The Printing Revolution in Early Modern EuropeAlthough the importance of the advent of printing for the Western world has long been recognized, it was Elizabeth Eisenstein, in her monumental, two-volume work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, who provided the first full-scale treatment of the subject. This edition gives a stimulating survey of the communications revolution of the fifteenth century. After summarizing the initial changes introduce by the establishment of printing shops, it goes on to discuss how printing effected three major cultural movements: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science. Specific examples show how the use of the new presses enabled churchmen, scholars, and craftsmen to move beyond the limits handcopying had imposed and thus to pose new challenges to traditional institutions. |
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advent of printing age of scribes Aldus Manutius Almagest ancient astronomers authors became Bible Cambridge Catholic century Christopher Plantin church cited classical Commonwealth of Learning Copernican Copernicus copies Deus developments diverse duplicated early modern early printed editions effects elites encouraged English engraving eſt Europe fifteenth Folger Shakespeare Library Frances Yates Galileo given Greek Gutenberg hand-copied historians humanists Ibid images Index intellectual issued Italian Italy Kepler kind permission Latin learned less letters literary London Luther manuscript maps master printers medieval modern science nature observations output Peter Schoeffer polyglot print culture printed books produced Protestant published quattrocento readers reading Reformation religious Renaissance Reproduced by kind revival revolution Robert Estienne scholars scientific scribal culture script to print Scripture seems shift from script significant sixteenth sixteenth-century spread of printing suggest texts tion translation treatises Tycho Tycho Brahe vernacular Western word writing York אֱלֹהִים