether it be Providence or Fate, Gutenberg is the precursor of Luther." In A Tramp Abroad, 1880, Mark Twain wrote: "We made a short halt at Frankfort-on-the-Main...I would have liked to visit the birthplace of Gutenberg, but...no memorandum of the house has been kept." On August 12, 1993, at Denver's Regis University, Pope John Paul II gave a Gutenberg Bible to President Bill Clinton.
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