Synopses & Reviews
This magisterial study re-examines the relationship between manuscript and print in the early modern period.
Review
"The chapters are full of fascinating detail about the complexity of relations between manuscript and print." SEL Studies in English Literature, Achsah Guibbory, Recent Studies in the English Renaissance
Review
"It is a worthy contribution to a growing revisionist literature devoted to the history of print in the era between Gutenberg and full-scale industrialization...this is an excellent book." History of Intellectual Culture
Synopsis
This book re-examines fundamental aspects of what has been widely termed the printing revolution of the early modern period. David McKitterick argues that many of the changes associated with printing were only gradually absorbed over almost 400 years, a much longer period than usually suggested. From the 1450s onwards, the printed word and image became familiar in most of Europe. For authors, makers of books, and readers, manuscript and print were henceforth to be understood as complements to each other, rather than alternatives.
Synopsis
Now available in paperback, this magisterial study re-examines fundamental aspects of what has been widely termed the printing revolution of the early modern period, and argues that many of the changes associated with printing were only gradually absorbed over almost 400 years, a much longer period than usually suggested.
About the Author
David McKitterick is Fellow and Librarian at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Table of Contents
Contents; List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1. The printed work and the modern bibliographer; 2. Dependent skills; 3. Pictures in motley; 4. A house of errors; 5. Perfect and imperfect; 6. The art of printing; 7. Reevaluation: towards the modern book; 8. Machinery and manufactures; 9. Instabilities: the inherent and the deliberate; Index.