Gutenberg’s printing press
than one from religion. 9 In just three hundred years, the world of text had been lifted into the realm of social consciousness.
To conclude, Gutenberg’s printing press was a spark that set off a revolution of literature. For the next half millennium, the word evolved and was transformed: not only was writing universalized; the concept of the purpose of reading was reinvented. One’s critical deconstruction of archaic, medieval authority could now be the voice of many, aristocrat or commoner, trained through reading to question everything. Through print, scientists, philosophers, and activists could gain and spread ideas, be it through the advantageous new pamphlet, or a reinvention of the novel. The ways in which ideas were disseminated and communicated were profoundly affected, as text was universalized to encompass the common man’s repertoire, setting European society on the course towards the Europe we call today. The printed, secular, leaderless, questioning word was a force for modernity.
Bibliography
Anon (n.d.) Gutenberg and the Printing Revolution in Europe https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-3-b- gutenberg-and-the-printing-revolution-in-europe. Consulted: 30/7/21 Bäuml, F. (1980) ‘Varieties and consequences of medieval literacy and illiteracy’, Speculum , vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 237 – 265 Calder, N (2015) Literacy and Print in Early Modern Germany and England https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/medievalforum/2015/08/19/literacy-and-print-in-early-modern-germany-and- england/. Consulted: 30/7/21 Darnton, R. (2001) ‘History of reading’, in Burke, P. New Perspectives on Historical Writing . Polity Press. Del Carmen Tirado, P. (1995) ‘Parody, poverty and the ‘Lazarillo de Tormes,’’ Hispanófila no. 115, pp. 1 – 10 Dittmar, J. (2011) ‘Information technology and economic change: The impact of the printing press’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics , vol. 126, no. 3, pp. 1133 – 1172 Eisenstein, E. (1978) ‘In the wake of the printing press,’ The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress , vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 183 – 197 Farrell, T. (1978) ‘Developing literacy: Walter J. Ong and basic writing,’ Journal of Basic Writing , vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 30 – 51 Fullerton, R. (1977) ‘Creating a mass book market in Ge rmany. The story of the Colporteur novel, 1870- 1890’, Journal of Social History , vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 289 – 291 Ong, W. (1984) ‘Orality, literacy, and medieval textualization’, New Literary History , vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1 – 12. Pettegree, A, and Hall, M. (200 4) ‘The reformation and the book: A reconsideration’, The Historical Journal , vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 785 – 808 Roos, D. n.d. 7 Ways the Printing Press Changed the World . https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance . Consulted: 27/07/21
9 Darnton (2001), 162.
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