15世纪之前，欧洲的书籍全靠手抄，一位抄写员往往要花上几个月甚至几年，才能抄完一本书。因此书籍极其昂贵稀有，只有教会和极少数贵族才买得起，普通人一辈子可能都摸不到一本书。在德国美因茨，一位名叫约翰内斯·古腾堡的金匠，却在思考一个大胆的问题——能不能造一种机器，让文字像盖印章一样被"印"出来，而不是一笔一划地抄？

Before the 15th century, books in Europe were copied entirely by hand. A single scribe might spend months, or even years, copying just one book. As a result, books were extremely rare and expensive, affordable only to churches and a handful of nobles, while ordinary people might never touch a book in their entire lives. In Mainz, Germany, a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg was pondering a bold question: could a machine be built to print words the way a seal stamps an image, instead of copying them by hand, one stroke at a time?

古腾堡的灵感，竟然来自一台再普通不过的葡萄酒压榨机。他把每一个字母铸成单独的金属块，蘸上油墨，用改造后的压榨机使劲一压，一页整齐的文字就印在了纸上。这个看似简单的想法，最终彻底改变了整个欧洲。

Gutenberg's inspiration came, surprisingly, from an ordinary wine press. He cast each letter as its own metal block, coated it with ink, and pressed hard using his modified press machine, producing a full page of neatly printed text. This seemingly simple idea would ultimately transform all of Europe.

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