FINAL DRAFT OF SOCIOLOGY

CHANGES IN PRINTING PRESS AND ITS IMPACT

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

MITHAPUR, PATNA (800001)
SESSION
2018-2023

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Rishav kumar Dr. SHAKIL AHMED

ROLL NO. 1962 (Assistant professor of sociology)

Contents
CHAPTER =1 ................................................................................................................................ 5
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 5
History ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Research questions: ................................................................................................................... 9
Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 9
Research methodology .............................................................................................................. 9
CHAPTER=2 ............................................................................................................................... 10
PRINTING REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
FORMATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 10
Negative Effects of the Printing Press ................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER=3 ............................................................................................................................... 15
THE EFFECT OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE RENAISSANCE IN THE 15TH
CENTURY, ITALY .................................................................................................................... 15
The advent of the printing press ............................................................................................ 16
In Education ............................................................................................................................ 17
THE PLACE OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE REFORMATION ........................... 17
CHAPTER=4 ............................................................................................................................... 19
THE PRINTING REVOLUTION ............................................................................................. 19
Mass production and spread of printed books ..................................................................... 19
Circulation of information and ideas .................................................................................... 20
Industrial printing presses...................................................................................................... 21
Rotary press ......................................................................................................................... 22
CHATPER=5 ............................................................................................................................... 23
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 23
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 26
 DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE

I hereby declare that the work reported in the B.A., LL.B (Hons.) Project Report entitled
“CHANGES IN PRINTING PRESS AND ITS IMPACT ” submitted at Chanakya National
Law University is an authentic record of my work carried out under the supervision of
Dr.SHAKIL AHMED. I have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or
diploma. I am fully responsible for the contents of my Project Report.

SIGNATURE OF CANDIDATE
NAME OF CANDIDATE: RISHAV KUMAR
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my faculty Dr.SHAKIL AHMED whose guidance helped me a lot with
structuring my project.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to my friends, who helped me immensely with
materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have completed it in the present
way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents and all those unseen hands that helped me
out at every stage of my project.

THANK YOU,
NAME: RISHAV KUMAR
COURSE: B.A., LL.B (Hons.)
ROLL NO: 1962
SEMESTER: 3RD
 CHAPTER =1

INTRODUCTION

A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon
a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic
improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was
brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process.
Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the
most influential events in the second millennium1.

The movable-type printing press was invented in South Korea. In Europe, around 1439,
goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg independently created a similar system which started a
printing revolution lasting until the end of the 20th Century. Printing in East Asia had been
prevalent since the Tang dynasty2, and in Europe, woodblock printing based on existing
screw presses was common by the 14th century. Gutenberg's most important innovation was
the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type–
based printing press system similar to the Korean system. His newly devised hand mould
made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities.
Movable type had been hitherto unknown in Europe. In Europe, the two inventions, the hand
mould and the printing press, together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other
documents, particularly in short print runs.

The printing press spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen
European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had
already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses
spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.

1 For example, in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg no. 1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown. In 1997, Time–
Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium Archived 10 March 2010 at the
Wayback Machine; the same did four prominent US journalists in their 1998 resume 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men
and Women Who Shaped The Millennium Archived 3 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Johann Gutenberg entry of the
Catholic Encyclopedia describes his invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era.
2 Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin; Joseph Needham (1985). Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation in China. 5 part 1. Cambridge University

Press. p. 158, 20
The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing, and lent its
name to a new medium of expression and communication, "the press"3.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era
of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively
unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders,
captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious
authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on
education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the
increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism, and
accelerated by the development of European vernacular languages, to the detriment of Latin's
status as lingua franca4. In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-
style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale.

History
Economic conditions and intellectual climate

The rapid economic and socio-cultural development of late medieval society in Europe
created favorable intellectual and technological conditions for Gutenberg's improved version
of the printing press: the entrepreneurial spirit of emerging capitalism increasingly made its
impact on medieval modes of production, fostering economic thinking and improving the
efficiency of traditional work-processes. The sharp rise of medieval learning and literacy
amongst the middle class led to an increased demand for books which the time-consuming
hand-copying method fell far short of accommodating5.

