Print

THE PRINT REVOLUTION (1450-1789) THE PRINT REVOLUTION • 1450-1789 • Gutenberg (approx. 1450 movable metal types) • China and Japan (8th c.) • By the 16th c. presses – 80 in Italy, 52 Germany, 43 France. • 27000 editions (average of 500 copies per edition). • Paris and Venice In Russia and in the Christian orthodox world more generally… • Slow penetration (very low literacy rate) • This changed when Peter the great (1686-1725) founded: a press in St Petersburg Senate Press Naval Academy Press Academy of Science Press • Literacy and education were to the Tsar a way to make Russians familiar with modern science and technology In the Muslim world • Resistance throughout the early modern period • Turkey: a sin to print religious books Print and dispotism • Henry Oldenburg (1659): absence of print is favourable to dispotism (the turk emporor exploits the ignorance that impose on the people) • Samuel Hartlib (1641): people, knowing their own rights and liberties, will not be governed by way of opprression • De Condorcet (1795): printing, like writing, the progress of the human mind Positions “against” the print • Scribes • Churchmen (print allowed readers to study religious texts for themselves) • Governments 17th century (information explosion) • The rise of newspaper increased anxieties about the effects of print • Need of new methods of information management (as today with the Internet, selection and criticism of books and authors) • Middle ages – paucity of informations and books; 16th c. problem is superfluity (subject bibliographies – necessary) Lord Acton account of printing (“on the study of history” – 1895) • Knowledge accessible to a wider audience • Enable later generations to bulid on the intellectual work of earlier ones (middle ages – many ideas were lost) Changes in the occupational structure of European cities • Printers • Proof-correcting rise of: • Booksellers • librarians Can print be considered a revolution? Elizabeth Einstein (“the unacknoledged revolution”) 1979 • Print standardized and preserved knowledge which had been much more fluid in the age of oral or manuscript circulation • and encouraged the critique of authority making incompatible views of the same subject more widely avalaible Reconsidering the print revolution (critiques to Einstein’s theory) • 1) Can a revolution which is not rapid be regarded as a revolution? (Raymond Williams) • 2) to speak of printing as the agent of change places too much emphasis on the medium at the expense of writers, printers and readers. • 3) in order to assess the social and cultural consequences of the invention of printing is necessary to look at the media as a whole, as a system. This means emphasizing the division of labour between the different means of communication and relating changes in the media system to changes in the transportation system: the communication of messages is (was) part of the system of physical communication Print was contributing to the increasing uniformity of national languages, a process which was also encouraged by the publication of grammars of different European languages; this validates Einstein’s point about the connections between printing and standardizaiton of languages Physical communication (transport and communication) • Information flows followed trade flows (ex: silver route from Mexico or Perù to Europe, the sugar route, from the Caribbean to London) 16th-17th c. Increasing awareness of the problems of physical communication: • Governments concerned themselves more with roads • Rapid expansion of the postal system • In early modern europe transport by water was usually much cheaper than transport by land • 1837: electric telegraph: the traditional link between transport and communication of messages is broken Empire and communication • Karl Deutsch: “Communications are the nerves of the government” (especially important in large statesand far-flung empires) • Charles V (Spain-netherlands, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Perù)- traditional medieval style of nomadic kingship • Postal system (Tassis- Brussels-special couriers up tp 125 miles a day-massacre of St Bartholomew-poste haste) • Philip II (son and successor of Charles V): el rey papelero ( the king of paper) • The great problem was the lenght of time that documents took to reach him and the way round Transatlantic communication • 18th c – improvements in communications shrink the Atlantic • Ships – letters + books and newspapers • 17th c – romances of chivarly exported to Mexico and Perù, despite the disapproval of the clergy; in puritan New England more demand for printed sermons Kinds of oral communication • Remained important even after the invention of printing • Preaching (an accepted priestly duty) – streets-squares-churches (ecclesiastical rhetoric) • Luter: new printing “God’s highest gift of grace”, but “the church is still a mouth house and