The Printing Revolution in

Early Modern Europe

by
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

As presented to HU 520: The Rhetorics of a Print/Digital Culture

by Diane Keranen, dkeranen@mtu.edu
 Preface
Eisenstein first began to be
concerned about the topic of
this book in the early 1960s
after reading Carl
Bridenbaugh’s presidential
address to the American
Historical Association. The
“What were some of the address, entitled “The Great
Mutation,” raised alarms about
most important the extent to which a “run-
away technology” was severing
consequences of the shift all bonds with the past and
portrayed contemporary
from script to print?” scholars as victims of a kind of
collective amnesia (page ix).
Eisenstein felt this “lament
over ‘the loss of mankind’s
memory’” was merely
symptomatic and thought
Part I: The Emergence of Bridenbaugh’s view lacked the
ability to present the alarms of
Print Culture in the West the current cultural crisis into
the proper perspective which
focuses on the shift from historians ought to do.
Eisentstein’s experience, and
script to print in Western that of her collegues, lead her
to consider that recall rather
Europe as she tries to than oblivion was more
accurately the threat and that
block out the main the speed with which data was
features of the becoming available was much
faster than we can make order
communications of and comprehend it.
“If there was a ‘run-away’
revolution; technology which was leading
to a sense of cultural crisis
among historians, perhaps it
has more to do with an
increased rate of publication
than with new audiovisual
Part II: Interaction with media?” (page x)
Other Developments
deals with the
relationship between the
communications shift
and other developments
conventionally
associated with the
transition from medieval
to early modern times,
concentrating on cultural
and intellectual
movements.
She found support for this
view from Marshal McLuhan’s
The Gutenberg Galaxy, where he
provided additional evidence
of how overload could lead to
incoherence. He pronounced
historical modes of inquiry to
be obsolete and the age of
Gutenberg at an end. (page x)
One question Eisenstein
explores is “What were some
of the most important
consequences of the shift from
script to print?” (page x).
This study undertaken to
survey the consequences of the
fifteenth-century
communications shift was
published as The Printing Press
as an Agent of Change in 1979 in
two-volumes. It has since been
abridged (lacking the
footnotes, citations and
references, and addition of
illustrations) as The Printing
Revolution in Early Modern
Europe, first published in 1983
and reprinted 11 times since.
Her study is presented in
two parts; Part I: The Emergence
of Print Culture in the West
focuses on the shift from script
to print in Western Europe as
she tries to block out the main
features of the
communications revolution;
Part II: Interaction with Other
Developments deals with the
relationship between the
communications shift and
other developments
conventionally associated with
the transition from medieval to
early modern times,
concentrating on cultural and
intellectual movements.
She expresses the concern
that it may not be wise to
present views that are still in
flux in a medium as fixed as
print (the preservation powers
of print are an important
element according to EE, page
xi) and she asks the reader to
keep in mind the tentative,
provisional character of her
study, and not to interpret it as
a definitive text but as an
extended essay. (page xii)
“Print culture” for the
purpose of her study refers to
post-Gutenberg developments
in the West. She makes a point
of clarifying that cultural
change in Western Europe is in
no way due completely to the
changes in print and presents
the study of print as one of the
many agents of change in the
communications network used
by learned communities
throughout Europe that had
special effects. It is these effects
of printing on the written and
on the views of already literate
elites and how they may be
related to other concurrent
developments that she is
attempting to describe here.
1
 Part I
“…although the broader The Emergence of Print Culture in the West
historical implications of An Unacknowledged
these data are Revolution
occasionally hinted at, Reproduction of written
materials began to move from
they are never really the copyist’s desk to the
printer’s workshop and
spelled out” although the shift from script
to print has had a drastic effect
on our culture, Eisenstein
found that there has been very
little published study actually
applied to understanding these
“early print culture is effects. “Insofar as flesh-and-
blood historians who turn out
sufficiently uniform to articles and books actually bear
witness to what happened in
permit us to measure its the past, the effect on society
of the development of
diversity.” printing, far from appearing
cataclysmic, is remarkably
inconspicuous.” (3) Printed
studies of the broader
implications of effect of
printing on “the evolution of
Late manuscripts and humanity” do exist, and she
cites Rudolf Hirsch (3), Febvre
early printed books were and Martin, and Steinberg (pg
very similar in 4) and states “…although the
broader historical implications
appearance…blurring the of these data are occasionally
hinted at, they are never really
distinction of the shift spelled out” (4).
There is much written about
from script to print how methods of book
production itself changed after
making it appear the mid-fifteenth century but
little that investigates how
gradual, although the access to a greater abundance
and variety of written records
shift was rapid in the affected ways of learning,
thinking, and perceiving
method of reproduction. among the literate elites. (5)
She reasons that the
difficulty of clearly defining
these effects is due in part to
the near impossibility of
understanding pre-printing
New features available to
culture. Because we learn and
try to understand the script
printers…pushed culture through printed
historical records, our
publication “in a new understanding is undoubtedly
direction—away from skewed. The varied manner in
which script reproductions
fidelity to scribal occurred also makes
generalizations of the culture
conventions and toward ineffective, however, “a major
difference between the last
serving the convenience century of scribal culture and
the first century after
of the reader.” Gutenberg” Eisenstein points
out, is that “early print culture
is sufficiently uniform to
permit us to measure its
diversity.” (8-9)
The “unacknowledged
revolution” then, is the
revolution or perhaps the
evolution of a culture. A
culture that no longer relied
on the scribe and the scribal
technology of reproducing
manuscripts, a technology that
often resulted in (and perhaps
encouraged) corrupted
reproductions. It is the
revolution of a culture that
produced printed texts and
who was also influenced by its
own invention, the printing
press, in ways that have only
been hinted at although
recognized as an integral part
of the history of our
civilization. “The effects
produced by printing have
aroused little controversy, not
because views on the topic
coincide, but because none has
been set forth in an explicit
and systematic form” (4).
Defining the
Initial Shift
She begins her study where
many studies end: after the
first dated printed products
had been issued and the
inventor’s immediate
successors had set to work
(13). The advent of printing,
as Eisenstein defines it “is
taken to mean the
establishment of presses in
urban centers beyond the
Rhineland during an interval
that begins in the 1460s and
coincides, very roughly, with
the era of incunabula. (13).
Late manuscripts and early
printed books were very
similar in appearance.
Florentine bibliophiles were
sending to Rome for printed
books as early as 1470 and
some printed editions were
actually bound with the same
magnificent covers as
manuscripts (19).
Vespasiano da Bisticci, the
most celebrated Florentine
manuscript book merchant who
spurned the sale of printed
books, in his Lives of Illustrious
Men contains a reference to the
beautifully bound manuscript
books in the Duke of Urbino’s
library and snobbishly implies
that a printed book would have
been “ashamed” in such
elegant company” (18-19). He
was forced out of business in
1478, while his chief rival, who
sold printed books, stayed in
business until his death in 1495.
Eisenstein uses Vespasiano’s
closing up shop as the point
when a genuine wholesale
book trade was launched.
Early printers tried to copy
manuscripts as faithfully as
possible and fifteenth-century
scribes copying from early
printed books also stayed true
to the printed form. “Thus
handwork and presswork
continued to appear almost
indistinguishable.” (21) These
attempts at copying each other
and producing products that
were nearly identical blurs the
distinction of the shift from
script to print making it appear
gradual, although the shift was
rapid in the method of
reproduction.
New features available to
printers (graduated types,
running heads, footnotes, tables
of contents, superior figures,
cross references, and others)
soon began to be exploited
and within a generation the
commercial aspects of the
booksellers trade pushed
publication “in a new direction
—away from fidelity to scribal
conventions and toward
serving the convenience of the
reader.” (pg 22)
2
“Title pages became increas-
ingly common, facilitating the
production of book lists and
catalogues...hand drawn
illustrations were replaced by
easily duplicated woodcuts and
engravings—an innovation
which eventually helped to
revolutionize technological
literature by introducing
‘exactly repeatable pictorial
statements’ into all kinds of
reference works.” (22) By
employing various devices such

A closer contacts among
B line up learned assistants. He
A. Script from a hand-copied Bible
B. Early printed piece
The advent of printing
led to the creation of a
new kind of shop
structure; to a regrouping
which entailed closer
contacts among diversely
skilled workers and
encouraged new forms of
cross-cultural interchange.
…the transmission of
written information
became much more
efficient
as banderoles (small inscrip-
tion), letter-number keys and
indication lines “was important
for technical literature because
they expressed the relationship
between words and things.” (24)
The usage of woodcuts
rather than hand drawn
illuminations sealed the fate of
the illuminator in the same
way that printing sealed the
fate of the scribe. (24)
The advent of printing led
to the creation of a new kind
of shop structure; to a
regrouping which entailed
diversely skilled workers and
encouraged new forms of
cross-cultural interchange. (24)
Financing large publications
brought together rich
merchants and local scholars.
Previously divided cultural
segments began to have
regular direct contact. The
printer bridged many worlds,
he needed to obtain money,
supplies and labor, develop
complex production
schedules, cope with strikes,
estimate book markets, and
also needed to be on good
terms with officials while
cultivating talented authors
and artists who might bring his
firm profits or prestige. (25)
In places where the printers
enterprise prospered his work-
shop became a veritable cultural
center that attracted local literati
and celebrated foreigners, was
both a meeting place and a
message center for an expand-
ing cosmopolitan Common-
wealth of Learning. (25)
The shift from scribe to
printer represented a genuine
occupational mutation. (29)
For a while the trade in
printed books flowed within
the narrow channels of the
manuscript book market. But
soon the stream could no
longer be contained. (29)
The drive to tap markets
went together with efforts to
hold competitors at bay by
offering better products or, at
least, by printing a prospectus
advertising the firm’s “more
readable” texts, “more
complete and better arranged”
indexes, “more careful proof-
reading” and editing. (29)
Promotional and advertising
techniques contributed to new
forms of personal celebrity.
Reckon masters and
instrument makers along with
professors and preachers
profited when their fame
spread beyond shops and
lecture halls.
Due to the fragmentary
evidence Eisenstein sees it as
prudent to bypass the
problems associated with the
spread of literacy until other
issues have been explored with
more care. She writes, “When
considering the initial
transformations wrought by
print, at all events, changes
undergone by groups who were
already literate ought to
receive priority over the
undeniable fascinating
problem of how rapidly such
groups were enlarged.” (31)
“It is probable that only a
very small portion of the entire
population was affected by the
initial shift… nevertheless…a
fairly wide social spectrum may
have been involved. (32) To
describe the early reading
public is difficult. Simply
matching genres of books with
groups of readers can not be
taken for granted, “popular”
works were those that appealed
to diverse groups. Latin and
vernacular-reading publics,
pages and apprentices, landed
gentry, courtiers, shopkeepers,
clerks and plebes alike were all
targets of the bookseller, as
well as tutors of the princes,
church school instructors, and
chaplains. Translations of Latin
biblical readings for the “poor
preachers” not schooled in
Latin found the picture bibles
to be good guides. Also, book
ownership did not relate
directly to actual readership
but for display, or read not by
the target audience but by
other publishers and authors
who were wide-ranging
readers.
After the advent of
printing…the transmission of
written information became
much more efficient. Gifted
students could acquire the
same knowledge that was once
learned after many years at the
foot of a master. The Gothic
cathedral, the “encyclopedia in
stone”, was threatened by the
printed book which would
make such “things”, crowded
with memories, unnecessary.
[The printed book] will do
away with habits of
immemorial antiquity whereby
a “thing” is immediately
invested with an image and
stored in the places of
memory. (35) As learning by
reading books took on new
importance, the role played by
mnemonic aids was dimin-
ished. The nature of the
collective memory was
transformed. (35) Defenders
of the image note Gregory the
Great’s dictum that statues
served as “books of the
illiterate.” (36)
“…it may seem plausible to
suggest that printing fostered a
movement “from image
culture to word culture”. (36)
The cultural metamorphosis
produced by printing was really
much more complicated than
any single formula can possibly
express. (36) For instance,
engraved images became even
more abundant after the
establishment of print shops
throughout Western Europe.
Many fundamental texts that
lost their illustrations in the
course of being copied for
centuries by scribes only
regained them after script was
replaced by print. The printed
image was the savior of
Western science. Images were
indispensible and “more
valuable than many printed
words” according to a Chinese
maxim. We need to think
beyond the simple formula
“image to word.”
The purpose of this
preliminary discussion has
been simply to demonstrate
that the shift from script to
print entailed a large ensemble
of changes. (41) Much had
changed!
Some Features of
Print Culture
During the first centuries of
3
print, old texts were duplicated
more rapidly that new ones,
and authorities conclude that
“printing did not speed up the
adoption of new theories.” E.E.
suggests that maybe other
features, such as the increased
output and dissemination of
old texts and also that which
distinguished the new mode of
book production from the old
one contributed to [new]
theories. (42)
 A closer look at wide
dissemination: increased output
and altered intake
More available books at Although the printer dupli-
cated a seemingly antiquated
a lower cost provided the backlist, more available books
at a lower cost provided the
purchaser a more varied purchaser a more varied
literary diet than had been
literary diet than had provided by the scribe. (43)
It was no longer essential to
been provided by the be a wandering scholar to
consult different books, the era
scribe. Merely by making of intense cross referencing
between one book and
more scrambled data another began. (43) More
abundantly stocked
available…printers bookshelves obviously
increased opportunities to
encouraged efforts to consult and compare different
texts. Merely by making more
unscramble these data scrambled data available…
printers encouraged efforts to
which resulted in new unscramble these data.
Increased output also
combinations of old ideas created conditions that favored
new combinations of old ideas
at first and then, later on, the
individual access to creation of entirely new
systems of thought (44)
diverse texts is a Printing encouraged forms
of combinatory activity such as
different matter from interchanges between artists
and scholars or practitioners
bringing many minds to and theorists in early modern
science, which were social as
bear on a single well as intellectual exchanges,
changing relationships
“standardized” text. between men of learning as
well as between systems of
ideas. (45)
Cross-cultural interchange
stimulated mental activities in
the more standardization, contradictory ways: magical
arts were closely associated
the more compelling is with mechanical crafts and
the sense of individual mathematical wizardry;
“technology” went to press, but
self, resulting in a so did a backlog of mystery
lore; few readers could
polarization that also discriminate between the two.
A new form of enlightenment
affected other aspects of as well as a new mystification
accompanied the advent of
culture and produced a
printing. (45)
Duplication of primers, ABC
heightened awareness of books, catechisms, calendars,
and devotional literature (a
boundaries both in place new wide-angled, unfocused
scholarship together with a
and customs, a general new single-minded piety). At
the same time practical
recognition of diversity… guidebooks and manuals
became more abundant
concepts of uniformity making it easier to plan getting
ahead in this world. (48)
and diversity are All of these features
changed patterns of cultural
interdependent
diffusion, E.E. stresses that,
moreover, individual access to
diverse texts is a different
matter from bringing many
minds to bear on a single
“standardized” text. (51)
Considering some effects
produced by standardization
Early printing was not as
standard as today’s printing,
countless errata (corrections)
had to be issued, which, in
itself, demonstrated the ability
to locate textual errors with
precision. (51)
Early printed copies were
sufficiently uniform for
scholars in different regions to
correspond with each other
about the same citation and
for the same emendations and
errors to be spotted by many
eyes. (52)
One subliminal
impact…style books, which
stripped scribal “hands” of
personal identity, the very
concept of a “style” underwent
transformation with the
standardized impressions made
by pieces of type, idiosyncrasies
of the individual had of the
scribe were clear, as were the
contrasts between the woodcut
and original re-drawings (53)
The process of
standardization also brought
out more clearly all deviations
from classical canons reflected
in diverse buildings, statues,
paintings, and objects d’art ,
creating two categories of
history, the classical and the
nonclassical.(53)
Disappearance of variations
in bookhands brought about a
polarization of two distinct
type fonts “gothic” and
“roman”, a polarization that
also affected other aspects of
culture. A heightened
consciousness of the three
orders in architectural prints,
new treatises and old texts,
uniform maps and a
heightened awareness of
boundaries both in place and
customs, a general recognition
of diversity, concepts of
uniformity and diversity are
interdependent—two sides of
the same coin—the more
standardization, the more
compelling is the sense of
individual self. (56)
(Increasingly precise and
detailed recording of
observations in visible form
brought the more standardized
image, which in turn led to
recognition of the apparent
diversity of individuals. 60)
Circulation of royal portraits
and engravings of royal entries
made it possible for a reigning
dynasty to impress a personal
presence in a new way upon the
consciousness of all subjects in
an “exactly repeatable” and
recognizable “image”
Standardization and the
routines of the printer of
efficient planning, methodical
attention to detail, and
rational calculation in the
production process(and the
many how-to manuals
produced at the time) was
conducive to a “spirit of the
system,” It’s much easier to
find things when they are each
disposed in place and not
scattered haphazardly.” (64)
Some effects produced by
reorganizing texts and reference
guides: rationalizing, codifying,
and cataloguing data
Basic changes in book
format might well lead to
changes in thought patterns,
for example, the order of
alphabetization did not exist
before printing. (64)
The competitive commercial
character of the printed book
trade when, to attract
purchasers while keeping
competitors at bay, coupled
with typographic
standardization made more
systematic cataloguing and
indexing highly desirable. (66)
These utilities of
cataloguing, cross-referencing,
and indexing reflected new
opportunities among
clergymen and clerks to realize
old scholarly goals. (68)
The desire to have
“everything in its right place”
(68) a dis-order previously
concealed by oral presentation
4
and piecemeal copying became
more visible to copy editors
and idexers and more
offensive to publishers who
valued systematic routines.
(70)The Ramist doctrine,
treating everything topically,
owed its popularity to the fact
that printing made of textbooks
a profitable genre. (71)
Increasing familiarity with
regularly numbered pages,
punctuation marks, section
breaks, running head, indexes,
 and so forth helped to reorder
the thought of all readers,
whatever their profession or
craft .(73)
[Alphabetization] was so The new process of data
little the case before collection: from corrupted copy to
the improved edition
printing that a Genoese The succession of Latin
Bibles turned out by Robert
compiler of thirteenth- Estienne and atlases turned
out by Ortelius “suggest how
century encyclopedia the immemorial drift of scribal
culture had been not merely
could write that “ ‘amo’ arrested but actually reversed.”
(73). In the hands of ignorant
comes befor ‘bibo’ printers driving to make quick
profits, data tended to get
because ‘a’ is the first garbled at an ever more rapid
pace, but under the guidance
letter of the former and of technically proficient masters,
‘b’ is the first letter of the new technology also
provided a way of transcending
the latter and ‘a’ comes the limits which scribal
procedures had imposed upon
before ‘b’ …by the technically proficient masters in
the past, under proper super-
grace of God working in vision, fresh observations
could at long last be duplicated
me, I have devised this without being blurred or
blotted over the course of
order.” time. (74) Thus a knowledge
explosion was set off. (75)
Some sixteenth-century editors
and publishers…created vast
networks of correspondents
and solicited criticism of each
edition, sometimes publicly
promising to mention the
Fresh observations could names of readers who sent in
new information or who
at long last be duplicated spotted errors which would be
weeded out. (74) Within three
without being blurred or years Ortelius acquired so
many new maps that he issued
blotted over the course a supplement of 17 maps
of time. Thus a which were later incorporated
in to his Theatrum. In his
knowledge explosion was lifetime he published 28
editions of the atlas. (75)
set off. The ability to gain this kind
of feedback helps define the
difference between data
collection before and after the
communications shift. (76)
The ability to continually
The ability to continually improve successive editions
made the future seem to hold
improve successive more promise of enlighten-
ment than the past (78)
editions made the future Typographical fixity is a
basic prerequisite for the rapid
seem to hold more advancement of learning. (78)
promise of Considering the preservative
powers of print: fixity and
enlightenment than the cumulative change
Of all the new features
past. introduced by the duplicative
powers of print, preservation is
possible the most important,
no manuscript could be
preserved for long without
undergoing corruption by
copyists, (to be transmitted
from one generation to the
next information had to be
conveyed by drifting texts and
vanishing manuscripts) (79),
preservation could be achieved
by using abundant supplies of
paper, quantity counted for
more than quality. (See
Jefferson’s letter to Feorge Wythe,
page 80) “the lost cannot be
recovered; but let us save what
remains; not by vaults and
locks which fence them from
the public eye and use, in
consigning them to the waste
of time but by such a
multiplication of copies, as
shall place them beyond the
reach of accident.” (81)
The notion that valuable
data could be preserved best
by being made public, rather
than by being kept secret, ran
counter to tradition, led to
clashes with new censors, and
was central both to early modern
science and to Enlightenment
thought. (pg 81)
Once Greek type fonts had
been cut, neither the disruption
of civil order in Italy, the
conquest of Greek lands by
Islam, nor even the translation
into Latin of all major Greek
texts saw knowledge of Greek
wither again in the West. This
fixity involves the whole
modern “knowledge industry”
itself. (81)
Typography arrested
linguistic drift, enriched as well
as standardized vernaculars, and
paved the way for the more
deliberate purification and codi-
fication of all major European
languages, duplication of
vernacular primers and
translations contributed in
other ways to nationalism.
linguistic “roots” and
rootedness in one’s homeland
would be entangled. (82)
Printing contributed to
permanent fragmentation of
Latin Christendon by the
duplication of documents
pertaining to ritual, liturgy, or
canon law, local printing firms
were not under the pope’s
control but served national
clergies, an Antwerp printer
joined forces with a king of
Spain to supply all Spanish
priests with a sixteenth-century
breviary—its text having been
slightly altered from the
version authorized by post-
Tridentine Rome (83)
Fixity also made possible
more explicit recognition of
individual innovation and
encouraged the staking of
claims to inventions,
discoveries, and creations (84)
Printing forced legal
definition of what belonged in
the public domain (84), only
after printing did plagerism
and copyright begin to hold
significance for the author.