Technological factors

Technologies preceding the press that led to the press's invention included: manufacturing of
paper, development of ink, woodblock printing, and distribution of eyeglasses6. At the same

3 Weber 2006, p. 387: At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the
press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born.
4 Anderson, Benedict: Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo, Fondo de cultura

economica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 63–76

5 Eisenstein 1980; Febvre & Martin 1997; Man 2002
6 Jones, Colin (20 October 1994). The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 133. ISBN

978-0-521-43294-8.
time, a number of medieval products and technological processes had reached a level of
maturity which allowed their potential use for printing purposes. Gutenberg took up these
far-flung strands, combined them into one complete and functioning system, and perfected
the printing process through all its stages by adding a number of inventions and innovations
of his own:

The screw press which allowed direct pressure to be applied on flat-plane was already of
great antiquity in Gutenberg's time and was used for a wide range of tasks. Introduced in the
1st century AD by the Romans, it was commonly employed in agricultural production for
pressing wine grapes and (olive) oil fruit, both of which formed an integral part of the
Mediterranean and medieval diet. The device was also used from very early on in urban
contexts as a cloth press for printing patterns. Gutenberg may have also been inspired by the
paper presses which had spread through the German lands since the late 14th century and
which worked on the same mechanical principles.

Gutenberg adopted the basic design, thereby mechanizing the printing process. Printing,
however, put a demand on the machine quite different from pressing. Gutenberg adapted the
construction so that the pressing power exerted by the platen on the paper was now applied
both evenly and with the required sudden elasticity. To speed up the printing process, he
introduced a movable under table with a plane surface on which the sheets could be swiftly
changed 7. The concept of movable type was not new in the 15th century; movable type
printing had been invented in China during the Song dynasty, and was later used in Korea
during the Goryeo Dynasty, where metal movable-type printing technology was developed
in 1234. In Europe, sporadic evidence that the typographical principle, the idea of creating a
text by reusing individual characters, was well understood and employed in pre-Gutenberg
Europe had been cropping up since the 12th century and possibly before. The known
examples range from Germany (Prüfening inscription) to England (letter tiles) to Italy 8 .
However, the various techniques employed (imprinting, punching and assembling individual
letters) did not have the refinement and efficiency needed to become widely accepted.

7wolf 1974, pp. 39–46

8Germany: Brekle 1995, pp. 23–26; Brekle 1997, p. 62; Brekle 2005, p. 25; England: Lehmann-Haupt 1940, pp. 93–97; Brekle
1997, p. 62; Italy: Lipinsky 1986, pp. 75–80; Koch 1994, p. 213. Lipinsky surmises that this typographical technique was known in
Constantinople from the 10th to the 12th century and that the Venetians received it from there (p. 78).
Gutenberg greatly improved the process by treating typesetting and printing as two separate
work steps. A goldsmith by profession, he created his type pieces from a lead-based alloy
which suited printing purposes so well that it is still used today. The mass production of
metal letters was achieved by his key invention of a special hand mould, the matrix. The
Latin alphabet proved to be an enormous advantage in the process because, in contrast to
logographic writing systems, it allowed the type-setter to represent any text with a theoretical
minimum of only around two dozen different letters9.

Another factor conducive to printing arose from the book existing in the format of the codex,
which had originated in the Roman period. Considered the most important advance in the
history of the book prior to printing itself, the codex had completely replaced the ancient
scroll at the onset of the middle Ages (500 AD)10. The codex holds considerable practical
advantages over the scroll format; it is more convenient to read (by turning pages), is more
compact, less costly, and, in particular, unlike the scroll, both recto and verso could be used
for writing − and printing11.

A fourth development was the early success of medieval papermakers at mechanizing paper
manufacture. The introduction of water-powered paper mills, the first certain evidence of
which dates to 1282, allowed for a massive expansion of production and replaced the
laborious handcraft characteristic of both Chinese and Muslim papermaking12. Papermaking
centers began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy, reducing the price of paper to one
sixth of parchment and then falling further; papermaking centers reached Germany a century
later.

Despite this it appears that the final breakthrough of paper depended just as much on the
rapid spread of movable-type printing. It is notable that codices of parchment, which in terms
of quality is superior to any other writing material, still had a substantial share in Gutenberg's
edition of the 42-line Bible13. After much experimentation, Gutenberg managed to overcome

9 Childress 2008, pp. 51–55; Hellinga 2007, p. 208:

Gutenberg's invention took full advantage of the degree of abstraction in representing language forms that was offered by the
alphabet and by the Western forms of script that were current in the fifteenth century.
10 Roberts & Skeat 1983, pp. 1, 38–67, 75
11 Roberts & Skeat 1983, pp. 45–53. Technically speaking, a scroll could be written on its back side, too, but the very few ancient

specimen found indicate that this was never considered a viable option. (p. 46)
12 Thompson 1978, p. 169; Burns 1996, pp. 414–417
13 The ratio between paper and parchment copies is estimated at around 150 to 30 (Hanebutt-Benz 2000, pp. 158–189)
the difficulties which traditional water-based inks caused by soaking the paper, and found
the formula for an oil-based ink suitable for high-quality printing with metal type.

