1. Incunabula & Gutenberg Group Presentation

MUST READ:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

RESEARCH RESOURCES FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS:

ASSIGNMENT:
Group Presentation: Secrets to Gutenberg’s Success
Due Monday, February 5th 

  1. Form a small group of 4-5 people
  2. Research Johannes Gutenberg
  3. Be sure to follow links and look at the videos located here on this website
  4. Look for something no one else may find/know about Gutenberg
  5. The group decides what to present and what format the presentation will take.
  6. Follow the Design Thinking Presentation Guidelines
  7. Present to the class, everyone must participate in the presentation
  8. You must have images/visuals to support your thoughts
  9. You must credit the sources of your factual information. (you do not have to follow any formal citation style for this presentation.)
  10. Your presentation must be at least 5 minutes in length and no more than 10 minutes. You should plan for a 10 minute presentation. You will also have an additional 5 minutes for Q & A with the entire class.
  • Your group must pick some aspect of Gutenberg’s design thinking that relates to his innovations and state a theory (or educated guess) for how/why that innovation occurred. (Look at Zeitgeist for clues to these). Based on those facts you must then form a Thesis statement (a theory) for how they affected him or how he in particular was more receptive than anyone else to do what he did. Finally, connect whatever aspect of his resulting innovations to the paradigm shift(s) that happened because of it. Your ability to make connections between the initial Zeitgeist factual information, how he was personally affected/motivated by them to create/invent and the resulting global impact (paradigm shift)  represents Design Thinking. The purpose of your presentation is to give reasonable explanation for how/why Gutenberg’s design thinking occurred when and where it did. Your initial thesis connecting zeitgeist facts to innovations and a secondary or implied theory explaining how his innovations affected a paradigm shift represent Design Thinking on your part.

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The Gutenberg Bible, Bavarian State Library

THE DATE ON WHICH THE PRINTING WAS COMPLETED IS BASED SOLELY ON THE NOTATION “1455” ON THE BINDING OF THE PARIS PAPER COPY. IT IS BELIEVED THAT 180 COPIES OF THE BIBLE WERE PRINTED, BUT THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON A SINGLE LETTER OF ENEA SILVIO PICCOLOMINI (THE FUTURE POPE PIUS II), WHO VIEWED SAMPLES OF GUTENBERG’S WORK, IN FRANKFURT IN 1455. OF THE 49 EXTANT, MORE-OR-LESS COMPLETE, COPIES OF THE GUTENBERG BIBLE (12 ON VELLUM, 37 ON PAPER), THIS COPY, FROM THE BAVARIAN STATE LIBRARY, IS ONE OF ONLY TWO (ALONG WITH ONE COPY IN THE AUSTRIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY) IN WHICH THIS TABLE IS FOUND, AS A VESTIGE OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS.