Learning Objective
- The First Printed Books
- Print Comes to Europe
- The Print Revolution and Its Impact
- The Reading Mania
- The Nineteenth Century
- India and the World of Print
- Religious Reform and Public Debates
- New Forms of Publication
- Print and Censorship
The First Printed Books
- China, Japan, and Korea pioneered early print technology, initially using hand printing methods. China notably began printing books via paper rubbing around AD 594, with books folded and stitched on both sides.
- For a long time, China led in print production, especially for civil service exam textbooks. Print became more widespread beyond scholar-officials; merchants used it for trade information, and reading became a leisure pursuit.
- Wealthy women even published their poetry and plays. In the late 19th century, Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were introduced.
Print in Japan
- Buddhist missionaries from China brought hand-printing technology to Japan around AD 768-770. The oldest Japanese book, the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, dates back to AD 868, featuring six text sheets and woodcut illustrations.
- Visual printing sparked unique publishing practices, with late 19th-century collections depicting urban culture and bookstores brimming with hand-printed material on various topics like women and musical instruments.
Print Comes to Europe
- Marco Polo introduced woodblock printing to Europe upon his return from China. This technology quickly spread across the continent. As demand for books grew, booksellers began exporting them to various countries.
- Handwritten manuscripts couldn’t keep up, so Europe turned to woodblocks for printing textiles, playing cards, and religious images with short texts. Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press in the 1430s.
Gutenberg and the Printing Press
- Gutenberg, skilled in stone polishing, used his expertise to develop a new printing technology. His innovation’s first book was the Bible. Despite this advancement, hand-produced books persisted, especially for wealthy clients who valued decorative space on printed pages.
- From 1450 to 1550, printing presses spread across Europe, marking a shift from hand to mechanical printing and igniting the printing revolution.
The Print Revolution and Its Impact
The Print Revolution wasn’t just about printing books; it revolutionized people’s lives, altering how they accessed information and interacted with institutions and authorities.
A New Reading Public
- The print revolution slashed book costs, flooding markets and expanding readership. It democratized reading, shifting from elite exclusivity to a broader audience.
- Previously, only the literate could access books, with others hearing sacred texts read aloud. Printers adapted, publishing illustrated ballads and folk tales for non-readers. This shift merged oral and print cultures, with printed materials often orally transmitted.
Religious Debates and the Fear of Print
Print sparked debate and concern, with fears over its impact on minds. Some worried about spreading rebellious or irreligious ideas. In 1517, Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses criticized Roman Catholic Church practices. Printed copies of his text divided the Church and sparked the Protestant Reformation.
Print and Dissent
In the 16th century, Menocchio’s reinterpretation of the Bible angered the Roman Catholic Church, leading to his execution. By 1558, the Church started keeping a list of banned books called the Index of Prohibited Books.
The Reading Mania
- In the 17th and 18th centuries, literacy rates rose across Europe as schools and literacy programs expanded. With increased education came a demand for more books. Entertainment-based reading materials became popular among ordinary readers, with books serving diverse purposes and interests.
- From the early 18th century, periodicals emerged, blending current affairs with entertainment. Journals and newspapers covered wars, trade, and global developments, while also disseminating scientific discoveries like those of Isaac Newton, influencing scientifically-minded readers.
‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’
- By the mid-18th century, books were seen as vehicles for progress and enlightenment. French novelist Louise-Sebastien Mercier believed the printing press was a potent force for shaping public opinion and challenging despotism.
- Mercier boldly declared that despots should fear the power of the written word, stating, “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!”
Print Culture and the French Revolution
Historians argue that print culture played a pivotal role in fueling the conditions for the French Revolution through three key mechanisms:
- Popularizing Enlightenment ideas: Print widely disseminated the critical thoughts of Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau, challenging traditional beliefs and despotic rule.
- Fostering a culture of dialogue: Print encouraged public debate, paving the way for new ideas, including those advocating for social revolution.
- Satirical literature and critique of royalty: By the 1780s, literature mocking royalty and critiquing their morality became widespread, contributing to growing discontent.
Print didn’t directly shape minds but provided avenues for new ways of thinking, allowing people to accept, reject, and interpret ideas independently.
