Printed Book

Prior to the invention of the printing press books had to be copied by hand, and this was an incredibly deliberate, painstaking process for scribes, a process often littered with errors (Wishnia, 2009). For those who attended high school in the era before handheld devices, notes were copied by hand, a few pages in length, and often contained hastily crossed-out mistakes. To project this casual process to the scribing of a book is a difficult exercise, especially considering the scribing a single volume could take over a year. Since very few books were available, they were only accessible to monks and scholars (Wishnia, 2009). The invention of the printing press bought about regular spacing and hyphenation of the text (Bolter, 2001). Furthermore, having an automated printed press led to consistent grammar, punctuation and spelling (McLuhan, 1962). The first book Gutenberg published was Ars Minor in 1451–a Latin grammar textbook used in schools. Approximately four years later, he printed a complete copy of the Bible. By the 16th century, printing shops were stationed in every major city in Europe producing more than 8 million copies of books. Most texts printed were Bibles or religious texts. Though the literacy rate was low, knowledge was spread to a wide range of professions (Wishnia, 2009). Knowledge was no longer the sole jurisdiction of the learned as students could now pursue knowledge in texts. As we unravel the evolution of the printing press, not only did it enhance the reading experience, it revolutionized access to information. It is ironic that in the 21st century we find ourselves in a similar situation in that the internet transformation printed texts to digital spaces.

Earlier in chapter one of his book, “Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print,” David Bolter quotes Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, 1482, and Priest Frollo’s premonition regarding the destructive potential of the printing press on both the authority of the church and modes of human expression (Bolter, 2000). This concern was genuine in that during the Middle Ages, scholarly study and publication were under the supervision of the church, ensuring the dissemination of literature and thought was systematically censored and controlled (Bazerman, 2011). In the early 16th century, Pope Alexander VI threatened to banish anyone who printed anything without checking with the Catholic Church (Wishnia, 2009). Prior to the advent of the press, as the dominant religion in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church went to such measures to establish and maintain a stark dichotomy between the clergy and laity. This dichotomy was distinguished by the literacy of priests and deacons, on whom the illiterate laity depended upon as interpreters of the Bible and intercessors to God. Thus, the eternal salvation of the laity was dependent on the clergy, based on this strict control of biblical doctrine. Books being printed by reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and Nicolaus Copernicus were deemed heretical (Wishnia, 2009). While these conditions further instigated criticism by reformers, it is important to note that Luther’s specific criticism in his Ninety-Five Theses were allegedly intentioned for academic circles, but nevertheless his writings “kindled such enthusiastic support and… such far-reaching impact” (Eisenstein, 1979). This support and impact of Luther’s writing is attributed to the printing press: “Rarely has one invention had more decisive influence than that of printing on the Reformation” (Eisenstein, 1979). Luther’s intention for the dissemination of his criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrine of salvation through works may never be determined, but what remains indisputable is that the printing press projected Luther’s writing to the point that he found himself “addressing the whole world” (Eisenstein, 1979). As Priest Frollo presaged, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press incited a “communications revolution”, which appeared “to have transformed everything” (Eisenstein 1980). The printing press allowed for the movement of knowledge into the world, forever changing how knowledge was controlled and disseminated.

References

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2^nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bazerman, C. (2011). Church, state, university, and the printing press: Conditions for the emergence and maintenance of autonomy of scientific publication in Europe. Languages of Science in the Eighteenth Century, p. 27.

Eisenstein. E. L. (1979). The printing press as an agent of change: Communications and cultural transformations in early-modern Europe. Vol. 1.  Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

McLuhan, M. (1962). The gutenberg galaxy: the making of typographic man. University of Toronto Press.

Wishnia, S. (2009). How did the printing press change history?. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/magazines/junior/pdfs/JUNIOR-033009-REPRO-01.pdf