Printing Research Notes

Since I have started my research for my dissertation I have been making notes in my book in order to document important information. Looking back through my notes I am rather confused as the notes are not in a great order. I hope to try and make sense of my research by typing up my notes.

• The printing press brought people together from all different professions. Many different scientists, engineers etc would meet at printing workshops. This community of intellectual professionals helped to discuss ideas and further the knowledge of the people
• The printing Press changed religion, science, astronmy, anatomy, botany, catholic and protestant views.
• Originonaly the Catholic church censored the press which meant that information was limited. The church tried to keep everybody in line with their theories and shunned all who apposed. Origionally the church had a lot of the power over the people but the press meant that new religeous ideas could be spread amongst the public which eventually caused the protestant reformation.
• Netherlands Rebelion - shaped print culture, no cencorship of presses, major influence of science and religeon.
• Originally the printing press was limited to a fairly small group of people that were already literate elites.
• The invention of the printing press changed the way the world worked. It caused a major shift in mentailty essentially a mass enlightening happened. This was due to the basic change in communication and collective memory. The ability to duplicate information on a large scale opened up a new world of possibilites and sparked a huge learning process which is still going on today.
• The press allowed for the standardization of information and numeric values around the world which meant that theories from all over the globe could be compared with one another which meant that knowledge could be confirmed or improved on. Maps, calenders dictionaries etc were all standardized.
• Before the press they used the pecia system where students copied pages of books at a time which meant that more than 1 person could be working on one book. This was not the best method for producing manuscripts as the writing style could be different and also more room for error.
• When the press came about hand crafted type changed to uniform typography which could be used over and over. This meant that there became many new styles of typography designed to suit the reader.
• With the invention of the press more and more books became available to the public which accelerated many different industries, New books on textile patterns etc changed the industry making fashion more diverse and striking.
• This new form of printed information became rationalized, reorganized and codified : data cataloging. By doing this editors could use layout and presentation to guide how the reader processes the information. Basic changes in books could lead to the change in thought pattern. Mc Luhan suggests scanning lines of print affects thought process. The use of bibleographys, chapters idexes etc meant that people had the choice of what they wanted to learn and how rather than sitting and reading information start to finish.
• The introcution of grammer and punctuation became predominant as well which change how people spoke wrote and read information.
• Printed material changed the way people learned in school, no longer learning was done orally but now students had the ability to read masses of information rather than writing down everything we are told.
• The invention of the press created a new type of scientist, with the access to a press anyone had the abilty to publish their findings, so more and more began to study the world and make noted on their observations and experiences etc. Where as before hand only the university educated could be seen as scientists.
• Scientists clubbed together information, they had to learn to work together rather than alone if they wanted to progress at a faster rate. Books could be amended by taking on board criticism and feedback.
• The press was a major catalyst for the scientific revolution although it can be argued that this was not one of the major factors as the amount of people that actually understood alot of the theories were few. But it would be ridiculous to rule the press out of the equation.
• The press had major effects on orthodoxy and heresey.
• In order to understand the scientific change we need to look beyond the spread of new ideas and associate printers with other functions besides propaganda and popularization

The Book of Nature

•   In nature everything was symbolic, either biblical or classical references with moral overtones - monastic view 
• The Hortus Deliciarium  was an illuminated encyclopedia, begun in 1167 as a pedagogical tool for young novices at the convent. It is the first encyclopedia that was evidently written by a woman. It was finished in 1185, and was one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts of the period. It was used for teaching virtues through the imagery of flowers that beautiful a spiritual garden. Most of the manuscript was not original, but was a compendium of 12th century knowledge. The manuscript contained poems, illustrations, and music, and drew from texts by classical and Arab writers^. Interspersed with writings from other sources were poems by Herrad, addressed to the nuns, almost all of which were set to music.The most famous portion of the manuscript is the illustrations, of which there were 336, which symbolized various themes, including theosophical, philosophical, and literary themes. 
•  By the 17th century plant forms were no longer needed for memorizing moral lessons in Stuart england it was more for poetic reasons by now rather than a pedagogic effect.
•  No longer was science linked to religeon, but now the 2 were separate and people could deal with them in different manors. This was a huge step for mankind and helped to loosen the grip that the church had the population
•  The transformation of script to print proceeded a transformation of world views.
•  The shift from script to print meant that information could be viewed with ease and to a large audience, displaying results using hand writing as the delivery method makes the information much less clear and does not convey the rsults well.
• Information flow had been transformed - the introduction of the postal service, transport and better roads all stemmed from the ability to mass produce information 17th Century. We had the know how for ages but the press made it possible to be set in motion.

Famous Printers of Hand Press period 1830

• Nicholas Jenson
• Aldus Manutius
• Christoffel Plantin
• John Baskerville

Trend setting designers of modern era

• William Morris
• El Lissitzky
• Jan Tschichold
• Paul Rand
• Irma Boom

Gutenberg invented:

• Oil based inks
• Wooden Printing Press
  

 Important people from the Reformation:

• Luther
• Francois Rabelain - Humanist writer

Important people from the Scientific Revolution:

• Ernst Curtuis - archaeologist
• Thomas Browne - science medicine
• Isaac Newton
• Johannes Kepler
• Rudolphine Tables
• Galileo
• Darwin
• Maxwell
• Lyell
• Alistair Crombie

There became a change in Science Research as new methods and theories wrose:

• Paracelsianism was a medical movement based on the theories and therapies of Paracelsus. It was prominent in late-16th and 17th century Europe and represented one of the most comprehensive alternatives to the traditional system of therapeutics derived from Galenic physiology. Based around the principle of maintaining harmony between the microcosm, Man; and macrocosm, Nature; Paracelsianism fell rapidly into decline in the later 17th century, but left its mark on medical practices; it was responsible for the widespread introduction of mineral therapies and several other formerly esoteric techniques.
• Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism, and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory experience, in the formation of ideas, over the notion of innate ideas or traditions; empiricists may argue however that traditions (or customs) arise due to relations of previous sense experiences.
  
  
  Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.
  
  Empiricism, often used by natural scientists, asserts that “knowledge is based on experience” and that “knowledge is tentative and probabilistic, subject to continued revision and falsification.”  One of the epistemological tenets is that sensory experience creates knowledge. The scientific method, including experiments and validated measurement tools, guide empirical research.

This new form of research wasn't necessarily correct but it was needed in order to push science in the right direction

• After the press had been around for a while a new breed of scientist appeared, the printer scientist with access to his own press became the new easy way to publicise theories. - Regiomantunus and Charles Estienne.
• Febvre & Martin believed the press didn't speed up new theories

More Printers:

• Aldus Manutis
• Robert Estienne
• Orpornus
• Plantin