When Gutenberg's press was developed, did he face any opposition to it? Anyone saying that it wouldn't work/wasn't worth it/shouldn't exist?

by WileECyrus

We hear so often (maybe incorrectly?) of various technological or scientific advances facing criticism for all sorts of reasons. I'm wondering if the printing press met with any.

Enrico_Dandolo

Opposition, not necessarily, but it didn't take off as quickly as you might expect. Books and book culture in the 15th century saw books and owning books in terms of personal items with lovingly created illuminations and miniatures. You might check out information about the International Gothic art scene centered around Pavia. There just wasn't a massive market for mass produced copies of books with little to no decoration. Gutenberg didn't make money and I believe he was broke when he died.

Printed books caught on when new types of literature and new attitudes about codices and buying books emerged that embraced "mass production," and printers began to realize what customers wanted. For the first 100 years or so, manuscript and print culture existed side by side in places like northern Italy and France. Wealth book collectors may have wanted a new work by a humanist that would have been created using a printing press, but a personal devotional, such as a book of hours might want specific content copied by a scribe that included illuminations to aid one's personal prayer time.

Source: Pettegree's The Book in the Renaissance.