The Print Revolution in Europe: How the Printing Press Radically Transformed History

Printing prompted radical transformations of Western civilization. From speech to science, Catholicism to capitalism, personhood to public administration, to the most fundamental rudiments of how we think, the invention of movable type by 1450 revolutionized virtually all aspects of human existence.

The most immediate, obvious effects of the printing press were its editing of language. Latin was the dominant tongue of literary discourse prior to the press' introduction; yet Diebert reports that its usage declined drastically in favor of vernacular tongues in the final decades of the 15^th century (1997: 65). Not only were vernacular languages the darling of the printers, the act of printing seems to have statically pinned them down (Eisenstein, 1968: 19).

The mass production of reading material "fostered the desire to legislate for 'correctness' in language": new punctuation was invented and standardized; ligatures were eliminated; spelling and grammar were made uniform (Ong, 1982: 130; Martin, 1988: 194, 232, 305; McLuhan, 1964: 175). The European linguistic map was now set in stone by the printers' "fortified language walls" separating one culture from another (Eisenstein, 1968: 19). The effects of widely available books within a culture, however, had an entirely opposite effect.

Checking the waves of printed matter issuing forth from the presses turned out to be a massive chore for ruling elites. The widest possible variety of material was produced by entrepreneurial printers seeking to maximize their profits (Deibert, 1997: 78). The abundance and cheapness of printed matter meant that it leaked out of all possible containment (Diebert, 1997: 65). Those that could not read listened to others reading aloud (Martin, 1988: 254).

Once begun, the flow of ideas could not be dammed up" universities placed large orders for their students; curious urbanites generated a market for calendars, almanacs and circulars, scores of the devout demanded Bibles and prayer-books (Diebert, 1997: 76; Martin, 1988: 222, 226).