The Renaissance Computer: Knowledge Technology in the First Age of Print [Paperback]

Jonathan Sawday (Editor), Neil Rhodes (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0415220645 | ISBN-13: 978-0415220644 | Edition: 1

In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organising and disseminating knowledge.
As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including:
* the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity
*the effect of multimedia, orality and memory on education
*the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The latest in a series . . . this pioneering study . . . about how the emerging technology of printing revolutionised the concept of knowledge in Europe . . . is actually a rather fascinating bibliographical analysis.' - Steven Poole, The Guardian

About the Author

Neil Rhodes is Reader in English Literature at the university of St Andrews. His previous publications include The Power of Eloquence and English Renaissance Literature (1992), John Donne: Selected Prose (1987), and Elizabethan Grotesque (1980). Jonathan Sawday is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Strathclyde University. He is author of The Body Emblazoned (1995), and co-editor of Literature and the English Civil War.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (September 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415220645
• ISBN-13: 978-0415220644
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 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: #1,925,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God, what a great book, but beware of history nerds!, October 29, 2000

By 

kent dahlgren (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renaissance Computer: Knowledge Technology in the First Age of Print (Hardcover)

This book is a set of essays passing on the lessons of old to a generation who could really gain from an understanding of past and similar events.

Each author gets a chance to illustrate how the contentious events following the invention and deployment of printing technology mirrors the frustration of our current explosion of information. Its scarry how similar things are.

But this isn't simply a bunch of writings by a bunch of history nerds. These guys go way beyond, and its for this insightful vision that the book is worth far more than its asking price.

History has a great way of repeating itself, and its powerful to leverage history's lessons if one wants to lift himself above the fog of the tail chasers.

One author (sorry, I forget who) talks about how reading morphed from a verbal and social activity to one characterised by silence and solitude, and how the computer may allow us back to the social impacts of storytelling. This is notable because we all know how much more is retained when you read aloud and when it becomes a social activity.

But one essay in particular takes the reader into the dialog of 1500 something or other and I gotta be honest, I don't care _that_ much about history. Plus, almost all authors make the mistake of assuming the reader knows who they are talking about.

There's history buffs and there's those who are interested in history from a practical perspective. For the most part this book is for the practical.

Some of the authors could have benefited by realizing the powerful applicability of their work, and thus written it for the Homo-erectus man like me.

But I really enjoyed this book, I read it in just under a week, and I have a two year old and a newborn. There were times when I was wishing there was a way to write the authors to thank them for their good work. Then it occurred to me that I could by writing a review on Amazon.