Ch1.printing.revolutions

Brief lectures in

Media History

Chapter 1 The printing revolution

(3 of 15)

Before printing – Oral culture, Scriptoria

How fast printing spread What were the impacts

◦Printing & the Protestant Reformation ◦Printing & the scientific revolution ◦Printing & the idea of news ◦The Enlightenment ◦Printing & the political revolutions

This lecture is about …

Assignment 2: Printing revolution Individually, or

by groups, quickly read (scan)  and write a short response note  (3 to 5 ¶s ) describing one of the histories of printing available  on:◦ Gutenberg.org (Public domain books)◦ Librivox.org (Public domain audio books)◦ Google books (set to Google eBooks on search

tools) List and details are on Revolutions in

Communication / Course / Ch1 Printing

Before printing: Oral Culture

Before printing: Oral culture People are “pre-wired” for

language and storytelling ◦But reading & writing are learned

Oral cultures = personal connection

Alex Haley’s Roots – ◦Ex. of working oral culture

Fireside chats – ◦Ex. Of radio as promoting oral

culture

Learning to write was the “tuition” for human education – Wilbur Schramm

6th millennium BCE, earliest known Neolithic writings.

Writing developed in a progression from picture – oriented (logographic) symbols to abstract phonetic images

Before printing: Writing

Romans discarded unwieldy scrolls in favor of the “codex,” or arrangement of pages in succession.

Before printing: The Roman Codex

Books were sacred (still are)

During the “dark ages” especially, books were considered the tiny flickering candle flame of civilization

Book of Kells, 800 ACE

Monasteries laboriously created works of art as acts of reverence

Illuminated manuscripts (not incunabula )

Scriptoria Monks who copied

Bibles & other books worked at the rate of about

1 – 3 pages per day, one book per year. By the early Renaissance, around 1300s – 1400s, monks

couldn’t keep up with demand Stationers companies began developing around universities to copy Greek & Roman works along with scripture

Timeline of printing 200 – paper, woodblock printing China 1040 – Ceramic moveable type China 1200s – Paper, idea of type to Europe 1400 – Europe woodcuts common1450 – Combination wood & metal type 1453 – Gutenberg moveable metal type 1500 – “Incunabula” period

◦8 million books Gutenberg + 50 1517 – Martin Luther / 95 Theses

Mainz, Germany, 1453 – Johannes Gutenberg (1395 – 1468)

1 billion books by 1800

Printing Revolution THE pivotal development in history,The turning point in the transition

between the Medieval and the Modern Printing comes from an build-up of

techniques, resources & demands ◦pressing (olives, grapes) ◦paper making (to replace animal hides) ◦woodcuts of religious images◦abundance of linen paper

Elizabeth Eisenstein (1923–present)

“Printing Press as an agent of social change” (1979)

Not well accepted at first; Media technology as a force was something new in history

Effects of printing were widespread dissemination of knowledge; standardization of language and knowledge; and better preservation of information;

Recovery of previous cultures (Greek, Roman) was the major first task of printing (consider McLuhan’s “tetrad”)

Printing was one of the major influences in the Protestant Reformation and the formation of the modern world

Francis Bacon Novum Organum (New Instrument,

published 1620):"Printing, gunpowder and the

compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.

Supporting the temple of memory

We transmit the facts to posterity

The arts, the sciences, history

We have immortality

Frontispiece

Pierre FournierManuel Typographique,

1737

Monk power One monk working for two years can copy one Bible of 1,260 pages.

One monk power = 2 pages / day

Three printers in Mainz, working for 64 days

printed 180 Bibles.

One Gutenberg = 600 Monks

Steam-powered press 40,000 pages / day.

(1814 London Times / John Walter Jr. )

One Walter = 33 Gutenbergs

Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, newspaper (1900 )

One million pages / day

One Pulitzer = 25 Walters

David Sarnoff, NBC Radio and TV broadcasting 50 – 100 million / day

One Sarnoff = 100 Pulitzers

Internet & web

World Wide Web 50 billion pages in 2012

1 Berners-Lee = 500 Sarnoffs

1 Berners-Lee = 25 billion monk-power

Printing impacts •Standardized Bibles • Critical reading

allowed challenge to church

•Standardized language • Helped form nation-

state

•Amplified new information and ideas • Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther become famous overnight

Protestant Reformation 20 – 30 million killed in religious

wars in the 1500s-1600s period. Germany lost 30 % of population England Counter-Reformation,

1553 Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”)

Calls for tolerance contribute to the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Printing and the Reformation

Printing amplified Martin Luther’s dissent in a way that had never happened before.

His 95 Theses, published in Germany in 1517, circulated across Europe in less than a month.

Crowds surged around the printing houses, grabbing pages still wet from the press.

Three Bishops of Oxford,1555

Executed as Queen Mary I attempts to return Britain to Catholic Church. This was also in retaliation for executions by her father, Protestant king Henry VIII

“… Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” (Bishop Hugh Latimer)

Protestant Reformation

Anabaptist Anne Hendicks is one of tens of thousands executed in Amsterdam 1570s

Reaction to religious warsReligious tolerance slowly emerges In France, Sebastian Casellio (1515-

1563) calls for freedom of conscience

In Britain, Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) succeeds “Bloody” Mary and stops persecution of Catholics. “There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith" she says. “All else is a dispute over trifles."

Impacts on science Printing spurred the exploration of physical and mental horizons

News of Columbus’ voyages spread rapidly with printing in the 1490s, making him one of the first international heroes

Astronomical observatory of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) included a printing shop to help spread new scientific knowledge – and prevent repression by the church

De re metallica

A 1556 book by Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)

Exploration of geology, mining and metallurgy, carefully illustrated.

