Juan Monroy — Week 3, Early Print

The Gutenberg Myth
- Gutenberg did not invent printing
- Gutenberg did not invent the printing press
- Gutenberg did not invent typography
- Gutenberg did invent movable type with oil-based inks
- Printing was invented by Chinese (500) and Koreans (1234)
- Gutenberg’s first printing, around 1440
- Gutenberg Bible, 1456
Paper
- Egyptians: Papyrus
- Chinese: Bamboo
- Europeans: Parchment and Cloth
Languages
- Ideograms
  - served illiterate peoples
  - drawing of a pig signified butcher shop
- Classical
  - Latin
  - borderless language for scholars
- Vernacular
  - German, French, English, etc.
  - codified in print
  - grammar and spelling signified national boundaries
Subjects
- print allowed texts to move from sacred to ordinary subjects
- manuscripts: sacred texts
- specialized books: medicine, science, philosophy
- education books: alphabet, grammar, law books
Feudalism
- nobility
- merchant
- peasants
Reformation
- Martin Luther
  - protested indulgences, Mainz, Germany, c. 1517
  - print as mass medium: pamphlets, posters, and drawings
  - translated New Testament to vernacular German
- John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli
  - Swiss leaders of the Reformation
  - led many Christians to separate from the Church
  - new Protestant sects
  - vernacular translations of the Bible
- Church Reformation
  - internal reforms
  - rigorous training for clergy
  - Catholic Counter-Reformation
- England
  - Henry VIII: Act of 1543 banned unlicensed use of Bibles
  - Elizabeth I: reforms eased restrictions
  - James I: King James Bible, 1611
- Renaissance
  - rebirth
  - art and architectural movement
  - classical literature of Greece and Rome to Western Europe
  - secular and humanist books
    - reason
    - literature
    - secular moral thinking
    - Greek politics
- Revolution
  - Scientific
    - astronomy
    - geography
    - medicine
    - mathematics
    - philosophy
  - Enlightenment
    - reason
    - analysis
    - individualism
    - Encyclopedie
    - French Revolution
Print in Colonial America
- British colony
  - most early newspapers came from Europe
  - print required licenses to print
  - published “by authority” of British crown
- New England Courant
  - James Franklin, 1721
  - published without authority
  - ceased publication after one issue
- Pennsylvanian Gazette
  - Benjamin Franklin
  - essays
  - careful not to offend the Crown
  - established postal system
- American Magazine
  - Andrew Bradford, 1741
  - collection of essays, fiction, and other collected prose
  - lasted only three months
- Postal system
- John Peter Zenger
  - New York Weekly Journal
  - openly criticized British governor of New York, 1733
  - charged with libel, 1735
  - Alexander Hamilton: truth is defense of libel
- Stamp Act, 1765
  - all printed matter
  - paper from London
  - tax affected printing: some stopped, some hid, some scofflaw
  - inspired rebellion
- American Revolution
  - Patriots versus Loyalists
Newspapers in the United States
- European Newspapers
  - Antwerp, Belgium, weekly, 1605
  - Leipszig, Germany, daily, 1650
  - Daily Courant, first English daily newspaper, 1702
- Free Speech
  - Bill of Rights, 1791
  - Sedition Act, 1798
  - supported by Federalists, who wanted to wage war with France
  - Sedition Act expired after two years
- US nationalism
  - connected pioneers in Westward expansion
  - connected readers across the growing of nation