Important Terms Of Print Culture And The Morden World Class 10, SST (History)

SECTION A — THE FIRST PRINTED BOOKS

1. The print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea first.
2. It was a system of hand-printing. From AD 594, books were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of wood blocks. Chinese books were folded and stitched at the sides.
3. Skilled craftsmen duplicated, with remarkable accuracy, the beautiful calligraphy.
4. China was a major producer of printed material for a long time.
5. 17th century: Print diversified. Merchants used print in their everyday life. Reading became a popular leisure activity. Rich women, wives of scholar-officials, published their plays and poetry.
6. By the 19th century : Western powers started exporting new technology to China. Shift from handprinting to mechanical printing. The oldest printed book known is a Japanese Buddhist book, the Diamond Sutra printed in AD 868.
7. Buddhist missionaries from China introduced handprinting technology in Japan around 768-770 AD.
   In the 18th century : Edo (Tokyo) published illustrated collection of paintings, showing urban culture; hundreds of books published on cooking, famous places, women, musical instruments, tea ceremony. etc. From Japan, this art travelled to Europe and the USA.

SECTION B — PRINT COMES TO EUROPE

1. In 1295, Marco Polo, a great Italian explorer, brought the art of wood block printing from China to Italy. From Italy it spread to other European countries.
2. So far handwritten, expensive books were written on vellum, a parchment made from the skin of animals, for the rich only.
3. Popularity of books led to book fairs in all parts of Europe but handwritten books were expensive, time-consuming, fragile and awkward to carry.
4. First Printing Press – invented by Johann Gutenberg of Germany in the 1430s.
5. Gutenberg, son of a merchant, mastered printing technique by 1448. First book he printed was the Bible. It took him 3 years to print 180 copies.
6. From 1450-1550 printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe. The second half of the 15th century saw 20 million printed books in Europe, by the 16th century the number was 200 million copies.
7. William Caxton set up the first printing press in England.
8. The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the Print Revolution.

SECTION C — PRINT REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT

1. Print Revolution transformed the lives of the people; changed their relationship to information and knowledge; opened up new ways of looking at things.
2. A New Reading Public emerged due to low cost of books, multiple production of books quickly, reaching out to an evergrowing eager readership.
3. Book reading led to a new culture of reading. Common people heard sacred texts in the forms of ballads recited and folk tales narrated, knowledge to them was given orally.
4. Oral Culture was now replaced by print culture.
5. Publishers chose themes which were enjoyed listening to, as rate of literacy was still low till the 20th century in most European countries. Books were sung and recited in gatherings in villages and taverns in towns.
6. Print led to religious debates and fear of print.
7. People could express their ideas in print and spread them. Fear of books spread.
8. Rebellious and irreligious thoughts could be spread by new books.
9. Many writers, artists, religious authorities and monarchs were worried about the loss of valuable literature due to uncontrolled printed works.
10. Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses in 1517, criticising the Roman Catholic Church for its many rituals. It ultimately led to a division within the Church and the beginning of Reformation and Protestantism in Christianity.
11. Luther translated the New Testament into German and it sold 5,000 copies in a few weeks. Lather called Printing. “the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”.
12. Dissent became a part of print. The clergy became afraid of the new awakening.
13. Erasmus, a Latin scholar and a Catholic reformer, expressed deep fear of printing, accusing the printers for filling the world with slanderous, irreligious and seditious books.
14. Catholic Church began inquisition to repress heretical ideas.
15. They began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
16. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the rise of literacy rates in almost all parts of Europe.
17. This led to the reading mania. People wanted more books.
18. Ideas of Issac Newton, Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Rousseau reached a larger public and their ideas about science, reason and nation became popular literature.
19. Result was different types of books being published – Ballads, almanacs, newspapers, magazines, journals.
20. They gave information about current affairs, prices of various commodities, new discoveries, socio-cultural and political functions.
21. Booksellers sold books through hawkers, from village to village. Chapbooks (cheap books sold for a penny) were sold by hawkers called chapmen in England, low-priced books called Bibliotheque Bleue sold in France.
22. By the mid-18th century books were believed to be means of spreading progress and enlightenment. Books would liberate society from the tyranny and despotism. Reason and intellect would reign.
23. Mercier, a French novelist, proclaimed : ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
24. Many historians believe that it was the print culture that created conditions which led to the French Revolution.
25. 19th century saw children, women and workers becoming new readers.
26. Books for children, textbooks, folk tales were published.
27. Women not only became important readers but also writers. Some of the best known novelists of the 19th century were women – Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot.
28. Lending libraries in England became instruments of education for white-collar workers, artisans and lower middle-class people.
29. Innovations in Print technology were made throughout the 19th century – (i) Power-driven cylindrical press produced 8000 sheets per hour, (ii) Offset press developed and printed up to six colours at a time (iii) electrically-operated presses accelerated printing operations.
30. New strategies in selling – (i) Serialised novels (ii) Cheap series called the Shilling Series (iii) The dust cover jacket.
31. The Great Depression of the 1930s led to cheap paperback editions.
32. Impact of Print Revolution felt in reading, publishing, growth of ideas, knowledge and new ways of looking at things.