A thirteenth-century
Franciscan, Saint Bonaventura,
said that there were four ways
of “making books,”(85)
(curiously absent is original
composition):
1. scriptor, writing the work of
others, adding and changing
nothing
2. compiler, writes the work of
others with additions which
are not his own
3. commentator, writes others
work as principle, adds own
for explanation
4. author, self as principle
work, with others for
confirmation
Veneration for the wisdom
of the ages retrospectively cast
ancient sages as individual
authors. Early printers were
primarily responsible for
forcing definition of literary
property rights, for shaping
new concepts of authorship,
for exploiting bestsellers and
trying to tap new markets. (86)
There was no was of
recognizing unprecedented
innovations before the advent
of print. Steady advance
implies exact determination of
every previous step...printing
made this determination
“incomparably easier.”
Progressive refinement was
made possible. (87)
5
New, improved editions of
ancient texts also began to
accumulate, uncovering more
schools of ancient philosophy
than had been dreamed of
before, scattered attacks on one
authority...provided ammu-
nition for a wholesale assault
on all received opinion. (87)
Claims of having inherited
their magic mantel were put
forth by new romanticists
trying to resurrect scribal arts
in the age of print. Even the
 “decay-of-nature” theme, once
intimately associated with the
erosion and corruption of
scribal writing, would be
reworked and reoriented by
gloomy modern prophets who
envisaged a “run-away
technology” and felt regress,
not progress, characterized
their age. (89)
Amplification and reinforcement:
The more reading, the the persistence of stereotypes and
of sociolinguistic divisions
more likely one is to With ever more frequent
repetition of identical
encounter familiar messages, one passing
reference could lead to a
quotations, describing hundred-fold encounter for
the well-read individual,
familiar episodes, therefore having an impression
originating symbols or on the mind of the reader. The
more reading, the more likely
stereotypes. one is to encounter familiar
quotations, describing familiar
episodes, originating symbols
or stereotypes. (89)
The frequency with which all
messages were transmitted was
Silent reading and “silent primarily channeled by the
fixing of literary linguistic
instruction” has become frontiers. A reinforcement was
involved in relearning mother
increasingly more tongues when learning to read,
which went together with the
pervasive and ever more progressive amplification of
diversely oriented national
elaborately “memories.” (90)
Even more than the learned
institutionalized after Latin journals that were read
by a limited segment of the
the shift from script to population, the fixing of
religious frontiers that cut
print. across linguistic ones in the
sixteenth century had a
powerful effect on the
frequency with which certain
messages were transmitted.
Print houses provided (Catholic church Latin vs
vernacular biblical translations
wandering scholars with of Protestant regions area a
good example of diverse
a meeting place, messages within linguistic
groups.) (90)
message center,
The Expanding
sanctuary, and cultural Republic of Letters
center all in one, The rise of the reading public
encouraging a formation The replacement of
discourse by silent scanning, of
of an ethos which was face-to-face contacts by more
impersonal interactions,
specifically associated probably did have important
consequences, it follows that
with the Commonwealth we need to think less
metaphorically and abstractly
of Learning. (than McLuhan’s
“typographical man”), more
historically and concretely,
about the sorts of social and
psychological effects that were
entailed and how different
groups were affected. (92)
Although concern about
how silent reading and “silent
instructors” “carry farther than
do public lectures” was
apparent to a sixteenth-century
professor of medicine, (92)
silent reading and “silent
instruction” has become
increasingly more pervasive
and ever more elaborately
institutionalized after the shift
from script to print. (93), the
recourse to the spoken word
cannot be assumed to have
diminished. To the contrary,
priests and orators both
benefited from the way their
personal charisma could be
augmented and amplified by
the printed word.
Recourse to silent
publication undoubtedly
altered the character of some
spoken words, affected
exchange between members of
parliament due to their
printed debates, altered the
way poetry and song were
recited: this literary culture
created by typography was
conveyed to the ear. Most rural
villagers were exclusively a
hearing public up until the
nineteenth century, even
though what they heard had
been transformed by printing
two centuries earlier. (93)
Sermons had at one time
been coupled with news about
local and foreign affairs, real
estate transactions and other
mundane matters. (94) The
printing of newspapers offered
and alternative news source,
this decentralization from the
pulpit has a significant
connection with the weakening
of local community ties, it was
no longer necessary to come
together get the news. A
people assembled (oral
tradition) vs a people
dispersed (men of letters,)
changed what it mean to
participate in public affairs,
(95) links to larger collective
units were being forged (96),
new forms of group identity,
vicarious participation and a
mass consciousness.(97)
The power of officials and
bureaucrates were extended
once government regulations
became subject of the
duplicative powers of print.
Fear of expanded states
provoked countermeasures
from parliaments and
assemblies. Propaganda wars
exacerbated the traditional
tensions between court and
country, crown and estates.
The rise of a new class of
“men of letters”
Were the new groups who
engaged in the production
and distribution of printed
materials part of a new social
class of intellectuals? (98)
From the “low-life of
literature” of eighteenth-
century France’s frustrated
literary careerist in translating
Enlightenment doctrines into
radical political action to the
profitable clandestine book
trade and black market books,
smuggling of vernacular Bibles
and Galileo’s evasion of the
officials who placed him under
house arrest, the story of the
“fourth estate” remains to be
told. (99)
Paradoxically enough, the
same presses which fanned the
flames of religious controversy
also created a new vested
interest in ecumenical concord
and toleration (100); during
the sixteenth century, such
printing shops represented
miniature “international
houses,” they provided
wandering scholars with a
meeting place, message center,
sanctuary, and cultural center
all in one, encouraging a
formation of an ethos which
was specifically associated with
the Commonwealth of
Learning. (101)
This was the era when men
of letters and learning were
likely to be familiar with print
technology and commercial
trade routes and the simplicity
6
of the early press made it
possible for American men of
letters to act as their own
printers. (Mark Twain and
Benjamin Franklin). (102)
The historical and social
consciousness of men of letters
in early modern Europe was
well in advance of that of other
groups. (103)
It should also be noted Part II
that the full flowering Interaction With Other Developments
of high Renaissance Eisenstein provides, in Part
culture, where the first II, a basis for some tentative
conclusions concerning the
Grub Street subculture effects of the communications
shift upon three movements
thrived, owed much to which seem strategic in the
shaping of the modern mind.
early printers. The new The specific relationship
between the advent of
medium had a printing and fifteenth-century
cultural change involves a
stimulating effect on complex ensemble of many
interrelated changes. (111)
inventive and The Permanent
imaginative faculties Renaissance
Mutation of a Classical
and contributed to a Revival
heightened sense of Do we really know in which
century Western culture
individuality and moved from the Middle Ages,
through the Renaissance, to
personality which become modern? E.E. begins
to answer this question by
continues to distinguish asking, more directly, “What
was peculiar to the
Western civilization from transitional age itself?,” and
believes that printing deserves
other cultures even now. to be put first. (113) New
[printing] trades…are being
created…traditional skills
(metalworkers and
The preaching of merchants) are being directed
toward new ends.(114) The
sermons is speaking to a advent of printing… brought
about the most radical
few of mankind… transformation in the
conditions of intellectual life in
printing books is talking the history of Western
civilization. (115)
to the whole world. It is clear that the literary
diet of a given sixteenth-
century reader was
qualitatively different from his
“The art of Printing will fourteenth-century
counterpart. His staple diet
so spread knowledge, had been enriched, and
intellectual ferment had been
that the common
encouraged, whether he
consulted living authors or
people, knowing their dead ones, “new” books or
“old” ones. (116)
own rights and liberties Augmented book
production altered patterns of
will not be governed by consumption and changed
the nature of individual
way of oppression”…and intake. (116)
“Something important and
in general, brought revolutionary had occurred,”
not adequately covered by the
Western Europe out of term “Renaissance.” It makes
the Dark Ages. sense to employ the term to
the cultural movement
initiated by Italian literati and
artists in the age of scribes
and expanded to encompass
many regions and field of
study in the age of print, but
it doesn’t cover the ensemble
of changes which were
ushered in by with the major
communications revolution
ushered in by print. (145)
It should also be noted that
the full flowering of high
Renaissance culture, where
the first Grub Street
subculture thrived, owed
much to early printers. The
new medium had a stimulating
effect on inventive and
imaginative faculties and
contributed to a heightened
sense of individuality and
personality which continues to
distinguish Western
civilization from other
cultures even now. (146)
It took at least a century of
printing before the multiform
maps and tangled
chronologies inherited from
scribal records were sorted
out, and more uniform
systems for arranging
materials developed. Before
then, there was no fixed
spatiotemporal reference
from which men of learning
shared.
It is not “since the
Renaissance,” but since the
advent of printing and
engraving, that “the antique
has ben continually been with
us.” (122)
Western Christendom
Disrupted
Resetting the Stage for the
Reformation
Western Christendom was
clearly disrupted by the
printing revolution.
The notion of an
“apostolate of the pen” ( The
preaching of sermons is
speaking to a few of
mankind… printing books is
talking to the whole world.
157) points to the high value
assigned to the written word
as a means of accomplishing
the church’s mission on earth.
It helps to explain the
enthusiastic welcome given to
the press by the fifteenth-
century Roman church. Not
only did the church legitimate
the art of printing, it provided
a most important market for
the infant industry. For fifty
years before the Protestant
Revolt, churchmen in most
regions welcomed an
invention which served both
priests (liturgical lessons) and
laymen (prosperous
businesses). (158)
The priest may have
claimed the sacred office of
mediating between God and
man, but when it came to
scriptural exegesis many
editors and publishers felt
that Greek and Hebrew
scholars were better equipped
for the task. (159) It was
printing which introduced a
new drive to tap mass markets.
(159)
Luther himself described
printing as “God’s highest and
extremist act of grace,
whereby the business of the
Gospel is driven forward.”
English Protestants pointed
the way to later trends… “The
art of Printing will so spread
knowledge, that the common
people, knowing their own
rights and liberties will not be
governed by way of
oppression…” (150)
Printing was a device which
ended forever a priestly
monopoly of learning,
overcame ignorance and
superstition, pushed back the
evil forces commanded by
Italian popes, and in general,
brought Western Europe out
of the Dark Ages.
7
The activities of the
printers, translators, and
distributors…acted as agents
of the change. (152)
The roman Catholic policy
was to uphold the medieval
Latin Version of the Bible in
the attempt to withstand two
different threats emanating
from Greek and Hebrew
studies on the one hand and
from vernacular translations
on the other. (160) However,
it was still threatened by lay
 erudition on the part of a
scholarly elite and by lay Bible
reading among the public at
large of the Greek and
A sixteenth-century Hebrew studies that forced
their way into the schools and
vernacular-translation the expanded market of
vernacular catechisms. Latin
movement affected no longer served as a sacred
language veiling sacred
many secular trends mysteries. (161)
A sixteenth-century
vernacular-translation
Possibly the most movement affected many
secular trends. Nicholas
fundamental divergence Culpeper, accused the college
of Physicians of being papist
between Catholic and because they resisted using
vernaculars in medical texts.
