Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part One Introduction to an Elusive Transformation
- Part Two Classical and Christian Traditions Reoriented; Renaissance and Reformation Reappraised
- 3 A classical revival reoriented: the two phases of the Renaissance
- 4 The scriptural tradition recast: resetting the stage for the Reformation
- Part Three The Book of Nature Transformed
- Conclusion: Scripture and nature transformed
- Bibliographical index
- General index
3 - A classical revival reoriented: the two phases of the Renaissance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part One Introduction to an Elusive Transformation
- Part Two Classical and Christian Traditions Reoriented; Renaissance and Reformation Reappraised
- 3 A classical revival reoriented: the two phases of the Renaissance
- 4 The scriptural tradition recast: resetting the stage for the Reformation
- Part Three The Book of Nature Transformed
- Conclusion: Scripture and nature transformed
- Bibliographical index
- General index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
We all know…that down to the fifteenth century all European books were pen written and that ever since that time most of them have been printed. We know likewise that in that same fifteenth century Western culture laid off its medieval characteristics and became distinctively modern. But we are quite unable to conceive realistically any connection between these technological and cultural changes except that they happened in the same period.
This statement, which was made in 1940 by a professor of library science, describes a situation which seems current even now. Although the relationship between technology and culture in general has been the subject of a growing literature, the more specific relationship between the advent of printing and fifteenth-century cultural change has not yet been explored. This is partly because the very act of drawing connections is not as easy a task as one might think. Butler goes on to refer to an ‘intimate connection’ which becomes apparent ‘the moment our thought penetrates through bare facts,’ but I must confess I cannot imagine just what connection he had in mind. Although the shift from pen-written book to printed one may be taken as a known fact, it is not the kind of fact that can be said to ‘speak for itself’. As the previous chapter suggests, a complex ensemble of many interrelated changes was involved.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Printing Press as an Agent of Change , pp. 163 - 302Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980