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The age of early printing: 1450–1550. Before the invention of printing, the number of manuscript books in Europe could be counted in thousands. By 1500, after only 50 years of printing, there were more than 9,000,000 books. These figures indicate the impact of the press, the rapidity with which it spread, the need for an artificial script, and the vulnerability of written culture up to that time.The printed books of this initial period, up to 1500, are known as incunabula; i.e., “swaddling clothes” or “cradle,” from a Latin phrase used in 1639 to describe the beginnings of typography. The dividing line, however, is artificial. The initial period of printing, a restless, highly competitive free-for-all, runs well into the 16th century. Printing began to settle down, to become regulated from within and controlled from without, only after about 1550. In this first 100 years, the printer dominated the book trade. The printer was often his own typefounder, editor, publisher, and bookseller; only papermaking and, usually, bookbinding were outside his province.Early printer-publishers in Germany The Gutenberg 42-line Bible, printed in Mainz, Ger., in 1455. Printing has been called the great German contribution to civilization; in its early days it was known as the German art. After its invention (about 1440–50) by a goldsmith of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg, it was disseminated with missionary zeal—and a keen commercial sense—largely by Germans and largely along the trade routes of German merchants. Gutenberg himself is usually credited with what is known as the 42-line Bible (1455; see photograph); the 36-line Bible; and a popular encyclopaedia called the Catholicon (1460); however, he lost control of his assets in collection proceedings brought against him by his business partner in 1455. Gutenberg's partner, Johann Fust, and his employee, Peter Schoffer (later Fust's son-in-law), continued the business together after 1455; but Mainz itself never became a major centre of the book trade. It was soon challenged by Strassburg (Strasbourg) where, in 1460–61, Johann Mentelin, with an eye for the lay market, brought out a Bible compressed into fewer pages and followed this with the first printed Bible in German or any other vernacular. A few years later, Cologne had its first press (1464) and became an important centre of printing in the northwest. Cologne's early production was almost entirely in Latin because of the heavy bias of its university toward orthodox Thomist theology. In the south, printing quickly spread to the other great trading centres, Basel (1466), Nurnberg (1470), and Augsburg (1472). Basel became famous for the scholarly editions of Johann Amerbach and Johann Froben, who had the benefit of distinguished advisers, including the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus. In Augsburg, the first press was set up alongside the renowned scriptorium of the Abbey of SS. Ulrich and Afra; and the tradition of the illuminated manuscript was carried over into equally sumptuous editions of illustrated printed books. At Nurnberg, which soon took the lead in the book trade, Anton Koberger operated on a large, international scale. At his peak, he ran 24 presses and had links with Basel, Strassburg, Lyon, Paris, and many other cities. He could be called the first great businessman publisher and the first publisher to rise socially—to membership in the town council. By 1500 there were presses in some 60 German towns, including Lubeck (1475), the head of the Hanseatic League. From there, printing spread to Denmark, Sweden, Rostock, Danzig, and Russia, though the first printer who went to Russia was apparently murdered before he could achieve anything. Printing first began in Russia in 1552, with the help of a printer from Copenhagen.