Printing press Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == 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.<ref>([[Elizabeth L. Eisenstein|Eisenstein (1980)]])</ref> Demand for bibles and other religious literature was one of the main drivers of the very rapid initial expansion of printing.<ref>[[Printing press#newgass1958|Newgass, 1958]], pp. 32–33</ref> Much later, printed literature played a major role in rallying support, and opposition, during the lead-up to the [[English Civil War]], and later still the [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution]]s through newspapers, pamphlets and bulletins.<ref>[[Printing press#bailyn1981|Bailyn, 1981]], pp. 1–3</ref> The advent of the printing press brought with it issues involving censorship and freedom of the press.<ref>[[Printing press#duniway1906|Duniway, 1906]], pp. 54–56</ref> === Mass production and spread of printed books === {{See also|Global spread of the printing press|List of early modern newspapers}} [[File:Printing towns incunabula.svg|thumb|left|Spread of printing in the 15th century from [[Mainz]], Germany]] [[File:European Output of Printed Books ca. 1450–1800.png|thumb|European book output rose from a few million to around one billion copies within a span of less than four centuries.<ref>{{harvnb|Buringh|van Zanden|2009|p=417, table 2}}</ref>]] 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.<ref name="ISTC">{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |title=Incunabula Short Title Catalogue |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=12 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312185857/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]].<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f."/> From that time on, it is assumed that "the printed book was in universal use in Europe".<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f."/> 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]].<ref>{{harvnb|Borsa|1976|p=314}}; {{harvnb|Borsa|1977|p=166−169}}</ref> By 1500, the printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million copies.<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f."/> In the following century, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f."/> European printing presses of around 1600 were capable of producing between 1,500<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pollak |first1=Michael|title=The performance of the wooden printing press|journal=The Library Quarterly|date=1972|volume=42|issue=2|pages=218–264|doi=10.1086/620028|jstor=4306163|s2cid=144726990}}</ref> and 3,600 impressions per workday.<ref name="Wolf 1974, 67f.">{{harvnb|Wolf|1974|pp=67f.}}: {{quote|From old price tables it can be deduced that the capacity of a printing press around 1600, assuming a fifteen-hour workday, was between 3.200 and 3.600 impressions per day.}}</ref> By comparison, [[Far Eastern]] printing, where the back of the paper was manually rubbed to the page,<ref>Needham 1965, p. 211: {{quote|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.}} {{harvnb|Widmann|1974|p=34, fn. 14}}: {{quote|In East Asia, both woodblock and movable type printing were manual reproduction techniques, that is hand printing.}} {{harvnb|Duchesne|2006|p=83}}; {{harvnb|Man|2002|pp=112–115}}: {{quote|Chinese paper was suitable only for calligraphy or block-printing; there were no screw-based presses in the east, because they were not wine-drinkers, didn't have olives, and used other means to dry their paper.}} Encyclopædia Britannica 2006: "Printing": {{quote|The second necessary element was the concept of the printing press itself, an idea that had never been conceived in the Far East.}}</ref> did not exceed an output of forty pages per day.<ref name="Ch'on Hye-bong 1993, 12">Ch'on Hye-bong 1993, p. 12: {{quote|This method almost doubled the printing speed and produced more than 40 copies a day. Printing technology reached its peak at this point.}}</ref> Of [[Erasmus]]'s work, at least 750,000 copies were sold during his lifetime alone (1469–1536).<ref>{{harvnb|Issawi|1980|pp=492}}</ref> 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 alone skyrocketed sevenfold; between 1518 and 1520, [[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s tracts were distributed in 300,000 printed copies.<ref>{{harvnb|Duchesne|2006|p=83}}</ref> The rapidity of typographical text production, as well as the sharp fall in unit costs, led to the issuing of the first [[newspaper]]s (see ''[[Relation (journal)|Relation]]'') which opened up an entirely new field for conveying up-to-date information to the public.<ref>{{harvnb|Weber|2006|pp=387f.}}</ref> [[Incunable]] are surviving pre-16th century print works which are collected by many of the libraries in Europe and [[North America]].