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History Notes General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

Printing Notes

Updated Printing Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform)

Approximately 43 pages

These notes provide comprehensive cover of the General III Preliminary paper. They were the sole resource that I used for my preliminary examination revision, in which I achieved a mark of 69%. They include a wealth of specific and detailed examples spanning across the whole of Europe, as well as discussion of a broad range of historiography, making them a complete resource for studying for the prelim in General III. They are often structured around key questions, meaning that they also come in u...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

GIII Revision Notes.

Printing.

Brief background:

  • Printing had existed prior to Gutenberg, through wooden blocks.

  • ‘Putting-out’ system used to produce some books pre-print: not as clear-cut a revolution (diff scribes worked on diff sections of texts – ‘pecia’ system).

  • His innovation was to create movable metal type, and develop ink and improve the screw press (more flexible, legible).

  • Began Mainz 1439, spread to Cologne 1464, Basel 1466, Rome 1467, Venice 1469, Paris, Nuremberg, Utrecht 1470.

  • Then spread to uni towns.

  • Period saw huge growth of printing:

  • >110 towns had presses 1480. 236 1500.

  • Spain 1472-89: 300 editions prod. 1307 1501-20.

  • 20 mill books prod in Europe pre-1500. 150-200,000 1500-1600.

  • Geog variation: Western Eu = leader. Muscovy v ltd - <30 titles prod. by 1612.

  • Spain: 31 permanent presses before 1510.

  • 49 Italian towns had presses 1501-1520.

  • 1480: 50 German towns had.

  • France: grouped in Paris – 75 printers 1644.

  • Russia’s in Moscow, Kiev, St Petersburg.

1. What was the impact of print on religion?

  • Martin Luther spoke of printing as ‘God’s highest act of grace’.

  • Clearly helped to spread relig ideas. Used in education of children.

  • E.g. 1480, Alcalá, Spain, priests ordered to possess parchment cartilla, with articles of faith, Ten Commandments and list of sacraments, vices and virtues written on them. Posted in prom place.

  • E.g. catechisms – Dominican Villanova set up catechism schools, Milan, 1536.

  • E.g. through picture books, e.g. Comenius’ picture book.

  • E.g. broadsheets printed with Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Credo in Latin and Italian distrib.

  • Boosted Protestantism: fit well with methods.

  • “more compatible with Protestant bibliolatry and pamphleteering” (Eisenstein).

2. What was the impact of print on education and ideas?

  • “Revolutionised all forms of learning” (Eisenstein).

  • Anthropologists argued that dawn of lit = dawn of logical thought – enabled abstract thinking.

  • Opened up study for gifted students.

  • “Gifted undergraduates… [could] reach beyond their teachers’ grasp” (Eisenstein).

  • Centrality of images v useful for science.

  • Labelled a “saviour for Western science” (hist George Sarton).

  • E.g. Commonwealth of Learning ^ acceptance of Chinese maxim about pic being worth a thousand words.

  • Encouraged more calculated way of doing things.

  • E.g. fams used ‘ricordanze’ (Florence) or memoranda to record private fam affairs. Usually patricians e.g. Guicciardini.

  • Standardisation of lit meant that ideas could spread more easily.

  • R A Houston credits with encouraging Scientific Revolution of late 1600s.

  • COUNTER-POINT: could also spread old ideas/retard progress.

  • Publishers simply giving audiences what they wanted to read led to trad texts e.g. Aesop’s Fables (126 editions before 1500) and Imitation of Christ.

  • E.g. 500 private libs in France in C18th show only one copy of Rousseau’s Social Contract.

3. What was the impact of printing on society and culture?

  • Books more widely available and accessible.

  • Cheaper and quicker.

  • E.g. Ripoli press charged 3 florin per quinterno for duplicating, scribe charged 1. Press prod 1025 copies, scribe 1.

  • Could be carried in hand.

  • Printers became more aware of ease for the reader.

  • E.g. ^ use of footnotes, contents pages.

  • E Eisenstein highlights.

  • ^ private world of reading.

  • E.g. Pope Eugenius IV talked of how he liked to read in bed.

  • Was “lodged in people’s deepest self” (R Chartier).

  • Helped to standardise language – v important for creating culture.

  • E.g. first spec Eng grammar pub’d 1586.

  • Also ^ importance of imagery.

  • “Emblems belonged fully (though not exclusively) to print culture” (Chartier).

  • There was no sudden shift from an oral to a literary culture: in fact, the two intertwined.

  • “Oral and literate cultures not only co-existed but interacted” (P Burke and R Porter).

  • Contemporaries seemed to acknowledge the power of the written word.

  • E.g. Legend of Santa Margherita read aloud to C16th women in childbirth in Italy.

  • Generally “had wide-ranging psychological ramifications” (Eisenstein).

  • E.g. ^ parenting anxiety.

  • Not reserve of social elite:

  • ...

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