On the shoulders of giants
Through the readings over the last few weeks I have been forced to rethink my narrative around Gutenberg and the printing press. In high school I was taught the oversimplified story of Gutenberg creating the printing press seemingly in a “eureka” moment. Then with his invention, the western world was removed from the “dark” ages with the common people being able to access and create literature of their own. I understand that in high school Social studies there is a tendency towards the use of a single simple narrative. This is likely driven by limited class time, standardized curriculum, and standardized testing. I do think however that it is important that students realize that Gutenberg’s invention did not arrive out of nowhere, instead it was a product of a variety of socio-economic factors and made possible through previous discoveries and innovations.
When I started studying History in university one of the first things I was taught was that the term “Dark Ages” as a descriptor for the time after the fall of Rome to the Italian renaissance is wildly inaccurate. The medieval time period was one of massive social and technological change and innovation. Admittedly literacy was limited to the elite and within this elite group primarily the religious elite. The principal consumers and producers of text therefore were monastic institutions (Clement, 1997). The ways in which text was produced and consumed during this time period initiated changes to both how the text was organized, and what materials were used (Bolter, 2001). Additionally the religious elite dictated what was being copied and read by the majority of the population (Clement, 1997). With the rise of a literate middle class during the late Middle Ages the demand for reading material grew. During this time Authors would cater to this growing literate class by circulating single manuscripts that the elite would copy into personal “common books” (Keep, McLaughlin, Parmar, 2000). The amount of effort, and time it takes to make the materials used to produce manuscripts meant supply was not able to meet the growing demand (Clement, 1997). It was in this time of increasing readership and technological advancement that Gutenberg’s printing press was created. Though he was the first to use movable type; the ink, paper, press, word spacing, and punctuation used in the new books had been invented previously.
There is no denying the impact of the printing press on society. It created reading materials at a reduced cost both financially and temporally. Additionally the printing press took the control of information away from the religious and secular elite. However if we teach the simplified version taught to me as a student we are devaluing what occurred before Gutenberg. I think it is important that we start providing a more nuanced narrative of “advancement” when we are teaching our students.
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Clement, R. W. (1997). The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies.
Keep, C., Mclaughlin, T.,& Parmar, R., (1993-2000). Manuscript Circulation. Retrieved from http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0262.html
Hi Benjamin,
I think you made some great points in your response. Bolter offered a perspective on the history and effects of the papyrus roll, codex, medieval manuscript, and eventually the printed book (Bolter, 2001). For me, it was noteworthy to see how the move from papyrus scroll to bound parchment codex took a number of centuries. This was something I really hadn’t considered before. It was interesting to hear your take on an oversimplification of the matter. When choosing the topics to teach to high school students, oversimplification can be a concern as much as information overload.
I think Bolter provided a practical approach to see how this technology made an impact on society and/or culture. Wasn’t it Bolter’s point to show that the printed book remains the main of text for scholars around the world (Bolter, 2001)?
Perhaps what our society needs is need more time to figure out the World Wide Web and accept the move onto this forum? If the world took much time to transition before, perhaps our present society just needs more time. One thing we shouldn’t do it forget our origins. Certainly the impact of the printing press on society was monumental, and was a product of a variety of factors and innovations. Or as mentioned, the invention of movable type was the decisive moment in the change from a culture in which all the senses partook of a common interplay to a tyranny of the visual (Keep, 2000). Without proper instruction, one day the printing press could become overlooked as the invention of writing in the first place.
::: Matt
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Keep, C., Mclaughlin, T.,& Parmar, R., (1993-2000). Marshall McLuhan and The Gutenberg Galaxy. Retrieved from http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0262.html
I really enjoyed your blog post Benjamin, and your arguments about ‘oversimplifying’ the invention of the printing press and our casual references of the “Dark Ages” as a very important time in social and technological change.
In my field of work we refer to ‘Project Gutenburg’. It is a website (https://www.gutenberg.org) which provides free electronic books with many titles of books that can be made available because they are no longer under copyright laws. The project began 1971 and was called Project Gutenburg, because “In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for a small cost.”(Liebert, 2010). The creator of this online project, wanted to ‘distribute free electronic versions of literary works and dessiminate them world wide’ (Leibert, 2010). Although we speak professionally about Gutenburg, I doubt that many people take time to really understand the implications of his work in the 16th century. Particularly pertaining to his role, and the implications for those who were not among the “literary elite”. This project is provided for individuals who do not have access to print, and rely on electronic formats. I suspect Ong (1982) would have called them the “literary-deprived” of our times. I know that it has provided a much stronger literary experience, to those who choose to access these electronic books.
Lebert, M. (2010). History of Project Gutenberg. Retrieved from http://www.gutenbergnews.org/about/history-of-project-gutenberg/
Project Gutenberg. (2015). Free ebooks by project Gutenberg. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org
Ong, W. J. (1982 ) Orality and Literacy, Routledge, New York
Your explanation of why your secondary education regarding the printing press fell short is an experience that I feel is still far too common. The simplification of historical events is definitely a result of time pressure, tests and curriculum but it is also a result of the persistent use of textbooks. I feel that the evolution of Gutenburg’s creation has had the ironic effect of creating poor education of its own history. One of the affordances of the printed text is the ability to describe a subject a great length and depth, the author can create lead a reader from start to finish through a long list of significant topics and contextual information. High school textbooks however erode this great advantage by continually remediating to resemble electronic and online texts. The new edition of textbooks my social studies department just paid a few thousand dollars for feature sidebars, feature boxes, web links and images on nearly every page. Sections of specific topics seem to be shorter and non-linear. I find that the layout causes more distraction and is less likely to explore a topic with the depth of a book. Textbooks and curriculum that target 100’s of years of history per high school course have always meant to introduce topics and therefore encourage the authors to simplify history, but it seems like new textbooks are making the simplifications even more simple. For the cost of a few class sets of textbooks that mimic online reading you could probably purchase a set of computers or tablets that could actually move the class online.