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50 free Johannes Gutenberg trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Johannes Gutenberg trivia quiz covers the Mainz patrician's son who could never inherit his father's place at the mint and instead invented the movable-type printing press. It follows the mysterious Strasbourg years, the failed scheme to sell holy mirrors to pilgrims, the loans from moneylender Johann Fust, the indulgences and Latin grammars that paid the bills, the 42-line Bible of 1455, the lawsuit that cost him his workshop, the archbishop's late pension, and the modern debate over exactly how his type was cast. The easy questions are ones most people know: what he invented, where he worked, what his famous book was. The medium ones ask about his family, his backers, his ink and alloy, the price of a Bible and how many copies survive. The hard ones dig into Peter Schoffer, the Mainz Psalter, the Bamberg 36-line Bible, Laurens Coster, the sand-mould hypothesis and the 1978 sale price. It suits a book-history round, a media-studies class or anyone who has ever downloaded a free ebook from the project that bears his name. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did Johannes Gutenberg invent?
The movable-type printing press
Movable type already existed in East Asia, but his press made printing vastly faster.
Q 02In which German city on the Rhine was Gutenberg born?
Mainz
The Gutenberg Museum was founded there in 1900 for the 500th anniversary of his birth.
Q 03What was Gutenberg's major work, acclaimed for its aesthetic and technical quality?
The first printed Bible
It is also called the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42.
Q 04What three metals made up Gutenberg's type-metal alloy?
Lead, tin and antimony
It melted at a low temperature for cheap casting and produced durable type.
Q 05What kind of ink did Gutenberg introduce for printing books?
Oil-based ink
Scribes' water-based inks would not adhere to metal type; his ink was mainly carbon with copper, lead and titanium.
Q 06Gutenberg's wooden printing machine was similar to what existing device?
The agricultural screw press
Screw presses were used for wine and olive oil.
Q 07Why is 1400 commonly given as the year Gutenberg was born?
'For the sake of convenience' - the truth is unknown
Estimates range from 1393 to 1406, based on a document showing he had come of age by 1420.
Q 08On which feast day is Gutenberg traditionally said to have been born?
Saint John the Baptist, 24 June
Children were often named for their birthday's patron saint, though 'Johannes' was so common the guess is unverifiable.
Q 09What was the inventor's original family surname, before the residence names were added?
Gensfleisch
'Laden' and 'Gutenberg' were the names of family residences in his home city.
Q 10Why could Gutenberg never succeed his father at the Mainz mint?
His mother was a commoner, not a patrician
One historian thinks this disillusionment pushed him towards his unusual career as an inventor.
Q 11To which nearby town did the Gutenberg family flee during Mainz's guild conflicts of 1411 and 1413?
Eltville
His mother had inherited a house on the town walls there.
Q 12Gutenberg is assumed to have studied at which university, where 'Johannes de Altavilla' enrolled in 1418?
Erfurt
Altavilla is the Latin form of the Rhineland town where his family had taken refuge.
Q 13In which city was Gutenberg living by 1434, where he was a goldsmith enrolled in the militia?
Strasbourg
He had relatives on his mother's side there and stayed until at least 1444.
What was Gutenberg taken to court over in 1436-37?
Q 21Roughly how many copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed?
About 180
Three quarters were on paper and the rest on vellum.
Q 22What did a Gutenberg Bible cost when it was new?
30 florins, about three years' wages for a clerk
Still far cheaper than a manuscript Bible, which took a single scribe over a year.
Q 23Which future pope wrote in March 1455 that he had seen pages of the Bible displayed in Frankfurt?
Pius II
His letter is the most reliable evidence for the Bible's date.
A broken promise of marriage
The woman was named Ennelin; whether they ever married is not recorded.
Q 15What did Gutenberg plan to sell to pilgrims travelling to Aachen in 1439?
Polished metal mirrors
The mirrors were believed to capture holy light from relics; a flood delayed the exhibition by a year and the venture failed.
Q 16What was the mysterious name of the secret enterprise Gutenberg is said to have unveiled in 1440?
Aventur und Kunst
It means 'enterprise and art'; whether early trials of movable type happened there is unclear.
Q 17Which wealthy moneylender lent Gutenberg 800 guilders around 1450, and then another 800 for the Bible?
Johann Fust
His brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus had lent him money in 1448, possibly for the press.
Q 18Who joined the enterprise, became Fust's son-in-law, and likely designed early typefaces?
Peter Schoffer
He had worked as a scribe in Paris.
Q 19What lucrative church documents did Gutenberg's press print by the thousand in 1454-55?
Indulgences
Ironically, indulgences were the target of Luther's Ninety-five Theses, which printing later spread.
Q 20How many lines per page does the famous Gutenberg Bible have?
42
The first pages printed actually had 40 lines; the count was raised to save paper.
Q 24Of which Latin text is the Gutenberg Bible an edition?
The Vulgate
It has no page numbers, indentations or paragraph breaks.
Q 25How many pages does a complete Gutenberg Bible have?
1,288
Each copy needed 322 sheets of paper, usually bound in two volumes.
Q 26How many master characters did the Gutenberg Bible's typeface require?
290
Upper and lower case, punctuation and ligatures such as 'fi' all needed their own sort.
Q 27What happened when his moneylender sued Gutenberg in 1456?
The court gave Fust control of the Bible workshop
The debt had grown to 2,026 guilders at six percent; Gutenberg was effectively bankrupt.
Q 28What was Europe's first book to carry its printer's name and date, from the Fust-Schoffer shop in 1457?
The Mainz Psalter
It made no mention of Gutenberg.
Q 29In which town was a 36-line Bible printed around 1459, possibly with type supplied by Gutenberg?
Bamberg
Much of it was set from a copy of the 42-line Bible, disproving the idea that it came first.
Q 30Which archbishop, having sacked Mainz in 1462, gave Gutenberg the title of Hofmann in 1465?
Adolph von Nassau
The honour came with a stipend, a court outfit, 2,180 litres of grain and 2,000 litres of wine tax-free.