A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
Portrait of the Scribe Mir 'Abd Allah Katib in the Company of a Youth Burnishing Paper (Mughal Empire, ca. 1602)
Neo-Sumerian clay tablet with 24 columns on the front and back listing the names of almost 20,000 temple workers (2094–2047 BCE)
Early New Kingdom statue commemorating the scribe Minnakht ("Strength of Min"), showing how ancient scribes worked seated on the floor with the papyrus on their lap
Ancient Egyptian scribe's palette with five depressions for pigments and four styli
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium, thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper, or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.
Recreated Gutenberg press at the International Printing Museum, Carson, California
Medieval university class (1350s)
Early modern wine press. Such screw presses, used in Europe for a wide range of uses, provided Gutenberg with the model for his printing press.
Movable type sorted in a letter case and loaded in a composing stick on top