not a pen house” • Governments aware of the value of the pulpit for communicating informations (rural areas) + obedience • Academic: instruction took place through lectures, debates, formal speeches or declarations • Song, ballad • Rumour – “an oral postal service”, not always spontaneous (ex. The Great Fear in French) • New institutions which structured oral c: academies, salons, clubs, saloons and coffee-houses, that were kept under surveillance in most cities. • Development of commerce-rise of exchanges and bourses-the deliberate spreading of rumour in order to force prices up and down • Other centres of oral c: taverns, public baths Written communication • Early modern Europe- a society of restricted literacy (males-townspeople-protestants) • Mediated literacy-using literacy for the benefit of illiterate (public writer) • Political consequences of literacy: the spread of written records and with it dependence on the processing of information+rebellion were accompanied by the formulation of grievances in writing+petitions Languages of communication • Rise of a print society-rise of the vernacular languages of Europe • Medieval societies: written c-latin, oral c-local dialect • Print aided the process of the increasing employment of the vernaculars for literary purposes (standardization and codification) • Despite this, latin was still common (english ca 18th century) Visual communication • Works of art-communicative events • Secular paintings and religious paintings: s- communicated a greater variety of messages to smaller audiences; r-displayed in churches • Both were made on commission not for the market (selling first, producing afetrwards) Printed images • Rise of the market-rise of the print (the most profound change in visual comm in this period) • Prints-cheap to make and transport-reach relatively large numbers of people quickly (indians-saints-paintings-western european images) • Maps, globes-encouraged global consciousness • Narrative strip or picture story, ancestor of the 20th century comic strip Multimedia communication • Combine eye+ear, verbal+visual messages, the most effective were: • Rituals • Spectacles • Plays • Ballets • operas Rituals • Strong visual component • What could not be recorded nedded to be remembered-had to be presented in a memorable way. Ex: coronations of kings, homage of vassals to their lords, state visits to cities, processions, medieval jousts and tournaments, executions Who was saying what to whom through these rituals? • Ex: state visits to cities. City demonstrates loyalty to the prince+princes demonstrated their good will towards their subjects. But: - Foreign princes - Charles V entered Bruges in 1529 – the pageants drew attention to the economic decline of the city, which was being displaced as a centre of commerce by the port of Antwerp Spectacles • The “theatre” of the everyday life of the ruler (Louis XIV and Elizabeth I-princes are “set on stages”)-the rise of “spectacle state” and the “star system” in politics • Case study: the Florentine Festival of St Giovanni the Baptist-celebrate the power of Florence: religious+secular elements. Ritual=expression of the collective identity of the Florentines Theatre • Plays,operas, dramas, ballets • Rise in all the most important European cities Interactions between media • Iconotext: an image which depend for its interpretation on texts incorporated into it • Manuscripts Manuscripts • Used to transmit messages in a semi-public way (ex: in 18th c Russia secular literature circulated in m and orally because the few presses- religious books) • Used to evade religious, moral and political censorship (ex: Galileo’s letter to the Grand Duchess) • Used by coterie poets and other writers • Texts were more malleable than printed • Manuscript newsletters (1550-1640): sent in multiple copies to a limited number of subscribers Oral and printed media coexisted and interacted Censorship • A major preoccupation of political and religious authorities concerned with: • Political and religious ideas considered subversive What was censored? • Books • Plays (difficult/impossible to prevent actors from improvising subversive remarks in the course of performance) Catholic Church’s censorship: the Index of prohibited books • 1564-till 50 years ago • Printed books which the faithful were forbbiden to read • Heresy (Boccaccio’s Decameron) • Sedition • Immorality (Michelangelo’s last Judgement) • Magic Protestant censorship Less effective because of fragmentation into different churches with different adminisrative structures: • Lutheran • Calvinist In England Licensing Act (1662-1695): books have to be inspected by authorities before publications Clandestine communication • Unintended consequence of awakening interest in banned titles which some readers might not otherwise have known about. Messages communicated undergorund: • Secrets of governments • Commercial or