Editing Book (section)

=== Movable type and incunabula ===
{{main|Movable type|Incunable}}

[[File:SelectedTeachingsofBuddhistSagesandSonMasters1377.jpg|thumb|left|''Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters'', the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, printed in Korea, in 1377, {{Lang|fr|[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]|italic=no}}]]

The Chinese inventor [[Bi Sheng]] made [[movable type]] of earthenware {{Circa|1045}}, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, [[Johannes Gutenberg]] independently invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and [[hand mould]]. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce and more widely available. Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known as [[incunable]]s or ''incunabula''.<ref>[[Michael Clapham (industrialist)|Clapham, Michael]], "Printing" in ''A History of Technology'', Vol 2. ''From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution'', edd. Charles Singer ''et al.'' (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited from [[Elizabeth L. Eisenstein]], ''The Printing Press as an Agent of Change'' (Cambridge University, 1980).</ref>

[[File:Bucheinband.15.Jh.r.Inkunabel.jpg|thumb|upright|A 15th-century [[Incunable]]]]