Research questions:

 What is printing press?

 Its impact on social and cultural formations?
 What Was Its Impact On Renaissance In The 15th Century, Italy?

Objectives

Researcher intends to an in-depth study what is printing press and its impact on the world.

Research methodology

The researcher has adopted doctrinal method of research to complete the project. Doctrinal
research includes the library study.
 CHAPTER=2

PRINTING REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIAL AND

CULTURAL FORMATIONS

Printing revolution ushered in the era of modern Europe by making both ancient and medieval
texts available to a broader audience which produced a fertile ground for new ideas and new
theories. Marshall McLuhan rightly notes that the shift from predominantly oral culture to print
culture also affected the nature of human consciousness in that print represented an abstraction of
thought which gave precedence to linearity, sequentially and homogeneity. This mode of thinking
is very much evident not only in rationalist philosophy, realistic fiction, but also in the rise of
scientific materialism in the following centuries. Printing also led to the standardization of various
European languages as works began to be published in these languages. Eventually this
standardization of vernacular languages contributed toward promoting literatures which were used
to create national mythologies. Whereas maps were in circulation since ancient times, cartography
as a science is the child of print revolution. And cartography was not only important in demarcating
national boundaries, but also mapping the territories that were colonized in the new world.

In order to understand the deep changes that were the result of printing revolution, we need to
focus our attention at the transition from the scribal to the print culture which brought the book
culture from inside the monasteries to outside into the universities. This outwards movement got
lay people involved in reading and writing activities. During the middle Ages, the book production
in the manuscript form was confined to monasteries and other ecclesiastical centers which had thus
direct control of the resulting book culture. The scribal culture of the middle Ages depended on
the meticulous copying of manuscripts by scribes who spent hours at their task in scriptoria. Such
a labor intensive task could not lead to large scale duplication and hence, access to manuscripts
was confined to chiefly the clerics who became custodians of the book culture. In the feudal social
structure, therefore, the scholarly activities were confined to monasteries and reading was usually
the occupation of clerics.

The modes of communication transform modes of production as well as modes of consumption.

In the preprint era, when only a small percentage of the population had access to written sources
of information or knowledge, both public and private affairs were primarily conducted through
oral communication. The primacy of physical presence in communication promoted community
formations that were very much dependent on geographical togetherness and within that constraint
further determined by communities based on parochial and family bonds. Printing revolution
changed all that--for the first time, it was possible for political, economic, and culture producers
to reach people who were dispersed geographically. As a result new types of communities were
formed that were based on personal or professional interests, or political affiliations.

Even though printing involved a different mode of production, early printers used conventions of
the scribal culture as they produced books. Printing was seen initially as a more efficient way of
mass copying of manuscripts rather than as a totally new medium which would transform the way
people read, wrote, as well as handled texts. Just as manuscript copyists showed preoccupation
with surface appearance making sure that the copy was as close to the original, so did the early
printers aim at producing printed books which looked very similar to manuscripts in surface
appearance. Soon however, printers started seeing the advantages inherent in the print medium
that allowed more things than possible through hand copying. Mechanical reproduction led to
freeing of time that could be devoted to the other aspects of text production. This included
appearance, meaning, as well as ease of reading which led to editing conventions very different
from those used in manuscript production. Since a small mistake could be reproduced in thousands
of copies, so a great deal of attention was given to proof reading and editing. Even the readers got
involved by sending in the errors they detected which were corrected by issuing errata pages in the
already printed editions and using corrected future editions. We now stand at another divide--
between the print and the electronic culture-and we see a similar conflation of two very different
modes of production. Print practices and standards are used to evaluate or produce texts in a totally
different medium. Only slowly are we beginning to realize that inherent ephemerality, and
transmutability of the electronic text changes the text's relationship to both the reader as well as
the writer.

