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Lecture

Professor David Peimer
Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution: Why is it Important to Remember Gutenberg today?

Saturday 2.10.2021

Summary

Johannes Gutenberg (died 1468) invented the printing press, which had a larger impact on history than many realize. Professor David Peimer explains why it was so significant and examines its correlation to the birth of the Renaissance.

Professor David Peimer

head and shoulders portrait of david peimer looking at camera, smiling

David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.

Well it was, we know of him because he did invent because of, Steven Fry mentions at the end there, he was given a Knighthood and a pension finally in the little city just outside the city of Mainz where he lived most of his life, there was some recognition given, but his business partner first was the one. ‘Cause Gutenberg was always in debt. He had no sense really of business, no acumen. And he was always in debt and Fust was the one to raise the money from the church and other business people at the time. And Gutenberg in the end was so in debt that he sold, he gave everything, the printing press, everything. Everything he had done, he gave over to his partner to cover his debt. So he ended up being pretty poor but finally getting a pension later in life. And we know about him because of that business relationship and because the printing press itself, you know, I mean people knew that it did come from him.

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That’s for another whole discussion on the trajectory on Jewish religion and the Jewish books of the Talmud, the Torah, the Bible, and all the other writings linked to the history in Judaism for those who more expert than me.

Possible, great thought. We know certainly with Marie Curie, you know, and the radiation exposure with x-rays and lead certainly led to her getting cancer and dying.