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The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformation in Early-modern Europe
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1969
Year
Translation StudiesCultural TransformationMass CultureEarly-modern EuropePopular CulturePrinting PressMedia Studies.The WorkCultural HistoryLanguage StudiesArt HistoryLiterary StudyInternational CommunicationGutenberg GalaxyLiterary HistoryMedium ChangeHistorical TransitionHistorical ReassessmentScholarly CommunicationPrint CultureArtsModernity
The printing press is portrayed as a catalyst for communication and cultural transformation in early‑modern Europe, reshaping script into print and influencing the Renaissance, Reformation, and the emergence of modern science. The work investigates how the advent of printing reshaped European society, framing its impact within the broader narratives of the Renaissance, Reformation, and scientific development. The analysis is organized into four chapters that examine technical literature, sponsorship and censorship of scientific publication, and the transformation of biblical texts. No supplementary metadata is provided.
The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and cultural transfor- mations in early-modem Europe is advertised as "the first full-scale historical treatment of the advent of printing and its importance as an agent of change. . . .first thoughts had to be replaced by second ones, even third thoughts have had to be revised" (p.xii).The present formulation, she feels, is not necessarily final.She admits to uncertainties regarding publication at this stage, but concludes that "beyond this provisional resting point diminishing returns will set in" (p.xii) The printing press as an agent of change. What seemed relatively simple on first glance became increasingly complex. ...first thoughts had to be replaced by second ones, even third thoughts have had to be revised" (p.xii).The present formulation, she feels, is not necessarily final.She admits to uncertainties regarding publication at this stage, but concludes that "beyond this provisional resting point diminishing returns will set in" (p.xii).The work as a whole is divided into three parts.Volume One contains Parts One and Two; Volume Two is given over to Part Three.Part One considers the general impUcations of the shift from script to print.Part Two deals with the Renaissance ("A classical revival reoriented") and the Reformation ("The scriptural tradition recast").Part Three is devoted to a study of print and the rise of modern science ("the Book of Nature transformed") Its four chapters include "Technical literature goes to press" and "Sponsorship and censorship of scientific publication. "One of the key themes of Professor Eisenstein is stated as follows:It is surely one of the ironies of the history of Western civilization that Bible studies aimed at penetrating the Gothic darkness in order to recover pure Christian truthaimed, that is, at removing glosses and commentaries in order to lay bare the pure 'plain' textended by inter- posing an impenetrable thicket of recondite annotation between Bible- reader and Holy Book. (p.700) Many readers will find the two volumes of Professor Eisenstein no less of an impene- trable thicket of recondite armotation than that which confronts the readers of the Holy Book.By comparison with her unflattering and laconic dismissal of many historical authorities, McLuhan's Gutenberg Galaxy emerges as a kind of lyrical leit-motiv, a sort of double-plot for her sombre narrative: