Four thousand years of the history of the culture of writing from all over the world are to be experienced in the Gutenberg Museum. Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz plays one of the main roles in this, because about 550 years ago he invented printing with letters made with a casting device and the printing press. How, that can be seen in the Gutenberg Museum - for example in the reconstruction of his workshop. With a large number of printing implements, old presses and typesetting machines, the history of letterpress printing comes to life. The main focus of the permanent exhibition are important printed works from the lsth century to the present. The highlight are two copies of the world-famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible, which are to
be seen by visitors in the strong-room, as weil as a letter of indulgence and the "Fragment of the Last Judgment" from Gutenberg's workshop.

Examples of European printing culture are spaciously displayed, apart from books and broadsheets, also job-works, posters, ex libris bookplates and much else. Printing techniques, the manufacture of paper and how a book binding is produced are also explained. However, being the "World Museum of the Art of Printing,” Museum also shows the earliest history of printing in Eastern Asia (since the eighth century) and writing and printing in Islamic countries. A manuscripts department explains the development of writing from cuneiform script to the modern alphabet. During several event weeks in the year, many of these fJelds are presented and explained by experts in the Museum. In addition to an important specialist library and the Mini Press Archive, the Renaissance palace "The Roman Emperor" opposite the Cathedral also accommodates the Gutenberg Society. This has been promoting the Museum and research in the field of printing and the book for 100 years.