The advent of printing heralded changes that have rightly been described as revolutionary. The invention of printing, its subsequent course, its effects and the ways in which it was exploited, raise issues that have little to do with the more immediate circumstances of invention. The application of metallurgical, chemical, calligraphic and engraving skills to the production of a printed page. Documentary sources, and close examination of surviving copies of books, have revealed a great deal of the background and financial and practical details of the beginnings of printing at Mainz in the 1450s. In general, printing was slow to take root in university towns; and where it did, as at Paris and Cologne, the earliest printers either showed little interest in local teaching needs, or moved on to other themes once a patron's initial enthusiasm waned. The potential of printing technology, linked to the exploitation of paper, was rapidly recognised for its religious, scholarly and social value.