Gutenberg and the Impact of Printing [Hardcover]

Stephan Fussel (Author), Douglas Martin (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0754635376 | ISBN-13: 978-0754635376 | Publication Date: February 28, 2005

From typefounding through typesetting to the printing process itself, this narrative offers a fresh look at the unprecedented success story of the spread of the 'black art' right across Europe in a mere 40 years. Stephan Fuessel here analyses the first early printings, placing them in context the history of communication and the intellectual climate of a Europe-wide educated elite by about 1500. He foregrounds the tremendous rise European culture and the history of education experienced as a direct result of this media revolution. In separate chapters Fuessel depicts the fast spreading of the art of printing to Italy, France and England, at the same time highlighting the importance of the art of printing for the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation, the University and the economy. From herbals to a guide for midwives, the present book shows popular instruction at work in the vernacular, as well as the consolidation of knowledge into encyclopedias in the early modern period, and the emergence of new forms of the prose novel and the beginnings of newspapers and periodicals. Finally Stephan Fuessel traces the modern resonances of Gutenberg's invention, which persisted in virtually unchanged form for a further 350 years. It underwent decisive technological change through industrialisation and mechanisation in the nineteenth century, and again through digitalisation at the close of the twentieth century. However, as Fuessel shows, the mass diffusion of information and the related communications revolution which began with Gutenberg continue unabated.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Professor Dr Stephan Fussel occupies the Gutenberg Chair at Mainz University, and is Director of the Institute for Book Studies there. He has published extensively in the fields of incunabula research, the publication ethos of Germany's classical authors, and the competitive media position of the book for the future. He edits the Gutenberg-Jahrbuch and is Vice President of the Willibald-Pirkheimer-Gesellschaft for research into the Renaissance and Humanism.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754635376
• ISBN-13: 978-0754635376
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,659,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gutenberg: without him, you wouldn't be on computer, March 19, 2010

By 

Maxine A. Hartley "Zimra" (Carneys Point, NJ & Crystal Beach, ON) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gutenberg and the Impact of Printing (Hardcover)

Any development to where we are now in reading and writing began with Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany with his invention of moveable type. Stephan Fussel produced this beautiful book on the Great Man in German. It was translated by Douglas Martin. Gutenberg, about whom there is no actual birth date, is considered to have come of age in 1420 when he is mentioned in connection with the division of his father's estate. Although there are gaps in his life, in 1450 he took out a loan and that year, he could set up and print broadsides and books.

In 1999, a team of American journalists voted Gutenberg to be "Man of the Millenium" since via his invention, he set up "the conditions for all other intellectual, political or religious changes in the centuries ahead." (Foreward, p. 7)

We take everything for granted, reading, writing, the computer and its derivatives. Try to imagine a time before moveable type created the mass printing of books when knowledge was in the hands of a privileged few and not democratized. And still, it would take a couple of centuries before books could be afforded by the "common" man.

I simply cannot stress enough the importance of Gutenberg. He also had a strong character, spending more than his money allowed to create and carry on with his invention; moving forward in his passion while debtors chased him continually and tried to shut him down. But nothing could dissuade him from continuing.

The edition itself was printed in Burlington, Vermont by Ashgate Publishing in 2003. If you like to have a look at old manuscripts, you'll get your fill here. There are several plates throughout of works first published, such as: the 48-line Bible and on to plates of works produced in the 16th Century in their original fonts and languages.

The production of the book by Ashgate is a masterpiece as well as historical. It has an honoured place among the books of my library.