In 1483 Joshua Solomon Soncino opened a Hebrew press in Soncino, Italy. The press, one of the first Hebrew presses, printed almost twenty books in approximately five years. Among the books he published were volumes of gemara.
He began printing with Mesachta Brachos, fascinatingly completed in the year 1484, the year גמרא. That is to say, גמרא has a numerical value of 244 which is the Hebrew year 5244 (you add 1240 to figure out the Hebrew year). This corresponds to the secular year 1484.
Interestingly, R' Meir Zlotowitz, founder of Artscroll, was 73 years old when he passed away and there are 73 volumes of English Artscroll gemaras.
His nephew Gershon Soncino went on to print more mesachtos but did not complete the entire Shas. The first edition to publish all of shas in full was printed in Venice in 1520 by a Christian, Daniel Bomberg.