technical secrets • Unorthodox religious ideas • Pornography Aspects of clandestine communication • Codes and ciphres • Raids on printers suspected of trading in forbbiden books • Pseudonyms of authors • Disguised identity of printers • False or imaginary place of publication • Actually to print abroad (not just claim to) • Printed books frequently smuggled accross frontiers • Communicating messages on two levels (method of Aesop)-metaphors Consequences of the rise of the print market • Printing was dangerous, but profitable • Bestsellers • Advertising in print (17th c) • 18th c novels like tv serials today • Rise of the idea of intellectual property (copyright act – 1709, international copyright 1887 ) as a consequence of consumer society and the spread of printing • Writing a path to individual fame • Venice (till 1547 Inquisition) island of relative tolerance of religious diversity • Amsterdam (a major centre of newspapers)- commercialization of information. Papers 1-2 a week written in latin, french and english: • The corrant out of Italy, Germany • Courant d’Italie • Gazette d’Amsterdam Instruction (information) and Entertainment • Books-newspapers – information and moral instruction • Entertainment literature – 18th c became part of the commercialization of leisure, alongside with concerts, horse-races and circuises The Print Revolution • 1) Critics of the print revolution: print is not an agent, but just a technology + too long period • 2) Defenders print is an agent (what made the change possible) Press: • Favoured the relative fixity of texts and facilited the accumulation of knowledge (oral culture was fluid) • Destabilized knowledge • Through newspapers contributed to the rise of public opinion Media and public sphere • The Reformation • Wars of Religion • The Revolt of the Netherlands • English Civil War • The Glorious Revolution • The French Revolution The Reformation • Luther translated the Bible in vernacular – no need for clerical mediation. So the debate that took place in Europe about this point contributed to the rise of critical tought and of public opinion. • The involvement of the people in the Reformation was both a cause and a consequence of the involvement of the media. • Thanks to the new medium of print. Luther could not be silenced or burnt Cause and Consequence • It was a cause because Luther’s reform (and more generally a reform of the Church) was the most important issue at the time • It was a consequence as well because thanks to the new medium an increasing number of people were involved. • Luther wrote in a kind of common denominator of dialects – German language • Luther, unlike Calvin, did not disapprove images • Propaganda and censorship were the answer of the Catholich church: they were religious before they became political • After 1520’s Lutherans turned into a church and public discussion declined The Religious Wars (2nd half of 16th century) • The French religious wars were fought not just with swords and guns, but also with the media (pamphlets, image-making and burning) • Protestant- book culture • Catholic- image culture • 16th c – iconoclasm (statues): communication through images was specifically prohibited in Calvinist areas The Revolt of the Netherlands (against Spanish dispotism - Philip II) • 1568-1648: a huge number of pamphlets • Printed images were used too • The political pamphlet was becoming a part of Dutch political life – • It was in the Netherlands, particularly in Amsterdam, that the newspaper became an institution, later on used in political fights The English Civil War • 1640’s a decade of crisis • English Civil war-media war: speeches, text (pamphlets and newspaper) - images, rituals (processions + image-breaking) • Debate about the freedom of the press: the outbreak of the war coincided with the outbreak of the English newspaper • Print-appeal to the people-extension of the public sphere The Glorious Revolution (1688) • William of Orange – a fundamental role of the media • His Declaration of the reasons of the invasion was printed and distributed before the invasion took place • “Glorious Revolution” was a name built at the time through the media • Rise of an unofficial periodical press, more informative than the official “Gazette” The French Revolution (1789) • Philosophes-Encyclopèdie (1751-1765), a major event in the history of mass comm. • Involvement of French Rev=cause and consequence of involvement of the media • French R. began with calls for a press • Rev.- a good business for the press-exciting news and readers – at least 250 newspapers founded in the last 6 months of 1789 • Oral c-important, a time of intense debate, speeches in the National Ass and in the political clubs in Paris • The conscious mobilization of the media in order to change attitudes may be described as propaganda • The use of the terms propaganda and public opinion became popular in this period