Print Culture and the Modern World

1. Introduction
2. The first printed books
3. Print comes to Europe
4. The print revolution and its impact
5. The Reading Mania
6. The Nineteenth Century

www.creativetouch.in
2 Introduction

 The earliest kind of print technology was developed in

China, Japan and Korea.
 It was a system of hand printing

www.creativetouch.in
 The First Printed Books
3
Print in China
From 594 AD, books were printed by rubbing paper against the
woodblock

‘Accordion book’ was folded and stitched

China had a huge bureaucratic system and they used to recruit

through Civil Services Examination

Textbooks for this were required in vast numbers

17th century, reading became a leisure activity

By 19th century : Shanghai became the hub of the new print

www.creativetouch.in
culture
4

www.creativetouch.in
 Woodblock Printing Technology
5

www.creativetouch.in
 The First Printed Books
6

Print in Japan
Buddhist missionaries introduced hand printing in Japan (768-70)

Diamond Sutra : Oldest Japanese book printed in 868 AD

Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money

By 19th century Edo (Tokyo) : Illustrated collection of paintings

showing topic such as elegant urban culture
Libraries and bookstores were packed with hand printed material of
www.creativetouch.in
various type
7 Diamond Sutra

www.creativetouch.in
 Prints Comes to Europe Book written by
8
hand
• In 11th century Chinese paper reached Europe
• Paper made possible the production of manuscripts
When
Italy, 1295 Where?

• Marco Polo brought woodblock printing from China

• Still the books were printed by hand by skillful scribes

A parchment made from

Skilled hand
the skin of animals
writers
• Aristocrats prefer luxury handwritten on expensive ‘vellum’.
• As demand increase Scribes were appointed by book sellers
www.creativetouch.in
9

www.creativetouch.in
 Prints Comes to Europe
10

• Copying was an expensive, laborious and time consuming

• Manuscripts were fragile and awkward to handle

• So woodblock printing became famous within short time

• By early 15th century, woodblocks were widely used

• Growing demand books increased the need for quicker and

cheaper reproduction of texts.

www.creativetouch.in
 Gutenberg and the Printing Press
11

Gutenberg was the son of merchant and grew up on a large

agricultural estate

had seen wine and olive presses since childhood

Learnt the art of polishing stones and making lead moulds.

Drawing on this knowledge made a model of printing press

By 1448, perfected the system

www.creativetouch.in
12 Gutenberg Printing Press

www.creativetouch.in
13

www.creativetouch.in
 Gutenberg and the Printing Press
14

First book he printed was Bible, 180 copies printed in three year

Printing books resemble the written manuscripts in appearance

New style of printing boosted the publication from 20 million to

200 million (between mid 15th century to 16th century)

By 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe

www.creativetouch.in
15 The Print
Revolution &
its Impact

A New Reading Public

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

Print and Dissent

www.creativetouch.in
 A New Reading Public
16

New culture of reading developed due to reduction of the cost of

books

Now books flooded the market and could be reach wider section of
the society

But books could be read only by literate, and literacy rates were
very low

Due to that oral reading culture developed, they used to sit in

group and listened the contains of the books.
Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally
transmitted
www.creativetouch.in
 Religions Debates and the Fear of Print
17

Introduced a new world of debate and discussion

Although not everyone welcomed printed books

Many feared that print can make people rebellious and irreligious

In 1517, Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses and challenged

the church for open debate.

He criticised practices of Roman Catholic Church.

That ultimately lead to the beginning of Protestant Reformation.
Luther said,”Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest
one”.www.creativetouch.in
 Print and Dissent
18

Menocchio, a miller in Italy began to read books

Reinterpreted the message of Bible

This enraged the Roman Catholic Church

Was declared a heretic and was sent for inquisitions

Beliefs which do not follow the

www.creativetouch.in
A former Roman Catholic court for
teaching of the Church identifying and punishing heretics
19
Reading
Mania

The Reading
Mania
Print
Tremble,
Culture
therefore,
and the
tyrants of
French
the World
Revolution
www.creativetouch.in
20
Reading Mania

By the end of 18th century literacy rate were as high as 60-80%.

New forms of popular literature appeared like

Almanacs, ballads and folktales.

In England chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars

In France they were called Biliotheque Bleaue

Periodical press, Newspaper and Journals developed

Scientists like Newton began to publish their discoveries

www.creativetouch.in
21
Tremble, therefore,
tyrants of the world

Mercier : a novelist in 18th century France declared :

“The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and

public opinion is the force that will sweep depotism away.”

Mercier proclaimed : ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!

Tremble before the virtual writer!’

www.creativetouch.in
22
Print Culture and the
French Revolution
Many historians believed that print created the condition that
lead to French Revolution.

1. Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers and

spread modern ideas.

2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate

3. Printing mocked the royalty and criticised their morality

www.creativetouch.in
23 The
Nineteenth
Century

Children,
Further
Women and
innovation
Workers
www.creativetouch.in
24

Children Women Workers

www.creativetouch.in
25 Children, Women and Workers

Children
1. Primary education became compulsory
2. Children became important readers

3. Production of school text books

4. Children’s press in France 1857 and Grimm

brother in Germany

5. Compiled traditional Fairytales and Folktales.

www.creativetouch.in
26 Children, Women and Workers

Women
1. Women important readers and writers
2. Penny magazines : Teaching proper behaviours
and housekeeping

3. Women novelists – Jane Austen, Bronte

Sisters, George Eliot
4. These women had will, strength of personality,
determination and the power of think

www.creativetouch.in
27 Children, Women and Workers

Workers
1. Lending libraries for workers

2. Shorten working hours allowed workers to self –

express through writing

3. They also started writing political tracks and

autobiographies in large number.

www.creativetouch.in
28

www.creativetouch.in
 Further Innovation
29
➢ Mid 19th century, Richard M.Hoe of New York perfected
panel driven cylindrical press.

➢ Capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour.

➢ Late 19th century offset Press developed which could

print six-colours at a time.

Other development
➢ methods of feeding paper improved
➢ Quality of plates became better
➢ Automatic paper reels

www.creativetouch.in
 Further Innovation
30

www.creativetouch.in
 Further Innovation
31

➢ 19th century periodicals serialised novels.

➢ Cheap series called Shilling Series sold in England.

➢ During Great Depression, sale declined and cheap

paperback editions sold.

www.creativetouch.in
 Hoe’s one-cylinder printing press
32

www.creativetouch.in
 Quiz Time
33

Q. Who among the following

Q. Johann Gutenberg hailed
religious reformers wrote
from?
Ninty Five Theses?
(a) France
(a) Kitagawa Utamaro
(b) Germany
(b) Martin Luther
(c) England
(c) Louis-Sebastein Mercier
(d) China
(d) Erasmus

www.creativetouch.in
 Quiz Time
34

Q. Who among the following

Q. Johann Gutenberg hailed
religious reformers wrote
from?
Ninty Five Theses?
(a) France
(a) Kitagawa Utamaro
(b) Germany
(b) Martin Luther
(c) England
(c) Louis-Sebastein Mercier
(d) China
(d) Erasmus

www.creativetouch.in