The Nineteenth Century
In the 19th century, mass literacy in Europe expanded significantly, with a surge in new readers among children, women, and workers.
Children, Women and Workers
- In the late 19th century, primary education became mandatory in many places. Children’s literature gained traction, with the establishment of a children’s press in France in 1857. The Grimm Brothers collected traditional folk tales in Germany, reshaping rural stories.
- Women became prominent readers and writers, with magazines and manuals catering to them. Additionally, lending libraries in England served as educational tools for white-collar workers, artisans, and the lower-middle class.
Further Innovations
- By the late 18th century, metal replaced wood in press production. Printing technology continued to evolve in the 19th century with innovations like Richard M’s power-driven cylindrical press, ideal for newspapers.
- The offset method emerged, enabling simultaneous printing in six colors. In the 20th century, electric presses sped up operations, alongside improvements in paper feeding, plate quality, and the introduction of automatic paper reels and photoelectric color register controls.
India and the World of Print
Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
- India boasts rich traditions of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and vernacular languages, copied on palm leaves or handmade paper.
- Even after print’s introduction, manuscript production persisted, valued despite being costly and fragile. In Bengal, writing was prioritized over reading in education, resulting in many literate individuals who never read texts.
Print Comes to India
- In the mid-16th century, Portuguese missionaries introduced the first printing press to Goa. They printed the first Tamil book in 1579 in Cochin and the first Malayalam book in 1713.
- The English press arrived later in India, despite the East India Company importing presses from the late 17th century. James Augustus Hickey edited the weekly magazine Bengal Gazette, which published advertisements and gossip about Company officials. By the late 18th century, several newspapers and journals emerged in print.
Religious Reform and Public Debates
- In the early 19th century, religious issues sparked intense debates and reform movements. Printed tracts and newspapers disseminated new ideas and fueled debates on topics like widow immolation, monotheism, and idolatry.
- Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi in 1821, followed by Persian newspapers like Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar in 1822. The Gujarati newspaper Bombay Samachar was established the same year.
- The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, issued numerous fatwas guiding Muslim conduct and explaining Islamic doctrines. Print also promoted reading of religious texts in vernacular languages, fostering discussions and creating pan-Indian identities through newspapers.
New Forms of Publication
- As more people became interested in reading, new forms of writing emerged. In Europe, the novel gained popularity, borrowing from Indian styles and forms. Other literary forms like lyrics, short stories, and essays on social and political topics also emerged.
- By the late 19th century, a new visual culture emerged with cheap calendars available in markets, shaping ideas about modernity, tradition, religion, politics, and society. Caricatures and cartoons published in journals and newspapers began commenting on social and political issues by the 1870s.
Women and Print
- Women’s reading surged in middle-class households, with schools for women established in cities and journals advocating for female education. However, conservative Hindus and Muslims held reservations, fearing widowing and corruption respectively.
- Social reforms and novels stirred interest in women’s lives and emotions. By the early 20th century, women-authored journals gained popularity, particularly in Bengal’s Battala area, known for printing popular books.
- These books, richly illustrated with woodcuts and lithographs, were distributed by peddlers, allowing women leisure reading at home.
Print and the Poor People
- Cheap books were bought at markets. Public libraries were set up mostly located in cities and towns. In the late 19th century, caste discrimination started coming up in many printed tracts and essays.
- Factory workers lacked the education to write much about their experience. In 1938, Kashibaba wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation. In the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves.
Print and Censorship
- Under the East India Company, censorship wasn’t a concern initially. However, regulations controlling press freedom were introduced by the Calcutta Supreme Court. In 1835, Governor-General Bentinck revised press laws based on Thomas Macaulay’s rules, restoring earlier freedoms.
- After the 1857 revolt, press freedom changed. The Vernacular Press Act of 1878, inspired by Irish Press Laws, granted extensive government rights to censor vernacular press reports and editorials. The government began monitoring vernacular newspapers. Nationalist newspapers multiplied across India. In 1907, Punjab revolutionaries were deported, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s sympathetic writings about them in his Kesari led to his imprisonment in 1908.
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