The Book Trade Comes of Age: The sixteenth century

-With the printing press came a revival of ancient texts and their growth in popularity. A “humanist” education became popular that centered around the study of the languages and literatures of the classical world, especially ancient Greece and Rome. Publishing companies thrived.

-The Reformation and other religious movements caused new editions of bibles, translations, omissions, and updates that created a publishing boom . With the Lutheran church and the reformation came mass printings of pamphlets against the Catholic Church and their selling of indulgences. Luther went on to translate the bible into German, which led to further translations into Italian, French, Dutch, English, Spanish, and Polish. Another Protestant group led by Jean Calvin published their version of the bible and this led to ten subsequent editions printed in French, Dutch, and Italian. Many publications also resulted from the Catholic Church’s counter reformation publications and the demand of new textbooks in Jesuit schools.

-By this time printers were established in all major cities and the book trade began to be more controlled. Courts as well as religious authorities sought to regulate the book trade and censor. Books had to be licensed before publication to ensure religious censorship and the importation of books was controlled by state authorities. Authors had few rights over their work. Most book sales were in latin meaning many book buyers still belonged to the educated class but the sixteenth century also saw the growing proportion of books in the vernacular languages.

Motivations for the development of writing technology

-Writing technology enhanced for profit not for philanthropic purposes.

-Success of writing machines is attributed to being able to provide an unlimited supply of letters and/or symbols to the writer without having to create each character and are easier for revision and editing.

-QWERTY layout of the keyboard ensured maximum efficiency of the machine and not of person typing but remains the format today.

 Comment: The origination of the QWERTY keyboard layout was the most interesting piece of information from the blackboard reading. Aside from that I find it really difficult to follow along when the reading goes on and on about the different technology and mechanics of the press. 

Question: What are the repercussions of the regulations and restrictions of religious and other censored material that occurred during this time? For example, Spain's book trade was at a standstill for some time. Can we speculate that some political and religious progress was inhibited or was regulation wholly unimportant?