The printing press was not invented by Gutenberg nor was it
a single technology. In The Nature of
Technology, Brian Arthur shows that technology is often an accumulation and
convergence of previous technologies. In this case the availability of cheap
paper, improvements in indelible ink, casting of moveable type and the screw
press; all contributed towards quick and cheap printing. Paper remained a
problem even after the printing press was used as it was so expensive and made from
rags and vellum was still hugely expensive.
It wasn’t all plain printing. Gutenberg got into deep debt
while working in his press and had to pass his workshop over to his investor.
One of his first books, the Gutenberg Bible, took two years to typeset and
print.
Don’t forget the software
Note that although the Chinese invented paper, block
printing and even moveable type, their character based language made Gutenberg
type presses impractical. It was the existence of another piece of technology,
the Roman alphabet, that made the presses practical. This is yet another
example of how the software is the real, deep driver behind a technological
advance.
Scaling up
The number of books exploded, the prices plummeted and the
idea of writing, as opposed to just reading fixed texts took root. It was a
technology (or set of technologies) that was to cause irreversible change in
the world.
The Bible was, of course, the
first to be printed, along with indulgences by the Catholic Church, the misuse
of which led to Luther’s Protestant Reformation and his best-selling, vernacular,
German Bible (200,000 in his lifetime). The boost to science was also
considerable, as findings, criticism and commentaries could be written, printed
and disseminated at speed.
In science, it wasn’t long
before the works of Galileo appeared and Copernicus was to turn the world on
its head with De Revolutionibus. Atlases
and maps allowed European explorers to conquer the globe. Classical texts were
revived and widely read.
Learning
through print
Before the printing press
revolution academic learning was oral by listening to an expert, who often read
from a book. The word ‘lecture’ meant ‘to read’ until the 14th
century, so students were likely to simply hear portions of books being read
aloud.
Print meant relatively large
batches (200-1000) of identical texts. The printed book, like the modern
mobile, was portable, personal and could be read at any time and in any place.
It freed knowledge from the tyranny of time and location. You no longer had to
hear someone transmit knowledge at a particular time or place. It also meant
the democritisation of knowledge, and therefore learning, as scalability
through the replication of books enabled the many and not just the few, to
learn. Indeed, scholars expanded in number but more importantly, so did
readers. Reading became a common pedagogic technique.
Note that the reformation,
itself a product of printing, promoted personal development through education,
especially for the poor.
Printing
transformed
Printing was transformed in
the 19th century by faster and more efficient, steam driven, cylinder
presses, rotary presses, multiple feeders and paper from pulp that was manufactured
in huge rolls. The photocopier and computer printer then took printing, first
into the high-street, then into businesses and the home. This led to a boom in
shoddy A4 photocopied sheets of homework.
Digital
print reformation
With the internet and world wide web, an age of digital
abundance is flourishing, similar to that of the post-Gutenberg era. The shift
from atoms to bits means that print is not only infinitely replicable, it is
easy to distribute. In a sense it is our own devices that ‘print’ text to our
screens. We have control over the font size. We use search, as opposed to
indexes. The world of print has changed, irrevocably. The digital genie is out
of the bottle.
Conclusion
Gutenberg’s printing press with moveable type
changed the course of knowledge production, dissemination and therefore
learning. It led to a radical shift in what we could learn, how we learn, when
we could learn and where we could learn.
Bibliography
Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The printing press as an agent of
change: Communications and cultural transformations in early modern Europe.
Cambridge [Eng.: Cambridge University Press
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