Elizabeth Eisenstein argues that printing brought about a revolutionary change in the ways in
which knowledge was preserved, used and passed on to the succeeding generations. Unlike the
print era, copying in the scribal era was a laborious process and it was almost impossible to get
exactly similar copies of the original manuscripts. Thus, a number of variant manuscripts would
be in circulation. Due to limited number of copies, each manuscript was unique and had to be
guarded in public places, usually chained to bookshelves, or stowed away in vaults and other safe
places, so it was not lost or destroyed. The distinction that we make now between the original and
the copy came into existence with the rise of the print culture. Printing made it possible for the
mass production of identical copies which could be distributed widely amongst people separated
geographically as well as historically. As printing made ancient as well as medieval texts available,
it also allowed opportunities to future scholars, literary men, or scientists to be able to study,
compare, and synthesize this knowledge and come up with their own theories. Describing
"typographical fixity “as necessary for "rapid advancement of learning," Eisenstein notes that what
chiefly distinguished the print era from the preprint was the accumulation of knowledge made
possible through the preservative powers of print. In the preprint era due to the scarcity of
manuscripts it was not possible for the general public to have recourse to the accumulated
knowledge of the past. Thus, even before the close of the sixteenth century, the areas of charting
the planets, mapping the earth, synchronizing chronologies, codifying laws or compiling
bibliographies underwent a major change in that the old knowledge was retrieved and given
typographical fixity which made it available for broader study and perusal, soon to be replaced by
new schemes and charts which were continually corrected and refined by the following
generations. The error free compilation and distribution of technical literature, for example,
astronomical or geographical data, maps, charts and so on, freed the technical personnel to engage
in observation and data collection. Eisenstein finally concludes, that printing by making
simultaneous viewing of identical data by people geographically separated "constituted a kind of
communication revolution in itself."

In their exhaustive study The Coming of Book, Febvre and Martin note that the book trade through
mass copying of manuscripts turned books into commodities of exchange which could be sold for
profit. Gutenberg's invention of printing press, as scholars point out, perhaps was one of the
successful experiments by people in that era to find mechanical means of reproduction so that
increasing demand for books could be met expeditiously. Printing has indeed been described as
the first assembly line industry where a team of typographers produced a finished product that
could be copied for mass distribution.
As the book trade became more lucrative and the reading public increased in number, publishers
invested in printing books that would appeal to a broader audience. Initially, religious and
devotional literature constituted a higher percentage of literature that was printed, but this changed
by the eighteenth century when new forms of literature slowly established themselves. The society
based on print culture relied on individual acts of writing as well as reading which promoted
notions of individuality, originality, and creativity which was reflected in new literary forms. The
Romantic Movement in Germany and England further promoted the idea of the inspired writer
who produces a totally unique and original work which is different from other works. It was in the
late eighteenth and beginning of nineteenth century that authors actively campaigned for
intellectual right or copyright to their own work.

Negative Effects of the Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1451 opened lines of communication
throughout the world. The advent of the printing press changed the face of journalism and
education. However, pollution issues surrounding modern industrial printing and paper
manufacturing have developed since Gutenberg's revelatory invention. The culmination of toxic
ink and bleaches used by some modern manufacturers can have adverse effects on the surrounding
environment.

Challenging the Church

The printing of affordable books brought in a great profit and soon inspired printers to continue
the pocket book practice with secular books. This influx in the amount to printed material
eventually led to a great growth in literacy. It also exposed the public to printed material not
censored by the church. These was a cause for concern among church leadership, as the scientific
findings being circulated threatened some the popular religious views. This conflict between
religion and the printing press came to a climax with a monk named Martin Luther in 1517; he
was able to spread his discontent with the established church through the printed word.

Toxic Inks

Inks used in industrial printing effect the environment in various ways. Vent fumes are fumes
released by the inks into the atmosphere during printing. These fumes can be harmful when
inhaled. Other inks create problems after they are discarded. The U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Administration provides guidelines for worker safety in the print industry, such as wearing
protective gloves and masks when handling potentially harmful chemicals. Environmental
regulation falls to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sets pollution level standards
for the chemicals used to print.

