After hiking for three days, I wanted to have a rest day. So I spent this day in Mainz, where I was staying. There were quite a few interesting items to see within the city, so I focused on these during this day. And one of them is a history museum, the Gutenberg Museum. This museum happens to be one of the oldest museums of printing in the world.
Of course, there is the connection with Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing from movable metal type in Western Europe. Printing by movable type has already been invented elsewhere, but I learned that Gutenberg actually mass-produced it. This in turn facilitated an information revolution, and allowed major significant historical events to happen, such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the humanist movements.
There were plenty of exhibits related to printing, as well as to media in general. I really liked the interactive exhibits, which allowed the modern audience to see how information dissemination changed over the years, from printing all the way to social media.
Of course, the most valuable exhibit was most definitely the Gutenberg Bible. There was this vault situated at the very end of the museum, housing some valuable manuscripts. It was fantastic to see these precious documents. Knowing nowadays how easy printing has become, it definitely impresses upon the mind how valuable knowledge is, and how it cannot be taken for granted. Alas, nowadays, not a lot of people read anymore.
In any case, I definitely enjoyed my visit here. If one were visiting Mainz, I would definitely say that visiting this museum is a must.
