Print culture and the Modern World

The earliest kind of printing technology was first evolved in the East Asian countries like
China, Japan, and Korea.

Print in China

• From AD594 on wards books were printed by rubbing against an inked surface of an
woodblock.
• The papers were folded and stitched at the ends; thus, the Accordion book was
made.
• Skilled craftsmen and calligraphers were hired to duplicate the books.
• The Imperial China was the largest producer of printed material for a very long time
• Chinese started to print books for examinations conducted for bureaucratic positions
under the sponsorship of The Imperial State
• As urban culture bloomed, the print diversified, merchants, scholars, women, started
to read. Reading became a leisure activity
• The new reading public preferred romantic plays, autobiographies, fictional
narratives, and poetry.
• Rich women began to read and many women published their own narratives and
plays. Wives of scholars stared to publish books.
• The western printing technologies and mechanical printing were imported in the late
19th century.
• Shanghai became the hub of printing.

Print in Japan

• The Buddhist missionaries from China ,introduced the printing technology in Japan
• The oldest printed book was the Diamond Sutra.
• Japan started to print visual materials.
• In the 18th century, urban cities like Edo produced illustrated collections of paintings.
These paints illustrated about the urban culture.

Print in Europe

• For centuries, silk, spices and paper flooded from China into Europe.
• In 1295 Marco Polo returned to Italy from China, and he brought the technology of
woodblock printing in Europe.
• Italians began to produce books through wood block printing, but still expensive
editions were hand printed on luxury vellums for the aristocratic circles.
• As the demand of books increased, the booksellers started to appoint scribes for the
production of manuscripts
 • The production of manuscripts could not meet the growing demand of print. As
manuscripts were expensive, time consuming, they were very fragile to carry
around.

Gutenberg Printing press

• Gutenberg was a son of a German merchant

• His knowledge of olive press provided the model for new printing press.
• Gutenberg’s first printing press was developed in 1430s.
• The first book printed by Gutenberg was The Bible.
• He perfected his design in 1448.
• He printed about 180 Bibles in just three years.
• The first printed books by Gutenberg resembled handwritten manuscripts in the
appearance and layout.

Rise of Print Revolution

• Gradually mechanical print press was set up in the countries of Europe between
1450 to 1550.
• Printers from Germany travelled to many parts of Europe to help them set new
printing presses. As a result, book production boomed!
• The second half of the 15th century saw nearly 20 million copies of printed books,
whereas the 16th century saw about 200 million copies of printed books.
• The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing as led to The Print Revolution.

Hearing public to reading public

• Earlier , reading was restricted to only elites

• Common people before the arrival of printing press, were living in a world of oral
culture.
• They heard to scared texts, stories, songs and ballads.
• The arrival of books changed the scope of communication, illiterates could not read
books. So they enjoyed listening to books being read out. Thus, printed material was
orally transmitted.
• As only literates could read and the rate of literates were very low till the 12 th
century.
• To expand and widen the printing world, printers started to produce popular ballads
and folk tales with lot of illustrated pictures. They were then sung in the gatherings in
villages

Print and Religious debates

• Print created the possibility of wider circulation of ideas and has introduced to a
world of debate and discussion.
 • People who disagreed with the establishment of the authorities could now print the
message and persuade people to think different.
• Not everyone welcomed print, and those who did feared about it. Especially the
authorities and the monarchs, feared that if there was no control on what is being
printed and read, the irreligious and rebellious thoughts will be speared. If it happens
the ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed.

Martin Luther

• Martin Luther a religious reformer wrote ‘Ninety-five theses’ in 1517, criticising the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
• He nailed his copies in the doors of the Wittenberg Church. He invited the Roman
Catholic Church to debate on his thoughts.
• Martin Luther’s copies were reproduced vastly. Which to in turn lead to a division
within the church and kick-started the ‘Protestant Reformation’.
‘ Printing is the ultimate gift of god and the greatest one.’

Printing and dissent

• Menocchio a miller in Italy, started to read books available in his locality
• Menocchio read the Bible and reinterpreted the message and formulated a different
view about God and Creation.
• This enraged The Roman Catholic Church and he was later executed.
• The church even imposed sever control over publishers and maintained an Index of
Prohibited Books from 1558.

Reading mania
• The 17th and 18th witnessed a steady rise in the literacy rates.
• The churches of different dominations started to set up schools and took literacy to
peasants and artisans.
• By the end of 18th century literacy rates were as high as 60-80%
• Book sellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages to sell books in small
quantity.
• In England, penny chapbooks were sold by petty pedlars known as chapmen, for a
single penny so the even poor would buy them
• In France Biliotheque Bleue, were sold for a very low price as these books were
printed on poor quality papers and bound in cheap blue covers.
• Almanacs or ritual calendars, ballads, folktales and romances were printed on four to
six pages.
• Printing almanacs, ballads, folktales, penny chapbooks, Bibliothèque Bleue, and
periodicals became common.
• Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade, and even about
the developments in different places.
Ideas of Scientists and Philosophers

• The ideas and discoveries of scientists like Isaac Newton were published, widening
and influencing other scientists.
• The thinkings of philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Thomas Panie were widely
circulated. The ideas and thoughts of scientists and philosophers enlighten people’s
mind

Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!

