Machiavelli & The Printing Press

• Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 in Florence, Italy.

• He wrote The Prince in 1513. This was a guidebook on ruling based on his experiences working for the government of Florence.

• "The ends justify the means": rulers use whatever methods necessary to ensure success

• Johannes Guttenberg created the printing press in 1568.

• The printing press was a wooden device designed to use movable wooden type and ink to quickly produce large numbers of pages for books.

• Printers could create hundreds of books a day.

​

• Before the printing press, books were written by hand by monks living in monasteries.

• The process created few books which made them expensive.

• After the printing press, books became more affordable.

​

• When the printing press was invented, the people of Europe were still very religious.

• They demanded access to religious texts.

• The first book to be mass produced was the Christian Bible.

​

• Between 1568 and 1600 millions of books were written and produced throughout Europe.

• Ancient Greek and Roman texts were printed and sent all over Europe which helped the Renaissance spread.

• High, middle, and even some low class people hurried to learn to read, which resulted in literacy rates increasing.

​

• A second impact that the printing press had was the social changes.

• Educated people began to challenge the authority of the church all over Europe.

• Word spread that the church couldn't explain things better than Renaissance men and lost even more authority.