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 Antwerp astronomers authors became Bible book of Nature Cambridge catalogues Catholic Christopher Plantin church cited classical Commonwealth of Learning Copernican Copernicus copies developments diverse duplicated early modern early printed editions effects encouraged English engraving Europe fifteenth Folger Shakespeare Library Frances Yates Galileo given Greek Gutenberg hand-copied historians History humanists Ibid images Index intellectual issued Italian Italy Kepler kind permission Latin learned less letters literary literature London Luther manuscript maps medieval modern science observations output permanent Peter Schoeffer Plantin polyglot preserved printed book produced Protestant Protestantism published quattrocento readers reading Reformation regions religious Renaissance Reproduced by kind revival revolution Robert Estienne scholars scientific scribal culture script to print Scripture seems shift from script sixteenth century suggest texts tion tradition translation treatises Tycho Tycho Brahe Uraniborg vernacular Western writing York