Protestant cultures can (164) John Lilburn held that
the law of the land should not
be found closest to be hidden in Latin and old
home. The Protestant French, but instead should be
in English so that “every Free-
theme that “Masters in man may reade it as well as
the lawyers.” (165)
their houses ought to be Possibly the most
fundamental divergence
as preachers to their between Catholic and
Protestant cultures can be
families that from the found closest to home. The
highest to the lowest Protestant theme that
“Masters in their houses ought
they may obey the will to be as preachers to their
families that from the highest
of God,” diverged from to the lowest they may obey
the will of God,” diverged
the Catholic’s warning from the Catholic’s warning
“You should nott be your
“You should nott be owne masters…household
your owne masters… religion is a seed-bed of
subversion.” (167) but offered
household religion is a no effective substitute to
ensure religious observances
seed-bed of subversion.” within the family circle. (168)
Printers therefore tended to
(167) but offered no expand and diversify more
rapidly under Protestant than
effective substitute to Catholic rule. (171) the
ensure religious incentive to learn to read was
eliminated among lay
observances within the Catholics and officially
enjoined upon Protestants.
family circle. (173)
Roman Catholic censorship
efforts backfired when it
published the Index librorum
Perhaps civil war in prohibitorum that listed anti-
Roman passages that made it
Christendom was not easier for Protestant
inevitable, but the propagandists to locate them.
(173) It was the profit-seeking
advent of printing did, printer and not the Protestant
divine who were on the
at the very least, rule Catholic censored list. (177)
Eager to expand markets
out the possibility of and diversify production, the
enterprising publisher
perpetuating the status preferred the Protestant
quo. Rome over the Catholic one.
(177) Printers became
independent agents, a “third
force,” not affiliated with any
one church or state, but
clearly affiliated with the
interests of early modern
capitalism. (178)
The demand for vernacular
Scriptures, Psalters, and
service books among enclaves
of Protestants of foreign soil
also encouraged an
interchange between printers
and “communities of
strangers.” (180) In the late
sixteenth-century, for the first
time in history of any
civilization, the concept
of…the “family of man” on a
truly global scale, was being
extended to encompass all the
peoples of the world. (182)
Perhaps civil war in
Christendom was not
inevitable, but the advent of
printing did, at the very least,
rule out the possibility of
perpetuating the status quo.
(186)
The Book of Nature
Transformed
Printing and the Rise of
Modern Science
Because the exploitation of
the mass medium was more
common among
pseudoscientists and quacks
than among Latin-writing
professional scientists, who
often withheld their work from
the press, (187) it appears
plausible to play down the
importance of printing. (187)
The “spread of new
ideas,”through print deserves
consideration, textual
traditions were no more likely
to continue unchanged after
the shift from script to print
than were scriptural
traditions. (188)
How could the “great book
of Nature” be investigated
without exchanging
information by means of “the
little books of men” (188)
In my (Eisentstein’s) view,
the movement reflected
disenchantment with those
forms of teaching and book
learning which had been
inherited from the age of
scribes…inconsistencies and
anomolaies became more
apparent after printed
materials began to be
produced, a distrust of
received opinion and a fresh
look at the evidence
recommended itself to all
manner of curious men. (194)
Classical authors had
warned against trusting hand-
copied books and especially
hand-copied pictures for the
excellent reason that they
degenerated over time, (195)
In duplicating crude
woodcuts, publishers were
simply carrying on where
fifteenth-century copyists left
off. It was not so much a new
awareness of the
“Inadequacies of purely verbal
description” as it was the new
means of implementing this
awareness that explains the
“sixteenth-century revolution.”
For the first time the work of
skilled draftsmen could be
preserved intact in hundreds
of copies of a given book. It
was the printing of books that
paved the way and provided
the indispensible step for the
rise of modern science. (196)
The “process of feedback”
was an important consequence
of printed editions. This kind
of checking could not occur
until uniform [printed data]
encouraged exchange of
information between
[discoverers] and publishers.
(200)
However, natural barriers to
knowledge were less of an
obstacle than “notions of the
world” were. (201)
Manuscript maps were
“secretly and well wrapped so
that no man could see it”. To
make multiple copies would
not lead to improvement…”
(201)
Before the outlines of a
comprehensive and uniform
world picture could emerge,
incongruous images had to be
duplicated in sufficient
quantities to be brought into
contact, compared and
contrasted. (204) This
scholarly computation and
8
cross-referencing was formerly
unthinkable.
The flow of information
had been reoriented, and this
had an effect on natural
philosophy that should not go
ignored. (206)
Resetting the stage for the
Copernican revolution
Astronomers have to study
observations made at different
intervals over long periods of
time. Copernicus’s failure to
 supply the kind of fresh
findings that were later
proved by Tych Brahe needs
to be balanced against his
sustained efforts to
unscramble dusty records by
observers in the past. (207)
Until half a century after
Copernicus’ death no
potentially revolutionary
changes occurred in the data
available to astronomers. (208)
Copernicus interpreted
Ptolemy, rather than perform
In Eisentstein’s view, the astrological study, and opened
Tycho’s eyes to the need for
movement reflected fresh data. (209)
Contradictory predictions
disenchantment with concerning the conjunction of
planets encouraged him to
those forms of teaching reexamine the “writing in the
skies.” (211)
and book learning which The desire to find an orbit
for a purely transitory, ephemeral
had been inherited from phenomenon marked an
important shift in the
the age of scribes… theoretical interpretation of
comets.” (212)
inconsistencies and Observed details could not
be dislodged from their
anomolaies became more appointed places until scribal
transmissions had come to an
apparent after printed end. (212)
Tycho set out to become an
materials began to be astronomer by defying his
tutor and teaching himself.
produced, a distrust of He bypassed the traditional
master-apprentice relationship
received opinion and a by taking advantage of printed
materials. He had at his
fresh look at the disposal, as few had before
evidence recommended
itself to all manner of
curious men.
