Changes

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 cookbooks (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 later in Rome that the first ever 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 he actually copied most of the recipës from Martin do Como's handwritten ''Libro de arte coquinaria'' (''Book of Culinary Arts''). It took another 15 years for the first cookbook printed in a vernacular language to come out, namely the German ''Küchenmeisterei'' published by Peter Wagner. The 15th century also saw the first printed cookbooks in French, Italian and English, and the first half of the 16th century, in Dutch, Catalan, Spanish and Czech. The latter book, entitled ''Kuchařstvi'' and published by Pavel Severýn in 1535, in Prague, was a translation of the aforementioned German text. Both titles can be translated as ''Cooking Mastery''.