Set a standard for scientific and technical books to come

First newspapers Handwritten by armies of scribes in

ancient China and Rome ◦Roman paper was called “Acta Diurna”

Newsletters common in Europe to promote commerce 1400s-1600s

First printed newspaper: 1605: Johann Carolus owned a book printing company in Strasbourg, France, grew tired of copying business newsletters by hand.

Press censorship by … Licensing of a printing company

itself; Prior restraint: pre-press

approval of each book or edition of a publication;

Taxation and stamps on regular publications; and

Prosecution for sedition against the government or libel of individuals.

English civil war John Milton (1608-

1674) ◦ The marketplace of

ideas“Who ever knew truth

put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"

Areopagetica 1644 -- reference to the Athenian marketplace

English Enlightenment John Locke (1632-1704) People and government

have a social contract Government existed to serve the

people, not the other way around;

People have natural rights to life, liberty and property.

Tolerance was vital

French Enlightenment Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) – May disagree with what you say but will die defending your right to say it.

Also: Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) - Spirit of the Laws / Separation of powers (Legislative, executive, judicial)

Trial of John Peter Zenger

New York printer uses truth as a defense in seditious libel trial, 1734

American Enlightenment Benjamin Franklin Printers believe that

"when men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Public. When Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

John Wilkes Editor of North Briton, Member of Parliament

Newspaper censored, Wilkes convicted of seditious libel 1764

Goes into four years of exile in France, returns to fight for Parliamentary privilege

Ben Franklin and other American revolutionaries saw this as a bad omen for their hope of freedom in America.

Yes, he was that ugly … and yet he was amazingly popular

The Fourth Estate A reference to the growing power of the

press Whig party leader Edmund Burke in a 1787

speech to Parliament. Burke said that there were three “estates”

(walks of life) represented in Parliament:◦ The nobility (House of Lords); ◦ The clergy (Church of England);◦ And the middle class (House of Commons).

“But in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate, more important by far than they all.”

Enlightenment spreads Sweden was among the first to

abolish censorship with a law guaranteeing freedom of the press in 1766.

Denmark and Norway followed with their own law on freedom of the press in 1770.

American Enlightenment Thomas Jefferson Millions of innocent men,

women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

American revolutionaries “These are the times that try men’s souls”— the words that turned the spark ofrebellion into a campaign forAmerican freedom emergedfrom the pen of Thomas Paine.

After independence, Painebecame involved in the French Revolution, then returned to the United States

Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, 1776

French revolution sparked by journalist Camille Desmolins

Camille Desmoulins

On the storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789

“I was carried upon a table rather than allowed to mount it. Hardly had I got up on my feet when I saw myself surrounded by an immense crowd. Here is my short speech, which I shall never forget:

‘Citizens! There is not a moment to lose. . . .This evening all the Swiss and German battalions will sally forth from the Champs de Mars to cut our throats. We have only one recourse—to rush to arms.’ I had tears in my eyes, and spoke with a feeling that I have never been able to recapture, no less describe.”

The French terror

Tens of thousands of aristocrats and innocents executed by guillotine in 1790s

Americans worry that their revolution could become bloody too

US passes Sedition Act 1798 Prohibited writing, printing, uttering "any false, scandalous and malicious

writing ... against the government of the United States, or president of the United States,

... to bring them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States."

A stiff fine and prison term of two years were the punishments. Overall, 25 people were arrested.

Reaction to Sedition Act ”A reign of witches" – Jefferson

"It suffices for a man to be a philosopher, and to believe that human affairs are susceptible of improvement, and to look forward, rather than backward to the Gothic ages, for perfection, to mark him as an anarchist, disorganizer, atheist, and enemy of the government."

Virginia and Kentucky assemblies pass Resolutions condemning Sedition Act

Doctrine of “nullification” and states rights

Partisan press US – Britain

William Cobbett was called “a kind offourth estate in the politics of the country.”

Published Porcupine’s Gazette in Philadelphia, 1790s and the Weekly Political Register in England 1800s

Crusaded against cruelty, poverty and corruption. In 1809 imprisoned two years for seditious libel. Fled back to US in 1817 but then returned in 1819 to continue crusading. Cobbett attacked the “smothering system” that led to the LudditeRiots and vowed to expose Britain’s “service and corrupt press” that had become an instrument in the “delusion, the debasement and theenslavement of a people.”

US partisan papers Bitter partisanship aligned with John

Adams’ Federalist party or Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic- Republican party

Depended on patronage and printing contracts for basic income

Business model would change with Penny Press revolution in 1830s

Not all newspapers were partisan. ◦Niles Weekly Register, published in Baltimore

1811 - 1848, forerunner of modern press, guided by principal of “magnanimous disputation”

Partisan press France In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power

Freedom of the press ended, and widespread system of censorship was putin place by 1808

Number of newspapers in Paris dwindled from hundreds to only 4 by 1811.Censorship was lifted following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, then imposed by French authorities, and occasionally lifted again in cycles over the next century.

What was it like to work in a printing chapel?

See the web site for the book Revolutions in Communication

Long hours, low pay, very strenuous, but also interesting, a place for literate people, the Creatures of Prometheus.

Life in a print shop Upper and lower case Mind “p”s and “q”s Composing “on the stick” By the same token Out of sorts Playing quadrats Getting a washing Spirit of the chapel

ReviewTerms: logographic, codex, scriptoria,

incunabula, printing chapel People: Gutenberg, Martin Luther, Three

Bishops of Oxford, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas Paine, John Wilkes, Camille Desmoulins, William Cobbett, Jefferson, Franklin, Napoleon,

Ideas: Partisan press, sedition act, religious tolerance, Fourth Estate

Major trends: Protestant reformation, Enlightenment, English Civil War, American & French revolutions