print culture

• The earliest print technology was developed in China, Japan, and Korea, involving a system of hand printing
• From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper
• Traditional Chinese books were folded and stitched at the side due to the thinness of the paper, preventing printing on both sides
• Skilled craftsmen in China could create books with remarkable accuracy, showcasing the beauty of calligraphy
• The imperial state in China was a major producer of printed material for a long time, especially for textbooks used in civil service examinations
• By the seventeenth century, merchants started using print for collecting trade information, and reading became a leisure activity
• The new readership in the seventeenth century preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays
• Many women in the seventeenth century began publishing their poetry and plays
• Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture, accompanying the rise of a new reading culture
• Print culture reached Japan when Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology
• The oldest Japanese printed book is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra in AD 868
• In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers regularly published their works, and books were cheap and abundant
• In the late 18th century, urban circles in Edo (later Tokyo) had illustrated collections of paintings involving artists and courtesans, with libraries and bookstores packed with hand-printed material of various types
• Print technology reached Europe when Chinese paper arrived in Europe via the Silk Route in the 11th century
• Paper made the production of manuscripts possible, carefully written by scribes
• In 1295, Marco Polo returned to Italy after exploring China and brought back this knowledge, spreading the technology to other parts of Europe
• As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to many different countries
• Book fairs were held at different places to facilitate the exchange of books
• The production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books because:
• Copying was an expensive, laborious, and time-consuming process
• Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be easily carried around or read
• Hence, the circulation of manuscripts remained limited
• By the early 15th century, woodblocks were widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple, brief texts
• Johann Gutenberg of Germany developed the first-known printing press in the 1430s, leading to quicker and cheaper reproduction of texts
• The first book printed by Gutenberg was the Bible, with about 180 copies produced in three years
• Between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe, with printers from Germany traveling to other countries to seek work and help start new presses
• The second half of the 15th century saw 20 million copies of printed books flooding the markets in Europe as book production boomed
• The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution
• The print revolution transformed people's lives, changing their relationship to information, knowledge, institutions, and authorities
• It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things
• Printing technology created a new reading public by reducing the cost of books and making production quicker and easier
• Access to books created a new culture of reading, reaching wider sections of people and changing oral culture to printed material
• Print technology created a challenge to religious practices by allowing wide circulation of ideas, leading to debates and discussions
• The impact of print culture on religion included Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, which led to the Protestant Reformation
• Print and popular religious literature stimulated individual interpretations of faith, leading to controls over publishers and booksellers by the Roman Church
• The 17th & 18th centuries saw a period of reading mania with increased literacy rates and the development of new forms of popular literature in print
• The periodical press developed, newspapers and journals carried information about current affairs, wars, trade, and scientific developments
• Print culture was believed to spread progress and enlightenment, with books seen as a means of changing society and liberating it from despotism
• Print culture created conditions for the French Revolution by popularizing Enlightenment ideas, creating a culture of dialogue and debate, and fostering literature critical of royalty
• Print culture influenced children, women, and workers by making primary education compulsory, producing school textbooks, and providing literature for different audiences