https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/the-power-of-luthers-printing-press\/2015\/12\/18\/a74da424-743c-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html”>Colin Woodard<\/a>: <\/p>\n
In 1519, this unknown monk had become Europe\u2019s most published author, his 45 original compositions republished in nearly 300 editions. Realizing the limits of his local print shop, Luther personally lured a top printer from Leipzig, pairing him with the talented illustrator Lucas Cranach, whose elegant woodcuts adorned the soon-to-be sought-after \u201cWittenberg\u201d editions. Cranach even created a modular woodcut for use in title pages, the center of which could be swapped out for each new book, allowing even modest pamphlets to be beautifully adorned.
Three years later, Luther had produced some 160 writings, the majority addressed to the Christian people of Germany in their own language, even though many of them had never before owned a printed work. \u201cThey responded with an interest and enthusiasm unprecedented in recent history,\u201d driving the production of 828 editions, the printing, sale and distribution of which capitalized and transformed the German print industry.
Previously, authors\u2019 names were rarely highlighted. Luther\u2019s was a selling point, prompting publishers to print it prominently on the title page. Cranach\u2019s illustrations allowed Wittenberg editions to instantly catch the eye of customers browsing booksellers\u2019 crowded stalls. In an age when intellectual property did not exist, other publishers shamelessly copied Cranach\u2019s work alongside Luther\u2019s texts. All the while, Luther carefully micromanaged the production of his new works at local print shops, shrewdly choosing which pieces for each shop.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6724,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions\/6724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}