David Seely writes that the evolution of technology by which the word of the Lord has gone forth to the world is something to be appreciated. Old Testament manuscripts were written laboriously on scrolls of parchment or papyrus or on plates of brass. Early manuscripts of the New Testament were also written primarily on parchment and papyrus, adopting the form of the codex--the early form of the book. The technology of writing improved only slightly in the centuries which followed with more efficient pens, refined inks, and better writing surfaces. Some monasteries even practiced a form of mass production of manuscripts. Books were rare and expensive. They were only owned and read by wealthy nobles, the clergy, and students and professors of universities.
In the middle of the 1400's in Mainz, Germany, however, Johannes Gutenberg changed the history of the transmission of texts forever. Gutenberg invented the first working Western moveable-type printing system. He did not, as is commonly supposed, invent printing or even moveable type. What he did invent was a system of moveable type that was fast, efficient, and economical, and that could replicate the aesthetic standards of the beautiful manuscript traditions. He started with a modification of the screw press. He then invented a hand-held typecaster into which one could pour an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony creating individual reusable pieces of type. Finally Gutenberg invented a highly viscous ink made from lead and copper oxides mixed with boiled linseed oil--a thick paste, thicker than the ink used in writing manuscripts--that would stick to the type and transfer to the paper. Gutenberg's first commercial job was to produce two hundred Bibles, which were completed in a fraction of the time required to copy manuscripts by hand.
His invention quickly changed the world. It is estimated that by the mid-sixteenth century there were "well over eight million printed books" in circulation in Europe that included Greek and Roman classics, scientific and other academic texts, and religious works. Soon books were more easily available and literacy rates increased to match the newly available reading material--for the first time in history Europe had a literate middle class. Gutenberg's invention accelerated the diffusion of ideas, thought, invention and discovery that characterized the Renaissance.
Although Bibles (mostly the Latin Vulgate) were more accessible to the masses, they still yearned for the word of the Lord in their own language. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg and with their distribution, the Reformation became an international event. The courageous translators of the bible were soon able to see their work printed on Gutenberg-inspired presses into German, French, and English, and the word of the Lord went forth to many nations in their native languages for the first time.
On a spring morning in 1820, Joseph Smith was reading James 1:5 in the Smith family Bible--a Bible that had been produced with the Gutenberg printing system. Joseph followed the counsel of James and retired to the Sacred Grove. Thus began the Restoration of the gospel in the last dispensation. In 1823 the angel Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith that there was a book deposited in a hill near his home that contained "the fulness of the everlasting Gospel," and that Joseph Smith had been called to translate the book (JS-H 1:34-35, 51). By the end of June 1829, Joseph Smith had completed the translation of the Book of Mormon, and proceeded to hire the services of a local printer, E. B. Grandin of Palmyra, New York. The printing press in the Grandin print shop was one very much like the one designed by Gutenberg, and provided the means for the voices of Nephi, Alma, Mormon, and Moroni to speak from the dust, restoring the plain and precious things lost from the Bible.
Only now, 545 years after the completion of the Gutenberg Bibles, has much of the technology for printing finally changed. Gutenberg would not recognize the electronic and computerized printing processes of the modern world. However, as the millennium changed to 2000, historians and journalists chose Gutenberg as the "Man of the Millennium" and Life Books proclaimed Gutenberg's printing of the Bible as the "No. 1 Event of the Millennium." Ironically, Gutenberg received little recognition for his inventions in his own lifetime. In fact, in 1445 he went bankrupt, and his business was taken over by a creditor. Yet in the explosion of knowledge initiated with Gutenberg's system of printing, we can indeed see the beginning of Isaiah's vision: "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9; 2 Nephi 21:9). [David R. Seely, "The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: The Restoration of the Gospel and the History of Printing," in Religious Studies Center Newsletter, Vol. 16 No. 1, Fall 2001, pp. 1-4] [See the commentary on Mormon 8:34]