THE PRINTING PRESS, JOHANNES GUTENBERG
The history of printing dates back to early times with the use of duplicated images by means of stamps. In early Mesopotamian civilization, before 300BC, round cylinder seals were used to roll an impress onto clay tablets to produce images. The use of small stamps had long existed in China and Egypt, while in Europe and India, the printing of cloth preceded the printing of paper (papyrus). Impression of prints was made on silk in the seventeenth century.
Block printing was used for printing textiles and texts, a development that started in East Asia. The method of printing on cloth with the block printing technology began in Christian Europe in 1300. In the period, block-books, wood cut books with texts and images, was an alternative to manuscripts and printed books in movable type. The Arts Moriendi and Biblia Pauperum were common.
However, in Mainz, Germany, Johannes Gutenberg developed the European movable type of printing technology in 1439, leading to the European age of printing technology. The movable type-setting was faster and durable, and the uniformity of letterings and impressive typographical fonts gave it an edge over the wood block printing. The low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) and high quality nature of the movable printing machine popularised it all over medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Gutenberg‟s movable type of printing formed the bedrock of all printing machines even in contemporary world. The creation of an oil-based ink compared to the earlier water-based ink became a beautiful complement to Gutenberg‟s printing machine invention. He had derived his technological idea from an earlier experience as a professional goldsmith and metallurgy; no wonder he was the first to make his type from an alloy of lead combined with antimony, used for the durable type that produced high-quality printed books more suitable than the clay mode.
The beautiful invention of printing in Germany boosted and revolutionised communication, leading to the advancement of knowledge. With Gutenberg‟s type, printing technology advanced and spread to other parts of Europe. Rev. Jose Glover would have been the first to bring the first printing press to England‟s American colonies in 1638, but his widow, Elizabeth Darris Glover, established a printing house which was run by Stephen Day; the printing house later became the popular Cambridge Press. In 1470, Johann Heynlin set up a printing press in Paris; in 1593, the Spanish started the first printing press in Southeast Asia in the Philippines. Subsequently, in the 15th century, Gutenberg‟s press had over 300 years post invention adaptability and used across cultures all over the world, largely for reason of durability, effectiveness and relevance.
3.2 THE SPREAD OF SECULARISM
Secularism is a tradition that dates back to the ancient Greece, though characteristically, it is part of humanistic developments. Secularism is based on reason, love and honour for human beings and things of nature with which we share the planet.
The art of humanism became popular with the conceptual view of Petrarch and his disciples such as Giovanni Boccaccio and Coluccio Salutati who propagated the humanist philosophy, an ideological concept that began in Greece and spread through Italy in the fifteenth century and formed part of the crystallizing experiences of the Renaissance. Some of its Renaissance proponents are Gasparino Barziza, a scholar of Cizero, who became a leader in Bologna, Venice, and Padua, and later established a school in Mantua; as well as Guarino da Verona, who taught at Verona and began a school in Ferrara. The movement spread to Spain, France, Germany and Eastern Europe and England, Budapest and in Vienna in the fifteenth century.
Humanism had great influence over other disciplines such as the arts, philosophy, politics, law and mathematics, and merged into other intellectual movements after 1600. Essentially, the merger of Christian humanism in the 2nd century can be traced to the writers of the period; they are Justin Martyr, a theologian apologist of the early Christian church.
3.3 ALDUS MANUTIUS AND THE POCKET BOOKS
Aldus Pius Manutius, also known as Aldo Manuzio (1449 – 1515 was an Italian humanist, a printer, publisher and founder of the Aldine Press at Venice. Apart from being credited with the invention of the punctuations comma (,) and semi- colon (;), he also introduced the pocket, inexpensive books that were read like the modern paperbacks of today. With the help of his friend, Giovanni Pico, and his nephews, Alberto and Lionello Pio, Manutius began a printing press at Venice. He started with different types of book designs, Italic type, small and handy pocket editions, as well as binding technique and design, such as slanted type (Italic). The main philosophy of Aldus Manutius for creating the Pocket Books was to have a handy book that could be easily taken around in one‟s pocket. Virgil‟s Opera in 1501 was his first example. He created the Italics type face to economise space and lower printing cost, even though the italics is now used for emphasis.
In 1501, Aldus creatively used the image of a dolphin woven around an anchor as his publisher ‟ s logo; a creative idea that was pirated for use by the French and Italian publishers as well as the nineteenth century firm of William Pickering in London and Doubleday.
In an attempt to preserve the cultures of the ancient Greeks, Aldus published the classical literatures of Greek and Latin in Pocket editions, for personal use. He also printed the Musaeus Grammarticus, and the Galeomyomachia editions of Hero and Leander and the Greek Psalter. He employed about thirty Greeks in his printing press and prefaced his editions in Greek language, read proofs and gave calligraphic samples casts of Greek type. His first volume of his edition of Aristotle was not published until 1495, followed by four other volumes between 1497 and 1498.
He is credited not just with editing but also correcting and re-printing Greek Classics originally published in Florence, Rome and Milan. He promoted Greek culture and civilization by establishing an academy of Hellenists in 1502 (New Academy) which rules were written in Greek, with Greek as the language of communication.
3.4 WILLIAM CAXTON AND THE PROMOTION OF POPULAR CULTURE
With the invention of a printing press from an old wine press in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, the first book, Gutenberg‟s Bible, written in Latin, was printed in 1454. The popular culture of printing became established in Westminster, London in 1476 when William Caxton became the first English printer, using the press and movable type of printing.
William Caxton‟s press opened wide the gates of printing and publishing entrepreneurs and the reading populace too took advantage of the development to communicate knowledge and ideas freely more than ever before in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The popular press in England also helped improved people‟s attitudes to history, art and religion. The coming of printing into England diminished people‟s interest in oral culture, ballad singers and story tellers. The culture of literacy and the social order of the time improved considerably; chapbooks and pamphlets on diverse subjects were common. However, one of the favourite topics tells the tales of mythical heroes such as Robin Hood.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Review the various ways in which Johannes Gutenberg‟sprinting press improved the art of reading.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have discussed the printing press and the part played by Johannes Gutenberg, the spread of secularism as well as the creation of Pocket Books by Manutius. We have also discussed the role of William Caxton in the promotion of popular culture.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt:
. The printing press was of different types;
. Gutenberg‟s was an early and a most impressive breakthrough;
. Secularism is a distinct humanism with its philosophy;
. About Manutius and his Pocket Books;
. William Caxton‟s role in the easy access to information.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1) With specific reference to Johannes Gutenberg, discuss the invention of the printing press.
2) Summarise the development of secularism.
3) Explain two ways in which Manutius ‟ Pocket Books differ from other books.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Childless, Diana (2008). Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books.
Crompton, Samuel Willard (2004). The Printing Press. Transforming Power of Technology. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (1980). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge: University Press.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (2005). The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe Cambridge: University Press.
Encyclopedia Britannica (2006). Printing. Retrieved 27 November.
Febvre, Lucien and Martin, Henri-Jean (1997). The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450 - 1800. London: Verso.
Julia C. Crick and Alexandra Walsham (2004). The Uses of Script and Print, 1300 - 1700. Cambridge: University Press,p. 20.
Man, John (2002). The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention that Changed the World. London: Headline Review.
McLuhan, Marshall (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. University of Toronto Press.
Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin and Joseph Needham (1985). Paper Printing. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: University Press.
Zeigler, J. (1997). Gutenberg, the Scriptoria and Websites. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 29(1), 36.
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