Part of what made the printing press work was the metallurgy required. You needed quality iron and steel for the screws and the typefaces, brass and bronze would not endure the stresses. Those metallurgic advancements largely came out of war and the need for metals that could handle black-powder explosions.

Even Gutenberg's primitive press, which was built out of a wooden wine press, was revolutionary. It used cast lead type. The Romans had lead technology.

Thanks for the clarification!

Further support for this notion comes from the fact that in the southern US slave states, it was illegal to teach the slaves to read.

It would be pretty hard to industrialize when the workforce is forcibly kept ignorant.