The Development and Impact of the Printing Press, Term Paper Example

From an historical perspective, the invention of the printing press is perhaps the most important event in the history of the world, due to its vast influence on civilization and the necessity created by the printing press to learn how to read and write. According to Christopher Butler, the chain of events that ultimately led to the development of the printing press began sometime around the 12th century C.E. with the “rise of towns in Western Europe that sparked trade with the outside world” (2007), especially in China and Japan. This trade explosion introduced European traders and entrepreneurs to two pivotal elements that were needed for the development and acceptance of the printing press–rag paper, block printing, and the creation of permanent types of ink that would not fade.

Long before the printing press arrived in Europe, the Chinese had been using what is known as rag paper, made from water-based pulp and rags that was then pressed into sheets of paper and used mostly for writing. In 751 A.D., the Chinese Tang Dynasty met and fought the Arab Moslems at the Battle of the Talas River and upon being victorious, the Arabs captured several Chinese soldiers who were skilled at making rag paper. Soon after, paper-making as a skilled trade spread across the Muslim world and into Spain which at the time was under the domination of the Moors (Butler, 2007). However, at this time, the only printing method available was using the sheets of rag paper for prints or for blocks of wood with letters engraved upon them, meaning that all of the printed word blocks were identical and could not be changed.

Of course, this limitation made it mandatory for some kind of movable type made from metal. Fortunately, the growth of towns in Western Europe, particularly in England, France, Spain, and Germany, created an economic boom related to mining for metals like gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron. This was especially true in Germany where “improved techniques for working metals, including soft metals such as gold and copper, flourished and grew (Butler, 2007). Around the first decade of the 15th century, metalworkers and fabricators began to create crude forms of printing presses based on ancient Chinese illustrations that had been brought back to Europe by Marco Polo some two hundred years earlier.

But the first individual to develop a true printing press was Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith from the city of Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s first attempt at building a printing press failed, but after several years of experimentation, he devised the first working printing press. This device consisted of “durable and interchangeable metal type that allowed Gutenberg to print many different pages, using the same letters over and over again in different combinations” (Butler, 2007).

What this meant was that Gutenberg could print copies of a book as opposed to the old-fashioned method of hand-printed books which took years to complete. Thus, in 1451, Gutenberg revolutionized civilization by combining “all of these disparate elements of movable type, rag paper, the squeeze press, and oil based inks” (Butler, 2007) into a machine that could provide books and pamphlets to a vast reading audience, rather than just to kings and queens and members of the aristocracy.

At first, most of the books printed by Gutenberg were religious texts, such as the Holy Bible, sermons, and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Gutenberg also devised a way with movable type to copy illuminated manuscripts that were all handwritten in the past. In this way, Gutenberg could provide books to the masses which against the advise of some royal observers would allow the common man and woman to read. Over the course of some twenty years, the subject matter of books printed by Gutenberg and other German publishers included books on geology, astronomy, Latin grammar and rhetoric, history, and religious history. Most of these topics appealed to a growing group of professional persons that belong to guilds and other trade professions. But slowly, the printed word began to be accepted by everyone regardless of social class or standing which included the peasantry. Not surprisingly, this created much unease within the upper classes of the aristocracy who were afraid that once common people learned how to read, the power of the aristocracy would suffer and decline.

By the late 15th century, there were an estimated one hundred printing presses in Europe with the bulk being in Italy and Germany. At this time, Aldus Manutius, a printer living in the city of Venice, Italy,  created a brand-new market for the printed book when he “realized that the  market was not for big heavy volumes of the Bible, but for smaller, cheaper, and easier to handle” books could be carried in a person’s pocket (Butler, 2007). This was the beginning of the “pocket book” version which revolutionized book copying by “focusing on smaller editions that more people could afford.” Manutius also helped to spread knowledge by printing books on a wide range of topics, particularly Greek and Roman classics, which further helped to create the European Renaissance and the spread of humanism and secularism (Burke, 1999, p. 241).

By the early 1500’s, the printing press had made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of North America to become an “integral part of Western culture” in relation to spreading the ideals of democracy and the political vision of the men associated with the Age of Reason or the Age of Enlightenment of the late 1600’s.

In 1536, the first book to be printed in North America appeared in Mexico via the Jesuit missionaries; some one hundred years later, the printing press arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts via the Pilgrims of the Bay Colony who wished to provide “reading material for the spiritual edification of the colonists.” The first true book to be printed in the Colonies was the Bay Psalms Book of 1640, printed by Stephen Day. At this time, paper, ink, and presses were being imported from Europe and as the popularity of the printed word grew in the Colonies, America’s first paper mill was established in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1690 which illustrates the high demand for printed material by the Colonists (On Printing in America, 2015).

One of the first American colonists to take advantage of the arrival of the printing press was William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who “brought a master printer by the name of William Bradford to Philadelphia,” where Bradford printed religious publications and other printed material.” However, Bradford quickly discovered that he “could not run a profitable business under the oppressive moral code that ruled Penn’s colony,” so he left for New York City where he established the New York Gazette, the first newspaper in that city and one of the first in New England (On Printing in America, 2015).

Many American historians and scholars have suggested that without the printing press, the American Revolution would not have happened. In many ways, this is an accurate observation, due to the fact that newspapers and periodicals helped to spread “heated propaganda among the people” and how Mother England and King George III were attempting to control the colonies. Also, the newspapers “announced the Declaration of Independence as well as Lord Cornwallis’ surrender” which ended the American Revolution and brought freedom and democracy to the United States (On Printing in America, 2015).

Before and during the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin single-handedly brought the power of the printing press to the American people. In 1730, he began to publish one of the most influential newspapers of the day–the Pennsylvania Gazette which served as a foundation for other American newspapers and periodicals. By the end of the American Revolution, the printing press could be found in every major American city and in many small towns throughout the country. In effect, the presence of the printing press and the power of the printed word changed history forever by allowing knowledge and information to be spread among America’s citizens which by the 20th century was responsible for America becoming a world power and the best example of a nation imbued with freedom and independence.

References

Burke, P. (1999). The Italian Renaissance: Culture and society in Italy. NJ: Princeton University Press.

Butler, C. (2007). The invention of the printing press and its effects. Retrieved from http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/11/FC74

On printing in America. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.waldenfont.com/content.asp?contentpageID=7