The Printing Culture

By: Quynh Dinh Mike Tae Kim James Barnett

What is a Printing Culture?

History

Orality(Spoken Word)

Manuscripts

PrintElectronic

History• Life of illiterate

• Memory

• Stories told, not read

Orality(Spoken Word)

History

Orality(Spoken Word)

Manuscripts

History

Orality(Spoken Word)

Manuscripts

Print

History

Orality(Spoken Word)

Manuscripts

PrintElectronics

Changes1440, 1455, 1490Transition from orality was a long process

Things were still read aloud until the 18th centuryPrinter would listen to things read to himVillagers came to hear traveling readers

The Black PlagueSocial changes

New market for booksJob opportunities

"Why should old men be referred to their juniors now that it is possible for the young by diligent study to acquire the same knowledge?"

~ Jacobo Filipo Foresti The World of Aldus Manutius.

Adapting to the Printing Press successfully

Martin Luther and the Protestant ReformationEvery Protestant household must have a bibleFeelings of self importance through practice of Protestant doctrinesProtestant printers are able to print and write without fear of recrimination from their church

Writing vs. PrintingWhich is more efficient? Many manuscripts of the 15th century were copied from printed booksNo difference between printed and written workBy 1500, every town had their own printer

Which one is the manuscript?

Cross-cultural exchange

Each occupation worked separately, each belonging to their own guildPrinting brought them togetherBook fairInteractions between type founders, correctors, translators, copy editors, illustrators or print dealers, indexers, and others who are engaged in editorial work

Continued…Sparked creativity and changed the relationship between intellectualsCollaborations include:

Priests, abbots, and printersastronomers and engraversphysicians and paintersrich merchants and local scholars

ScienceScientific research is more collaborativeResults were published quicklyPeer review sped of development of ideas

Images

Texts of Ptolemy, Vitruvius, and Galen, for example had lost their illustrations when they were recopied in manuscripts Manuals with illustrations were more accurateMaps Scientific observations

StandardizationErrors in copying"if a single compositor's error cold be circulated in great many copies, so too could a single scholar's emendation" (Eisenstein)Harder to make identical copies by handMaps and diagrams

Standardization, cont.Standardization of text

Spelling and GrammarLess mistakes Laws

Alphabetical orderIndexes

Commercialization of Books

Books were 400 times cheaper - More supply than demandMerchants looked for interesting topicsPaid writersVariety of books circulated

How to play musical instrumentKeeping an accountEtiquetteManuals helping inquisitors, priests, confessors and pilgrims, Cook booksChildren’s picture books

"A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books have been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in AD 330"

~ Michael Clapham

Transitioning to the Printing

Press

Effects on EducationDistrust of received opinions in counter-renaissance Europe

Sharing and widespread availability of information now lead to new scientific discoveries

Printers becoming better educated to suit the needs of their business.

No more scribal errors, instead identical copies can now be made

Scientific methods for cataloguing and indexing research now become standard

"A serious student could now endeavor to cover a larger body of material by private reading than a student or even a mature scholar needed to master or could hope to master before printing made books cheap and plentiful"

~ Craig Thompson The Colloquies of Erasmus

Reaction of Catholic Church to the Printing

PressChurch is able to use the Printing Press to better advertise themselves, becoming commercial.

Catholic censorship caused many Italian authors either to delay publishing to the point where they lost credit for the discovery; or simply did not publish at all.

Inability of Catholic Church to change with the ideas of the times aids cause of Protestants.

Positive Aspects of the Printing Press

Knowledge is much more easily transported from one area to the next.Human error is cut down from the absence of ‘slavish copying’ by scribes.A new emphasis is put on learning. Knowledge is much more desirable once it is easily procurable. Transition from accepted beliefs to learned ones.Helps further the messages preached by both Protestants and Catholics alike.Indexing and scientific cataloguing become intensely important.Ability to look at many ancient texts quickly and easily.Printing was, for those who had the resources and ability, very profitable.Promoted an international exchange of information, at a previously unimaginable level.

Negative Aspects of The Printing Press

Promotion of propaganda between Catholic and Protestants.Rome was able to scare some Catholic authors from publishing.

Effects of The Printing Press

Led to significant scholastic discoveries, especially in terms of astronomy.New technology is created because of new desire to explore more of the natural world.Allowed for identical copies of manuscripts to be published in mass quantities for the first timeEntertainment was now literally placed in the palms of the people.Protestants

Effects of the Printing Press, cont.

Mass CulturePeople were reading, hearing, and wearing the same things

Copyright and plagiarismGovernment tried to control printers

1 copy vs. 1000 copiesCensorshipGive certain printers special rights to print booksEfforts were useless books with different title pages, authors, ect… were smuggled all over Europe

What will the future hold?