<ref>The British Library [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html Incunabula Short Title Catalogue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312185857/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html|date=12 March 2011}} gives 29,777 separate ''editions'' (not copies) as of 8 January 2008, which however includes some print items from the 16th century (retrieved 11 March 2010). According to Bettina Wagner: "Das Second-Life der Wiegendrucke. Die Inkunabelsammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek", in: Griebel, Rolf; Ceynowa, Klaus (eds.): "Information, Innovation, Inspiration. 450 Jahre Bayerische Staatsbibliothek", K G Saur, München 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-598-11772-5}}, pp. 207–224 (207f.), the [[Incunabula Short Title Catalogue]] lists 28,107 editions published before 1501.</ref> === Circulation of information and ideas === {{See also|The Gutenberg Galaxy}} [[File:Printing3 Walk of Ideas Berlin.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Walk of Ideas|"Modern Book Printing" sculpture]], commemorating Gutenberg's invention on the occasion of the [[2006 World Cup]] in Germany]] 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]].{{sfn|Eisenstein|1980}}{{pn|date=August 2023}} Because of the printing press, [[author]]ship 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} Because the printing process ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page numbering, [[Table of contents|tables of contents]], and [[Index (publishing)|indices]] became common, though they previously had not been unknown.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} The process of reading also changed, gradually moving over several centuries from oral readings to silent, private reading.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} Over the next 200 years, the wider availability of printed materials led to a dramatic rise in the adult literacy rate throughout Europe.<ref>Peck, Josh. "The State of Publishing: Literacy Rates." ''McSweeney's Internet Tendency''. McSweeney, 5 July 2011. Web. 28 August 2014.</ref> The printing press was an important step towards the [[democratization of knowledge]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/google-s-total-library-putting-the-world-s-books-on-the-web-a-473529.html|title=Google's Total Library: Putting The World's Books On The Web|first=Malte Herwig, DER|last=SPIEGEL|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=28 March 2007|access-date=11 February 2021|archive-date=28 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128001828/http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,473529-2,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1057780670.php|title=Howard Rheingold, "Moblogs Seen as a Crystal Ball for a New Era in Online Journalism", ''Online Journalism Review''|date=9 August 2003<!--manual addition from archive-url -- orig-date-given=July 9, 2009-->|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014065536/http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1057780670.php|archive-date=14 October 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Within 50 or 60 years of the invention of the printing press, the entire [[Classics|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 more commercialised, and the first [[copyright]] laws were passed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/copyright-ip/2486-copyright-timeline#.Wl1E7ainHIU|title=Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the United States {{!}} Association of Research Libraries® {{!}} ARL®|last=Eshgh|first=Amy|website=www.arl.org|language=en-gb|access-date=2018-01-16}}</ref> On the other hand, the printing press was criticized for allowing the dissemination of information that may have been incorrect.<ref name="CrickWalsham2004">{{cite book|author1=Julia C. Crick|author2=Alexandra Walsham|title=The uses of script and print, 1300–1700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8005wHw-KsC|access-date=25 March 2011|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81063-0|page=20}}</ref><ref name="Bilton2010">{{cite book|author=Nick Bilton|title=I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VXRLlTDNrUC&pg=PA53|access-date=25 March 2011|date=14 September 2010|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-307-59111-1|page=53}}</ref> 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{{Who|date=March 2015}} 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.<ref name="Dittmar2011">{{cite news|author1=Jeremiah Dittmar|title=Information technology and economic change: The impact of the printing press|url=http://voxeu.org/article/information-technology-and-economic-change-impact-printing-press|access-date=3 August 2017|publisher=VoxEU}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Raj2017">{{cite news|author1=Prateek Raj|title=How the Postal System and the Printing Press Transformed European Markets|url=http://evonomics.com/europe-markets-guilds-merchants-declined/|access-date=3 August 2017|publisher=Evonomics}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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