(i) Paper from China : Paper reached Europe from China through the Silk route in the 11th century. With this, the production of manuscripts written by scribes became a regular feature. (ii) Role of travellers and explorers : Marco Polo, a great explorer reached Italy after several years of exploration in China in the year 1295. Marco Polo brought back with him the technology of woodblock printing. Now Italians started publishing books with woodblocks. The technology became popular in other parts of Europe, as well. (iii) Woodblock printing : By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with simple, brief texts. (iv) Johann Gutenberg and the printing press : A major revolution in the print technology was brought by Johann Gutenberg. He developed the first known printing press in the 1430’s. The first book he printed was the Bible. (v) Spread of printing presses : In the next hundred years i.e. between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe.