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
4 - The scriptural tradition recast: resetting the stage for the Reformation
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
Between 1517 and 1520, Luther's thirty publications probably sold well over 3 00,000 copies… Altogether in relation to the spread of religious ideas it seems difficult to exaggerate the significance of the Press, without which a revolution of this magnitude could scarcely have been consummated. Unlike the Wycliffite and Waldensian heresies, Lutheranism was from the first the child of the printed book, and through this vehicle Luther was able to make exact, standardized and ineradicable impressions on the mind of Europe. For the first time in human history a great reading public judged the validity of revolutionary ideas through a mass-medium which used the vernacular languages together with the arts of the journalist and the cartoonist…
As this citation suggests, the impact of print, which is often overlooked in discussions of the Renaissance, is less likely to go unnoted in Reformation studies. In this latter field, historians confront a movement that was shaped at the very outset (and in large part ushered in) by the new powers of the press. ‘The Reformation was the first religious movement’ it has been said, ‘which had the aid of the printing press.’ Even before Luther however, Western Christendom had already called on printers to help with the crusade against the Turks. Church officials had already hailed the new technology as a gift from God – as a providential invention which proved Western superiority over ignorant infidel forces.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Printing Press as an Agent of Change , pp. 303 - 450Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980