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[[File:Melozzo da Forlì 001.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|left|Pope Sixtus IV naming Bartolomeo Platina, author of the world's first printed cookbook, Prefect of the Vatican Library<br>{{small|By Melozzo da Forli (ca. 1477)}}]]
Naturally, copying books by hand was labour intensive and, therefore, costly (even despite relatively low labour costs in the past). Besides, few people could read anyway, so cookbook (just like any books for that matter) were a rare luxury. This began to change once Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press. He used his invention to publish the first printed book (a Bible, obviously) in 1455. It was only 15 years in Rome that the first cookbook was published in print. It was ''De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' (''Of Honest Pleasure and Good Health'') by Bartolomeo Sacchi (1421–1481), better known as Platina, who served as a papal secretary and librarian, although most of recipës were aurally copied from Martin do Como's handwritten ''Libro de arte coquinaria'' (''Book of Culinary Arts'').