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From pen to print - a revolution in communications? - The case for a 'printing revolution

Q: What did the printing press bring about?

Standardization : exact reproductions of texts were important to the acquisition of new knowledge, since a 'single text might enable scattered observers to scan the heavens for the same signs on the same date'. Diffusion and dissemination : growth in the numbers of printed texts, facilitated by new institutions like libraries and book fairs, increased scholarly exchange. Preservation : print was 'the art that preserved all other arts', enabling the accumulation and comparison of texts, data and opinions, with the potential to destabilize the established order.

5 important questions on From pen to print - a revolution in communications? - The case for a 'printing revolution

What did the printing press bring about?

Standardization: exact reproductions of texts were important to the acquisition of new knowledge, since a 'single text might enable scattered observers to scan the heavens for the same signs on the same date'.
Diffusion and dissemination: growth in the numbers of printed texts, facilitated by new institutions like libraries and book fairs, increased scholarly exchange.
Preservation: print was 'the art that preserved all other arts', enabling the accumulation and comparison of texts, data and opinions, with the potential to destabilize the established order.

How was religion promoted because of print?

Protestantism was a religion of the word and print allowed vernacular bibles to be disseminated all over Europe, even in areas where literacy levels had been traditionally very low.

What do historians see print as the center of?

Both historians and literacy scholars see print as the central to the 'news revolution' of the mid- and later seventeenth century.
From the seventeenth century, serially printed newspapers, alongside single topic pamphlets, became vital conduits through which ruling governments and opponents alike could seek to inform, persuade, and manage public opinion.

What role did print play for the Enlightenment?

Print also played an essential role in the Enlightenment, which thrived on the dissemination of ideas and challenges to existing authorities.
By the eighteenth century, a new pan-European genre of periodicals brought together compendia of information on topics such as fashion, literature, science, and international news, helping people to keep in touch with new developments, and encouraging scholars to share and debate new discoveries.

What did 'print communities' show?

The growth of 'print communities' allowed scholars, intellectuals and political and religious radicals to communicate across the Atlantic world.
Enlightenment print was at the heart of a growing European and American sociability that had political and cultural repercussions: contemporaries in eighteenth century Britain, France and Germany, shared their reading in clubs, coffee houses and salons, spreading ideas that chipped away at the established order.
'Print communities' also facilitated the emergence of national identities, especially in states such as the Dutch Republic, Spain, France and Britain, by fostering similar imaginative boundaries and shared national cultures.