The Printing Revolution in Early Modern EuropeIn 1979 Elizabeth Eisenstein provided the first full-scale treatment of the fifteenth-century printing revolution in the West in her monumental two-volume work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. This abridged edition, after summarising the initial changes introduced by the establishment of printing shops, goes on to discuss how printing challenged traditional institutions and affected three major cultural movements: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science. Also included is a later essay which aims to demonstrate that the cumulative processes created by printing are likely to persist despite the recent development of new communications technologies. |
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advent of printing age of scribes Aldus Manutius Almagest ancient astronomers authors became Bible Cambridge Catholic Christopher Plantin church cited classical Commonwealth of Learning Copernican Copernicus copies developments diverse duplicated early modern early printed editions effects elites encouraged English engraving Essays Europe fifteenth Folger Shakespeare Library Frances Yates Galileo given Greek Gutenberg hand-copied historians History humanists Ibid images Index intellectual issues Italian Italy Kepler kind permission Latin learned less letters literary literature London Luther manuscript maps master printers medieval modern science nature observations output Peter Schoeffer polyglot print culture printed books problems 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 century spread of printing suggest texts tion translation treatises Tycho Tycho Brahe vernacular Western word writing York