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When was printing first available?
Printing available in Europe from end of C13, applied to cloth
What was printing press mainly used for?
Religious images and playing cards
When was printing applied to paper and how?
Paper was more readily available by late C14, thanks to mechanised paper mills. words / images were pressed onto paper with woodcuts
Who was Johannes Gutenberg?
1398-1468 - was a German goldsmith also inventor of movable type printing press who introduced it to Europe also Gutenberg introduced new process for making robust letters (using an iron ‘matrix’ into which metal could be poured).
Also invented new techniques for pre-treating paper and using oil-based ink (a varnish)
How did Gutenbergs press work?
Gutenberg introduced a movable undertable on which sheets could be quickly placed.
Printing press used movable type that could be placed in a letter case
What product of the printing press was Gutenberg famous for?
Produced 2 vol. (‘42-line’) Bible in 1452;
Many indulgences printed 1452-3.
A number of Gutenberg bibles were sold at the Frankfurt fair in 1455.
By end of C15, numerous sorts of written word were now available, many with pictures.
Large publishing houses took on roles previously adopted by religious scriptoria.
c.300 cities had printing houses by end of C15 – and about 20m books had been produced
What sort of material came from the printing press?
Most material was religious – devotional and later, confessionalised texts (i.e. Protestant or Catholic).
Although ABC books also introduced
What benefits did the printing press bring to culture?
Increased literacy levels with the ABC books.Especially important in using images and as a pedagogical device for enhancing literacy (e.g. in form of ABC books)
What is print culture and what did it do?
Print culture embodies all forms of printed text and other printed forms of visual communication
‘Layout’ conditioned ways in which people thought, read, organised, recorded materials.
Standardization helped individuals in disparate places talk about the same ‘thing’.
Enabled comparisons between editions in one site.
Determined new forms of referencing/ citation
created a new credit-system where new‘auctores’ such as Shakespeare could rival canonical greats.
Relationship between humanism and text
Humanism promoted greater literacy/virtue/ and rhetorical excellence appropriate for politically active citizens of Italian states.
Emphasis on imitating or emulating Classical achievements.
For scholars, it demanded the critical scrutiny of texts, referring to ancient manuscripts.
Printed editions were central to this, especially editions of Bible and Polyglots
How did the printing press challenge the ancients?
Central early printed works were texts of Plato, Aristotle and the so-called ‘Hermetic’ corpus.
Non-Aristotelian texts were crucial for development of philosophies that challenged orthodox Christianised Aristotelianism.
On basis that ancient authors could not be wrong, the comparison between manuscripts to produce pristine editions forced researchers to inspect nature –
Where they found that the Ancients could indeed make mistakes.
The Implications of Literacy
Printed materials increased demand for literacy at all levels.
Created various public spheres determined by capacity to read, write, and discuss new information (news).
Devotional works helped to articulate realms of the private, and opened up novel worlds of experience
Pedagogically, print placed pressure on elites to expand teaching of grammar.
Literacy, and the need to understand church rituals, was a key demand of reformers from 1480s and 90s.
Hence a key pathway to Reformation.
Discuss the print revolution
Accorded great power to owners of presses
Crucially, Catholic and later, protestant elites, had to devise new ways of censoring publications.
Print revolution raises issues of causation – for how much was the availability of printed text responsible? Reformation? Revolution?
Are books tools of oppression or liberation?
Impact comparable to Internet.
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Quote Eisentstein on disseminatiuon
’after the advent of printing…the transmission of written information became much more efficient. It
Discuss renaissance in respect of printing press
Additionally, the revival of ancient texts and the printing of such into the vernacular, which Eisenstein labels as typographical fixity, was also vital when considering the change in the way people learned.
