Three special events in the history of technology for creating,  (Page 5/12)

The book and the printing press

About the year 1450 some rather unusual “manuscripts” made their appearance in the northern regions ofWestern Europe. Although not very different in appearance from traditional manuscripts, they were “impressed” on paper, sometimeson vellum, with the mechanical aid of a printing press which used moveable type. [Febvre and Martin, p. 9]

Gutenberg’s invention of the movable-type printing press in the fifteenth century is widely considered, alongwith gunpowder and the compass, one of the three most influential inventions in history. This is a truly remarkable statement since the first printed books looked fairly similar to the hand-writtenbooks that preceded them. Nevertheless, the enormously improved efficiency and accuracy of machine-printed books had a powerfuleffect that continued to develop for centuries. As with other “disruptive technologies,” the first phase of influence was simplyto do the old job better. Then, in the second phase, the existence of large numbers of inexpensive books changed the way education andcommunication took place, the way material was authored and, in the process, invented a new tool for mass entertainment and created acommercial commodity.

To bring the problem into a sharper focus: the advent of printing, we are told, was the most important event “inthe cultural history of mankind;” it “brought about the most radical transformation in the conditions of intellectual life inthe history of Western civilization.” [Eisenstein, p. 115]

This transformation occurred not only in the life of the elite, but in all of society. The inventions ofliteracy and the printing press brought to the masses what previously had been reserved for the privileged and, before that,the priest and the scholar. They brought a new and different dimension to the democratic process, the educational enterprise,and the religious life of the society. It is no coincidence that the Reformation, a democratization of Christian religious life,also began in Germany, within a century of Gutenberg’s invention. What was the obvious book to be printed by this new technology? TheBible. What was the obvious result? Readers—priests, educated laymen, even the literate poor—might read and interpret forthemselves. Revolution. Certainly an unintended consequence but, perhaps with more thought, a predictable one.

The current paper book is the result of technical evolution over thousands of years. It is now a maturetechnology and is being challenged by modern digital technologies. Stone, bone, clay, papyrus, scrolls, codex, ink, paper, and theprinting press were all steps in its evolution. A parallel development of a commercial system supported the creation andmarketing of books, resulting in the current system of authors, editors, publishers, book stores, and readers. We are now seeingthe beginning of the effects of modern digital technology, mass storage technology, and Internet communications.

Because the printing press had a much greater impact than was anticipated, we may ask if the use of electronic ordigital information—cheaper to produce, easier to author, easier to alter, and almost free to distribute—will have a similar powerful,unexpected effect. Of course it will.