ch1.printing.revolutions
DESCRIPTION
Revolutions in Communication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age, by Bill Kovarik, Bloomsbury, 2011. Author's slide shows for classroom use. See website www.revolutionsincommunication.comTRANSCRIPT
Brief lectures in
Media History
Chapter 1 The printing revolution
(3 of 15)
Before printing – Oral culture, Scriptoria
How fast printing spread What were the impacts
◦Printing & the Protestant Reformation ◦Printing & the scientific revolution ◦Printing & the idea of news ◦The Enlightenment ◦Printing & the political revolutions
This lecture is about …
Assignment 2: Printing revolution Individually, or
by groups, quickly read (scan) and write a short response note (3 to 5 ¶s ) describing one of the histories of printing available on:◦ Gutenberg.org (Public domain books)◦ Librivox.org (Public domain audio books)◦ Google books (set to Google eBooks on search
tools) List and details are on Revolutions in
Communication / Course / Ch1 Printing
Before printing: Oral Culture
Before printing: Oral culture People are “pre-wired” for
language and storytelling ◦But reading & writing are learned
Oral cultures = personal connection
Alex Haley’s Roots – ◦Ex. of working oral culture
Fireside chats – ◦Ex. Of radio as promoting oral
culture
Learning to write was the “tuition” for human education – Wilbur Schramm
6th millennium BCE, earliest known Neolithic writings.
Writing developed in a progression from picture – oriented (logographic) symbols to abstract phonetic images
Before printing: Writing
Romans discarded unwieldy scrolls in favor of the “codex,” or arrangement of pages in succession.
Before printing: The Roman Codex
Books were sacred (still are)
During the “dark ages” especially, books were considered the tiny flickering candle flame of civilization
Book of Kells, 800 ACE
Monasteries laboriously created works of art as acts of reverence
Illuminated manuscripts (not incunabula )
Scriptoria Monks who copied
Bibles & other books worked at the rate of about
1 – 3 pages per day, one book per year. By the early Renaissance, around 1300s – 1400s, monks
couldn’t keep up with demand Stationers companies began developing around universities to copy Greek & Roman works along with scripture
Timeline of printing 200 – paper, woodblock printing China 1040 – Ceramic moveable type China 1200s – Paper, idea of type to Europe 1400 – Europe woodcuts common1450 – Combination wood & metal type 1453 – Gutenberg moveable metal type 1500 – “Incunabula” period
◦8 million books Gutenberg + 50 1517 – Martin Luther / 95 Theses
Mainz, Germany, 1453 – Johannes Gutenberg (1395 – 1468)
1 billion books by 1800
Printing Revolution THE pivotal development in history,The turning point in the transition
between the Medieval and the Modern Printing comes from an build-up of
techniques, resources & demands ◦pressing (olives, grapes) ◦paper making (to replace animal hides) ◦woodcuts of religious images◦abundance of linen paper
Elizabeth Eisenstein (1923–present)
“Printing Press as an agent of social change” (1979)
Not well accepted at first; Media technology as a force was something new in history
Effects of printing were widespread dissemination of knowledge; standardization of language and knowledge; and better preservation of information;
Recovery of previous cultures (Greek, Roman) was the major first task of printing (consider McLuhan’s “tetrad”)
Printing was one of the major influences in the Protestant Reformation and the formation of the modern world
Francis Bacon Novum Organum (New Instrument,
published 1620):"Printing, gunpowder and the
compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.
Supporting the temple of memory
We transmit the facts to posterity
The arts, the sciences, history
We have immortality
Frontispiece
Pierre FournierManuel Typographique,
1737
Monk power One monk working for two years can copy one Bible of 1,260 pages.
One monk power = 2 pages / day
Three printers in Mainz, working for 64 days
printed 180 Bibles.
One Gutenberg = 600 Monks
Steam-powered press 40,000 pages / day.
