--- Gutenberg's methods spread with stunning rapidity. By 1500 an estimated half
million printed books were in circulation: religious works
, Greek and Roman classics,
scientific texts, Columbus's report from the New World. An acceleration of the
Renaissance was only the first by-product of the Gutenberg press. Without it, the
Protestant movement might have been stillborn [failed], as well as the subsequent
political and industrial revolutions. Gutenberg, however, got none of the glory. His
brainchild [ideal bankrupted him; the year his Bible was published, a creditor took over
his business. Little more is known of the inventor - in part because he never put his
own name into print...
What is one effect of the printing press that is described in the text?