Paper Manufacturing Toxins

The chemicals required to break down the ingredients for paper production emit fumes. These
fumes are toxic to workers in paper factories. According to a 1996 study published in "Allergy,"
some of these chemicals have caused chronic respiratory allergy symptoms that can lead to more
severe respiratory issues later in life.
 CHAPTER=3

THE EFFECT OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE RENAISSANCE IN THE

15TH CENTURY, ITALY
One of the most important aspects of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century in Italy was the
Humanism which refers to the return of the classical Greek. At that time the humanist movement
was a success on the cultural stage. The humanists were more in tune with the intense Christian
Renaissance society than other cultural movements. The Christian Petrarch and his followers
achieved a high position for themselves and for the studia humanitates. It is known that they were
wealthy, powerful and intellectual people. But historians such as Seigel (1968) argue that their
place in the life of Renaissance Italy is arguably more complex than it seems. One of the arguments
is related to the humanists’ prestige, which exceeded that of the medieval dictatores (Gray, 1963)
that may have influenced in the fading of the scholastics’ popularity.

Renaissance Humanism permeated through the fifteenth century, but it was not replacing medieval
scholasticism. Literature shows that there was still a strong interest in scholastic philosophy. At
the beginning of the century both of the two have their own place in the intellectual life of the time.
While the humanists often succeeded in gaining the available university chairs in moral philosophy
for themselves; the scholastics obtained theirs in logic. Humanism and scholasticism shared men’s
attention inside as well outside of the universities.

The Renaissance humanists believed that education should equip a man to lead a good life and
knowledge was not merely to demonstrate the truth but to impel people toward its acceptance and
application. They believed a man could be molded through ‘the art of eloquence’. They implied
an almost incredible faith in the power of the word (Gray, 1963). Many Italian scholastic
philosophers and theologians encouraged a positive attitude toward civic and practical life and
opened the door for science as well.

For Petrarch and his successors, Cicero’s oration Pro Archia was a sacred text. Gray (1963) argues
that the pursuit of eloquence joined humanists of all shades; and to ignore the impact of eloquence
and the ideas associated with it is to distort the mentality of humanism and disregard a vital
dimension of Renaissance thought and method as well.
To this extent, Eisenstein (1979) adds that there was evidence that the humanists mentality lacked
modern perspective because they were focused on ancient poets belonging to a remote pre-
Christian context.

The advent of the printing press

Since the invention of the press western culture lost its medieval characteristics and became
distinctively modern. It was a shift from the hand written book to the printed one. The name most
associated with the press is Johannes Gutenberg (1397-1468) a German goldsmith whose great
invention was not exactly the printing press, but the creation of movable, variable-width, metal
type.

Petrarch’s revival of Cicero’s rhetoric was flourishing in Italy in the age of the hand-copied books.
The book culture did not change much with the advent of the printing press. While there was no
encouragement of the spread of the new technology, the advent of the press may have forced
manuscript bookdealers, such as Vespasiano, to close their shops.

On the other hand, Eisenstein (1979) argues that from the view point of most Renaissance scholars,
the advent of the printing came too late to be taken as a point of departure for the transition to a
new epoch. They believed it began with the generation of Giotto and Petrarch before Gutenberg.
It was believed this technological and cultural change did not indeed concern the major cultural
changes that had occurred under the auspices of scribes. Eisenstein (1979) remarks that the Italian
Renaissance underwent a mutation after the advent of printing, but it does not mean that there was
nothing else that may have affected the Renaissance before this event.

But, what is the relation of the revival of rhetoric and the changes introduced by printing needs?
Eisenstein (1979) mentions that in ‘The history of the book’ published by UNESCO Vervliet
states: “It is not so much that printing made the Renaissance possible as that the Renaissance
contributed to the successful spread of printing’. Did printing make Petrarchan revival possible?
How? How did the Renaissance contribute to the spread of printing?

Eisenstein (1979) argues the persistence of the notion that printing came as ‘by-product of the
Renaissance spirit.’ What was the spirit? In fact the first attempt to use the benefits of the printing
press as new medium to arouse widespread mass support was not in connection with Italian
humanism but with a late medieval crusade, which was the war against the Turks.
It is difficult to establish the impact of the printing press in its first century especially on a very
conservative and religious society. The scribal culture revered the ancients because they were
closer to uncorrupted knowledge, which was not yet corrupted through the process of scribal
transmission (Dewar, 2000). It had to pass a full century before the outlines of a new world began
to emerge.

Eisenstein (1979) argues that by 1500 various printed materials were already being registered. But,
the number of books produced was not much different from the number produced by scribes.

In Education
The impact of print on education may have been hidden or delayed since it could have no effect
on unlettered folk; it affected only a very small literate elite recording more sermons, orations,
adages and poems in order to serve the needs of preachers and teachers pursuing traditional
Christian ends.