(1814 London Times / John Walter Jr. )
One Walter = 33 Gutenbergs
Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, newspaper (1900 )
One million pages / day
One Pulitzer = 25 Walters
David Sarnoff, NBC Radio and TV broadcasting 50 – 100 million / day
One Sarnoff = 100 Pulitzers
Internet & web
World Wide Web 50 billion pages in 2012
1 Berners-Lee = 500 Sarnoffs
1 Berners-Lee = 25 billion monk-power
Printing impacts •Standardized Bibles • Critical reading
allowed challenge to church
•Standardized language • Helped form nation-
state
•Amplified new information and ideas • Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther become famous overnight
Protestant Reformation 20 – 30 million killed in religious
wars in the 1500s-1600s period. Germany lost 30 % of population England Counter-Reformation,
1553 Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”)
Calls for tolerance contribute to the spirit of the Enlightenment.
Printing and the Reformation
Printing amplified Martin Luther’s dissent in a way that had never happened before.
His 95 Theses, published in Germany in 1517, circulated across Europe in less than a month.
Crowds surged around the printing houses, grabbing pages still wet from the press.
Three Bishops of Oxford,1555
Executed as Queen Mary I attempts to return Britain to Catholic Church. This was also in retaliation for executions by her father, Protestant king Henry VIII
“… Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” (Bishop Hugh Latimer)
Protestant Reformation
Anabaptist Anne Hendicks is one of tens of thousands executed in Amsterdam 1570s
Reaction to religious warsReligious tolerance slowly emerges In France, Sebastian Casellio (1515-
1563) calls for freedom of conscience
In Britain, Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) succeeds “Bloody” Mary and stops persecution of Catholics. “There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith" she says. “All else is a dispute over trifles."
Impacts on science Printing spurred the exploration of physical and mental horizons
News of Columbus’ voyages spread rapidly with printing in the 1490s, making him one of the first international heroes
Astronomical observatory of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) included a printing shop to help spread new scientific knowledge – and prevent repression by the church
De re metallica
A 1556 book by Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)
Exploration of geology, mining and metallurgy, carefully illustrated.
Set a standard for scientific and technical books to come
First newspapers Handwritten by armies of scribes in
ancient China and Rome ◦Roman paper was called “Acta Diurna”
Newsletters common in Europe to promote commerce 1400s-1600s
First printed newspaper: 1605: Johann Carolus owned a book printing company in Strasbourg, France, grew tired of copying business newsletters by hand.
Press censorship by … Licensing of a printing company
itself; Prior restraint: pre-press
approval of each book or edition of a publication;
Taxation and stamps on regular publications; and
Prosecution for sedition against the government or libel of individuals.
English civil war John Milton (1608-
1674) ◦ The marketplace of
ideas“Who ever knew truth
put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"
Areopagetica 1644 -- reference to the Athenian marketplace
English Enlightenment John Locke (1632-1704) People and government
have a social contract Government existed to serve the
people, not the other way around;
People have natural rights to life, liberty and property.
Tolerance was vital
French Enlightenment Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) – May disagree with what you say but will die defending your right to say it.
Also: Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) - Spirit of the Laws / Separation of powers (Legislative, executive, judicial)
Trial of John Peter Zenger
New York printer uses truth as a defense in seditious libel trial, 1734
American Enlightenment Benjamin Franklin Printers believe that
"when men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Public. When Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
John Wilkes Editor of North Briton, Member of Parliament
Newspaper censored, Wilkes convicted of seditious libel 1764
Goes into four years of exile in France, returns to fight for Parliamentary privilege
Ben Franklin and other American revolutionaries saw this as a bad omen for their hope of freedom in America.
Yes, he was that ugly … and yet he was amazingly popular
The Fourth Estate A reference to the growing power of the
press Whig party leader Edmund Burke in a 1787
speech to Parliament. Burke said that there were three “estates”
(walks of life) represented in Parliament:◦ The nobility (House of Lords); ◦ The clergy (Church of England);◦ And the middle class (House of Commons).
