12th March, 1455
Moveable type printing is first reported in Europe.

A letter from Enea Silvio Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II) reported the printing of the bible with a Gutenberg printing press in Frankfurt the year before.

This innovation in printing meant that information could now be efficiently, reliably and accurately reproduced. Unlike before, a copy of a piece of work made in Rome could be said to be the same as a copy made in London. As a result, authorship became a much more important issue than before.

While it might have taken someone a year to hand copy a bible, with the Gutenberg press it was possible for just a handful of people to create several hundred copies a year. In addition, the fact that page layouts were also kept consistant meant that works could be properly indexed, which in turn led to works being able to accurately cross-reference one another, or to be read in a non-linear fashion (choosing from the index what was to be read, rather than start at the beginning and work through to the end).

There was also a knock-on effect as the cost of creating a book or document dropped, more written works became available to more people, prompting an increase in literacy. Reading styles changed from oral readings to more silent, private reading. This in turn meant that the focus was more towards the actual body of texts, and illustration became less important than the content.

This meant that knowledge came closer to the hands of the people- not only because more people were able to obtain written works, but also because more people were able to produce written works for distribution.