After 1543
commentaries, epitomes,
or addenda devoted to
one master’s work had
been superseded by a
confrontation with
alternatives that forced
some sort of choice,
which pointed to a
cognitive breakthrough
of unprecedented kind.
him, two separate sets of
computations based on two
different theories, compiled
several centuries apart, which
could compare with each
other. (215)
He was the first careful
observer who took full
advantage of the new powers
of the press—correctable
successive editions. (216)
After 1543 commentaries,
epitomes, or addenda devoted
to one master’s work had been
superseded by a confrontation
with alternatives that forced
some sort of choice, which
pointed to a cognitive
breakthrough of
unprecedented kind.
Challenges were being issued
in the form of open letters
alerting all European
astronomers to observe a
particular event and recheck
their findings against different
predictions, (225) a practice
in regions where there was a
free trade in ideas.
Another look at Galileo’s trial
Three alternative planetary
models and six sets of
conflicting tables were in
circulation. The shifting
fortunes of war altered
activities of publishers, and
science went underground
and even abroad thanks to the
help of the Royal Society, who
were publishers of technical
literature, and provided
encouragement and group
support to Italian virtuoso
which they lacked at home.
(243) Being condemned by
Italian censors for engaging in
“commerce with Protestants”
was sometimes advantageous
to the Commonwealth of
Learning. Often banned
material, once printed, was
quite popular.
The Royal Society was aware
of the special service the press
was rendering to scientific
advance. Anxious authors
were encouraged to publish
and “bring out the opinion of
all the learned, and perhaps
where you have not yet seen,
they will shed a fuller light.”
(244)
Galileo’s Dialogue on Two
World Systems was such a
provocative and polemic
treatise it almost seemed to
court censorship in a way that
is quite typical of most serious
scientific work. (250-251)
New opportunities to profit
from banned titles were
extended to Protestant firms,
at the same time, new risks
and uncertainties were posed
for scientific publishers in
Catholic lands. (250) The
continuous operation of
printing firms beyond the
reach of Rome was of vital
concern to Western European
scientists.
9
 Conclusion
One cannot treat Scripture and Nature Transformed
printing as just one Within the space of a
among many elements century and a half a
revolution had occurred in
in a complex causal the way in which men
regarded the universe.
nexus, for the Eisenstein seeks to understand
“how it all came about” by
communications shift considering the effects of a
definite communications shift
transformed the nature that occurred in the move
from a script culture to print
of the causal nexus one that moved man from the
Middle Ages to early
itself. “modernity.” (255)
Her approach is to discuss
movements (the Renaissance,
the Reformation, a knowledge
revolution) and discern
features which were not
The vernacular- present in earlier epocs which
altered the textual traditions
translation movement upon which each movement
relied. This approach showed
not only enabled how movements aimed at
returning to a golden past
evangelists to bring the were reoriented in a manner
that pointed them away from
Gospel to everyman but their initial goal and led lay
humanists, priests and natural
also tapped a vast philosophers to a division of
reservoir of latent opinion (because of the
permanence of print, and the
scientific talent by ability to compare and
contrast texts) and ultimately
eliciting contributions to a reassessment of inherited
views. (256) By placing more
from reckon masters, emphasis on the shift from
script to print, many diverse
instrument makers, and trends could be
accommodated without
artist-engineers. resorting to extending
intellectual feuds. (257) The
Protestant novelty of being able to
assemble diverse records and
encouragement of lay reference guides and of being
able to study them without
reading and self-help having to transcribe them
helped to heighten awareness
was especially favorable of anomalies in these
inherited views.
for interchanges Changes wrought by
printing had a more
between readers and immediate effect on cerebral
activities and on the learned
publishers—which led to professions than did many
other kinds of “external”
the quiet displacement events. Previous relations
between masters and disciples
of ancient authorities were altered. Students who
took advantage of technical
and to expansive data texts which served as silent
instructors were less likely to
collection of a new kind. defer to traditional authority
and more receptive to My Comments
innovating trends. (261) This is a very extensive
Both Copernicus (in an study of her topic, and I
attempt to preserve and would say it is valuable
emend Ptolomy’s astrological reading for anyone interested
work) and St. Jerome (to in an such study of historical
protect the scripture from cultural change relative to
further corruption) used print technology.
untraditional means to I would, however, suggest
propell their work, which sent that the student choose the
it in and unconventional original work, The Printing
direction, so that they broke Press as an Agent of Change,
new paths in the very act of unless they are widely studied
seeking to achieve old goals. in the history of culture,
(265) scripture and science. The
The vernacular-translation lack of the footnotes in this
movement not only enabled version leaves many valuable
evangelists to bring the details and insights out of the
Gospel to everyman but also
tapped a vast reservoir of
picture.
latent scientific talent by
eliciting contributions from
reckon masters, instrument
makers, and artist-engineers.
Protestant encouragement of
lay reading and self-help was
especially favorable for
interchanges between readers
and publishers—which led to
the quiet displacement of
ancient authorities and to
expansive data collection of a
new kind. Finally, the same
censorship policies and elitist
tendencies that discouraged
Catholic Bible printers (the
Catholic leadership stand that
laypersons should not seek
knowledge themselves but to
rely on the mystery decifering
Latin church) eventually
closed down scientific
publication outlets in Catholic
lands. (265-266)
Open the book of nature.
Bring out the opinion of
the learned.
One cannot treat printing as
just one among many
10
elements in a complex causal
nexus, for the
communications shift
transformed the nature of the
causal nexus itself.
Some final remarks
The unevenly phased
continuous process of
recovery and innovation that
began in the second half of
the fifteenth century are
impossible to gauge at present
and remain to be described.