“But in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate, more important by far than they all.”
Enlightenment spreads Sweden was among the first to
abolish censorship with a law guaranteeing freedom of the press in 1766.
Denmark and Norway followed with their own law on freedom of the press in 1770.
American Enlightenment Thomas Jefferson Millions of innocent men,
women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
American revolutionaries “These are the times that try men’s souls”— the words that turned the spark ofrebellion into a campaign forAmerican freedom emergedfrom the pen of Thomas Paine.
After independence, Painebecame involved in the French Revolution, then returned to the United States
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, 1776
French revolution sparked by journalist Camille Desmolins
Camille Desmoulins
On the storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
“I was carried upon a table rather than allowed to mount it. Hardly had I got up on my feet when I saw myself surrounded by an immense crowd. Here is my short speech, which I shall never forget:
‘Citizens! There is not a moment to lose. . . .This evening all the Swiss and German battalions will sally forth from the Champs de Mars to cut our throats. We have only one recourse—to rush to arms.’ I had tears in my eyes, and spoke with a feeling that I have never been able to recapture, no less describe.”
The French terror
Tens of thousands of aristocrats and innocents executed by guillotine in 1790s
Americans worry that their revolution could become bloody too
US passes Sedition Act 1798 Prohibited writing, printing, uttering "any false, scandalous and malicious
writing ... against the government of the United States, or president of the United States,
... to bring them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States."
A stiff fine and prison term of two years were the punishments. Overall, 25 people were arrested.
Reaction to Sedition Act ”A reign of witches" – Jefferson
"It suffices for a man to be a philosopher, and to believe that human affairs are susceptible of improvement, and to look forward, rather than backward to the Gothic ages, for perfection, to mark him as an anarchist, disorganizer, atheist, and enemy of the government."
Virginia and Kentucky assemblies pass Resolutions condemning Sedition Act
Doctrine of “nullification” and states rights
Partisan press US – Britain
William Cobbett was called “a kind offourth estate in the politics of the country.”
Published Porcupine’s Gazette in Philadelphia, 1790s and the Weekly Political Register in England 1800s
Crusaded against cruelty, poverty and corruption. In 1809 imprisoned two years for seditious libel. Fled back to US in 1817 but then returned in 1819 to continue crusading. Cobbett attacked the “smothering system” that led to the LudditeRiots and vowed to expose Britain’s “service and corrupt press” that had become an instrument in the “delusion, the debasement and theenslavement of a people.”
US partisan papers Bitter partisanship aligned with John
Adams’ Federalist party or Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic- Republican party
Depended on patronage and printing contracts for basic income
Business model would change with Penny Press revolution in 1830s
Not all newspapers were partisan. ◦Niles Weekly Register, published in Baltimore
1811 - 1848, forerunner of modern press, guided by principal of “magnanimous disputation”
Partisan press France In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power
Freedom of the press ended, and widespread system of censorship was putin place by 1808
Number of newspapers in Paris dwindled from hundreds to only 4 by 1811.Censorship was lifted following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, then imposed by French authorities, and occasionally lifted again in cycles over the next century.
What was it like to work in a printing chapel?
See the web site for the book Revolutions in Communication
Long hours, low pay, very strenuous, but also interesting, a place for literate people, the Creatures of Prometheus.
Life in a print shop Upper and lower case Mind “p”s and “q”s Composing “on the stick” By the same token Out of sorts Playing quadrats Getting a washing Spirit of the chapel
ReviewTerms: logographic, codex, scriptoria,
incunabula, printing chapel People: Gutenberg, Martin Luther, Three
Bishops of Oxford, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas Paine, John Wilkes, Camille Desmoulins, William Cobbett, Jefferson, Franklin, Napoleon,
Ideas: Partisan press, sedition act, religious tolerance, Fourth Estate
Major trends: Protestant reformation, Enlightenment, English Civil War, American & French revolutions