Shropshire Routes to Roots

4. Printing

Introduction

Most of the books written from circa 500 to circa 1400 A.D. were produced for the church and were prepared from engraved wooden blocks. These would be clipped together, inked and a piece of parchment or paper pressed onto it for an imprint. It was very time consuming and could only produce a few copies. Printing by means of a frame had be attempted by the Chinese in the early 11th century, but had been based upon the imprint of a clay tablet, which again had a limited life span.

The printing press

In 1436, Johannes Gutenberg created the first true printing press. Although his press was made of wood, the great innovation was that the type was made of metal. Not only that, it was also moveable. This meant that the type could be very easily and quickly altered to suit whatever writing was required. By 1455, Gutenberg was so proficient in printing that he produced the first fully printed Bible (The Gutenberg Bible).

Like all good inventions, it very soon spread beyond its origins and there were printing presses in England by 1476. The Church still had most of the monopoly on writing and distribution, but now there was a medium that could rapidly produce vast number of pamphlets and books that any reasonably educated person could access. Paper production was in full swing, having replaced parchment, so the only restriction on the spread of the written word was the capacity to print. This was the start of the "Information Age" that continues to this day.

The effects of printing on writing

When the only means of distribution of writing was by way of clay tablet, papyrus rolls or parchment sheets, the effort to create them meant that their production was limited. Once it was realised that multiple copies of writing could be produced at will, the whole style of writing altered.

Whereas it had been the church that held the monopoly, and therefore the texts had been religious in content, the advent of printing meant that any subject could be discussed and the style of writing would alter radically.

Political views could be aired, students could read their teacher's works and an instrument called the newspaper could be born. Writing became unfettered by dogma and tradition, and there arose a new literary class of writer who wrote in a style that evoked an emotional response from the reader. The trades of the novelist and the journalist are direct results of the printing revolution.

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