By the time a new approach in education had emerged it was called “New Learning”. It sought to
learn from classic texts that the medieval texts did not address, but without challenging the
Christian belief.

THE PLACE OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE REFORMATION

The Reformation did not develop in a technical, political, economic or social vacuum. Rather, it
is the conviction of conservative Protestant historians that God through a variety of means
accomplished His determined end--the recovery of the gospel and the reformation of His church.
These observers draw a comparison between the “fullness of time" when God sent forth His Son
to announce the good news in the first century and the sixteenth century Reformation in the
“fullness of time” which recovered the good news which had been distorted during the interim.
Employing this analogy, the counterpart to the Greek language, which was widely known during
the early church era, is the newly introduced printing press which preceded the Reformation era.
Dissemination of the gospel message in both cases would have been far less effective in both
speed and extent. This study examines the impact of the invention of the printing press upon
sixteenth century society in general as well as its importance for the initiation and development
of the Protestant Reformation in particular. Also explored are the reasons why Protestants
aggressively used the press to great advantage while in contrast Catholics aggressively restricted
use of the new medium. Finally, observations are made regarding Protestantism’s comparably
timid use of this century’s technological advances which are the modern equivalent of the
printing press – radio, television and the personal computer.
 CHAPTER=4

THE PRINTING REVOLUTION

The Printing Revolution occurred when the spread of the printing press facilitated the wide
circulation of information and ideas, acting as an "agent of change" through the societies that it
reached. (Eisenstein (1980))

Mass production and spread of printed books

The invention of mechanical movable type printing led to a huge increase of printing activities
across Europe within only a few decades. From a single print shop in Mainz, Germany, printing
had spread to no less than around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern Europe by the end of
the 15th century. As early as 1480, there were printers active in 110 different places in Germany,
Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Bohemia and Poland. From
that time on, it is assumed that "the printed book was in universal use in Europe".
In Italy, a center of early printing, print shops had been established in 77 cities and towns by 1500.
At the end of the following century, 151 locations in Italy had seen at one time printing activities,
with a total of nearly three thousand printers known to be active. Despite this proliferation, printing
centres soon emerged; thus, one third of the Italian printers published in Venice. By 1500, the
printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty
million copies. In the following century, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million
copies.
European printing presses of around 1600 were capable of producing about 1,500 impressions per
workday14. By comparison, book printing in East Asia did not use presses and was solely done by
block printing15.
Of Erasmus's work, at least 750,000 copies were sold during his lifetime alone (1469–1536)16.In
the early days of the Reformation, the revolutionary potential of bulk printing took princes and
papacy alike by surprise. In the period from 1518 to 1524, the publication of books in Germany

14 Pollak, Michael (1972). "The performance of the wooden printing press". The Library Quarterly. 42 (2): 218–264. JSTOR
4306163.
15 Needham 1965, p. 211:

The outstanding difference between the two ends of the Old World was the absence of screw-presses from China, but this is only
another manifestation of the fact that this basic mechanism was foreign to that culture.
16 Issawi 1980, pp. 492
alone skyrocketed sevenfold; between 1518 and 1520, Luther's tracts were distributed in 300,000
printed copies17.
The rapidity of typographical text production, as well as the sharp fall in unit costs, led to the
issuing of the first newspapers (see Relation) which opened up an entirely new field for conveying
up-to-date information to the public.
Incunable are surviving pre-16th century print works which are collected by many of the libraries
in Europe and North America.

Circulation of information and ideas

The printing press was also a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could
easily communicate their discoveries through the establishment of widely disseminated scholarly
journals, helping to bring on the scientific revolution. Because of the printing press, authorship
became more meaningful and profitable. It was suddenly important who had said or written what,
and what the precise formulation and time of composition was. This allowed the exact citing of
references, producing the rule, "One Author, one work (title), one piece of information" (Giesecke,
1989; 325). Before, the author was less important, since a copy of Aristotle made in Paris would
not be exactly identical to one made in Bologna. For many works prior to the printing press, the
name of the author has been entirely lost.

Because the printing process ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page
numbering, tables of contents, and indices became common, though they previously had not been
unknown. The process of reading also changed, gradually moving over several centuries from oral
readings to silent, private reading. Over the next 200 years, the wider availability of printed
materials led to a dramatic rise in the adult literacy rate throughout Europe18.