• By the mid-18th century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of
spreading progress and enlightenment.
• Many believed that books could change the world and liberate society from
despotism.
• Louise Sebastien a novelist in France declared that; ‘The printing press is the most
powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep
despotism away’.

Print Culture and the French Revolution

• Many historians argued that the print culture created the conditions for French
Revolution.
• Three types of arguments have been usually put forward:

1. The print popularised the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers

• Their writings eventually criticised on despotism, tradition, and
superstition. They argued and promoted for the rule of reason rather
than the custom.
• Demanded that everything should be judged based on reasons and
rationality. They and questioned the authority of church and
monarchs
• The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were widely read by people,
people who read their writings saw the world with different eyes, eyes
that were questioning the customs and practices.
2. Print created a new culture of debate and discussion
• People began to question the beliefs and institutions
• All values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by
the public
• The people were now aware about the power of reason, and
recognised the need for questing.
3. Literature mocking Royalty
• By the 1780s, literature mocking royalty and questioning their morality became
widespread.
 • Cartoons and caricatures suggested the monarchy was out of touch with the
sufferings of common people, spreading negative feelings towards the ruling class.

Children as readers

• With the advent of primary education for children became compulsory

in the late 19th century, children became an important category of readers.
• An exclusive children’s press was set up in France in 1857. Which published
new works as well as old fairy tells and folk tells.
• The Grimm brothers from Germany compiled stories from peasants
and published them in 1812. Rural folk tells were thus recorded in a new form.

Women as readers
• Women became the most important category of readership.
• Penny magazines that were meant for women, elaborated about proper behaviour
and housekeeping
• Women also rose to became influential writers in the late 19th century. Some of the
famous writers were Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters. Jane Austen’s famous novels are
Pride and Prejudice, Lady Susan, Sense and Sensibility and etc.
• Women writers started publishing a new defined women figure who was strong willed
and determined.

Commoners
• Lending libraries have been in existence from 17th century
• In the 19th lending libraries helped white collar workers, artisans and lower middle-
class people to read.
• In the mid-19th century, the work day was shortened, thus works had time for self-
expression and improvement

Further innovations
• By the late 18th century, the press came to be made out of metal.
• By the mid-19th century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power driven
by the cylindrical press, which was capable of printing 8000 sheets per hour. This
press was particularly useful for printing newspapers.
• Printers and publishers continuously developed new strategies to sell their products.
• In 1920s famous books were sold in cheap series called ‘Shilling series’.
 Printing in India

Manuscripts
• India has a rich and old tradition of manuscripts in a myriad languages including
Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and a number of vernacular languages.
• Manuscripts were very fragile, expensive, delicate, laborious and time consuming.
• Manuscripts continued to be in use even after print became popular.

Printing press in India

• Portuguese missionaries were the first to bring the printing press to India in the mid -
16th century.
• Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and Kanara language and printed about 50 books by
1674.
• In 1710, the Dutch protestant missionaries printed about 32 Tamil books
• In 1713, the Malayalam book was printed by the Catholic priests.

Early printing press ‘The Bengal Gazette’

• The English East India Company imported English printing press in the late 17 th
century.
• In 1780s, Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine was edited by James Augustus Hickey.
• That described itself as ‘a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’. It
was a private English enterprise.
• James Augustus Hickey published a lot advertisements, including those related to
sales of salves.
• James also published a lot of gossips about the Company’s senior officials, which
enraged the Governor General, to persecute Hickey.
• By the close of 18th century, a number newspapers and journals appeared in print.
There were Indians too, the first published Indian newspaper was ‘The Bengal
Gazette’, bought by Gangadhar, who was close to Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Religious debate and discussion

• From the early 19th century, there was an intense religious debate. Print helped to
shape the nature of debate by allowing a wider public to participate in the discussion
and share their opinions about these clashes. New ideas emerged through these
clashes.
• It was the time of intense of clashes between the social and religious reformers and
the Hindu Orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation also known as Sati,
monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood, and idolatry.
 • In 1821, Raja Ram Mohan Roy published ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ to encounter his ideas
about the Hindu Orthodoxy’s practices and rituals. To which the Hindu orthodoxy
replied with ‘Samachar Chandrika’.

Religious publications
• In 1822, Persian newspapers, Jam-I-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akbar and a Gujarati
newspaper Bombay Samachar were published.
• The ulama or the Islamic scholars set up cheap lithographic presses and printed
Persian and Urdu translations of the holy scriptures.
• Ulamas (legal scholars of Isam) also printed newspapers, tracts, and even legal
pronouncements or fatwas. The Deoband Seminary published thousands of fatwas to
instruct Muslims.

Religious publications