diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/fine.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/fine.tex | 249 |
1 files changed, 249 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/fine.tex b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/fine.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..1fefbf569f --- /dev/null +++ b/usergrps/uktug/baskervi/5_5/fine.tex @@ -0,0 +1,249 @@ +\title{Book review: The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe} +\author[Jonathan Fine]{Jonathan Fine\\Email:\texttt{J.Fine@pmms.cam.ac.uk}} +\begin{Article} +\begin{quote} +\emph{The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe}, +Elizabeth L Eisenstein +ISBN 0 521 44770 4 (paperback) +\pounds 7.95, \$11.95 +300 + xiv pages +Cambridge University Press (Canto imprint) +\end{quote} + +This book is an abridgement for the lay reader of a full scale work +written for scholars, the result of a decade of study. It is that +rare and valuable thing, a scholarly work accessible and interesting +to the educated general reader. + +The author {\em had long been dissatisfied with the prevailing +explanations for the intellectual revolutions of early modern +times}. She decided to investigate. (This review italicizes the +author's words.) {\em What were some of the most important +consequences of the shift from script to print? Anticipating a +strenuous effort to master a large literature, I began to investigate +what had been written on this obviously important subject. To my +surprise, I did not find even a small literature available for +consultation. No one had yet attempted to survey the consequences of +the fifteenth century communications shift}. + +In this century there has been a communications shift, which is still +continuing, and whose consequences are likely to be as important and +durable as that of the fifteenth century (from script to print). The +telegraph was followed by the telephone, radio and then television. +Electronic computers (built out of radio valves, telephone exchange +parts and the like) were the next development. Magnetic recording +technology (developed for voice and music) was adapted for use by +computers, moving from tapes to cards, drums and discs. Telephone +lines were used to transfer data and thus to link geographically +remote computers. The latest in the technological revolution is the +Internet or World Wide Web, CD-ROM, and the beginnings of what are +called portable documents. + +History is more than a sequence of Kings and Queens, or in our case a +list of technological Aces and Jokers. This technology came from +somewhere. Its creation appears to be influenced by political, +economic and social forces. For example, Universities support +Science. In our case, fundamental contributions of Faraday, Maxwell, +Planck, Curie, Einstein, Rutherford, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Bohr, +Dirac and many others have laid the scientific basis for the present +shift from paper to digital or electronic media. + +From where then did science arise? Was Newton chance, and what effect did +science and religion have on each other? How did what we may call +early modern Europe emerge from late medieval society? Was it due to +the Renaissance? Eisenstein's book is a carefully considered and +well written discussion of the emergence of a human culture based on +printed communication, that began in the late fifteenth century, and +its influence on the humanities, on religion and on science. This +print culture was something new, just as the film and television +culture of today is new. Each has an effect on the human mind. + +Before describing the text of this book, some comments about +illustrations. They have been well chosen. There are about sixty +illustrations, mostly pages from rare books, but sadly they are not indexed. +They have reproduced well, and add greatly to the book. For Bibles, +there is a page from the Gutenberg Bible compared to a contemporary +hand-copied Bible, the so-called wicked Bible of 1631 (which misses +the `not' from the adultery commandment), and the frontpiece and +beginning of Genesis from Christopher Plantin's great Antwerp +Polyglot Bible of 1571. There is the title page of Galileo's final +treatise (printed by the still flourishing Elsevier), and its +appearance on the (printed) Vatican index of prohibited books. There +are many other useful and illuminating illustrations, including an +extract from a pattern book for tailors and dressmakers (Seville, +1588) which made the Spanish fashion ``visible through the far-flung +Hapsburg empire''. + +The quotations and incidental facts are also well chosen. Here are +two such gems. The hazards of having a famous face are not new to +this century. Eisenstein writes: +\begin{quote} +The difference between the older repeatable image which was stamped +on coins and the newer by-product of print is suggested by one of the +more celebrated episodes of the Frech Revolution. The individual +features of emperors and kings were not sufficiently detailed when +stamped on coins for their faces to be recognized when they travelled +incognito. But a portrait engraved on paper money enable an alert +Frenchman to recognize and halt Louis~XVI at Varennes. +\end{quote} +while to open the Preface she quotes Joseph Ames (1749) who wrote: +\begin{quote} +I do ingenuously confess that in attempting this history of Printing I +have undertaken a task much too great for my abilities the extent of +which I did no so well perceive at first. +\end{quote} + +The book is divided into two parts. The first, +{\em The emergence of print culture in the West}, can be thought of +as an essay on the differences between the earlier scribal culture +and the new print culture. Before print each book was a unique item, +and each new copy would have new copyists errors. It rarely makes +sense to talk of an edition of a hand-written book. Printed books +come in editions, of hundreds or thousands or beyond. Each copy will +be identical to each other, except that printers too can make errors. + +Even without the commissioning of new works, the wider circulation of +scribal texts is a significant change. For example {\em as a student +at Cracow in the 1480s, the young Copernicus probably found it hard +to get a look at a single copy of Ptolemy's {\em Almagest}---even in +a corrupted medieval Latin form. Before he died, he had three +different editions at hand. As a fourteen-year-old in Copenhagen in +1560, the young Tycho Brahe could purchase all of Ptolemy's work, +including an improved translation of the full {\em Almagest} made from +the Greek.} + +Perhaps the most important consequence of the shift was the emergence +of an expanding republic of letters. The reading public, their +booksellers and printers, their authors and illustrators. {\em As the +key figure around whom all arrangements revolved, the master printer +himself bridged many worlds. He was responsible for obtaining money, +supplies, and labor, while developing complex production schedules, +coping with strikes, trying to estimate book markets and lining up +learned assistants. He had to keep on good terms with officials, +while cultivating talented authors and artists who might bring his +firm profit or prestige. In those places where his enterprise +prospered and he achieved a position of influence with fellow +townsmen, his workshop became a veritable cultural centre attracting +local literati and celebrated foreigners, providing both a meeting +place and message centre for an expanding cosmopolitan Commonwealth +of Learning}. Christopher Plantin, whose activities are briefly +discussed, is an outstanding example of a master printer. {\em After +settling in Antwerp and establishing ties with Leiden, Plantin +decided to learn Dutch. Never one for wasted effort, he ``placed in +piles and in alphabetical order'' each new word that he learned. Thus +was launched a collaborative venture which resulted in [\ldots] the +``first Dutch dictionary worth its name.''} For more on Plantin's +remarkable life and legacy, consult Colin Clair's biography. + +The second part considers the {\em Interaction with other +developments}. In it {\em possible relationships and connections are +explored with the aim of providing a basis for some tentative +conclusions concerning the effects of the communications shift upon +three movements which seem strategic in the shaping of the modern +mind.} + +The first in the Renaissance, which has long been something of a +challenge for historians to understand. Eisenstein suggests that it +would be productive for historians to {\em direct attention to +something that really did happen, that was obviously of crucial +importance, that occurred in the second half of the fifteenth century +and at no other time in the history of the West}. This is of course +the shift to print culture. Later she writes {\em early humanists, +from Petrarch to Valla, owe their still vital reputation as culture +heroes to the prosaic print-made knowledge industry. [\ldots] +Earlier scholars had been less fortunate}. + +The second is {\em Western Christendom disrupted}. Protestantism was +{\em the first movement of any kind, religious or secular, to use the +new presses for overt propaganda and agitation against an established +institution. By pamphleteering directed at arousing popular support +and aimed at readers who were unversed in Latin, the reformers +unwittingly pioneered as revolutionaries and rabble rousers}. Between +1517 and 1520, we are told, Luther's thirty publications sold well +over 300,000 copies. Even by modern standards this is a considerable +achievement. + +This book was originally written as a contribution to historical +debate. Its main thesis is the effect of print as an agent of social +change has been ignored or underestimated. ``One of the mysteries +of Reformation history [is] how this proposal for academic +disputation [Luther's theses], written in Latin, could have kindled +such enthusiastic support and thereby have such far-reaching impact'', +wrote one modern scholar. To dispel this mystery, Eisenstein +suggests that we should {\em instead of jumping directly from church +door to public clamor, move more cautiously, a step at a time, +looking at the activities of printers, translators, and distributors +who acted as agents of change. Probably we ought to pause with +particular care over the interval in December 1517 when three +separate editions were printed almost simultaneously by printers +located in three separate towns}. + +{\em On the whole,} the author concludes, {\em it seems safe to +conclude that all the problems associated with the disruption of +Western Christendom will become less baffling if we approach them by +respecting the order of events and put the advent of printing ahead +of the Protestant Revolt.} + +The third movement is {\em The book of nature transformed: printing +and the rise of modern science}. As with the Reformation, the author +argues that {\em the advent of printing ought to be featured more +prominently by historians}. This theme is developed mainly with +regard to maps and astronomy, the trial of Galileo and the publishing +activities of the Royal Society. Copernicus has already been +mentioned. Newton was encouraged to publish. Galileo discouraged. + +One of the illustrations is of a grandly titled {\em A description of +the the whole world}~(1606), and another is a printed challenge from +Blaeu~(1622) to find any errors in his printed sea charts. He wrote +{\em Whatsover there is yet resting to be corrected or made better, +is as easie to be corrected in the Cardes [charts] that are printed, +as in them that are written, which we also are readie to doe at our +charge, if any man can by good proofe shewe us any thing, that is to +be corrected in the Cardes that are printed by us}. This is an early +example of errors being, if not rewarded, at least corrected without +charge. + +The author gives many useful examples of the opportunities for +(self)-promotion that print provides. We know much about the early +history of print from the documents they printed about themselves. +{\em Indeed, their use of title pages entailed a significant reversal +of scribal procedures; they put themselves first. Scribal colophons +had come last}. + +The author cogently argues the importance of print for the creation +of accurate maps. {\em But this kind of checking could not occur +until voyagers were provided with uniform maps and encouraged to +exchange information with map publishers}. Before print maps, like +books, were usually held in fixed and safe locations. They were much +to rare and valuable to be subjected to the hazards of a voyage to +foreign parts. Information from merchants was sent back to trained +cartographers, but without print this information could not then be +sent back out for the use (and checking) by others. The +development of maps (and globes) contributed to the European +discovery of the rest of the world. + +In the conclusion the author writes {\em This book has stopped short +in the age of the wooden handpress. It has barely touched on the +industrialization of paper making and the harnessing of iron presses +to steam. Nothing has been said about the railway tracks and +telegraph wires which linked European capitals in the mid-nenteenth +century, or about the Linotype and Monotype machines which went +together with mass literacy and tabloid journalism. The typewriter, +the telephone, and a vast variety of more recent media have been +entirely ignored. Too much territory has been traversed too rapidly +as it is. Because contrary views have been expressed, however, it +seems necessary to point out that there are irreversible aspects to +the early modern printing revolution. Cumulative processes were set +in motion in the mid-fifteenth century, and they have not ceased to +gather momentum in the age of the computer printout and the +television guide}. + +And so we are back again in the present, with its own communications +shift from paper to electronic media, from print to computer. I have +read this book through several times and on each occasion (I am not +well educated in history) I get a richer deeper understanding of the +present time. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wishes to +develop for themself an understanding of the human and social +consequences of the growing move towards electronic publishing and +the information superhighway. +\end{Article} |