The printing press was an important step towards the democratization of knowledge. Within 50 or
60 years of the invention of the printing press, the entire classical canon had been reprinted and
widely promulgated throughout Europe (Eisenstein, 1969; 52). More people had access to
knowledge both new and old, more people could discuss these works. Book production became

17 Duchesne 2006, p. 83
18 Peck, Josh. “The State of Publishing: Literacy Rates.” McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. McSweeney.
more commercialized, and the first copyright laws were passed19. On the other hand, the printing
press was criticized for allowing the dissemination of information which may have been incorrect.

A second outgrowth of this popularization of knowledge was the decline of Latin as the language
of most published works, to be replaced by the vernacular language of each area, increasing the
variety of published works. The printed word also helped to unify and standardize the spelling and
syntax of these vernaculars, in effect 'decreasing' their variability. This rise in importance of
national languages as opposed to pan-European Latin is cited as one of the causes of the rise of
nationalism in Europe.

A third consequence of popularization of printing was on the economy. The printing press was
associated with higher levels of city growth. The publication of trade related manuals and books
teaching techniques like double-entry bookkeeping increased the reliability of trade and led to the
decline of merchant guilds and the rise of individual traders.

Industrial printing presses

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the mechanics of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style
press were still essentially unchanged, although new materials in its construction, amongst other
innovations, had gradually improved its printing efficiency. By 1800, Lord Stanhope had built a
press completely from cast iron which reduced the force required by 90%, while doubling the size
of the printed area20. With a capacity of 480 pages per hour, the Stanhope press doubled the output
of the old style press. Nonetheless, the limitations inherent to the traditional method of printing
became obvious.

Two ideas altered the design of the printing press radically: First, the use of steam power for
running the machinery, and second the replacement of the printing flatbed with the rotary motion
of cylinders. Both elements were for the first time successfully implemented by the German printer
Friedrich Koenig in a series of press designs devised between 1802 and 1818. Having moved to
London in 1804, Koenig soon met Thomas Bensley and secured financial support for his project
in 1807. Patented in 1810, Koenig had designed a steam press "much like a hand press connected
to a steam engine." The first production trial of this model occurred in April 1811. He produced

19 Eshgh, Amy. "Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the United States | Association of Research Libraries® | ARL®".
www.arl.org.
20 Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. (pp 130–133) ISBN 0-471-29198-6
his machine with assistance from German engineer Andreas Friedrich Bauer. Koenig and Bauer
sold two of their first models to The Times in London in 1814, capable of 1,100 impressions per
hour. The first edition so printed was on 28 November 1814. They went on to perfect the early
model so that it could print on both sides of a sheet at once. This began the long process of making
newspapers available to a mass audience (which in turn helped spread literacy), and from the 1820s
changed the nature of book production, forcing a greater standardization in titles and other
metadata. Their company Koenig & Bauer AG is still one of the world's largest manufacturers of
printing presses today.

Rotary press
The steam powered rotary printing press, invented in 1843 in the United States by Richard
M.Hoe,21 allowed millions of copies of a page in a single day. Mass production of printed works
flourished after the transition to rolled paper, as continuous feed allowed the presses to run at a
much faster pace.

By the late 1930s or early 1940s, rotary presses had increased substantially in efficiency: a model
by Platen Printing Press was capable of performing 2,500 to 3,000 impressions per hour.

Also, in the middle of the 19th century, there was a separate development of jobbing presses, small
presses capable of printing small-format pieces such as billheads, letterheads, business cards, and
envelopes. Jobbing presses were capable of quick set-up (average setup time for a small job was
under 15 minutes) and quick production (even on treadle-powered jobbing presses it was
considered normal to get 1,000 impressions per hour with one pressman, with speeds of 1,500 iph
often attained on simple envelope work). Job printing emerged as a reasonably cost-effective
duplicating solution for commerce at this time.

21 Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. (pp 130–133) ISBN 0-471-29198-6
 CHATPER=5

CONCLUSION
The concept of printing was first conceived and developed in China and Korea. Although the
concept was conceived by the eastern nations, the first mechanized printing press was invented by
a German metalworker named Johann Gutenberg in 1452. Gutenberg did not invent the printing
press but rather conceived the idea of movable type which is actually an aggregation of three
distinct technologies utilized by humans for many centuries before Gutenberg (Jones 2007). This
can be described as a form of remediation of previous communication technologies. Bolter defines
remediation when a, “newer medium takes place of an older one, borrowing and reorganizing the
characteristics of writing in the older medium and reforming its cultural space.” (Bolter, 2001,
p.23). Gutenberg combined the technologies of paper, viscous oil-based ink and the wine press to
print books thereby allowing for the mass production and distribution of written work. As a result
of the printing press, there was no longer the need for the laborious manuscript copying and
production of the written word.

The printing press allowed for the democratizing of knowledge as a greater number of individuals
were provided access to more information. Through the printing press, written work was more
uniform in its viewing format. The mechanization of the printing press achieved more regular
spacing and hyphenation of the print. (Bolter, 2001). Prior to the printing press, the written word
was individually scribed with no standard format, with inconsistent writing, grammar and
handwriting. The printing press led to more consistent spelling, grammar and punctuation.
(McLuhan, 1962). Through this uniformity and reliability of the written work, readers were able
to consistently interpret the writer’s thoughts and ideas. While the printing press did not have any
significant immediate effects on societal literacy, over the next few decades as more information
through the written word was accessible and disseminated, this technology advanced mass literacy
as demonstrated through a drastic rise in adult literacy throughout Europe. Prior to the printing
press, books were quite expensive as it was a laborious task to hand-scribe each book. As a result,
only the wealthy upper elite class could afford such books and therefore the literate were mainly
found at this class level. However, with the invention of the printing press creating nearly identical
books of quality at an economical price, books were now more affordable and available to the
general public. It is estimated that by 1500 there were “fifteen to twenty million copies of 30,000
to 35,000 separate publications.” (McLuhan, 1962, p.207)

Further, some scholars claim that the invention of the printing press has been a significant force in
transforming an oral medieval culture to a literate one or one which focuses more on silent and
private reading (McLuhan 1962, Havelock 1963, Ong 1982). However, other scholars such as
Eisenstein (1983) argue that the development of the printing press did not change medieval Europe
as it was literate before the invention of the printing press. Print did not bring about a monumental
shift from orality to literacy, but rather changed Europe from one type of literate society to another.
While there is still debate in this area, one can agree that the printing press technology has had a
profound effect on literacy within Europe.

The printing press has also been described as a driving factor in creating significant cultural and
religious transformations throughout Europe. Eisenstein (1997) discusses the shift from
manuscript to print in relation to three movements, namely the Scientific Revolution, Renaissance
and the Reformation. With the invention of the printing press, the scientists were more readily able
to share and exchange information. Further, as diagrams were hand drawn, detailed diagrams and
sketches would be time consuming and the printing press would easily reproduce many copies
with ease. By being able to quickly reproduce diagrams, pictures and tables for mass consumption
and readership, scholars were more eager to take the time to produce accurate and useful
illustrations. The dissemination of scientific knowledge through the use of the printing press
further increased literacy as more individuals would have increased access to such knowledge and
would be readily available for the next person to continue or build on previous research.

The printing press was an agent of change in terms of educational practice. It transformed the
relationship between educator and student. “Previous relations between masters and disciples were
altered. Students who took full advantage of technical texts which served as silent instructors….
Young minds provided with updated editions, especially of mathematical texts began to surpass
not only their own elders but the wisdom of ancients as well.” (Eisenstein, 1979, p. 689).

Lastly, many works were produced in the Latin language and thereby the printing press assisted in
promoting this language. However, very few individuals knew how to read Latin and so over time
and with the demand by the ever increasing literate public, a growing number of written works
were being translated from Latin and slowly replaced by the vernacular language of each area.
From 1520, many printers turned their offices into workshops for translators. (Febre & Martin.
1997: 271-272). In providing written work in an individual’s native language, this further
positively impacted literacy rates as there were less obstacles in access to the written word.

With the invention of the printing press, the most immediate effect was the output of a greater
number of books at a more economical cost to the general public. Over the longer term however,
books would not only increase literacy rates due to the increased availability and access but also
would help begin the spread of political and religious movements within Europe. It is without a
doubt the printing press has had an impact on societal literacy rates but to what extent is still
debated. Currently we are experiencing a similar monumental shift in education in a new form of
technology with the Internet. Hopefully we can learn from the implementation of the printing press
and in conjunction with the Internet beneficially understand the growth, development and impact
on literacy.
 Bibliography

1. The Invention of Printing. By Theodore Low De Vinne.

2. 500 Years of Printing. By S.H. Steinberg.
3. Printer’s Error: An Irreverent History of Books. By Rebecca Romney.
4. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology,
Paper and Printing. Joseph Needham, Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin.
5. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Patricia Buckley Ebrey.and their rights”,
Page No: 706