The History Of Printed Word
The history of printing dates back to the ancient times. Its hard to track back the history, but the first evidences of printing are dated back to the very beginning of the new era. Of course, the techniques differed from what we are used to in terms of materials, but the fact remains printing is doubtlessly one of the most ancient and important crafts ever invented by the human.
Printing words, images, and patterns on stone blocks, wood, silk, paper, and other materials was wide-spread all over the world. Anyways, printing still wasnt very popular and people re-wrote texts by themselves. The printed word wasnt evolving very fast though due to various issues, so manual job was the only way to copy books. As you probably know, it took a lot of time to copy one single book, so the appearance of new techniques contributed the development a lot.
The list of the most influential inventions can be easily started with the printing press. The invention of the first movable type printing by Johannes Guttenberg was the first step towards the success. It was the end of manual copying and the beginning of the new era of easier typing and printing. Basically, this phenomenon divides the course of history into two parts: before and after. This evolved into the quick growth of printing establishments and thus faster enlightenment.
Its logical to suppose that the invention of printing press facilitated the establishment of modern information society as nothing else could do. New methods, techniques, and tools appeared in a flash. Printing houses were substituted by better equipped typographies; chromolithography has metamorphosed into color printing; the simplest printers have evolved into more advanced ones, etc. And this is just the beginning.
Thus, sorry, Mr. Wilde, but you were terribly wrong. Thats a gospel truth, and any publisher, writer, media person, or marketing specialist is contented with the fact that words matter a lot.